I've had this vision of watching Napoleon Dynamite and serving gourmet tator tots. Well that combo hasn't happened yet…but last night, when we were having a couple of New York steaks for dinner and I forgot to pick up a side at the store, I had my chance to create my gourmet tots.
Embarassingly easy and very tasty! I start with: ORE-IDA Tator Tots Crispy Crowns. I sprinkled them with some truffle salt and fresh pepper and then bake them as directed in a 450 degree oven, spread out on a cookie sheet. I flip them at 10 minutes and again in 5 minutes. I like my tots crunchy so if needed, and they did last night, I flipped them one more time and left them in the oven for another 3 minutes.
While the tots are toasting, I chopped a couple tablespoons of fresh parsley and chives.
Once the tots are properly crunchy, I removed them from the oven and flip them one more time. Push the tots together in the middle of cookie sheet so there is not metal showing through your tots. The idea is to keep all the melted cheese goodness on the tots and not on the pan. I topped the tots with crumbled blue cheese, bacon bits ("fresh" from Costco) and the parsley and chives. Add another dusting of fresh pepper (fine) and put back into the hot oven until the cheese starts to melt and you can smell the bacon warming up.
Delish!
I made a sour cream dipping sauce which was pretty much equal parts sour cream and blue cheese dressing, dash of Worcester sauce, chopped fresh chives and parsley, onion salt and fresh pepper.
I can't wait to make more gourmet tots – I see endless possibilities!
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