HOW TO Grill Salt Lick POTATOES - Steven Raichlen

OK, in my on going effort to cook every recipe in the Steven Raichlen incredible Grill guide, I followed the recipe on page 387 for roasted (smoked) potatoes. This reminds me of the time I followed Steven's recipe for S'Mores. Everyone knows how to make em. But there they were, three pages of detailed instructions on how to melt a marshmallow, put it on top of a piece of chocolate and wedge between two graham crackers. Funny thing about making S'Mores, before wanting to "just get through the recipe" because it was part of the cookthrough project, I had not made them for 20 years. But, once I was nudged to put these on my list of things I cook, I made them another 4 times this summer. A nice little thing to have and do with your hot coals after a cook.

I have done lots of potatoes this summer. Presentation quality potatoes cut into squares, and then cut into thin slices and skewered with lots of peppers and Garlic (click HERE to see how I made these). They took a long time, tasted good, looked good, but will be awhile before I make them again.

I also made some home made Potato chips, click HERE to see how I made these... They took a long time, tasted good, looked good, but will be awhile before I make them again.

I was really pleased with my Bacon Wrapped Grilled Potato Boats with Goat Cheese and Asparagus that you can check out the details by clicking HERE. But know that they took a long time, tasted good, looked good, but will be awhile before I make them again.

I think you are getting the idea. I made lots of taters this summer. Everything came out very tasty. I liked everything I made very much. I will make these things again in the future, but I really do not currently have any plans to make any of these again...

However, these simple little things were a nice reminder... Simple sometimes is great...

Take a potato (if cooking several, best to have similar sizes so that they are all done at the same time). Take a fork and pierce the skin a few times to help them absorb the smoke and keep steam from building up and making the taters explode. generously coat them in melted butter or spray some canola oil on them, generously coat them in a coarse salt. All I had was some kosher salt, and they came out terrific!

Cook over indirect heat for about an hour or an hour and a quarter. They are done when you can squeeze them and they are soft (or I use the fork test. Stick a fork in em, if it goes in easy with no resistance, they are done).

THESE WERE GREAT. Not too salty (as I wrongly suspected they would be). Be sure to eat the skin, as that has all the vitamins, and a great flavor (the toasted butter combines with the salt fantastic! I am thrilled to add these to the list of things I knew about, but hadn't really considered. Sometimes, simple is best. Hey, it's a cooking blog. I can't and won't just toss a glorified baked potato on my blog and make it sound like I invented this again and again. I will be making different potatoes again and challenging myself. But, this was simple, fast, cooked while I was doing other things in preparation for a dinner and extremely tasty.

I think I owe Steven an apology for the S'mores post. I was a little nasty about my opinion that that simple recipe had no place in the book. I wanted complicated and challenging. But, because I cooked it, I got a simple, easy to duplicate crowd pleaser that I made several times in the 2 months since I first made em.

I suspect that this simple, easy to duplicate crowd pleaser will be on my plate several times before I repeat any of the complicated challenging recipes I made over the summer.

I will be making this again with no changes, and this recipe gets a 5 of a possible 5.

This recipe can be found on page 387 of Steven Raichlen's amazing grill guide, HOW TO GRILL. The book includes three pages of detailed instructions, including lots of photographs and a simple easy to follow recipe. Click HERE to go to Amazon.com and read other people's reviews or to order. I just found out they have discounted the price, new copies are available for less than $10 and used copies for less than $5!

R, CAG and G... Good Talk