How Chefs From Around the World Make Potatoes

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You are about to see...

10 different chefs...

From 10 different countries...

Making potatoes.

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Today we're gonna be making aloo sabzi.

It literally means a stir fry of potatoes,

cooked in the most Indian way.

It is had at every Indian household,

and every Indian household makes it differently.

India is the second largest producer

of potatoes in the world.

But the first thing we need to do is just peel the potatoes.

It's nice to take the skin off,

'cause you get this really nice crispy potato.

We're using Idahos or Russets,

predominantly because these are the only kinds

you get back home.

Till I came here to the US, I didn't even know

there were different kinds of potatoes that you could use.

And what I'm going for is small and even dice.

I have a pan that's on medium to high heat.

I have the oil heating up.

I'm gonna add some green slit chilies.

I have curry leaves.

Add my salt to the oil.

You go in straight with your potatoes, give it a quick stir.

So, it's time to be a little skillful.

Drain that excess oil,

and you go in straight with your spice mix.

Add a spoon of it.

You want those spices to get really nice

and crispy on the potatoes.

I'm gonna turn off the flame.

I'm gonna finish this off with a lot of cilantro.

And I think that was the quickest potato preparation I know,

and it's also the tastiest one I know.

It's called aloo sabzi, and sabzi means vegetable,

and a sabzi back home is traditionally always had

with a side of bread.

I tear up the roti, which has ghee on it;

that's the only way to eat it.

Smash some of those crispy potatoes onto the chapati, and.

That's it.

Perfectly seasoned, crispy, tangy.

This dish will always be a banger.

The potato dish I'm about to make is called korokke;

potato croquettes with ground meat

and some vegetables, and fry it.

My hometown, from Hokkaido, it is known for lamb,

onions, and potatoes.

So, this potato I'm using right now is a May Queen.

It is lesser crumbly potatoes,

and it's perfect for croquettes.

It's got the silky creamier texture, skin's thin.

It's just beautiful.

I'm proud to hold this potato right now.

So, I'm gonna cook potato for about 40 minutes

to make sure it's nice and soft.

Peel off the skin.

I just need to mash it.

Now our potatoes are cooked, the meat

and vegetables are cooked, as well, and are both cool down.

Now it's time to combine and form the shape.

The meat that I have here is 50/50 beef and pork

combined together with some onions and carrots.

I'm pressing pretty firm,

so that it doesn't crumble while I'm frying it.

Although, if you use May Queen,

you don't have to worry about that.

There's no binding components needed.

The shaping is done.

I'm about to batter this croquette.

What I have is a flour, eggs,

and fresh panko, as well as salt and pepper.

Now it's time to fry.

You don't really have to look into precise time;

as long as the internal temperature is hot enough,

it's good to go, 'cause everything is fully cooked.

Here we have potato croquettes made with the May Queen.

It's a vegetable-base demi-glace sauce.

The proud potato from Hokkaido.

[croquette crunching]

This croquette's potato texture is marvelous.

I'm going to make roasted potatoes.

You wanna use a yellow flash potatoes.

Roast potatoes, usually you serve for lunch,

you serve for dinner.

First step, we wanna make sure to peel everything.

And then, after that we wanna put in the water

so it doesn't change the color of the potato;

it is not gonna get oxidized.

You can see the water is already changing color,

and that's, like, the starch of the potatoes.

I'm just gonna cut it.

I'm gonna do some big chunks of potatoes.

We have a boiling pot of water.

Make sure to have a good amount of salt.

And we're gonna blanche our potatoes

because we wanna create a little bit of moisture inside,

so that when we're gonna put in the oven,

we're gonna have a crusty outside,

and then in the inside it's gonna be still tender

and delicious.

So, you see it is tender because it's coming out

a little bit.

It means that now it's ready.

Potato are blanche.

We let it actually cool down a little bit.

And now it's the fun part.

So, we're just gonna season it.

Some salt; crushed garlic.

This is my grandma's secret was actually cloves.

We're gonna put some of it inside of the garlic,

so we don't lose it inside of the potatoes.

So, we want it to be like a flavorful olive oil.

And we wanna keep the the rosemary

and the thyme to, like, more bigger pieces,

so when you roast it, we don't wanna have a, like, burning.

It needs to be plenty of sage in these roasted potatoes.

This one, we just gonna pop in the oven.

It has been 20 to 25 minutes.

Now I'm just gonna pull it out,

and I'm gonna add my few secret ingredients.

So, we have some Parmigiano cheese.

This is some breadcrumbs.

Then our butter.

And now we are ready to put it back in the oven.

It has been 10 minutes; now our potatoes are ready.

Let's taste it.

This is actually the smaller one,

when they have this little edge and crispiness.

[potato crunching]

So, it's crispy outside because of the oil and everything,

but inside, because we blanche it first, it's just so tender

and flavorful and delicious.

