It was Grandma who pivoted from the canned convenience, opting instead for fresh potatoes, in all their dirty glory. Sometimes peels them, sometimes doesn’t, depending on her mood. But what she always does, in homage to her mom, in order to mimic that canned-potato softness, is parcook them.
Parcook is culinary-school-speak for partially cooking an ingredient, so it can be finished later on. This is useful in restaurants, when an order comes in and you only have a few minutes to make it. And with potatoes, it’s even more useful, whether you’re in a restaurant or at home., “The boiling and roughing-up steps are the real key. They create a thin slurry of mashed potato that clings to the surface of the potato chunks, which ends up crisping beautifully in the oven as the potatoes roast.
Once they’re almost fork-tender, they are drained and dumped onto a sheet pan, where they are tossed with a lot of olive oil, sweet paprika, garlic powder, dried rosemary, salt, and pepper. It’s this humble spice mixture that’s signature Grandma. Swapping in fresh garlic or rosemary would ruin the effect, so don’t you dare.
Likewise, measuring is not welcome here. Even though she’s made these potatoes hundreds of times, Grandma has never measured the oil or the spices. “Never!” And while she gave me permission “to measure it out, you know, if you want to write a recipe”—for once, I opted not to. That just isn’t how they’re made.
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