New Potatoes with Sour Cream and Caviar

A couple of days ago, the weather was really wonderful.  The air was crisp and clean and spring just seemed to be in the air.  I went “off list” at the grocery store and bought a great-looking tomato plant for my vegetable garden, a perfect white Kalanchoe to put by the front door, and I then I found a bag of perfect looking new potatoes that brought this favorite recipe to mind.

I remember this item being very popular back in the eighties.  Just about every cocktail party had this one on the menu, lots of restaurants offered it as a starter, and a version appeared in almost all regional cookbooks that I’ve acquired from way back then.  The recipe I’ve adapted is from one of my very favorite cookbooks, the Silver Palate.  But I should note that my way has some substantial differences—I don’t use rock salt, I use kosher salt…I don’t deep fry the potatoes, I sauté them in much less oil…and my budget doesn’t permit real caviar, my splurge is the black lumpfish that you can buy at the grocery store.  If you can afford the real stuff, go for it—and please invite me over…

New Potatoes with Sour Cream and Caviar

Makes 24

Ingredients:

12 new potatoes
1 cup kosher salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ cup olive oil
½ cup sour cream
Small jar of black lumpfish caviar

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Pour the kosher salt into a baking pan and shake it to distribute it evenly.  Scrub the potatoes clean, dry them well, and put them in the baking pan.  Bake for 30 minutes or until they are soft.

Cool the potatoes for a few minutes until you can handle them.  Cut them in half.  Using a melon ball spoon or another small spoon, remove a scoop of the pulp from each half, leaving a nice edge.  Put the pulp in a bowl and mash it with a fork.  Sprinkle the lemon juice over the pulp and mash to combine.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet.  Place the potato halves skin side down in the oil and gently sauté until they are nicely browned.  Flip them over to warm the bottoms and then remove and drain on a paper towel.

Put a small scoop of the pulp in each potato half, followed by a small dollop of sour cream, and an even smaller dollop of caviar.