New Potatoes With Black Peppercorn Butter Recipes

SMASHED NEW POTATOES WITH PEAS, LEMON, AND PEARL ONIONS

Steps:

• Put the potatoes into a large pot, cover them with cold water, and add a large pinch of salt. If they're large, cut them in half. Bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are fork tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Drain. Stick a fork into the potatoes, 1 at a time, lift them out of the colander and peel with a paring knife. Toss the potatoes into a bowl and roughly crush them. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
• Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil with the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the butter melts. Add the pearl onions, sugar, and lemon juice and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are browned, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the lemon slices, peas, and lemon zest and continue cooking until the peas are hot. Season with salt and pepper. Dump the vegetables over the potatoes in the bowl, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil add the parsley and dill and taste for salt and pepper. Scatter the watercress over the top, fold it in just until it wilts and call it a day.

NEW POTATOES WITH BLACK PEPPERCORN BUTTER

Steps:

• Combine broth and peppercorns in small saucepan. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Uncover and simmer until mixture is reduced to 1/4 cup, about 15 minutes. Add brandy; simmer until mixture is reduced to 3 tablespoons, about 10 minutes. Cool. Blend peppercorn mixture, butter, lemon juice, shallot and thyme in processor until peppercorns are finely chopped. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Chill. Use at room temperature.)
• Cook potatoes in pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain. Quarter potatoes. Place in large bowl. Add onions and 1/4 cup peppercorn butter (reserve remaining peppercorn butter for another use); toss gently. Season to taste with salt.

GRILLED NEW POTATOES WITH TARRAGON BUTTER

Steps:

• Preheat a grill to medium high.
• Mix the butter, tarragon, lemon zest, a large pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper together in a small bowl.
• In a resealable plastic bag, toss the new potatoes with the olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper. Add the potatoes to the grill and cook, turning once or twice, until well-marked and tender, about 10 minutes.
• Serve the potatoes hot, topped with a generous spoonful of tarragon butter (remaining butter can be refrigerated up to 1 week).

HERBED NEW POTATOES

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a Dutch oven or large heavy-bottomed pot. Add the whole potatoes, salt, and pepper and toss well. Cover the pot tightly and cook over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender when tested with a small knife. From time to time, shake the pot without removing the lid to prevent the bottom potatoes from burning. Turn off the heat and allow the potatoes to steam for another 5 minutes. Don't overcook! Toss with the herbs, and serve hot.

HOT AND NUMBING STIR-FRIED NEW POTATOES

Steps:

• Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with cool water by 2 inches. Season heavily with salt. (The water should taste like very salty seawater once the salt has dissolved.) Place over high heat, bring to a boil and cook until there's no resistance when a knife or cake tester is poked through the largest potato, about 10 minutes after they come to a boil. Drain potatoes and spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet to air-dry.
• While the potatoes cook, make the spice blend: In a small bowl, shake the Sichuan peppercorns and discard any shiny black seeds, twigs or leaf fragments. Add the husks to a dry wok, along with the star anise, fennel seeds, white peppercorns and half the cumin seeds. Toast over medium heat, tossing frequently, until very aromatic, about 2 minutes. Transfer mixture to a small bowl to cool slightly. Return wok to heat and add remaining cumin seeds and the chiles. Toss and stir until very aromatic, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a second small bowl.
• When cool, transfer the spice mixture in the first bowl, along with the 2 chiles from the second bowl to an electric spice grinder or a mortar and pestle. Add salt, sugar and chicken bouillon. Grind to a fine powder and return to the empty bowl.
• Add the cumin seeds that toasted with the chiles to the spice grinder or the mortar (no need to clean it out) and pound or pulse until very coarsely ground. (There should be large, distinct pieces of cumin seeds.) Add half-ground cumin and the sesame seeds to the rest of the spice mixture and stir to incorporate.
• Stir-fry the potatoes: When potatoes are dry, heat 3 tablespoons oil in the wok over high heat until shimmering. Add potatoes and cook, stirring and tossing frequently, until browned in spots, about 4 minutes.
• Clear a small space in the center of the wok and add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to it. Immediately add the garlic, scallions and spice mixture to the oil and stir until aromatic, about 15 seconds. Toss everything until the potatoes are thoroughly coated in spices, about 15 seconds. Season to taste with more salt as desired. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

SALT-BAKED NEW POTATOES WITH PINK-PEPPERCORN BUTTER

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash the potatoes.
• In a large bowl, mix the salt, rosemary needles, peppercorns and 1 cup water together with your hands, crushing the peppercorns a little between your fingers and bruising the rosemary needles to release their sticky oil, making a moist, fragrant and pink-and-green speckled sand. (You might have to add a few splashes of water if the mixture needs more moisture to feel like wet sand.)
• Transfer a little less than half this salt mixture into the bottom of a wide, shallow, heavy ovenproof skillet or casserole to make a salt bed about 1/2-inch thick.
• Nestle the potatoes into the sand, close to one another but not quite touching, if possible.
• Pack the rest of the salt mixture over the nestled potatoes, and rub and brush and smooth it with your hands until you have tightly encased the potatoes in a little salt sarcophagus. The rounded tops of the potatoes will just show as bumps under the salt cast.
• Bake the potatoes for 30 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester easily pierces the potatoes and tests warm on your chin or the back of your hand. The salt casing will dry and harden like clay - and smell delicious while baking.
• While the potatoes roast, prepare the compound butter: Grind the peppercorns in a mortar and pestle with the whole branches of rosemary to create an oily, coarse powder. Remove the bruised rosemary sprigs, shaking off any clinging pink peppercorns, and discard. (You just want to extract the oily flavor from the rosemary, not the needles themselves.) In a small bowl, mash the oily peppercorn powder with the salted butter using a fork until well blended.
• To serve, rap the salt-packed potatoes forcefully on a sturdy surface that can handle it, to crack the salt crust from the force. A few solid raps will loosen the potatoes inside. If the cast needs a little more help, use a regular dinner knife like a spade to just pop open the salt crust along its fault lines. The potatoes are easily plucked from the dry salt. Set out with the compound butter in a small bowl on the side.