Saturday, December 13, 2008

Yea for the fingerling

Between the holidays, my social calendar and long hours at work, most of my recent dishes (and farmers market buys) have been old standards rather than new experiments. Perhaps the most versatile veg I've been consuming is the fingerling potato. I've seen them at the market for years, but only started buying them a few months ago. It's the lazy woman's potato -- thin skinned so no need for peeling, perfectly sized when cooking a frittata for one, equally good diced and boiled in soup, sliced and roasted as pseudo french fries or just eaten with cheese, as I did over Thanksgiving week upstate. Fingerlings can be stored for months, but they say the taste does change slightly. These had been stored under my parents' sink (I know, I know) for over two months, which may explain why the potatoes seemed a little dried out. But let's be real -- in this dish, the fingerling is the mere supporting actor and the star is the raclette cheese. So why this may not have been as tasty as my first taste of raclette in Switzerland, or the version available from Neal's Yard Dairy in Borough Market, London, to use the words of Ina Garten, potatoes and cheese,"how bad could that be?"
Easy Raclette

Ingredients

Fingerling potatoes, halved

Raclette cheese

Assorted condiments such as pearl or sliced onion, cornichons, etc. Method (for those without a Raclette grill)

Boil or roast fingerlings until fork tender, liberally salt and pepper

Place in in shallow baking dish, cut side up

Slice cheese an place over each potato, melt under broiler and serve

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