Beverly Hills Potatoes with Pesto Butter
I’m cooking on The Today show on Wednesday.
I wish I was cool enough to have a witty lead in and build up to the exciting news, but I’m just going to digitally blurt it out:
I’m cooking on The Today Show, in New York, on Wednesday. I’ll be battling it out with two other cooks in The Joyful Cook-off for supreme Healthy One Pot Meal domination, although the big prize is merely bragging rights. With a free trip to New York, and the opportunity to cook on The Today show, I feel like I’ve already won.
Back to these potatoes, that will forever be known as Beverly Hills potatoes. I went to Bazaar in Beverly Hills with a friend for her birthday a few months ago. The food was beautiful, intricate and far beyond my culinary abilities. Then there were these lovely and delicious miniature potatoes that had been salt roasted, served on tooth picks with a side of pesto butter. It’s a good thing I choose to fall in love with the one thing I could actually duplicate at home, although there were these fantastic Japanese Taco’s I’ll need to stop thinking about because I’ll never be able to figure out how to make those.
The hardest thing about this dish is finding these miniature potatoes, although I have seen them in several markets. They are far smaller that the baby red potatoes that you might think of, closer to the size of large grapes. I’ve seen them called "teeny tiny potatoes" and "miniature potatoes," either way, they are really small.
Now I’m hooked. I’ve served them as a side dish, and also put toothpicks in the and served them as an appetizer.
And this is what happens when I try to photograph anything while tater is awake. She was laying down the potatoes with toothpicks in them saying, "Potatoes are tired boys."
She’s the best.
Ingredients
- 12 ounces Belgian ale, wheat beer, or brown ale
- ¼ cup kosher salt
- 2 tbs white sugar
- 1 tbs whole cloves
- 2 cups ice
- 2 Cornish game hens (1.75 to 2 lbs each)
- 1 large lemon
- 2 tbs melted butter
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 1 habanero chili
- 2 cara cara oranges, juiced (about 1 cup)
- 1 tbs corn starch
- 1 tbs white sugar
- ¼ cup wheat beer
- 1 tbs white vinegar
- 1 tbs red chili flakes
Directions
- In a pot over medium high heat, add the wheat beer, salt, sugar and cloves. Cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar and salt have dissolved, remove from heat. Add the ice, stir until dissolved.
- Rinse the game hens inside and out, place together in a large bowl. Pour the brine over the hens, refrigerate for 6 to 12 hours.
- Preheat oven to 425.
- Remove hens from brine, rinse thoroughly and pat dry.
- Place in a roasting rack of a roasting pan or on a wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet. Cut lemon into quarters. Place one quarter into each hen, place the remaining two in the roasting pan beneath the hens.
- In a small bowl combine melted butter, salt and pepper.
- Brush the hens liberally with the butter mixture.
- Roast at 425 for 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165.
- While the hens are roasting, make the sauce. Using gloves remove the seeds from the habanero, discard seeds and stem, chop remaining pepper.
- Add habanero, orange juice, cornstarch and white sugar to a saucepan over high heat, whisk frequently until mixture has thickened. Remove from heat, add beer and vinegar, bring to a boil just until re-thickened, stir in about half (1-2 tsp) of the 1 tbs chili flakes. Taste sauce, add additional red chili flakes for a higher level of heat.
- Serve the orange chili sauce in small sauce dishes along side the hens for dipping.
Notes
This recipe makes an abundance of sauce, enough for 4 to 6 servings. If you make more Game Hens, you won't need to double the sauce unless you make 8 or more servings. If you are worried about the heat not being high enough, reserve some of the seeds and add them into the sauce as needed.
Comments
Averie @ Averie Cooks May 13, 2013 um 2:39 am
MAJOR Congrats!!!!!! I would be a total nervous wreck! You seem like you’re cool as a cucumber and that is so awesome! Cannot wait to set my DVR & see you! 🙂
Dolores June 20, 2013 um 6:57 pm
We always called them "new potatoes". Does that ring a bell with anyone?
D
Sarah May 13, 2013 um 3:06 am
How exciting! Good luck on the show! Plus these taters look amazing.
