Grilled Potatoes

I tend to believe that potatoes are one of the best vegetables for grilling. It is a highly versatile veggie that can be cooked many different ways and is very forgiving to the cook.

While other veggies require high degrees of "grilling attention", as long as you don't directly burn the potatoes... you are good to go. For the purposes of this article, I am going to share my gold standard, never-fail approach to the perfect grilled potato.

First and most important ingredient...the potato. There are many different types but for grilling you want what are called "new potatoes." These are the smaller and lower in starch varieties such as fingerlings, red skinned, and purple Peruvians. I generally aim to purchase potatoes that are all around the size of golf balls. Basically something that is no more than two bites to finish. The pre-packed mixes of mini potatoes work perfect.

The technique is very easy. Scrub and clean the potatoes. After they are clean, place them in a zip lock bag adding enough olive oil, salt and pepper to coat.

Get the grill nice and hot - around 500 degrees. Place the potatoes on the grilling surface and leave the grill cover open - you need to see what is going on. Carefully, rotate the potatoes to make sure that the sides don't burn but start to get lightly charred. When all sides have been directly exposed to the heat, remove the potatoes from the grilling surface and place them on the upper warming rack to finish cooking.

Once on the warming rack, you can close the grill or continue grilling other items with the grill open. The heat will continue to cook the potatoes. Because of their size they will cook relatively fast. The potatoes are done when they are knife soft. The skin should be crisp and a tad smoky with soft inside.

Remove from the heat, place in a bowl. Immediately top the potatoes with a generous sprinkle of a nice course finishing salt.

Locally, Trader Joe's sells the Hawaiian pink and I believe they still have the black lava sea salt which I highly recommend. I have also noticed that the larger grocers are carrying similar products in the spice aisle - such as course gray sea salt.