Fingerling potatoes

Every year at the Tri-County Farmers Market here in Las Vegas, Mark and Amy May of the May Family Farm offer outstanding heirloom potatoes grown on their La Liendre farm. Blue fleshed, white fleshed, yellow fleshed, and many of them new potatoes or fingerlings.

Tonight, sitting alongside a London broil and some butter steamed asparagus, those local heirloom fingerlings are what's for dinner.

Here is a simple and wonderful way to cook fresh fingerling or baby potatoes -

Put a half a stick of butter in the bottom of a dutch oven, along with a handful of fresh chopped herbs. What kind of herbs is up to you - not a bad idea to use something to tie in with your main dish, but hey, use what you want, it's your dinner. Rosemary is nice, so is sage.

Wash a pound or so of your fingerling potatoes. If some are more than a mouthful, cut them in half so they are just a nice bite. Melt the butter, throw in the baby spuds and a pinch of salt, and put the lid on. Put them on the stovetop under low heat. Stir them after 15 minutes. Declare 'em done in a half hour. They should be marvelously steamed in their own juices and those of the fresh herbs, buttery and melting, with a few spots of caramelization where they were on the bottom of the dutch oven.

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