Cartofi noi cu marar

“New potatoes with dill”

I love new potatoes and I have cooked them numerous times in the last month since they first appeared on the market stalls in Obor. Sadly, I forgot to take any pictures so this time I was determined to do so before they grow too big. Already I saw that many of them were starting to resemble their fully-grown brothers but I managed to find a kilogram of smallish ones so perhaps this should be called ‘newish potatoes with dill’. Personally, I love the tiny little ones that you can pop into your mouth in one go. One dish I’ve cooked a couple of times this spring is a version of cartofi taranesti (peasant potatoes) but using typical spring ingredients (new potatoes, spring onions, spring garlic, fresh dill). I haven’t included it as I don’t know if it’s a typical Romanian dish, but it certainly showcases some nice Romanian market ingredients and is worth cooking.

This recipe comes from Radu Anton Roman’s tome. If you can’t get soured milk where you are, you can make it yourself (search online) or you could just use some plain yogurt or some sour cream, or even regular cream if you don’t mind it a bit sweeter in flavour.

Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 2 portions

Ingredients:

500g of new potatoes

A spring of dill (about 2 tablespoons when chopped)

A large knob of butter

50ml of ‘lapte batut’ (soured milk)

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Rinse any mud off the new potatoes, put them in a saucepan of cold water and bring to the boil. Boil them until a skewer or knifepoint penetrates them easily but don’t over-boil them so that they fall apart. Normally about 15 minutes works. When you judge them to be done, drain them and leave them to steam dry for a minute or two.

2. While they are boiling, finely chop the dill and beat the soured milk with a few good pinches of salt.

3. Heat the butter in a large pan and brown off the potatoes for about 5-6 minutes until golden.

4. Take off the heat, sprinkle on the dill, and pour on the soured milk. Serve hot.