Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Spudtember the 6th...pizza day!

How I wish I had done the SpudFit challenge prior to writing the recipe section of my book!  When eating potatoes-only for 3-5 days, you can get by on the traditional roasted, baked, boiled, mashed presentations, however, after a week, it really becomes a chore to fix potatoes in a way that you get excited about eating them.  Wait 'til you see what I just did!

Potato Pizza



Last week I made a sweet potato flatbread. It dawned on me when eating it that this would make good sandwich bread post-hack. Today I made another batch, but I used regular white potatoes. The flatbread turned out even better!  Nice and crunchy and easier to roll out flatter than the sweet potato recipe.

Ingredients:

  • Mashed potatoes
  • Potato starch

Make your mashed potatoes however you like. During a potato hack, we like to use broth to moisten the mash instead of milk, I used a homemade vegetable broth.

Allow the mashed potatoes to cool completely, then start adding potato starch 1/4 cup at a time, adding more broth if it becomes too dry.  Keep working the potato starch into the mash until it becomes stiff and doughy.  I'm leaving out specific measurements because it's that simple...just mix in potato starch until it forms a stiff dough. If this sounds hard, it's not.  You'll quickly be able to judge "doughy" as without enough starch, the mashed potatoes are very sticky and crumbly.

Break the dough into ping pong sized balls, then smash them out flat.

I sprinkled some potato starch on the counter top and smashed the dough balls flat with the back of a plastic spatula, flipping and using my fingers until it was a very flat tortilla-like piece of dough.  I'll admit, this takes practice, and you mess up a few, but just re-roll it and try again, if I can do it, anyone can, lol.

Then, transfer the flat dough to a very hot frying pan...mine's ceramic.  Toast the dough, without oil, until it starts to swell and get brown.  Any heating surface will work.  These things will puff up just like Indian naan, if you've ever had...really nice texture, too. Here's a batch in progress:

Forming the dough


Toasting in a frying pan

Alternatively, you can make a much bigger batch by lining an oven rack with parchment paper and baking the rolled out dough at about 430 deg f for about 10 minutes, flipping after 5, and checking for doneness often. They can get hard and crunchy pretty fast...which is also not a bad deal!

Ready for the oven
Finished baking


Once the flatbread is made, top each one with a spoonful of pizza sauce (here's my favorite) and bake in a hot (425 deg F) oven for about 15 minutes.  They turned out perfect.  This is probably my new go-to pizza crust!  Made entirely of potatoes, so no worry about gluten or refined gluten-free flours.

Finished product:


To keep this "potato hack" approved, I only topped them with 1 spoonful of pizza sauce, I promise I picked the mushrooms off that third piece!  You could top these any way you like, and eat as many as you want (while potato hacking). Otherwise, the possibilities are endless...mix some caraway, garlic, or onion in the dough and top however you like. Or use the flatbreads for sandwich wraps.

What do you think?
Later!
Tim

18 comments:

  1. Reminds me of chapati. You could use a tortilla press with parchment paper instead of rolling them. A recipe I must try!

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  2. You are on fire! You'll definitely need a second edition of your book soon. Amazing recipe! I'll definitely have to try this.

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  3. Hey Tim,

    Not sure if this is the best place to ask this, but hopefully it works.

    This is now the fourth time I have tried the potato hack and all four times I cannot get through more than four meals before I am literally disgusted by the taters. I know that many people have made this same comment, but I am the kind of guy that can literally eat the same meal every day. I also love potatoes. So, any idea why my body seems to reject any more taters after a few meals? Like, my mind and stomach will not allow any more to enter. So far, I have only tried them boiled with salt, mashed with water, salt and pepper and with the potato starch gravy.

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    1. Hi Bobby,
      I'm kind of the same way and the same is happening to me. I could eat PB&J for every meal. I just started my first Potato Hack on Monday - today is my first day basically getting through...almost....good enough of a hack that I'll continue. I think part of my problem was waiting until I got too hungry before eating and had a screaming headache. Those Frosted Flakes got the best of me yesterday.
      But this morning, I opened the fridge and pulled out several already boiled potatoes. I shredded two of them into my non-stick pan, added salt, and added the broth PS gravy into the mix. I cooked until crispy and all went well. Had it for lunch.

