New Potatoes
Tender new potatoes, cooked very simply and served with butter make a very easy, yet delightful addition to almost any dish.

Serves 4

Ingredients
675g / 1.5lbs new potatoes
85g / 3oz butter/ margarine
sea salt and cracked black pepper

Mise-en-Place:
Wash the new potatoes

Method:
Boil the potatoes in a saucepan of lightly salted water for 10-20 minutes (depending on size)

The potatoes are cooked when tender and soft, yet firm. It is important not to over cook the potatoes so that they become too soft.
To test, either squeeze with your fingers or simply cut one in half and taste

Drain the liquid from the saucepan
Add the butter to the potatoes, stir to aid melting
Season with salt and pepper

Presentation:
I normally serve potatoes as a bed to place the main dish. This helps create extra height.
Another option is to serve in a side bowl with a twist of butter and some fresh herbs
If you have difficulty handling the potatoes simply cut in half to make stacking more stable.

Cowboy Trick: If you've overcooked the potatoes so that they are too soft, partially crush the potatoes with the butter, salt and pepper, add a few herbs and change the menu to 'crushed potatoes'. I know this sounds a bit like a goof-out but this is a legitimate dish and more importantly gets your butt out of the proverbial frying-pan...or fire.

Chef Insight: The potato, technically a type of tuber, is a native of the americas. Initially brought to Europe by Pizarro from his expeditions to south america in the mid 16th Century and famously to England by Sir Walter Raleigh after his adventures to north america. Due to the ease of which potatoes could be grown it quickly became a popular dietary staple for the European poor. It wasn't until the turn of the 19th Century that potatoes came into fashion amongst the elite and fashionable.