Rock salt roasted potatoes

The first time I had a salt-roasted something was New Year's Eve. In Vegas. I was five weeks pregnant. If you ever find yourself five weeks pregnant and your head is constantly pounding and you never, not even for a minute, not feel like puking, I have some advice for you. Don't go to Vegas. And especially don't go there on the most raucous, outrageous, revelry-filled night of the year. You will want to punch all the yard-slamming, 'wooooo-hooooooing' guidos, tricked out hos, and chain-smoking, chain-wearing ballers you encounter. And that will be 99% of the people you encounter. I don't hate. I've definitely been there.

NYE 2009. That's me on the right. Sober and extremely annoyed.

Since I wasn't about to spend a small fortune at da club, I decided I could justify spending a small fortune at dinner. So my precious sister, her good bud and I got all dressed up and took ourselves out to B&B Ristorante. We had had one of the best meals of our lives at Babbo in NYC a few months prior and were hoping for a repeat performance. And we got it (minus the part where I could see aforementioned guidos stumble by just a few yards from our table). There were a few standouts during this meal: 1) Karen rushing off to buy me regular strength Tylenol mid-appetizer, 2) not really minding that I couldn't drink champagne (me!? what!??), and 3) the beet salad that I stole a few bites of from Karen's sweet friend. I like beets. They're pretty great. But ohmygoodness these beets were insane. I asked the server about them and expected to hear the usual reasons (butter, lots of olive oil, crack), but I was blown away when she said they were salt roasted. I'd never heard of this method of prep before, and I was determined to repeat it immediately.

Fast forward a year and a half. I had forgotten about my salty beet resolution until dinner the other night when I found myself with a bag of tiny red potatoes and a big 'ol box of rock salt. This rock salt was used once to make the biggest homemade ice cream disaster. I had the highest of hopes for homemade ice cream, and I hope to revisit this at some point. Since I'm still traumatized from the sticky mess cleanup, the rock salt must find another purpose.

I haven't researched why salt works magic on veggies. And I'm guessing that any vegetable with a skin would work well with this. My guess is that the salt pulls moisture from the skin, but that the skin insulates and protects the tender flesh of the vegetable. Do you know? Have you tried this with other things? Leave me a comment, if so! These potatoes were miraculously light and fluffy, but perfectly crisp and immaculately salty on the outside. I loved this, and I can't wait to try it out on more stuff.


Rock salt roasted potatoes
Small potatoes (red, fingerling, etc.)
Olive oil
Rock salt or any other coarse salt

Rub the outside of potatoes with a little olive oil and place in a baking dish. Pour salt around the potatoes so that just a bit of the skin pokes out. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes to an hour, or until a knife inserted into the potatoes meets little resistance. Remove from the oven, and brush the salt off. I halved mine and dabbed a bit of butter on top. Enjoy!