Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Copycat: Johanna's wasabi and caviar potatoes

Last June, i.e. almost a year ago, I attended a blog birthday bash in London thrown by Johanna and Jeanne. We were treated to a line-up of wonderful fingerfood, and one of these was mini-potatoes topped with caviar & wasabi-cream. Johanna used small new season's potatoes, but as I'm now living much further up North, we cannot buy any new potatoes just yet. So instead I used something sold as 'Parisian potatoes' here - small, perfect potato balls.

We had some of our respective families over for a light late brunch on Saturday afternoon, and these were on offer. Went down a treat, may I say.

Johanna's wasabi and caviar potatoes (well, almost)
(Kartuliampsud wasabi ja kalamarjaga)



small potatoes
thick sour cream
wasabi paste
caviar or fish roe*
frehs chives, chopped

Boil the potatoes until almost tender, drain thoroughly and cool.
Mix sour cream and wasabi paste (about 0.5 tsp of wasabi to 2 Tbsp sour cream).
When potatoes are cooled, cut of a thin slice from the bottom (so they'd stand upright on your plate) and from the top (so that the topping would stay on the potato).
Top with a small dollop of wasabi cream and garnish with 'caviar'.
Serve on a bed of chopped chives.

* I actually used a vegetarian 'caviar', called meremari ('sea roe') in Estonian. It's made from nori/sea lettuce extract, salt and some other stuff, and makes a pretty decent-looking and so much cheaper garnish...

PS Thanks, YumSugar, for featuring this post at YumSugar and TasteSpotting. Much appreciated!

8 comments:

Chérie said...

That photo makes the food look absolutely scrumptious, but perhaps wasabi is an acquired taste I will never be able to fully enjoy.

Anonymous said...

This sounds great (and looks great too) - but I've never heard of 'vegetarian caviar' - I'll seek it out!

thepassionatecook said...

veggie caviar - whatever next? does it taste similar?
your picture looks great!

Maryam in Marrakesh said...

Oh this looks like absolute heaven!!!!!!

xox

Anonymous said...

I had bookmarked this recipe already...it came out so great here! :) I will try this when next I have friends over for some cocktails :)

Pille said...

Cherie - thnak you! If you don't like wasabi or the Japanese horseradish (Wasabia japonica), you can try plain horseradish (Armoracia rusticana), or even your favourite mustard.

Richard - you can certainly use the real thing here:)

Johanna - well, it tastes like salt with a faint whiff of sea. Not bad, actually, and the texture is pretty similar. As I said, I would have used proper fish roe, but the price of 'meremari' was too tempting, so I couldn't restist :)

Maryam in Marrakech - thank you!!

Joey - it'd be nice with some cocktails!

Anonymous said...

nice recipe!

Anonymous said...

Sounds great that the caviar is also an ingredients for the Japanese wasabi.Its taste good to look.If you want to buy http://1caviar.com/ buy caviars.
Thanks! Keep me updated on your posts.