The Balkan Cookbook
Roast potatoes
This method of roasting potatoes is found all along the Adriatic and is a perfect partner for all grilled and roasted meats.
Pecene Krompira — petch-en-ee crom-peer-ah
4 persons
Pre-heat oven to 220c. Grease a roasting dish with two tablespoons of a mild olive oil, and place in the oven for not more than five minutes—you want the oil to be hot but not to start smoking.
Peel and slice potatoes into two centimetre thick slabs, quarter the slabs. You should be looking at roughly hewn cubes about two centimeters square—don’t get hung up on perfect cubes. Boil for one minute and then dry on a clean table cloth.
Remove roasting dish from the oven and drop a potato dice in the dish, and if it sizzles then the oil is hot enough and you can add the rest of the potatoes. Turn potatoes to coat in oil. Sprinkle with rock salt and return to the oven for fifteen minutes.
In the mean time bash coarsely chopped garlic, rock salt and rosemary in a mortar with two tablespoons of olive oil—if you prefer a hint of garlic, as opposed to a full blooded hit, bash whole cloves instead of chopped garlic.
Reduce the temperature of the oven to 180c. Remove the potatoes. Pour salty garlic into the roasting dish and give it a good shake, turning the potatoes a few times before returning to the oven to roast for another fifteen minutes.
Remove from the oven, dust with paprika, and serve.
Ingredients
650g of potatoes
4 tablespoons of mild cooking olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
Rock salt
Pinch of sweet and mild paprika
8 sprigs of chopped rosemary
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