It’s football season and Nick Rabar has you covered with this tailgate dish of Cheesy Nashville style Tater Tots. The flavor is all in the sauce, with some traditional Nashville spices. Plus Wines & More has the perfect wine to pair with this cheesy dish.
Nick Rabar (00:07) Welcome to the brand new East Providence High School here in my beautiful hometown of East Providence, Rhode Island. Well, it’s football season and anyone that knows me knows that tailgating is my thing. From big stuffed lobsters, the whole prime rib, you’ve name it, I’ve made it. But today we’re making something brand new to the gridiron, and that’s cheesy Nashville style tater tots.
Nashville Style Sauce
NR (00:28) So when we say Nashville style, what we’re referring to is a style of sauce that is traditionally served with hot chicken in Nashville, Tennessee, it’s usually a combination of fat cayenne pepper, and a couple of great seasonings. Today, what we’re going to do is start with a little bit of butter. We’re gonna go into the pan and get that melted, and while it’s melting, we’re gonna start with the star of the show the cayenne pepper. Now, in Nashville, they’re not afraid to turn it up. So on a scale of one to ten, we’re gonna keep this around a two or three. Then we’re gonna go in with a little bit of granulated garlic, but again with a little bit of paprika, and this is looking stunning. Now you got to season it of course, let’s hit it with some kosher salt, and then something to offset all that ferocity that’s in there. A little brown sugar, just to sweeten it up. Go in with a little bit of that brown sugar and boom we’ve got our hot sauce ready to go.
Tater Tot Filling
NR (1:35) To make the filling for these thoughts. We’re basically going to make like a cheesy mashed potatoes. So the process is you start by peeling them, then you chop them, then you boil them in salted water, mash them, add some cheese, and boom you’ve got yourself a killer, cheesy tater tot filling.
Breading the Tater Tots
NR (1:49) Now that we got that out of the way let’s get rolling. So these tater tots you want to have them about one inch in circumference and if they’re just the right size, you know get nice and hot and stay cheesy in the middle and we’ll get beautifully crispy and golden brown on the outside. Alright, so now that we’ve got those all rolled, we’re gonna go right into some all purpose flour, and this is going to be your standard three step breading process. First, it’s in the all purpose flour. Then we’re going into a little bit of whipped egg and then into some Panko bread crumb.
Alright, so now that they’re breaded, we’re gonna go right into the oil and you can hear that sound that oil just grabbing hold of these beautiful little tater tots. So those are going in 350 degrees right so these are coming out crispy crispy crispy right into this Nashville style hot sauce. Straight to the plate. There you have it cheesy Nashville style tater tots. I can’t think of anything better for your next tailgate. I’m your old pal Nick Rabar and gang until we meet again, Keep on Cookin.
Wines & More Pairing
Matt Benoit – Wine & More (03:03) Hello everyone, my name is Matt Benoit, and I’m here at the wines and more in Walpole, Massachusetts and we’re here to tackle another perfect pairing to chef Nick’s cheesy Nashville tater tots. This week’s wine we chose is an Oregon Pinot Noir from Joseph Wagner. It’s called Elouan. Elouan means good light, and in Oregon where you have a lot of cool weather. We have a lot of bright sunshine to get the full flavor of this wine. This wine is aged 10 months and both new and used franjo bounce. On the nose you’ll find red fruit notes such as cherry, raspberry, strawberry, as well as some baking spices such as vanilla, some tobacco, and these follow through on the finish. On the finish you’ll taste some complexities from the barrel such as that toasted oak, vanilla, tobacco and a slight earthiness more typical of Old World wines. This wine has a light smooth mouthfeel it’s mostly dry, but it’s the perfect complement to this fried cheesy goodness. Come on down to the Wines and More in Walpole give Elouan a try. Cheers.
