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Oven Roasted Lemon Potatoes

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Anytime I have something at a restaurant, someone’s home, a food truck, a festival, or wherever, I spend a RIDICULOUS amount of time working at recreating the dish…. how can I wait until the NEXT time?? Seriously? Anyone relate to this? I almost have to take a 2-week vacation JUST to perfect my newest obsession….. I mean who needs to work anyway? It’s completely overrated compared to satisfying my inner addict.

So these little gems came my way via our monthly getaways to Los Angeles back in early 2000. We used to fly out once a month for my schooling but really I think it was just an excuse to eat chicken wings in our hotel room while watching Jerry Springer, dancing till all hours of the night, shopping until we drop, giggling endlessly over great sushi, and launching out at crazy hours to find the latest “hot spots” to savor the dishes and hopefully catch a glimpse or two of a star.

Whatever it was, it didn’t matter because we had the ride of a lifetime doing adventure. We still miss it and this dish takes me back to one of the many late night launches ……

I can’t remember the name of the mom and pop Greek place where we discovered these but I do remember the food and the couple. They were great. First generation immigrants from Santorini and they shared their stories with us all the while they just brought dish after dish of their families best kept secrets.

So you ask, why lemon potatoes? Why not baklava or lamb solvalki? Or the perfect gyro? Really, lemon potatoes? It’s NOT rocket science girlfriend.

Okay, I get it BUT, mastery came into need when perfecting the marinade and the cooking, they needed to have the flavor and be able to “crisp up” just like they were cooked with more oil. I KNEW that if I ate these babies as much as I was planning, I needed to find a bit healthier balance instead of ringing myself of oil each time I finished. Don’t get me wrong, they are awesome but finding a better balance helped me be able to justify the deliciousness and still fit into my newest threads that were purchased on the same trip.

So enjoy the “skinny” lemon potatoes! Have a good time changing up the herbs to fit your style and go ahead and indulge, I promise your fashion self will thank you!

Just don’t confess to the mom and pop I got inspiration from, I’m sure I have committed a Greek sin having altered the recipe. 🙂

Oven Roasted Lemon Potatoes
 
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I have made them with various herbs, parsley, oregano, cilantro, rosemary, tarragon, and the list goes on. It could be fun to try some spices as well, cumin, smokey paprika…Just be sure to watch the potatoes as they cook so that the liquid doesn't "dry" out at the bottom, add little bit more chicken broth as needed but watch they don't get "soggy" or "too wet".
Author:
Recipe type: Side Dish
Cuisine: Greek
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 3 lbs yukon gold potatoes or 3 lbs other waxy potatoes, peeled
  • ½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • ⅛ cup olive oil
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • ¼ cup fresh oregano or any herb/spice of choice
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
  • 2 cups chicken stock plus more if needed
Instructions
  1. Peel potatoes and cut them in half (from medium size potatoes, quarter if large).
  2. Let them stand in water while preparing sauce.
  3. Combine all other ingredients in a gallon size"zipper" bag, and shake to combine.
  4. Dry off the potatoes, and put all of them in the bag and let marinate for 2 hours.
  5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  6. Put the potatoes and marinade in a large casserole, approximately 13 x 9.
  7. Roast for 1hr 10min, turning occasionally.

Delicious Pork Posole!

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Growing up in New Mexico, we ate posole all the time. It is especially popular as a dish during the holiday season, braised pork made from scratch and served with hominy and grandma’s homemade red chile sauce.

One of my favorite memories as a child was going to my friend Kathy’s house during the winter holiday break. She came from Mexican heritage and her grandmother always had the task of making the homemade red chile. Inevitably it would be snowing and after playing outside for hours making snow angels and sledding, we would come in frozen and soaked and sure enough there was always a change of clothes and a bowl of posole with homemade tortillas.

Years later I married my husband who is of Mexican decent and I was SURE he was a connoisseur of posole. Of course, before asking if he even liked it much less if he was a connoisseur, I had decided that I needed to become a master. On went the trials of perfecting the red chile sauce. Researching recipes, talking to grandmothers, I did it all and I was sure I was going to please my new groom.

I don’t remember how many chile pods I soaked and pureed nor how many aprons I stained but I do remember that as the date decended nearer and nearer, I realized I was never going to duplicate the heritage sauce and therefore would have to confess that afterall, I really wasn’t a master of posole….

After my last attempt, I slumped on the floor perplexed, I mean seriously, can it be this hard? There has to be something that the grandmother’s left out, was it an ingredient? Cooking time? Love? What was it? I guess at this point, it was a bit late to figure it out.

With my head down in a bit of shame, I went into my husband and got down on my knees and asked for forgiveness. He looked perplexed and a bit panicked really and then I blurted out that I WASN’T a master of his favorite dish and dropped my head on his knee in despair.

He breathed the biggest sign of relief (I guess I didn’t think he might have thought something WAY worse), he began to giggle and then break out into a belly roar. He announced that he wasn’t either, his mother didn’t make posole, and he didn’t like anything that was hot or spicy. OMG, seriously? I could have saved all those chile pods, aprons, and frustrations if I would have asked? I never would have thought that any person from Mexican heritage wasn’t a master of posole…..First lesson ask, second lesson don’t assume.

I decided in that moment that I had an opportunity. Instead, since I hadn’t perfected the red chile sauce much less even attempted the home made hominy, I was going to CREATE my version of posole and win my husbands heart, forever. Perfect.

With that motivation, this is the recipe I came up with. It is a more of a soup than traditional posole.  It is simple with bold flavors and uses both red and green chile. The only improvement that can be made to this dish is to use homemade stock, which is what I usually do.

Delicious Pork Posole!
 
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This is the simplest but BEST posole recipe, hearty and flavorful and gets better after a day or two.
Author:
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Mexican
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 2 lbs pork stew meat
  • 1 sweet onion, diced
  • 8 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 T dried oregano
  • 2 T New Mexico red chile powder
  • 10 ounces New Mexico green chiles, mild or medium, diced (can used canned if can't find fresh)
  • 2 - 28 ounce cans of hominy, white or yellow
  • 4 quarts low sodium chicken broth, preferably home made
  • sea salt and pepper to taste
  • Garnishings:
  • green cabbage
  • scallions
  • radishes
  • queso fresco
  • avocados
  • cilantro
Instructions
  1. Cut up meat, onion, and garlic. Peel, seed, and chop green chiles, if fresh. In a large dutch oven over medium heat, add, pork, onion, garlic, oregano, and red chile. Add 1 cup of chicken broth and cook until pork is a little "charred" and liquid has evaporated, about 30-40 minutes. Stir often and salt and pepper to taste.
  2. Add green chiles, hominy, and rest of chicken broth and bring to boil. Simmer over heat for 2 hours or until pork is really tender. Season more if necessary.
  3. Serve in large bowls and top with desired toppings