I am making a Chinese stir-fried potato dish.

I'm going to show you a Sichuan style.

This potato has a slightly crunchy texture,

a refreshing taste from vinegar and a kick from the peppers.

A lot of people like golden or waxy potatoes

because they're less starchy.

I use a Russet all the time

because they do have a slightly starchiness,

but to me they're soft,

and also still provides a little bit crunch.

Make sure that you cut the potatoes thin and uniform,

so they can be cooked evenly.

And then you can cut them slowly

and to create, like, uniformed, shredded pieces.

And then, just add them to a bowl of water.

Rinsing the starch off will make this dish more clear,

and then when you stir fry them,

it doesn't get really sticky and gooey.

It'll be very refreshing and crunchy.

Add the garlic, and then the peppercorns and the peppers.

When you can smell the fragrance,

you're gonna add the potatoes.

When the potato gets slightly translucent,

you're going to add the pepper and the scallions.

The seasonings are very simple.

Salt, sugar, soy sauce, and then vinegar in the end.

When it's done, the potatoes are become really soft

and almost see through, and all the vegetables are wilted,

and you can smell everything.

I wanna show you the texture.

You can see, like, the potatoes are very soft

and slightly springy.

Yep, it's still very crunchy

but definitely cooked and very soft.

Today we make gratin dauphinois.

It's a dish we usually prepare and consume,

like, in the fall, winter.

Potato are really, really common in France.

We eat potato all the time.

Today I'm gonna use Yukon potato.

We are gonna slice with a mandolin.

You gotta be careful with your finger; that's very sharp.

I already peel my potato.

I keep them in the water.

This way it doesn't turn black.

Now we're gonna add the milk.

We add a bit sharp garlic, couple bay leaves,

and some fresh thyme.

We're gonna add cracked black pepper, fresh nutmeg,

and we're gonna add a little bit cayenne.

Check your potato;

they're still firm but the knife go through in,

so that's perfect.

We going to transfer potato to an oven dish.

I butter at the bottom of the dish to make sure

that it's not gonna attach in the bottom,

but also for the flavor.

We never have too much butter in any dish.

I use a mix of Swiss cheese and Comte cheese.

I like the balance of those two cheese.

It give you a little bit creaminess

and also a little bit of sharpness.

You cover it.

Now you can put it in the oven.

You want a nice gold crust on the top, and voila.

Our gratin is ready, and now we wanna plate it.

Flavor is good, like, just a very beautiful balance.

I am going to cook hasselbacks potato.

One of the greatest invention ever.

In 1950s, there were an intern

at the very luxurious Swedish restaurant

called Hasselbacken.

He wanted to speed up the process of baked potatoes,

and he did that by cutting through it,

so it was going to cook faster, which it does,

but the end result is completely different.

So, here we have a bowl of Yukon Gold potatoes,

and they come in various sizes.

And the most challenging here task

is not to cut it all through.

So, if you have a couple of chopsticks around, use those,

and you put the potato in between the chopsticks.

Then you just cut like this, straight down,

as thin as possible.

If you cut through, it's not a hasselback;

then it's sliced potato.

We brush them a little bit with oil.

We do some black pepper, salt.

And the butter, We are going to baste the potatoes.

These are ready to go into the oven.

We cook them for 10, 15 minutes,

then we bast them with a little bit more butter,

and keep doing that for every 10, 15 minutes.

The moment is here.

I'm going to finish them off with a little bit more salt.

I love freshly ground black peppers.

I use herbs.

We are going to top them with a little bit

of sour cream, and some caviar.

It's time to try the hasselback potato.

And as you can see, maybe here, they are crispy on the top

and soft in the middle.

And I start in the middle.

Just pop them in your mouth.

Two thumbs up.

I'm going to make you kumpirs,

which is a street food In Turkey.

It's baked potatoes garnished

with all kinds of different stuff.

It's kind of a fast food, and it's delicious.

I am using Idaho potatoes,

but you can use any potato with a little thicker skin.

We use the skin kind of as a plate to make the dish

and also serve the dish.

So, you want that skin to be a little thicker.

This dish actually comes from eastern Europe,

the former Yugoslavia.

It came to Turkey probably with immigrants

in the middle of 20th century.

And of course, it changed form,

and it became a street food as we know it now.

First we have to bake the potatoes, guys.

Just, you have to rinse this real well.

So, we're just gonna bake it in our convection oven

with no seasoning; dry.

These took about 90 minutes to bake.

I'm going to open this up and mash it with the fork.

It's really mashing a potato in its skin.

To season this with salt and butter.

Some of the best melting cheese in the world.

Well, I picked a few garnishes for us to do.

First thing, of course, hot dog; my favorite thing too.

