Indian-ish Little Baked Potatoes

 

Indian-ish little baked potatoes 

From  the NYT recipe by Priya Krishna and Ritu Krishna 

1 pound small new potatoes or baby red potatoes.

1.   Wash and scrub the potatoes.  Bake at  425 degrees (200 Celcius in Japan) for about 45 minutes or until tender.  Cool slightly, just enough so that you can handle the potatoes.  The skins will be papery and dry.  

2.  Without cutting all the way through to the bottom, slice each potato lengthwise and crosswise.  Use your hands to squeeze the potatoes (pushing in and down so that the four sections rise and pull apart like a blooming flower).  

3.  Sprinkle the top of each potato with pinches of: 

• salt (tiny dash)
• butter (tiny dab) 
• sour cream (dab) 
• minced ginger (trust me, it's amazing!) 
• finely diced red onion
• diced serrano chilies (or a drop or two of Cholula) 
• a good sprinkling of CHAAT MASALA (a spice blend) 
• garnish with chopped cilantro. 

These are so pretty and were a huge hit with Dad.  Next time I will use a bit more of the chaat masala - maybe sprinkling a little right after the butter.  The recipe didn't call for butter, but I added it.  The potatoes we have in Japan are larger than the bite-sized potatoes the recipe calls for.  Three potatoes on a plate, with our usual salmon, for a completely different flavor profile.  

xo

Mom