So Easy, It's Barely Even a Recipe: Seethed Potatoes

The entire month of March has disappeared in a haze of Nyquil fumes. If someone were to hold Family Olympics, our 4-person team would completely dominate the Synchronized Coughing event. We missed several March traditions - celebrating the first day of spring and making corned beef for St. Patrick's Day, among others. And I've missed the blog. Now that we seemed to have turned a meteorological corner into spring, it's clearly time for some new material.

This particular recipe came up in conversation with my friend Andrea last week, and I'm so glad it did because now I've remembered how much I like it and how very, very easy it is. Now that David is in school two nights a week, I get a chance to sneak in the occasional potato dish; I'm guessing this will go back into the regular rotation, since you can mostly ignore it while you stay on top of the nightly homework nagging. 

I found this recipe in One Potato Two Potato, a wonderful cookbook that deserves better than to be gathering dust on my bookshelf. 

Seethed Potatoes 

Fingerling or other small potatoes

Peeled whole garlic cloves 

Olive oil or butter

Water 

I can hear you now: "Jen, this is a lame excuse for a recipe. How about some amounts? You're listing water as an ingredient? I know you've been sick but jeez, a little effort maybe?" 

Ha! I say. Read on. 

Wash the potatoes and put them in a skillet large enough to hold them in a single layer. Add enough water to cover the potatoes, add some garlic, and put in a hefty glug of olive oil or a chunk of butter (guess which one I prefer?). The packages of fingerling potatoes at the grocery store or the pint containers at the farmer's market are a good size for our family; I use 2-3 garlic cloves and a couple of tablespoons of oil, but this is one of those recipes that can scale up or down very easily. 

Bring the water to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer until the potatoes are tender and the water is just about boiled away. Turn the heat up to medium-high and cook the potatoes, shaking the pan every minute or so to keep them from burning to the bottom of the pan and, more importantly, coating them with the butter or oil. This entire process takes around 45 minutes or so; if you're grilling, put the potatoes on right before you start the grill and the timing should work out just about perfectly. 

Sprinkle with kosher salt and serve immediately. 

The first time we had these was a revelation - the skins were crisp and salty, the insides were creamy and perfectly cooked, and I didn't have to stand in the kitchen (much) on a hot day. If you've been lucky enough to find mixed heirloom potatoes, the different shapes and colors look very pretty in the serving bowl, and possibly your 8-year-old son will think that eating purple potatoes is the awesomest thing ever.