Salt-Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes with Caviar and Crème Fraîche

This recipe was published in 'Christmas 101, Celebrate the Holiday Season from Christmas to New Year’s (Rick Rodgers) - p35'.

When you bring out the caviar, your guests will know that you hold them in high regard. Good caviar is never inexpensive, so I reserve it for my best friends and very special occasions. The humble potato is somehow the perfect match for the elegant caviar. Here is one of the easiest, yet most satisfying, first courses around.

• Yukon gold potatoes are my first choice for this dish. They have a yellow-gold, buttery flesh that bakes beautifully. Small russet, Finn, or Maine potatoes are an alternative. Choose small-to-medium potatoes—this is supposed to be an appetizer, not a side dish to a steak.

• Baking the potatoes on a bed of kosher salt helps draw out the moisture from the potatoes, giving them an especially fluffy texture. If you can’t find kosher salt, use large-crystal sea salt, available at natural food stores and many supermarkets. Table salt will work, but not as well.

• The amount of caviar you use is up to you. Caviar is rich. While you will need at least 1 ounce per person, more than 2 ounces will be excessive. Check your bank account, and take it from there.

• Crème fraîche is easiest to describe as French sour cream, but it is more buttery and less tangy, and it won’t overpower the caviar like American sour cream might. It can be found in many supermarkets or specialty food stores with refrigerated food departments. It is easy to make your own, and I’ve included the recipe.

• Serve the crème fraîche or sour cream next to the potato, not dolloped on top. And sprinkle the chives around the potato and crème fraîche, not indiscriminately. That way each guest can decide how much to use—some people prefer to savor the clean, saline flavor of caviar with as few accoutrements as possible, but others like to gild the lily.

Makes 4 servings

It Wouldn’t Be the Holidays Without . . . Caviar
Rare, costly, sublime—caviar is all of these. There are few foods that state elegance more implicitly. But with the recent United Nations ban on the exportation of caviar from the Caspian Sea (the traditional source of the finest caviar), those of us who love the little fish eggs learned to look elsewhere.

Caviar became a holiday luxury because of its traditional processing cycle, with one of the main two cycles occurring in October. Allowing a month for processing and shipping, the caviar would arrive just in time for Thanksgiving. Caspian caviar was processed from sturgeon eggs; the variety of sturgeon (beluga, osetra, or sevruga) designated the size, color, and flavor of the eggs.

Today’s American caviar, obtained from sturgeon and other fish that are often farmed, is identified by the type of fish. At online caviar stores, you will find a few different kinds of American sturgeon caviar, each with its own flavor profile. I have more than one friend who swears by paddleback (a relative of sturgeon) caviar, comparing it to the best beluga. Whitefish caviar is golden, with crunchy, tiny eggs. Salmon caviar has large red “berries.” When I am feeling flush, I serve a couple of different caviars so guests can compare. Lumpfish caviar is the dyed black stuff at supermarkets—it’s not very good, and the dye can stain your lips. Don’t use it for a special holiday dish.

When serving caviar, simplicity is the key. If you want to serve it as an hors d’oeuvre, perhaps the best way is to spoon the caviar onto toasts. (Cut rounds from firm, white sandwich bread and toast lightly for an attractive canapé.) Or serve the caviar in a traditional caviar servoir, which will keep the eggs ice-cold. You can simulate the servoir by nestling a glass bowl in a larger bowl of ice. Caviar aficionados insist that metal spoons never touch caviar, for fear that the metal will transfer its flavor to the delicate morsels. They recommend bone, wood, or ivory spoons, but I use a Bakelite espresso spoon. No matter how you serve caviar, don’t overwhelm its saline flavor and pleasantly crunchy texture with lots of competing ingredients. If you want to extend it, offer small bowls of minced onion, crème fraîche or sour cream, separately chopped hardboiled egg yolks and whites, and, of course, thin wedges of lemon. But do not encourage your guests to look at the caviar as an upscale salad bar.

Caviar is very delicate and requires very careful handling and constant refrigeration; otherwise the flavor and texture will suffer. Find a trustworthy local purveyor, preferably one with a large turnover of product, or use a reliable source from the Web, such as www.lapetitepearle.com.

Ingredients:
• About 2 cups kosher salt or coarse sea salt, for baking
• 4 small Yukon gold potatoes (4 ounces each), scrubbed but not peeled, pierced a few times with a fork
• 4 to 8 ounces caviar, to taste
• ½ cup crème fraîche (see Note) or sour cream, at room temperature
• Chopped fresh chives, for garnish

Preparation:
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400°F. Spread enough salt over an 8-inch square baking dish to make a thick layer at least ½ inch deep. Nestle the potatoes in the salt. Bake until the potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes.

2. Brush the salt from the potatoes. Place each potato on a salad plate. Cut the potatoes lengthwise, then squeeze to open them up. Spoon equal amounts of caviar on each potato. Dollop crème fraîche alongside each potato. Sprinkle the chives on each plate around the potatoes and crème fraîche. Serve immediately.

Note:
To make your own crème fraîche, start at least 2 days before using. Fill a medium bowl with boiling water, let stand for 5 minutes, then drain and dry the bowl. Mix 1 cup heavy cream (not ultra-pasteurized) with 2 tablespoons buttermilk in the bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let stand in a warm place until thickened, at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours, depending on the temperature. Do not let the crème fraîche get too thick, as it will thicken further when refrigerated. Transfer to a jar or airtight container and refrigerate at least overnight. The crème fraîche can be kept, refrigerated, for up to 2 weeks.