AirFryday: Sumac-spiced air fryer potatoes

26 Jul 2024

Sumac has a peaky flavour, tangy but less strident than lemon, with which it is often compared. Its time in the kitchen is still coming, but it surely won’t be long before home cooks are as keen as mustard on this undervalued spice.

With its roots in the sweetly spicy cuisine of Iran and its former incarnation of Persia, sumac spread through the Middle East and Mediterranean to become a beloved spice from Sicily to Turkey and north African nations including Morocco.

It is so much a part of Iranian cuisine that you’ll even find it on the table alongside the salt and pepper.

Read more: Decadent chicken liver pâté with hanepoot-sultana chutney

Potatoes, I find, do not need much help in the spice department. I wouldn’t use more than a single spice or herb with them. Nutmeg in mashed potato. Thyme, rosemary, garlic, or lemon with roast spuds. Parsley with boiled “new” potatoes. I have added turmeric to salt, pepper and garlic as a baste for roasties; odd, but interesting.

This week I tried sumac as the key spice for roast potatoes in the air fryer. It makes sense, given that black pepper is good with roasties, and sumac plays a similar role in the kitchen.

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You need to go lightly on the oil, as always when cooking in an air fryer. Just add some ground sumac to a little oil in a bowl, with salt, and also some black pepper, because this is a perfect trio for enhancing whatever they’re cooked with. In fact consider making sumac a regular addition to ingredients that are salted and peppered. It adds a zesty tang.

I’m not giving quantities, because it all depends on how many people you’re feeding. Just season equally with the salt, black pepper and dried sumac powder, and use only enough oil to coat the spuds.

Ingredients

Potatoes, peel and halve or quarter (depending on their size)

Cooking oil (such as canola), just enough to coat all the potatoes

Black pepper

Coarse salt

Sumac

Method

Peel the potatoes and either slice them in half or in quarters. I would cut a medium potato in half, but a large one into quarters.

Add the oil, salt, black pepper and sumac to a bowl and stir.

Add the potatoes and toss several times, holding the bowl firmly with both hands and flipping the potatoes from the back of the bowl towards yourself. You’ll be able to see when they’re all coated.

Cook them in the preheated air fryer at 180°C for 25 minutes. Shake the basket now and then.

Add a little more oil to the same bowl that has the remnants of the oil, sumac, salt and pepper, and also add a little more of the seasonings if you like.

Lift the potatoes back into the bowl, toss a few times again, and return them to the air fryer.

Turn the air fryer temperature up to 200°C. Roast for 10 more minutes at 200°C, or until they are golden and crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy in the middle. Test with a skewer. DM

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer 2023, jointly with TGIFood columnist Anna Trapido. Order his book, foodSTUFF, here

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