Honey & chilli noisettes
Noisette is French for ‘hazelnut’ and basically refers to the way we cut and cook the potatoes in this dish – into hazelnut shapes that are coated in browned butter to give a fragnant nuttiness. They are also known as ‘fried potato balls’, but that just doesn’t sound as cute, to be honest. I personally like to describe them as golden nuggets because they really start to glisten once frying in that glorious butter. Get these honey & chilli noisettes in your mouth immediately.
How to get those lovely round balls?
For those spherical beauties, I like to use a melon baller as it’s the quickest and simplest way to achieve the shape. You usually get around 5 balls per potato. With the remaining potato, this can be used for mash, stews, soups etc, but whatever you do, don’t let it go to waste! You could even crisp the spare bits up in an air fryer with a little oil and salt. Same with the potato peels, they crisp up beautifully and make a delicious snack.
More noisettes please
For something a little simpler (or milder) to start with, why not try my Pommes noisettes if you have a more classic recipe. No hint of spice but still a whole buttery boatload of flavour. I can’t decide which recipe I like more tbh.
Is this recipe in your book?
It absolutely is! This recipe is an exclusive from The Potato Book. I know, I’m spoiling you. And, if you like what you see (and there are another nine recipes from the book hiding on my website), you can grab your copy of The Potato Book and dive into full potato obsession mode.
Trust me, once you make just a couple of these potato recipes, there’s no going back to “normal” potatoes ever again. No bog standard roasties, lumpy mash or burnt chips. It’s pure beige heaven with a side of butter, garlic and usually a bit of bacon or cheese. What more could you possibly want? Get youself a little treat or gift someone the perfect recipe book.
Honey & chilli noisettes
By Poppy Cooks
https://www.poppycooks.com/recipes/honey-chilli-noisettes/
Ingredients
- 4 Maris Piper potatoes, peeled
- 50g butter
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
- 2 tablespoons runny honey
- Flaky salt, to serve
Metric
Imperial
Instructions
- Using a 25mm melon baller, cut balls from your potatoes. You should get about 5 balls per potato.
- Get your balls in a saucepan of heavily salted, cold water. Place the pan over a high heat, bring the water to the boil, then lower the heat and gently boil the balls for about 5-7 minutes, until falling off the tip of a knife. Don't let them get too soft as you don't want them to lose their shape and go mushy. Drain the balls in a colander and leave to steam-dry for 5-10 minutes.
- Place a frying pan over a medium heat and add the butter. Once it has melted and turned frothy, add the potato balls and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring to turn the potatoes throughout, until the butter has turned brown. Add the garlic, chilli and honey and leave to cook for another 5 minutes or so, until the potatoes are golden all over and you can smell the nuttiness.
- Carefully tip the balls into a serving dish with the butter from the pan, and sprinkle with flaky salt, to serve.