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Salt-crusted Baby Potatoes Recipe
September 20, 2005 | 24 Comments
25 cents. There was a community yard sale in the park near our house on Saturday, and in the midst of a field of old luggage, dusty 80's era televisions, a card table stacked with doughnuts, and roving dogs out for their weekend exercise - I found a vintage Le Creuset gratin dish. She wanted 25 cents for it. The small dish had clearly been well loved (and frequently used) at some point along the way, you could tell from the patina. The bottom had a couple black marks from hours in the oven, and the white enamel interior had echoes of baked-on stains not quite ready to surrender to the scouring pad. A couple nicks in the enamel, but nothing that would put it out of commission. I carried it home, gave it a good scrub, and then looked at it for a few more minutes.
It was the perfect shape and size for a salt-crust recipe. Fish was out, but potatoes would be perfect. I decided to bury a generous handful of the tiniest, thinnest-skinned potatoes I could find under thick layer of Kosher salt, and then let it bake unceremoniously for an hour. This is probably where I should tell you, I ended up making the dish twice - I'll tell you why, and how they were different.
Dust them off and eat them.
The first time I simply placed the potatoes in a single layer in the dish. I cut a few of the potatoes in half and let the cut sides touch the bottom - hoping for some nice browning. Tucked in a few big cloves of garlic (peeled), and then topped it all off with a flood of Kosher salt. There were no potatoes peeking through, just a sea of white grains. Into the oven at 400 (middle rack) for an hour, and out popped a nice little arrangement of potatoes. We simply plucked them out of the salt one by one, dusted them off a bit, and popped them into our mouths. They potatoes cooked perfectly and their thin skins became light and parchment-like, masking a creamy interior. They were delicious...but not quite right. I was after a slightly more dramatic presentation - more of a salt crust, something you crack into, a crust that browns up nicely as it cooks. That being said, the benefit of this first cooking method is that you can check the potatoes for doneness without much of a hassle. With the next method, no such luck. It is more of a leap of faith.
Take two: Same drill with the potatoes. Single layer, I used garlic cloves again because it made the house smell so delicious, and spreading the oozy caramelized garlic into the potatoes was an added plus. But really, you could tuck any variety of spices and aromatics in there. To get the consistency of the crust right this time I added a few egg whites to the salt knowing that the whites would act as a binder and would also take on some color as it was baking. Bingo. The potatoes and skins were moister coming out of the salt, the egg white factor really helped lock in everything - flavor and moisture. In the first version the dry salt could really breathe, which gave you that wonderful skin and a different creamy, but drier consistency to the potatoes. They were both delicious, but the golden crust in the second version won me over.
Here's the final recipe. Couldn't be any easier.
Salt-crusted Baby Potatoes
These are the quantities I used with my 1-quart Le Creuset au gratin dish. If you are using a larger casserole or baking dish just increase the amount of salt and add another egg white or two. Use roughly one egg white per cup of salt needed to cover the potatoes.
A few handfuls of thin-skinned new potatoes (I like to mix up the colors a bit - red, purple Peruvians, yellow Finns)
3 cups of Kosher salt
6 whole plump cloves of garlic (peeled)
3 organic egg whites
Preheat the oven to 400.
Prep your potatoes. Scrub them well and carve or pick out any eyes or blemishes. You want to pat them completely dry with a clean towel or your potatoes with steam and not bake up properly. Cut a few of them in half (if you like) and place cut side down in an oven-proof baking dish or casserole. Where the potatoes kiss the dish they will get nice and brown and crusty. Nestle the garlic cloves throughout.
Get your salt mixture ready by mixing the egg whites with the three cups of salt (read the intro note if you are using a larger dish -it will help you scale). The salt mixture should be nice and moist. Now pour the salt right over the potatoes and pack it in a bit, and smooth over the top. The potatoes should be just covered.
Place the potatoes in the hot oven and come back in an hour. They are really hot straight out of the oven so let them rest there for a few minutes or until you are ready to serve. Break through and crack open the crust at the table with a stiff metal spatula and let people serve themselves. Dust off the potatoes, open them up with a squeeze, and smear with a bit of the garlic. Enjoy by popping them into your mouth one at a time.
