Griddle/Pan Fried: Skillet corn and country potatoes???
Subject: Skillet corn and country potatoes???
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
From: Kandace Cave (kkcave at flash.net)
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 07:56:49 -0400
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When my grandmother was alive, she used to make wonderful corn. She would somehow take fresh corn and sort of fry it or cook it in a cast iron skillet. I think she just salt and pepper. Mine does not see to come out like hers did. Does anyone have a good technique for this? I think it had to do with the juice of the corn??? She never showed me how to make this before she died.
Also she used to make great (we called them) country fried potatoes, also using an iron skillet. It seemed she used a combination of frying and steaming? The potatoes were cut in cube shapes. I never learned how to make those, either. Would appreciate any instructions on that, too.
Thanks,
KC
From: Naomi Lynne Pardue (npardue at steel.ucs.indiana.edu)
Date: 12 Apr 2001 13:12:04 GMT
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Kandace Cave wrote:
> When my grandmother was alive, she used to make wonderful corn. She
> would somehow take fresh corn and sort of fry it or cook it in a cast
> iron skillet.
There are two possible techniches here. The first is to slice each kernal in half, while still on the ear, and then scrape the contents out using the dull side of the knife. You leave the outside part of the kernal on the ear, and end up with a corn of corn-mush in the pan. This is commonly used to make corn pudding, though I don't think I've seen fried corn made this way. The other option is to slice the kernals from the ear, but not quite flush with the eat. (YOu leave a little piece from the base of each kernal attached.) Then, as before, with the dull side of the knife, you scrape the ear, getting all the juices out.
> Also she used to make great (we called them) country fried potatoes, also
> using an iron skillet. It seemed she used a combination of frying and
> steaming? The potatoes were cut in cube shapes. I never learned how
> to make those, either. Would appreciate any instructions on that, too.
Sounds like what we call smothered potatoes. Cut up potates (peeled or not as you wish) and onions. Heat bacon grease or butter (if the former, you can start with cut up bacon, and leave it in the dish for extra flavor) and add the potatoes/onions. Fry for about 5 minutes, stirring from time to time, until they are nicely brown, but not yet cooked. Salt and pepper to taste.
Add a little water (not enough to cover the potatoes, maybe half an inch in the pan), bring to boil (should just take a moment), and cover. Let cook another 10 minutes or so, until potatoes are soft and the water is all boiled away or absorbed. Cook another minute, uncovered, to finish drying the potatoes out and letting them crisp up a bit.
Eat.
From: ndooley at blue.weeg.uiowa.edu (Nancy Dooley)
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 21:16:02 GMT
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Naomi wrote:
>Sounds like what we call smothered potatoes.
First fried, then boiled? Odd.
The best way to make these crispy cubed potatoes, that I've found, is to cook the potatoes in water (we always did this with left-over cooked potatoes) - then fry them in bacon grease or butter or whatever - that way, you don't need to worry about whether or not they're cooked through and the brownup really fast.
But, if you have time to fry them from the raw stage, you don't really need to boil them at all, or add any water.
From: Debbie (debbie.neill at sympatico.ca)
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 02:47:23 GMT
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Naomi wrote:
>Sounds like what we call smothered potatoes. Cut up potates (peeled
>or not as you wish) and onions. Heat bacon grease or butter (if the
>former, you can start with cut up bacon, and leave it in the dish for
Try side pork grease. Fantastic! I think I lot of people used side pork when they slaughtered their own pigs and didn't have smoke houses for bacon.
From: Naomi Lynne Pardue (npardue at steel.ucs.indiana.edu)
Date: 13 Apr 2001 13:51:00 GMT
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Nancy Dooley wrote:
> First fried, then boiled? Odd.
It may sound odd. But try it. It is really good. (I discovered this by accident when making fried potatoes one day, and getting impatient for them to cook. I decided to add some water the speed the process, and found them delicious. I later found similar recipes in some of my cookbooks, often called "smothered potatoes."
> The best way to make these crispy cubed potatoes, that I've found, is
> to cook the potatoes in water (we always did this with left-over
> cooked potatoes) - then fry them in bacon grease or butter or whatever
> - that way, you don't need to worry about whether or not they're
> cooked through and the brownup really fast.
> But, if you have time to fry them from the raw stage, you don't really
> need to boil them at all, or add any water.
My recipe doesn't involve frying them completely from raw. They're just browned first. (Your version is quite a thypical, old-style recipe for fried potatoes. It was quite common for a family to boil a double batch of potatoes at supper, then fry up the leftovers in the morning for breakfast.)
From: ndooley at blue.weeg.uiowa.edu (Nancy Dooley)
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 19:54:08 GMT
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Naomi wrote:
>My recipe doesn't involve frying them completely from raw. They're just
>browned first. (Your version is quite a thypical, old-style recipe
>for fried potatoes. It was quite common for a family to boil a double
>batch of potatoes at supper, then fry up the leftovers in the morning
>for breakfast.)
Yeah, it is old-time. And I'm a real stick-in-the-mud, I guess, because I don't think I'll ever make crispy potatoes and then add water. But that's just me. ;-)