Salt-Baked New Potatoes With Pink-Peppercorn Butter
*Just 24 hours as a college freshman, and I had been in my first lecture hall, understood suddenly that feminism was not a static or monolithic point of view and seen potatoes growing in the earth. At least this last small discovery I was able to have alone, so it carries no sting and remains a purely joyful one.
In keeping with joyful, this way of cooking little new potatoes by packing them into a mound of wet kosher salt and baking them until the salt is dry and hard as earth is a wonder of its own. You can even season the mound of salt, as I have here, with things that will add flavor and color and aroma. Rosemary is bracingly fragrant during the baking. And the floral, perfumey pink peppercorns are perfectly delicate. I love their subtlety here. I make a compound butter using some of both, which you can swoop the potatoes through while still they’re warm for extra deliciousness. But I’ve kept the butter purposely mild, to let the real revelation be the creamy, freshly new potato itself. New potatoes just harvested in the early fall are different from those that have been cellared over the long winter. Their skins are so thin and tight that they snap when you bite into them.
But the greatest fun is when it comes time to present this dish. Bring the curious-looking pan right to the table, so that everyone can puzzle over its mysterious contents, hidden beneath that snowy crust. Then give the pan a very sturdy and muscular rap or two on the table to crack open the salt crust, revealing the piping hot, perfectly seasoned little beauties within. The delight for everyone is palpable. Then just serve them as is, letting everyone dig out the warm potatoes from the fault lines of the cracked crust. The hunt for them is a joy, the appeal is irresistible and, luckily, new potatoes come up annually, so you don’t have to wait 17 years for such a grand old time.
Recipe: Salt-Baked New Potatoes With Pink-Peppercorn Butter
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021483-salt-baked-new-potatoes-with-pink-peppercorn-butter
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