My Newest Food Discovery

Everytime I go to Costco lately I would see these "Fingerling Potatoes" and they really intrigued me. Kind of a weird name, creepy somehow, but interesting nonetheless. You've probably all tried them, but I hadn't. I thought they were basically little regular potatoes, but they're not. They're a mix of little weird potatoes I've not really heard of, like Rose Finn Apple, Russian Banana, French Fingerling and Princess Laratte. Fun names huh? I didn't know how to cook them, but decided to roast them, like the cover showed. That amused me.

These are the spices I use for tater roasting. Kosher salt - my favorite for taters because they are one of only 3 foods that MUST have salt (taters, eggs & tomatoes), and I like having a bigger "bite" of salt the larger grains have. Fresh ground pepper, tyme, garlic powder, olive oil and my newest find, cheese powder. The cheese powder is what I use to duplicate Chef Tom's garlic mix you can't find anymore. It just adds an interesting taste. And butter. Surprised? Didn't think so. Everything is better with butter, even butter is better with butter. I don't have an exact measurement of what I used, but I use these cute little ramekins to mix the spice mixture and start with salt, pepper, garlic - use plenty, cheese, then lastly, tyme, not much tyme. I mix them together.

These are what the taters look like before they are washed and cleaned up.

You are not supposed to have to peel them, but my OCD can't allow me to eat a blemished food. Yeah I know, what a freak. Grapes are the hardest food to eat because I have to examine each grape for spots, split skin, wrinkled skin, too soft and last the part where it's removed from the stem can't have splits or wrinkles etc. It takes forever to eat grapes and they couldn't ever be eaten in the dark. I digress. Bottomline, I have to peel the parts that have blemished etc., but you don't. Then I cut them into large pieces.

I put them in a big Tupperware That's A Bowl and pour some olive oil on them, then toss until all the taters are coated. Then I take my spice mixture and pour some on, mix and toss, add more spice, mix and toss until I think they are plenty coated. Then I followup with more salt - they seem to need alot of salt for some reason.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I cooked mine with a tri-tip roast, but you can cook them on their own. They actually turn out better not in the same dish as the meat, but I was lazy and only wanted to wash one pan. They turn out better because sometimes there's too much grease. It depends on the meat. If you are cooking them alone, they take about 20-30 minutes. Right before I cook them, I pour a little melted butter on them and toss. You don't have too. Sissy. If you're cooking them with meat, add them no earlier than 45 minutes prior to meat done time. I stir and flip them over one or two times during the cooking so they don't stick and burn. Use your pampered chef rubber spatula, the one that can be at a million degree temperature or something like that, it's easier to turn them.

DONE! Perfect taters! I should have garnished my plate to look fancy for this post, but well, I didn't. Shut up. Seriously, these taste so AWESOME. They taste different than normal potatoes, having much more flavor. I don't know if it's the spice mixture, especially the garlic, but they are SO GOOD. Try them! They are easy and kids love them too!

If you try them, let me know what you thought of them! Bon Appetit!