Jen @ Savory Simple May 13, 2013 um 6:11 am
I am so excited for you! I will be watching 🙂
Anna @ Crunchy Creamy Sweet May 13, 2013 um 6:56 am
WOOOHIOOOOO!!! This is so exciting! I’ll be watching and screaming to my Hubs: I read her blog!! 🙂 These potatoes sounds fabulous and the pic of your little girl is just so precious!!
claire (@realnutritioncg) May 13, 2013 um 7:05 am
Well, you know you are going to win, right? Okay good
addie | culicurious May 13, 2013 um 9:38 am
simple and delicious – always a winning combo!:)
I know you’ll kick a$$ on the Today Show! Congrats on the opportunity!
Gerry @ foodness gracious May 13, 2013 um 10:04 am
Score for you!! I hope you get to see some of the city too. Your daughters right, Sometimes I feel like a toothpicked potato 🙂
SigourneyBeaver May 13, 2013 um 10:52 am
Actually, these are incredibly easy to grow in a small trash can. They seem to have their growth a little stunted in the confine space. Nice to see someone prepare them in a different manner. I’ll give it a whirl! Thanks.
RavieNomNoms May 13, 2013 um 11:00 am
These look amazing!! SO much fun!
Nicole @ Young, Broke and Hungry May 13, 2013 um 11:11 am
How exciting you get to be on the Today Show! And this potatoes look so simple but packed with flavor. My favorite kind of recipe.
Chung-Ah | Damn Delicious May 13, 2013 um 11:43 am
Congrats, Jackie! Have a great time in New York. You know you’re totally going to rock it.
And these potatoes – YUM! I think I just found tonight’s dinner.
Bree {Skinny Mommy} May 13, 2013 um 2:57 pm
Are you kidding me?! That’s awesome! Do you know what time your segment is?
Cassie | Bake Your Day May 13, 2013 um 4:14 pm
I am so excited for you and can’t wait to hear all about it. I love the sound of these potatoes!
Julie @ Table for Two May 13, 2013 um 4:34 pm
so excited for you!! i can’t wait to see the segment!!
ashley – baker by nature May 13, 2013 um 6:30 pm
You’re going to be in my city?! Yay! Email me if you’re going to have any free time!!!
And congrats – this is so awesome, Jackie!
Laurie {SimplyScratch} May 14, 2013 um 5:22 am
ohhhh how exciting Jackie!! Good for you girl! And these potatoes are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen… at first I thought they were grapes! Gorgeous, gorgeous shots!
Hannah @ CleanEatingVeggieGirl May 14, 2013 um 2:23 pm
How awesome!! Congrats and good luck!! 🙂
legume 2 | Pearltrees May 15, 2013 um 7:42 am
[…] Beverly Hills Potatoes with Pesto Butter […]
Sara May 15, 2013 um 10:44 am
Maggie called me and I turned it on just in time- holy crap! Congrats! 😀
Sheila May 15, 2013 um 8:04 pm
Congratulations Jackie! Chris let me see your clip this morning when he got to work, leaving out the fact that you won! Woo Hoo so proud of you! Way to go girlfriend. Can’t wait for you to make a cookbook… 🙂
Allie June 18, 2013 um 6:14 pm
Those are called "new potatoes." They’re harvested very early in the season. Where I grew up, they are boiled in brine and served with melted butter as salt potatoes- heaven! (The skins must be whole and unpricked for this treatment, or they will absorb so much salt they become inedible.)
Lorri Wessel July 7, 2013 um 4:23 am
These have been known in Vermont for years and years as pig potatoes because they were the smallest and not worth picking up to eat so they were fed to the pigs. Oh if our ancestors only knew what they had missed. The salt cooking does sound interesting but to me would be way to much salt on them in the end. We love them deep fried they end up tasting like miniature backed potatoes.
Jackie July 7, 2013 um 9:28 am
Salt toasting is a really old technique. The salt forms a hard crust and just chips away. It really doesn’t make them overly salty. I use it for fish too, beautiful flavor.
It’s funny how everyone in different parts of the world has different names for these little potatoes. I love them but they are hard to come by on the West coast!
Connie G. February 23, 2015 um 8:25 am
I found these mult-colored mini potatoes @ Tom Thumb’s in Mesquite(near Dallas),Texas.I put them in beef stew and they were delicious.