Spice-Crusted Baby Potatoes with Yoghurt Sauce

The harvest from one plant of Jersey Bennes, planted 

on the 12th of September and dug on the 5th of December.

Baby new potatoes are a seasonal treat at this time of year. My favourite new potato varieties are Jersey Bennes and Cliff's Kidney. I planted both varieties in early September, and began harvesting them in the first week of December. We have been enjoying them boiled and tossed in butter with chopped herbs, boiled and then sliced into rounds and fried, in a salad with dill mayonnaise, in a frittata with zucchini, and crusted with spices and dressed with a yoghurt sauce.

This last recipe I found in Vegetarian Party Food by Celia Brooks Brown (Pavilion Books, 2003), a book which is full of many mouthwatering entertaining options, from nibbles to full dinners. The spice-crusted baby potatoes in the original recipe are served with a tamarind cream on the side, and are dunked into it – fine eating at a drinks party. I didn't have tamarind or crème fraiche to hand when I made the recipe the first time, and found that natural yoghurt and lemon juice make a good dunking sauce as well, or a tasty dressing, so that the potatoes can be served as a warm or cool salad.

The recipe below gives both options, although if you are serving this dish in India, or to Indians, my friend Shiv insists that you call the recipe Masala-Crusted Potatoes with Raita. Enjoy either way!

                    A platter of Spice-Crusted Potatoes and Yoghurt Sauce

ready to go to the Port Levy community Christmas party. 

SPICE-CRUSTED BABY POTATOES WITH YOGHURT SAUCE

Ingredients

1 kg baby new potatoes, scrubbed

1 T coriander seeds

1 T cumin seeds

1/4 t celery seed (optional)

1/2 t ground turmeric

1/4 - 1/2 t cayenne pepper (to taste)

1 t salt

3 T light olive oil

1 T wine vinegar

200 ml natural creamy yogurt

OR

100 ml natural yogurt AND 100 ml creme fraiche OR sour cream

1 T lemon juice

OR 2 T thick tamarind liquid

(made by soaking a chunk of dried tamarind pulp in water, then squeezing it through a sieve)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C.

2. Parboil the potatoes in well-salted water for 5-10 minutes.

3. Grind the coriander and cumin seeds together (and celery seed, if using).

4. Whisk the oil and vinegar together.

5. Whisk all the spices and the salt into in the oil and vinegar mix.

6. Drain the potatoes, cool them, and pat them dry with a towel.

7. Spread the potatoes in a roasting pan, halving any larger ones so that they are  all the same size.

8. Pour the oil mix over the potatoes and roll them in it.

9. Roast the potatoes for 15-20 minutes, until tender, turning once or twice.

10. Gently put the potatoes into a serving bowl, and keep warm.

11. While the potatoes are roasting, mix together the yoghurt (and cream) and lemon juice (OR tamarind liquid).

12. When the potatoes are cooked and in their serving bowl, stir the left-over roasted spices from the roasting pan into the yoghurt mix.

To serve

EITHER pour the yoghurt sauce over the potatoes and mix a little and serve as part of a meal

OR

put the sauce into a separate bowl and provide toothpicks for dipping the potatoes into it as part of nibbles at a party.