Tender, creamy potatoes that burst open like little balloons when you bite into them.
Gently frying in oil makes for a tender, creamy potato with wrinkly skin.
If you're a potato, then the Andes are the cradle of your civilization. Colombia's got a big chunk of real estate in those mountains, and it shows in their cuisine. Colombians like their potatoes like they like their... Well, honestly, there's not much I can think of that they love as much as potatoes—heck, their national dish is a soup made of three different kinds!
But the king of the potatoes, when you ask a Colombian, is the small, yellow, creamy papa criolla, a particular cultivar that's really difficult to track down outside of Colombia. There are some markets that sell the par-boiled potatoes frozen, but that's hardly a substitute. To my palate, the closest you can get is a small Yukon Gold. I've had some from the farmer's market that in a blind test, I'd pit papa-a-papa against a papa criolla.
To fry 'em, I find that the easiest method is to put them all in a pot that'll fit them in a single layer, then add just enough cold oil to come about two-thirds of the way up their sides. From there, I cook them with a lid slightly ajar, making sure the oil never gets beyond a lively bubble. The goal is supreme tenderness, not crunch or browning.
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