100 pounds of potatoes leads to best recipe for crispy tots
Once you’ve tasted homemade tots, you’ll never go back to the frozen ones.
We recently found that our nostalgia for frozen tots, like many kid-friendly foods, outshone the reality.
Determined to right this wrong, we hit the kitchen in search of potato tots with a golden, crunchy exterior and light, fluffy interior.
Many recipes simply mix coarsely ground potato with flour and egg, but these tots fried up into raw, dense nuggets.
Parcooking the chopped potato in the microwave was a step in the right direction, but the tots were still too heavy. Reducing the flour and omitting the egg helped, but the tots were still not light and fluffy.
To minimize the gluey texture of potato starch, we tried processing the potatoes with water. Perfection. This step rinsed off the excess starch, and a small amount of salt in the mixture kept the interior downy white. foil and place foil and potatoes in an 8-inch square baking pan. Push foil into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing it flush to pan. Press potato mixture tightly and evenly into pan. Freeze, uncovered, until firm, about 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200 degrees. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over high heat until 375 degrees. Using foil overhang, lift potatoes from pan, place on counter and cut into 48 pieces.
6. Fry half of potato tots, until golden brown and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally once they begin to brown. Drain on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet and place in oven. Bring oil back to 375 degrees and repeat with remaining potato tots. Serve.
To make ahead: Cool fried potato tots, transfer to zipper-lock bag and freeze for up to one month. To serve, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Place potato tots on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until heated through, 12 to 15 minutes.