Hash browns. Mmm, hash browns. Preferably from an el cheapo all-night diner, e.g. Waffle House.
Take your basic potato.
Brush it with olive oil. (Yes, use an actual brush.) Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake it.
Split down the middle. Sprinkle additional salt and pepper as needed.
Delicious. A damn near Platonic perfect food.
(and anyone who microwaves to “bake” a “baked” potato is a philistine. You need the browning and crisping reactions in the potato skin to give the full potato taste profile. Not sure if it’s a proper Maillard reaction, but you sure don’t get it with a microwave, which simply makes a potato hot mush.)
Roasted. Take red potatoes, cut them into to halves or quarters, douse them with paprika, rosemary, garlic, and olive oil, and roast the hell out of them. Yum.
I came in to say exactly this. Except the paprika - we’ll have to try that next time.
Nuke 4 potatoes and set aside. In a pan fry several onions & a variety of mild and hot peppers. Perhaps bacon if I’m feeling it. Cut up potatoes, add to the pan with hot sauce & Old Bay seasoning. Stir & serve.
Crap, now I’m hungry.
I add a little balsamic vinegar, but otherwise similar.
Fried, goddammitt. How the hell else? It’s not the most economical way to cook them, but if it’s done right (and don’t bother with all that horse fat and 2x frying – there are ways to get them just fine using simple household appliances and minimal attention). (I do like horse, though – the meat, but never had the fat to play with). Ideal food, with enough salt.
Roasted, sort of. I peel and cut into chunks a variety of vegetables, such as potatoes, onions, carrots, and celery. I coat with chicken stock and roast the medley. This is flavorful and practically fat free.
The OP left out the top three:
Hash browns
Potato salad
Latkes
Mashed is the best, because even I can make good ones. Fries can be better, but I am more likely to get a bad variety. And Potato Pancakes are always divine, but I not only can’t make them but don’t know where to buy them.
Potato salad is good, but the potatoes there are more of a filler than an ingredient added for taste. And of course I love hash browns and tater tots, but they have the same problems as fries (hash browns being slighlty less of a problem.)
I voted other for Hasselback potatoes , recipe in the link. The cheese is all wrong though, there should be no cheese on Hasselback potatoes.
What’s your position on shrimp?
Roasted - specifically, parboiled, drained, shaken in the pan (to roughen the outsides) with goose or duck fat, then roasted until crisp.
I voted for baked- skin rubbed with olive oil & salted, loaded with butter, shredded cheese & bacon… mmmm.
But in all honesty, I love potatoes in just about any form. Mashed is good ol’ comfort food. Chunked, boiled, drained, a dollop of butter, dump in some parsley-nummy. French fries & tater tots? yes, please. Au gratin, scalloped… mmm hmmm. Hash browns, roasted, fried potatoes, potato salad? Love 'em all.
I don’t think I have ever met a potato I didn’t like.
Pommes Landaise
Duck fat for the frying
potatoes cut in quarter inch dice
onions cut in quarter inch dice
prosciutto cut in quarter inch dice
freshly cracked black pepper to taste
dash of truffle oil optional/shavings of black truffle optional
as is obvious, saute everything together, garnish with a dash of truffle oil or shaved black truffle and cracked black pepper to taste.
waaaaaaay too rich for me normally, I make it once or twice a year. It goes really fantastically with sweet/sour red cabbage and apples, and obviously roasted duck. I normally will not bother to buy the very expensive duck breast, the whole duck is cheaper and leftover roast duck is great for making other dishes with. You should try duck salad sandwiches - pulled duck, diced apple, diced celery, diced shallots, mayonnaise, dash of stoneground mustard, some black pepper, dash of salt on homemade sourdough bread. [homemade mayo not storebought]
Bubba did have a fine idea.
I picked mashed, but the OP left out the gravy.
My roasted recipe:
Cut some potatoes, skins on, into bite size chunks. Add fresh rosemary sprigs and garlic cloves, skins on. Toss with olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper. Roast in a single layer at 450 for 45 minutes.
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.
For pure comfort food, there is nothing like mashed with gravy or scalloped with ham. We usually roast ours with olive oil and rosemary, though.
I would have to say “chips” (specifically, Herr’s Natural Kettle Chips), but sticking more to the intent of the OP, I would like to put in a vote for boiled potatoes, dressed with chopped onions sauteed in butter. That’s the kind of potatoes my grandmother (born in Poland) made. Whenever I make them, the smell takes me back to Christmas dinners at her farmhouse.
If we had a multiple choice and a ranking method I would have voted
French Fried (my actual vote in the poll)
Baked
Mashed
Other
– Hash Browns
– Medallions
– Potato Pancakes
Boiled (but treated as if Baked)
Can’t say I’ve tried:
Roasted
Au Gratin