Tony Jackman’s roast baby potato and garlic salad. (Photo: Tony Jackman) 
Look, it’s the new year. Ring the changes. In with the new. Clean slates all round. Even if nobody has any money. Well, nobody I know at any rate. Even the potatoes I’m buying at the moment are little ones.
Oh, sorry – happy new year. Did I forget that part? I’ll do better, I promise. Oh and I did make a resolution, by the way, but it has nothing to do with the fact that it’s the new year.
Even though I made it on the 1st of January. It’s not a new year’s resolution – it’s a new book resolution. I have a new book coming out – and I’m finally allowed to tell you that – and I’ve decided I need to trim down if I’m to be seen in public and speak at book launches and those larney book fairs that writers get invited to.
Which I will be doing, and I’m pretty excited about it. More details about all of that in due course, but before the book hits all the bookstores I need to walk at least 20km a week, or 80km a month, and in two months that will be 160km. Gosh it does look daunting seeing it in print. (I walked 4km on my first morning walk, 7.5km on my second.) Today’s was more modest: 6.5km. So maybe I’m heading for 200km in two months. My longest walks in the Cradock years were just under 3km so I’m off to a pretty good start. Now to keep it up.
And I’m being inventive in the kitchen, which I suppose comes with the feeling of reinvigoration that we try to adopt at this time of the year. I spied some baby potatoes and the family were doing a smoke braai so I said I’d bring a potato salad.
Here’s the thing: there’s no working hob in the new house as yet so I can’t boil anything. The solution was to cook the potatoes in an air fryer. So they’d be roasted. And I thought, well, let’s throw some whole garlic cloves in too, in their husks. This would create little hot parcels of squeezy garlic delight, little plops of molten pungent allium that could be added to a dressing. And that’s exactly what transpired.
As well as vinegar of some sort and olive oil, I felt it needed an additional element, so I toasted some white sesame seeds and stirred them into a dressing of prosecco vinegar, olive oil, smoked Maldon salt and black pepper.
I squeezed the garlic pulp into the dressing and stirred it in, then added the hot potatoes immediately after draining them, tossing them around while steam blasted acid-vinegar at my face. Quite exhilarating.
Tony’s roasted baby potato and garlic salad
Ingredients
About 24-28 small baby potatoes, unpeeeled
4 fat garlic cloves in their husks
1 scant Tbsp salt
3 or 4 Tbsp olive oil
For the dressing:
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp prosecco vinegar or quality vinegar of your choice (mine was a Checkers Forest and Feast product)
1 heaped tsp white sesame seeds
The pulp from the roasted garlic cloves
Smoked Maldon salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
Fennel fronds for garnish
Method
Rinse and dry the baby potatoes but don’t peel them.
Preheat an air fryer to 180°C.
In a bowl, stir the salt into the olive oil and add the unpeeled baby potatoes. Transfer to the preheated air fryer basket (I removed the rack). Add the whole garlic cloves in their husks.
Roast in the air fryer until tender and golden. They should be al dente but not overly soft. About 20 to 25 minutes, tossing often (just shake the basket).
Keep an eye on the garlic cloves while the potatoes are cooking. Remove them when you can feel that the pulp inside is soft, otherwise they may overcook and dry out.
Meanwhile, add the olive oil and vinegar to a bowl, and season with smoked salt and black pepper. Add the sesame seeds to another preheated air fryer or to a dry pan on the hob, and toast until lightly golden but not burnt. Stir them into the dressing. Squeeze in the garlic pulp from their husks.
When the potatoes are done, add them to the bowl with the dressing in it and toss vigorously so that the dressing sears into the hot potatoes. Let it cool a little, then put the bowl in the fridge for two to three hours, or until it’s time to eat.
And there you have it – roast salad. DM
Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award.
Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.
This dish is photographed in a bowl by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.