These pretty potatoes were first served in a restaurant in Sweden (hence the name) and are great to put in the rotation of side dishes that are easy to prepare, can be made in advance and look great with whatever else you are having. Read more…

This is our family’s favorite potato salad and it always makes an appearance for the 4th of July.   It has a lot of ingredients and you can leave some out or add some in and you will still have a great potato salad.  But made this way it has quite a little kick to it—nice as a side dish for a summer barbecue. Read more…

We are a family of potato lovers.  And as such, we are always happy to try new ways of eating them, any kind, during any season.

Here is a nice way to have potatoes when your main course is simple and you’d like to spice up the meal a little bit.  We enjoyed these the other evening with simply grilled pork tenderloin, but they would also be nice with a steak or a sturdy fish.

To cook the potatoes, you can simply steam them (put them in about an inch of simmering water, cover the pan and steam for about 8 minutes or until they are fork tender) or you can roast them.  See my previous post about roasting potatoes here.

Red Potatoes with Sour Cream Sauce

Serves 4

6 cooked and quartered medium red potatoes, or about 12-16 baby red potatoes

¾ cup sour cream
1/3 cup diced red onion
1/3 cup chopped fresh chives,
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons horseradish

Combine the sour cream, red onion, chives, mayonnaise and horseradish and stir until well mixed.  Spoon over the hot, cooked potatoes or pass the potatoes and the sauce separately at the table.

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.

This potato dish makes an appearance on our table a few times a year—usually for a special occasion.  We’ve enjoyed them with our Easter ham, or our Thanksgiving turkey, or our Christmas roast tenderloin, and on the occasional birthday—they are made by special request.  It’s kind of a contradiction that given the importance of the occasions, and the pleasure with which it is met, this dish is very simple to make, rustic in appearance and totally comforting in taste.

The key to the consistency of this dish is to thinly slice the potatoes.  I use a mandoline (a kitchen tool I would really miss now that I use one a lot), which makes really quick work of this.  It takes a little while to layer the potatoes nicely, but I recommend doing it—it looks and tastes better when it’s symmetrical—I don’t know why, it just does.

The classic rendition of this dish is made with Gruyere cheese and is also seasoned with nutmeg (called Gratin Dauphinois) and we love it that way too.  But the white cheddar appeals more to our kids’ taste, and is easier on the budget.

White Cheddar Potato Gratin

Serves 8 to 10

Preparation Time:  30 minutes
Cook Time:  1 hour
Total Time:  1 ½ hours

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves, finely minced
4 pounds Yukon gold or other waxy potatoes
4 cups half-and-half
4 cups grated White Cheddar cheese
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9 x 13 rectangular or oval baking dish.   Pour the half-and-half into a medium sized saucepan and add the minced garlic, then heat on low while you prepare the potatoes.

Peel the potatoes and slice them into 1/16 inch slices using a mandoline or a knife (if you want to drive yourself crazy).  (You could probably use a food processor slicer blade too—but I haven’t tried this myself.)

Layer the potatoes, just slightly overlapping in the bottom of the buttered dish.  Sprinkle with a little of the salt, pepper, and about ½ cup of the cheese.  Then spoon a ½ cup of the warm half-and-half and garlic mixture over.  Repeat these layers until you’ve used all of your potatoes or the reached the top of the dish, whichever comes first.

Bake for an hour or until the top of the gratin is golden and bubbly and the potatoes pierce easily with a fork.

Here in Florida, September is still a very hot month.  And while the kids are back in school and the stores inexplicably have started selling sweaters and jackets (which we can’t wear here for about another two months), we straddle the line between feeling like fall and still wearing shorts and t-shirts.  And since it’s Friday, and no one in the family has any plans other than to be home for dinner—we’re having one of our favorite combinations, ribs and potatoes—both slow roasted in the oven—with the ribs finished briefly on the grill afterwards.

Of course, you can serve either of these recipes on their own.  But you’ll notice that both of them require 2 hours of slow cooking at the beginning.  So, this meal is good to make when you’re home for the afternoon, but you have things to do other than cook too much.  And the  smell of the ribs and potatoes that slowly comes into the kitchen while they’re cooking makes everybody feel hungry by the time everything is done.  I like to make a green salad to go along with this meal too—and I serve extra barbecue sauce on the side.

Grilled Baby Back Ribs
Preparation Time:  15 minutes
Cook Time:  2 hours and 10 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 slabs of baby back ribs, each slab cut in half (about 5 or 6 ribs per piece)
Kosher Salt
Fresh, coarsely ground black pepper
½ cup of your favorite barbecue sauce
Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Cut four pieces of aluminum foil, each one big enough to completely wrap one serving of the ribs.  Place one-half slab of ribs on each of piece of foil.  Salt and pepper both sides of the slabs.  Wrap each one up with a tight seal and place all four packages on a baking sheet.  Bake in the oven for 2 hours.

Preheat or light your grill.  Remove the ribs from the oven, open each package and put the rib slabs back on the baking sheet.  Brush both sides of each slab with the barbecue sauce.  Grill for 5 minutes per side until the sauce is nicely browned on the ribs.  Remove to a platter and serve.

Slow Roasted Potatoes
Preparation Time:  10 minutes
Cook Time:  2 hours

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 pounds small white or  red potatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup mint, packed, leaves only, finely chopped
1 tablespoon kosher or sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Wash the potatoes well, dry them thoroughly and prick each one with a fork a couple of times.  (You do this to keep them from exploding in your oven.)  Put the potatoes in a roasting pan and roast for 2 hours.  Remove from the oven, cool for about 10 minutes and cut each potato in half.  Put the potatoes in a bowl big enough to toss them thoroughly.

Mix together the garlic, oil, mint, sea salt and pepper and pour over the potatoes while they’re still hot.  Correct the seasoning to your taste. Let the mixture stand for a while—at least 30 minutes, but they can rest longer.  Serve at room temperature or, if you’d like them warmer, run them back in the oven for about 10 minutes to heat them up.