I always saw the guys doing this while holding the potato

in their hands and they just go. [imitates quick cutting]

I'm not gonna be able to do it like that, I think,

But I'm gonna slice it, kind of bite size.

A little corn.

A little carrots.

Just fresh olives.

Pickles.

If you like spicy, guys, this is pickled spicy chilies;

very common in Turkey.

Finally, some mayo and ketchup.

And this is about it.

It's pretty fluffy.

Don't forget to eat the skin.

I nailed it.

To all the people that does this for a living,

I made you proud today.

I am making mashed potatoes.

What I look for in a great mashed potato is texture.

You want it to have this, like, creamy, delicious,

smooth texture.

We have lots of options for the potato.

You've got tricolored potatoes; purple, white, red.

The baking, the Russet, all of them, Yukon.

And you've got these tiny little creamers,

which they give themselves a label,

and it's just like, this one cooks a little bit faster.

Here, there's no cutting.

You're just gonna clean 'em, and carefully, be careful,

pour them into our rolling boiled water.

Add just a pinch of salt,

because it's going to give the potato some flavor.

And they're gonna cook in about 10, 15 minutes.

Now that the water is resting, you'll check your potatoes.

And if you take it and you just separate it,

you know it's done.

And it's good.

We just drained the potatoes, took all the water off.

We're returning it back to the pot.

I wanna take my cream,

and at the same time, we're gonna pour it all over and mash.

I like to keep the skin on in my mashed potatoes,

and even in my potato salad, because I'm a texture person.

Now we can add our seasoning.

Two little pinches of salt.

I'm gonna take some pepper.

You gotta do that little grandma hit.

I think this is the perfect consistency for a mashed potato.

I wanna make sure that I add in my sour cream,

'cause that is going to make it nice and luscious.

You wanna have a little bit of boat for your butter.

Oh my god!

I'm getting happy because I'm feeling love.

Isn't that delicious looking?

Yes.

The mashed potato has the right balance of flavor,

but then the skin is what brings it all home for me.

We are going to be making maakouda.

Maakouda is a street of food from Algeria.

You can also find it in Morocco, Tunisia.

We all have a different way of making it.

It's a fried potato that we mix in with spices,

and it's served in bread with some harissa.

We are using the Yukon potato.

It's like a classic basic potato that you can find anywhere,

and it's actually one of the cheapest one.

Yukon potatoes are already cooked,

and we just got to move on to peeling the potatoes

and start mashing them.

You can see how easy it is

to peel the skin off after they've been boiled.

We are just gonna start smashing them.

So, I like to add salt first, some onion,

and then do a little garlic.

I'm adding the Laughing Cow cheese.

It helps, so yeah, the potato to make more creamy.

I'm adding the egg to, like, make

the whole connection together.

And I'm done mixing all this.

I'm prepping the maakouda

and adding some flour into the mix,

so they can be fried and nice and crispy.

We are ready to fry those maakouda.

We did boil the potatoes,

so they're already, like, cooked, so you don't need

to deep fry them too long either.

As you can see, like, they, like, really nice and golden.

We are ready with the maakouda, which looks great.

I like to serve it with some harissa,

lightly on the side with some lemon and herbs.

I don't know if you guys are ready but I am.

The potato is so soft and comforting.

This dish is a stew.

It's called dinich wot in Ethiopia.

During fasting seasons, we eat a lot of vegetables, legumes,

and, you know, potatoes.

So, I'm using a chef's potato; it's an all purpose potato.

Most dishes that we make in Ethiopia, we always start

with sauteing our onion, garlic.

Any dish that has wot in the name,

it means it has berbere.

It consists of 30 different spices.

Every household makes it different.

You know, the base is dried red pepper,

and it has cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, dried garlic,

dried ginger, cumin; so many different great spices.

It's been about 20 minutes.

Stew is ready.

I have my chef's potato right here.

I took the skin out, cubed it.

And then, I'm just gonna throw these in this,

so that it takes all the flavor in.

You want it cubed because you eat it with injera.

Injera is a staple to Ethiopia.

And you wanna be able to grab one bite

of the potatoes with the injera.

I'm gonna add korerima cardamom.

As you see, they're breaking, so the potatoes are ready.

The last step is gonna be to add my spice.

This is called mekelesha; it's a Ethiopian spice.

It has nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom.

It's very cinnamony.

I have my injera on the plate,

and then another rolled on the side

because the rolled injera is what I'm gonna use

to eat the potatoes.

When you plate Ethiopian dishes,

you don't just plate it directly on a plate.

It always has to have injera underneath.

The potatoes has been in the pot for about 30 minutes,

so it's been really soaking in all the flavors.

Potato's, like, nice and mushy

but super, super flavorful.

Mm, so good.

This will always be a banger.

It's really good,

Very tender, very creamy.

The way it should be.

Mm. So good.

[speaking foreign language]