Horseradish-Basil Potatoes

I am in the more horseradish, the better camp. Where are you? I love the immediate/short lived hit of spice and heat rather than long term burning mouth from chili peppers. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can adjust the amount of horseradish to your liking.

My Aunt Jayne M made this for us before we were married which means it’s been around for a long time. Aunt Jayne and Uncle Bill used to have us to their home in New Jersey when we were dating – an alternative to our Philadehia suburbs (me) and Long Island (Ed) trips to see each other. I have a distant memory of a summer day and getting fresh basil from their neighbor’s garden. 

We were fortunate to receive our friends’ weekly CSA share at Rushton Farm (part of Willistown Conservation Trust) in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania when they were on vacation. Our bounty included all of the ingredients for an amazing ratatouille plus a few other items including some yellow potatoes. For this recipe I usually use smaller potatoes which I might leave whole or cut in half. The potatoes from Rushton were almost the size of baking potatoes so I cut them into roughly one inch pieces before steaming them. 

Once steamed, remove them from the pot. Melt some butter and olive oil in the same pot and add the potatoes back in. Coat them with the butter and olive oil mixture and then add horseradish to taste. My go-to is Kelchner Horseradish from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Ensure you’re using horseradish and not creamy horseradish sauce. Finish it off with some flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve directly from the pot or transfer the potatoes to a serving bowl. I prefer to serve this immediately but you could also serve it at room temperature. This dish pairs well with a nicely grilled steak.