Smashed Potatoes with Black Garlic Sauce

Note that this recipe is part of a larger article entitled, “Our 5 Favorite Black Garlic Recipes“. Here, we give you the down-low on black garlic including how to make it yourself and how to cook with it. And of course we highlight some of our favorite GradFood recipes using it such as Black Garlic & Mushroom Medley Pasta and Black Garlic & Spiced Lamb Borek. So if you like this recipe, be sure to check it out!

Black Garlic

While some people say that it is fermented garlic, this is technically incorrect. It is regular garlic that is slowly caramelized (which uses the Maillard reaction) over a period of weeks at low temperature.

In doing so, it creates a really unique color, texture, and taste (note that black garlic is not actually burnt but just gets a deep dark black color due to the caramelization process).

Extra Crispy Potatoes

After much trial and error, we found a way to make super crispy and crunchy potatoes, similar to how they are served in fancy restaurants. Here, we share the secret to making the most PERFECT potatoes.

In this method, you first boil the potatoes (technically called “parboiling”) and then bake them in the oven. Here are the two vital tips to making the potatoes nice and crispy on the outside:

1. Increase the pH of your water by adding a bit of baking soda. Somehow, this allows them to get a perfect crunch on the outside.
2. Increase the surface area. This is done two ways. First is to roughly toss the potatoes after parboiling them. This allows a rough surface to build up on the outside. Second is to slightly mash down on some of them. This allows for more surface area to be exposed on the outside, thereby increased the ratio of crunchy outside to fluffy inside.

GradFood Black Garlic Recipes

Ever since we got into the black garlic fad, we’ve been experimenting with different uses and recipes. See below for a few of our favorite black garlic recipes that we’ve tried so far (and stay tuned for more!).

Smashed Potatoes with Black Garlic Sauce

This recipe shows you how to make amazingly crispy oven-baked potatoes and combines it with a sweet and savory Black Garlic sauce.

Print Recipe
Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Sauce, Side Dish

Cuisine Italian, Mediterranean

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

Potatoes

• ½ tsp baking soda
• 3 lbs russet potatoes cut roughly into 2 inch chunks
• 2 tsp fresh minced rosemary
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 small bulb black garlic minced
• Pinch of salt & pepper

Black Garlic Sauce

• 5 small bulbs black garlic
• 2 tbsp date nectar
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp water
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• Pinch of salt and pepper

Instructions

 

• Bring a pot of 4 quarts water to boil. Add 2 tbsp salt and ½ tsp baking soda before tossing in the potatoes. After 12 minutes, transfer potatoes to a bowl and let cool for ~10 min, making sure to drain off excess moisture. Sprinkle with a few pinches of salt and pepper.
• Meanwhile, add the 2 cloves regular garlic, 1 bulb black garlic, and minced rosemary to ~5tbsp olive oil in a small pan. Cook on the stove on medium until the regular garlic becomes slightly golden, about 1-2 min. Now, pass this through a strainer to separate the solid ingredients from the oil (but reserve both).
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• At this point, roughly toss the potatoes with the infused oil (by tossing them roughly, a mushy crust ends up on the surface). Cook in oven for 20 minutes. Then flip them and slightly smash down each of them with a fork. Cook for another 20 minutes or until golden brown on all sides.
• Meanwhile, combine all ingredients for the Black Garlic Sauce in a food processor or cup with immersion blender. Blend until a smooth creamy consistency.
• When the potatoes are done, lightly toss with the reserved minced garlic/rosemary mixture from before. Drizzle over the black garlic mixture and serve.

Notes

Of note, the black garlic sauce make more than you need for this recipe. It keeps really well in the fridge so we just stored the extra and used it for other recipes

Keyword Black Garlic, Potatoes, vegetarian

Recommended Amazon Products for this Recipe:

This page may contain Amazon Affiliate links that earn us a small commission, at no additional cost to you. We only show products we personally use in our kitchen. See our disclaimer for more information.