OVERVIEW
For this dish, I took some delicious early new potatoes and cooked them in seawater – it’s perfectly salted, and the potatoes take on both the aroma and the romance of the sea – but if you’re not near the sea, salted tap water will do the trick! I then scattered them out on the grill and cooked them hard until they started to blister and crackle. I then doused them in very simple seaweed butter. The seaweed I love most is called dulse – it has a real affinity with smoke and has such a deep umami quality to it. I then finished it all off with a shower of Cornish Gouda.
SET UP YOUR EGG
Set up your EGG for direct cooking with a Cast Iron Searing Grid in place. Light your Big Green Egg with a target temperature of 220°C.
Place the potatoes in a large heavy pan and cover with clean sea water (no sand allowed!). Set the pan down over the heat and bring the potatoes up to the boil. Simmer for 4-5 minutes then drain and allow them steam off. Tip the cooked potatoes into a bowl, trickle over the olive oil, then add the rosemary sprigs and some black pepper.
SMOKE YOUR POTATOES
Remove the grid, add a few Premium Woodchunks to the fire, return the grid to the EGG and, when it’s nice and hot, arrange the potatoes over the top. Close the Dome and smoke the potatoes at about 200-220°C for 20-25 minutes, turning several times as they cook. The potatoes should be golden and tender, crisping and charred round the edges.
If you’re using fresh dulse, rinse it well. Use a sharp knife to ribbon it up into fine pieces. Place the butter in a large heavy pan set over the heat. When it’s bubbling away, stir the dulse ribbons (or dried flakes) into the butter and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Lift the hot smoky potatoes off the grid, drop them into the bubbling seaweed butter and carefully stir them before spooning out onto a serving plate. Grate over a liberal layer of the Cornish Gouda (or parmesan) and finish with some freshly chopped chives (or, if they’re in season, some three-cornered leek flowers or wild garlic flowers).
