Potatoes boiled in garlic cream

There’s so much boiled food in Indigenous cuisine — it’s one of the main food preparation techniques. This dish is a fancy version of so much of the simple, boiled food that our communities eat, yet it’s an example of how truly good simple can be.

Credit: House of Anansi Press / Cathryn Sprague

• serves

  4-6

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

The silky potatoes bathed in sweet and garlic-tinted cream could be a meal on their own. Or serve them with a crispy, pan-fried fish fillet or with a bison pot roast or a simple roast chicken. If you decide to reserve the warm cream leftover from cooking the potatoes, it’s great over seafood or pasta.

Ingredients

• 4 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled or unpeeled, quartered (see Note)
• ½ medium white onion, thinly sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 cups (500 ml) whipping (35%) cream
• 1 cup (250 ml) half-and-half (10%) cream (see Note)
• 1 cup (250 ml) good-quality chicken broth
• Salt, to taste
• ¼ cup finely chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

1. In a large pot, combine the potatoes, onion, garlic, whipping cream, half-and-half and broth. Bring to a simmer over medium heat — watch it carefully: it will make a mess if it boils over — and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes (when a toothpick or sharp knife slide in and out of the flesh cleanly, you know they are ready).
2. Strain the cooked potatoes, reserving the warm garlic cream for another use, and transfer to a bowl. Season with salt and the chopped parsley. Serve steaming hot.

Notes

• You can substitute bintje or other creamy-white fleshed general purpose potatoes. 

• A mixture of equal parts full cream milk and cream can be used instead of half-and-half. 

Recipe and image from Tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine (House of Anansi Press, 2019). 

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

The silky potatoes bathed in sweet and garlic-tinted cream could be a meal on their own. Or serve them with a crispy, pan-fried fish fillet or with a bison pot roast or a simple roast chicken. If you decide to reserve the warm cream leftover from cooking the potatoes, it’s great over seafood or pasta.