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Your Comments
How cool! I never would've thought about using a salt crust for potatoes.. I think all I've ever seen that used is with fish. Great post as always!
I wonder if the salt (without egg white) can be used again for another batch ??
It can! I picked out a few chunks and reused it for the second time around. -h
I've never made anything salt-crusted before, but this sounds delicious! Thanks for the great post and pics.
I had to smile when you told us about the Le Creuset pan. I, too, found the same pan at a garage sale about 4 years ago and although I had to pay $1.00 for it (you really got a steal!) I have used that pan more than any other in my stash. Fish has been the best thing for it and tomorrow I will try the potatoes. I think it tastes even better when you know you have gotten a bargain to boot!
Wonderful idea! I'm there.
You were really lucky at that yard sale. I have been very successful using OxiClean with stained kitchen ware. It's basically a laundry product but you can be very creative with it.
And the potato dish sounds great too.
Sybil
oooh, I need to go to more garage sales!
Congratulations on your bargain! That is a great find. Love the idea of salt-crusting the potatoes, I would never have thought of using the method on vegetables.
I have done this a few times, and w/o whites, you can reuse the salt, which takes on a surprisingly rich potato scent.
I have one of those, but I bought it new and patinaed it myself! In the interest if not making diners afraid of catching ebola at my table, I scrubbed it really well, then soaked it with a bleach solution. It worked. If I could take that many years of use off myself with a little bleach...
I use it for lots of dishes, but the best of them is a crab "souffle" that relates when reheated. But now I live where there is no crabmeat :(
these sound delicious! add potatoes and lots of salt to the shopping list! i was lucky enough to score a le creuset grill pan, the long rectangular one, for $10 at a "garage sale" in my building in manhattan when i was in cooking school. i wanted to run outside and high-five someone i was so excited!
Thank you for this recipe. I went by the farmers market last evening to pick up some pretty new potatoes for this recipe. I'm making this tonight, with some salmon and fresh corn.
Great idea and I wish I could find good cook pieces like that at yard sales! Thanks for the inspiration to do something new with potatoes!
My sweetie found an entire set of Le Creuset: dutch oven, a couple of sauce pans and two frying pans at a garage sale for $5.00 Cdn. brought them home and, delightful man that he is, cleaned off the cooked on glunk. They are brilliant for everything from fish to fowl. Now I'll try potatos...
great idea on the potatoes, i never would have thought of using them. i have heard of fish & pork, but not taters. i will try that recipe for a small lunch party that i am hosting this weekend!
Don't they come out way too salty?
I seldom add salt to any food I cook.
i only had afew minutes,i cant wait until i can try some of these recipes
Tex,
If you give them a good brush of they are perfectly seasoned to my taste buds.
Salt in moderation is really essential to bringing out and focusing flavors. It is hard (in most cases) to make a recipe sing without some sort of salty accent (even with sweets). A lot of procesed foods are salted to death when you buy them, so I'm primarily talking about my approach when cooking from whole ingredients.
also - I know a lot of people are put on salt restricted diets by their doctors...another consideration altogether.
I love Le Creuset, but had never seen this gratin dish before. I found two gratin dishes on eBay and just won the auction! Can't wait to get them to try this recipe. I spent $25 instead of $.25, but I'm still excited.
These are deeelicious. I made them for dinner tonight and, wow, yum. And I am not usually a potato person. Thanks!
Thanks for the recipe!
I was enamored with the idea-- but I found the potatoes to be way too salty, and the crust hard to break. Is there any way to reuse the salt with whites? It feels like such a waste to throw it all away...
I tried this the other night -- it sounded like an easy bake and a fun thing to serve with kids at the table. The potatoes were good, eventually, and yes it was a fun dish to hack open at table, but fishing all of the potatoes out of the dish and brushing them off turned out to be quite a pain. Any tips on an easy way to do that?
I tried this with the last of our garden potatoes and we all loved them this way. They were indeed creamy. However it took a lot of soaking to get the baked salt and eggwhites out of the pan. Should I have oiled my le creuset pan first?
I will do this recipe again. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Phyllis Willis
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