Review - Parmesan Potato Bites - 6/03

[Gracie]

I didn't see this reviewed so here goes:

I love twice baked/stuffed potatoes and these are yet another variation of the cheese, bacon and onion variety. I never would have thought to stuff baby red potatoes.

For presentation - I'd give them an 9 out of 10.

For taste - I'd give them an 8 out of 10.

For ease of preparation, I'd give them a 5.

It was hard for me to scoop out the teeny bit of inner potato from a baby red and keep a reasonable shell that kept its shape. The directions say to use a melon baller. I dont' have one of those, but I do have all three sizes of the Pampered Chef scoops so I started out using the smallest one of these. This was a big mistake. I found I was much better off using a teaspoon and just being careful as I scooped. Plus, the recipe said to boil them for 15 minutes. I boiled mine for 25, but neglected to check to see if they were tender before I cut them in half. They were tender enough to cut easily but not tender enough to scoop easily so in the microwave they went.

The ones that the shell stayed in good shape were adorable! Cute food - thus the high marks for presentation. But honestly, if it's just your family, use the recipe for the stuffing and use larger potatoes.

Loren

[SusanL]

I was afraid it was more work for such a small bite. But if it was delicious, it might be worthwhile for a "special occasion". Thanks for your review!! I had it on my menu for this week, for family not entertaining but will try it with larger potatoes.

[shoyski]

Hey Loren,

Thanks for the review on these. I wondered how hard they would be to make; I had them at a NYE party one time and thought they were amazing!

Quick question...did you have any leftovers? If so, how did they taste the next day? If they are time consuming to make, I'd like to be able to make them a day ahead and crisp in the oven the day of a party.

Thanks! :)

[Chefzhat]

These are on the menu for our next supper club, so I can't wait to try them!!!

[knunes]

Originally posted by Chefzhat
These are on the menu for our next supper club, so I can't wait to try them!!!

Our supper club too (this Friday)! And I'm making them! Thanks for the review...I'll try to keep it all in mind and maybe if it's not a surprise, it won't be quite as much work!

[Angela]

In a word--difficult. Like Loren said, they are good,but hard to put together. I don't have a mellon baller either, so maybe that's the problem. If you have a baller, try them they are quit tasty...otherwise, too much of a pain to put together.
Oh, for a shortcut I used bacon bits (like what you put on salads).

[Gracie]

Originally posted by shoyski
Quick question...did you have any leftovers? If so, how did they taste the next day? If they are time consuming to make, I'd like to be able to make them a day ahead and crisp in the oven the day of a party.

Yes we had leftovers and they were fine microwaved. I would imagine they'd be even better heated through (either the microwave or the oven) and then crisped under the broiler. I wouldn't hesitate to make these ahead. That might take away some of the pain! :D

Loren

[kristalsnow7]

These were yummy, but I did encounter some of the same problems Loren did. First, my potatoes took longer than 15 minutes to cook. Unfortunately I had already dumped the water, so I had to microwave them for a few more minutes. And I did use a melon baller, but still felt it was fairly difficult to make a perfectly round circle with some of the smaller potatoes---some of them kind of "fell over" because I had scooped out too much of the inside. Oh well. :rolleyes: Overall, they were pretty cute, and pretty tasty!

Kristal

[LynnSC]

I made these tonight for our supper club. Mine didn't look great, most of the skins of the potatoes boiled off when cooking them. They weren't too hard to scoop out because I have a small tool to core tomatoes from PC that worked fine for that. I found them dry and not salty enough. We ended up bringing out the sour cream and topping them with it. That helped. I don't think I will make these again. If I do, I will add something for moisture and probably use larger potatoes. The flavor was good other than lacking salt.
Lynn

[britneyelise]

Made these last night and we just loved them.

I didn't change a thing in the ingrediants, just in the size of them. Mine were literally one-bite potatoes. The directions said that you needed 12 potatoes, or one pound. Well I measured one pound and I had about 28 potatoes. They were so teeny tiny! But very cute. Some were not bigger than my thumb.

Yes they were a pain in the butt to scoop out, but I found the easiest tool to be a grapefruit spoon. The mashed potato-turkeybacon-onion mixture was a little too chunky for my tiny potatoes, so I pulsed it a few times in the food processor (it did not get gummy) then I piped it into the shells with a piping bag. We thought they were full of flavor (with the parmeggino reggiono adding all the salt).

I will be making these again for a little party I am catering. Yum!


Shannon

[tamawrite]

I didn't have baby reds so I used larger ones, and they took bloody forever to cook. Delayed dinner by 40 minutes! They were still a bit too raw for easy scooping, but when they finally arrived on the table, they were delicious!