Make Butter Soy Sauce Smashed Potatoes

Potatoes are terrible at picking up liquid seasonings. That's why things like home fries are usually just seasoning with powdered salt and spices. The problem is that the potato skins block liquid seasonings from entering into the potato. Even if you cut them into cubes, the waxy flesh of the potato tends to ward off any liquids until they get crisp. That's why I like to boil and smash my potatoes before pan-frying them.

By smashing whole small potatoes flat, it creates conduits for your seasoning to enter. It's the same reason why you squish the sides of a baked potato before you add your butter and other condiments.

The other benefit of smashing potatoes is that potatoes are round, which means they make very little contact with the surface of the pan when you try to brown them. By flattening them, it greatly increases the contact patch with the pan, allowing you to get the skins nice and crisp!

I suppose the only drawback of this method is that depending on the type of potatoes you use, their ability to hold themselves together can vary. I've found that waxy potatoes like small red skinned and purple skinned ones tend to work the best, but starchier potatoes like these tend to absorb the butter and soy sauce flavors better, so it's a trade-off. Smashed potatoes aren't going to win any beauty pageants, but given the choice between beautiful and tasty, I'd pick tasty any day.

As for the flavor combo, the butter, along with a drizzle of soy sauce at the end is truly a match made in heaven: nutty, savory and loaded with umami. This also works really well with duck fat, or olive oil along with some herbs and aromatics like rosemary and garlic.