Confit Potatoes

Confit potatoes are potatoes cooked with a culinary technique in which the potatoes are immersed in oil and slowly cooked to soften them and infuse them with the richness of the oil. Any flavors introduced into the oil are also absorbed by the potatoes.

Potato confit is simply saying the above in a different manner.

Historically the word 'confit' has been used to describe various food preparations in which a food is immersed in fat or other ingredient in order to preserve it. It stems from the Latin 'conficere' one of the meanings of which is 'to prepare'.

One example is the French word 'confiture' which signifies a fruit cooked and preserved in sugar syrup. Other examples include olives preserved in oil, fish in salt, or meats under a thick layer of fat.

Contemporary uses of 'confit' relate to cooking anything slowly and gently in fat to create a succulent consistency, with the most famous example being duck confit or duck cooked in duck fat.

This is a chef tried and true recipe scaled down for home use.

The low heat and the oil have the effect of adding richness to the already creamy and flavorful yellow gold potatoes. The ease of preparing them and the satisfying results lead to making them again and again.

They truly can become a staple side in your daily life and a lovely way to impress your dinner guests on holidays. Get used to receiving compliments from everyone you cooked them for!

Baby Yukon gold potatoes. They are perfectly suited for confit, see the notes below. You can also use fingerling potatoes or baby red potatoes to make potato confit, but baby yellow gold potatoes work best.

Olive oil. We prefer to use extra virgin olive oil because it has deeper flavor. Additionally, we save most of it for future use (see the relevant section below for details).

Rosemary and garlic cloves. We find the combination to be near perfect. Fresh rosemary withstands the process of confiting and slowly releases its essential oils lending appetizing fragrance. The garlic does the same with the added benefit that you can enjoy the soft, sweet cloves at the end of the cooking.

Why You Should Use Baby Yellow Gold Potatoes

Their skins are thin and their flesh is richly flavored and not too starchy.

Just harvested baby yellow gold potatoes will not have developed eyes and you will not have to do much in terms of preparing them for cooking. If it has been a little while between when they were harvested and when you bought them shallow eyes develop on the surface but the skins remain thin. You will not need to peel the baby tubers but you might need to remove the eyes.

Step-by-Step How to Make Confit Potatoes

To make confit potatoes follow these simple steps, as illustrated by the image grid above.

NOTE: Gentle heat is essential to cooking potato confit. While the baby tubers are simmering in the olive oil you want to be able to observe steady, small bubbles gently whispering around them.

In fact the difference between frying and confit cooking potatoes is the strength of the heat.

The dreamy flavor and rich texture of confit is achieved over medium-low heat, for some strong stoves low heat might be more appropriate. If the oil is heated too much frying occurs.

Because they are so delicious and so easy to make we enjoy yellow gold potatoes confit regularly. You can see them photographed as the side to many of the protein recipes on this blog.

Every time, once the oil has cooled down, we strain it through a fine sieve into a quart airtight container and refrigerate it to use it again in about two weeks at most.

When we use it again we add a bit more olive oil, as needed to cover the new batch of potatoes, and add fresh garlic cloves and rosemary sprigs. With each use the flavors become deeper and the potatoes more delicious.

Serve the confit potatoes garnished with a flaky salt such as sea salt or ground black pepper.

They make a wonderful side dish to many proteins (we love them with this Slow Cooker Leg of Lamb or the Lamb Tenderloin pictured below.

As part of hearty salads - whenever we make salad Nicoise we always prepare confit potatoes for it.

As a meal on their own - all you need is a generous sprinkle of feta cheese or goat cheese and a drizzle of the olive oil in which you cooked the potatoes. And perhaps a cold, effervescent lager such as a pilsner.

Inside wraps - combine veggies, a few confit potatoes, yogurt sauce and pieces of pre-cooked protein and you will enjoy a perfectly delicious wrap.

Storage and Reheating

We rarely have leftover conift potatoes... If you do, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator and to reheat them either microwave them or gently heat them over medium heat in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil.

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