Roasted Batatinhas

The other afternoon, after finishing my homework (of course), i was wandering around the apartment at around dinner-time, as one does, feeling kind of hungry when i realized that my mom was still at work and that i should make something to go with the meat we were going to have for dinner. A few days before i had bought some small Portuguese potatoes, called batatinhas in Portuguese, at our fruit and veg store. I decided to try to make a recipe that we got from our friend Catherine and that is definitely one of my favourite ways of making potatoes. It's also super easy and you don't need to watch them that much while they cook. So, the ingredients are:

However many small potatoes (the really cute small ones) you want
However many garlic cloves you want (depending really on how much you like eating roasted garlic)
Some herbs (i used "Herbes de Provence" but im sure you can experiment with others)
Salt and pepper (i used rock salt but normal salt works just fine)
A bit of olive oil

If this sounds kind of vague, it's because it is pretty vague, but trust me, it works out just fine.

First off you're going to want to clean the potatoes, but them in a colander and put the colander in the sink. Then just run water over them and scrub off any dirt or other such things. (This picture also allows you to see the size the potatoes should be, i think in English they're sometimes referred to as new potatoes..)



Once you are done with this, get some garlic cloves ready, don't peal them though! Just leave them in their skin so that they will roast along with the potatoes. Next get out some sort of pot, depending really on how many potatoes you are making, make sure you chose a pot that has a top (palindrome anyone?). Put a bit, and really, just a bit, of oil in the bottom of the pot, just enough to make a really thin layer at the bottom of the pot. Throw in all the potatoes and garlic cloves, along with the herbs (amount of herbs really just depends on how herb-y you like your food) and some (rock)salt and pepper (again, just use your judgment on how much to use). Don't dry the potatoes before you put them in the pot, they should still be wet when you start to cook them.



Put the top on and cook them on a low fire. Depending on the size of the potatoes, cook them for 40 minutes to an hour, stirring every once in a while (about 5-10 minutes). I recommend starting to test them by putting a fork through a potato starting at around 40 minutes. Once they're done just put them in a bowl and eat them on up. We usually have them with roast beef or magret de canard when we have guests over but they taste good with basically anything. You can also munch up the roasted garlic.



Bowie either doesn't like roasted potatoes or was too busy sleeping or chasing his imaginary friends around the house (if you know Bowie, you know exactly what im referring to...)

Cheers!