      Then for dinner I thought I'd make a big pan of the hash browns for everyone. Different pan and the wonderful crispy brown crunchies were sticking to the pan! So, I covered a baking sheet in foil (I'm out of parchment), and I did an ever so light cover of oil and spread out the mixture. Toasted on both sides, served with a side of gravy.

      I think I can do this for several days.

      Oh, the whole family has been taste testing and we all prefer the golds.

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    2. Thanks, Linda. It could just be that I am not making good enough recipes. I think I also under cook them when I boil them, so maybe cooking them longer will make them more palatable. While I like Tim's idea of keeping the palatability low, all four times I have tried it, I have been coming off of a bit of a bender, so maybe if they tasted a little better, it would be easier to get through the initial phase.

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    3. I think it is highly important to experiment with different prep methods. If anyone really wants to get serious, I would recommending going all-in when trying new ways of eating potatoes, soups, mashes, dry-fry, roasting, etc. It makes a huge difference on how you proceed. And also trying the different types of potatoes.

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    4. Tim, I whole heartedly agree. Do what it takes to stick with it. I know for some this can be a slippery slope, but for me it's finding the sweet spot...and that means I probably get a teaspoon of butter total for the whole day ;-)
      Day 1 - I blew it. (Didn't help we weren't home)
      Day 2 - I blew it. Let myself get too hungry, crushing headache. Gave into the quick fix of Frosted Flakes
      Day 3 - Ahhh, tried the hash browns and gravy - made it through the day
      Day 4 (today) - Hash browns for breakfast and have been playing around with the flat bread recipe. (More on that below). I can do this; hash browns & flat bread. When I feel a headache coming on - eat. Got it!

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  4. Love the flat bread/pizza crust recipe. Just thinking about all of the flavors to add to it or on it: garlic, olive oil, rosemary, thyme......dipped in balsamic. Yum, yum. Thank you!

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    1. OMG - I was boiling potatoes right away this morning. LOL. Drained most of the water, but left some for mashing and just added Better than Bouillon, and mashed 'em up. Let cool.

      Placed in my mixer and started adding PS. Quickly realized I wouldn't have enough PS to thicken all I cooked, so I removed over half the batch. Then I continued adding PS until it was thick and not sticky. I added some salt, garlic granules and a pinch of herbs.

      Flattened on parchment with my fingers and pan cooked two and oven baked two. Very different results, but I really liked both.

      So this afternoon, I grabbed the extra portion of mashed with less starch. Still a little sticky, but I just placed another piece of parchment on top and rolled them out with my 4-inch roller and peeled off the parchment. I rolled very thin this time. Pan and oven cooked some. The pan cooked was still yummy and chewy, not much puff. And the oven baked was almost like a soda cracker. All got my teen age son's approval.

      Oh, I also sprinkled pink salt on top, pressed with my palm before cooking.

      To me the pan cooked one's are very chewy - I really like that.

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  5. Hi- really enjoy your blog. I have long wondered about something and sorry if this is not quite the right place to ask. Specifically, if you soak raw potatoes in water or vinegar (say for pickles) will all the RS leach into the water or vinegar, thereby negating the benefit of eating the raw potato (from an RS standpoint?) Thanks in advance.

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    1. If any starch leaches out, you'll see it as a thick layer of white on the bottom of the jar. Soaking potatoes will not cause the RS to leave. Only heating removes RS.

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  6. Thanks for your reply. I have been a little confused by this topic because I have read that when making french fries, you should soak the raw potatoes first to remove starch. But I guess that is not the resistant starch that is coming out? Or just not much of it?

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  7. That's only starch that is on the outside of the cut potatoes, very little compared to all that's still within.

    Good question!

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