Bratkartoffeln Potatoes
Next up in the A-Z Potato series, I am stopping off in Germany to make this delicious Bratkartoffeln. Now I might be decent at cooking spuds, but one thing I’m not so good at is pronunciation. So please can you German folks go easy on me as I tried my best in the recipe video. Danke! Fun fact – did you know that Germany has the highest consumption of potatoes in the world, beating both America and Ireland? Mind-blown. And furthering my need to travel over there and try some of these spuds for myself. If you’ve been, please send me recommendations on where in Germany is good to travel!
Nigella Lawson recommended that I make these potatoes for B in my A-Z series, so if they’re good enough for Nigella, they’re good enough for me. She also once called me the ‘High Priestess of Potatoes’, so excuse me while I continue to fangirl over in the corner. I will 100% be having that engraved on my gravestone. And now I know why she recommended these. These potatoes are truly delicious. Think fried potato, onion, bacon and buttery garlic, all rolled into one incredible side dish. Pure comfort right there and it might have even convinced me to move to Germany if it means I can eat these every single day.
In terms of serving suggestions, these lovely spuds would work perfectly with chicken. Just pan roast your chicken with butter, garlic (similar flavours to your potatoes), whack it in the oven to finish cooking and use the juices from the chicken pan to make a creamy herby sauce by adding a splash of double cream, white wine and plenty of black pepper, with herbs of your choice. Once this has thickened, Bob’s your uncle and you have a delicious dish with these spuds on the side! They would also be perfect on that date night with a steak, or even pork chops. Now I’m hungry!
Ingredients
- 4 red skin potatoes
- 200g bacon lardons
- 1 white onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Drizzle of neutral oil (like sunflower)
- Approx 20g butter
- Salt and pepper to season
Method
- Peel your potatoes and place them whole into a saucepan and cover with cold water, season heavily with table salt and place on a high heat until boiling and then boil for 10 minutes.
- In a large, cold frying pan add the bacon lardons and bring the temperature up to high. This will allow the fat from the bacon to cook and get golden and delicious. Keep an eye on it and stir occasionally. Once it’s golden remove it from the pan and save for later.
- In the same pan turn the temperature down and add the chopped onions, drizzle with oil, season and fry until golden and tender. This should only take a few minutes, then remove from the pan and save for later.
- When the potatoes are knife tender drain them on and allow to cool just enough that you can handle them or put on some gloves and get to work. We are going to slice the spuds into even rounds, about 1cm thick.
- Get the frying pan back onto a medium heat add in the butter and another drizzle of oil and once the butter is bubbly add the potato rounds. Depending on the size of your pan you may have to cook the spuds in batches. You want each slice of potato to the flat and not on top of each other.
- Once brown on one side flip them over and do the same to the other side. Season at this time with salt and pepper and add the garlic, finely grated or crushed.
- Once golden on both sides add the bacon and onions to the pan and mix well. Then serve with some sexy garlic Mayo and some big juicy sausage.