I like trying innovative things in the kitchen, but I also appreciate the classics . . . especially the simple ones.  This month's issue of Gourmet has a collection of "Living Legends" recipes: "groundbreaking dishes" that "changed the way America ate," including the recipe for these braised fingerling potato coins.  I was reading the magazine with my morning coffee Saturday, then jumped on my bike and headed to the 14th & U farmers market, where I saw that my friends from Mountain View Farm had some fingerlings.  So I bought them and tried the recipe.  The recipe doesn't lie—the braising coaxes a delicious starchy, buttery pan sauce out of the potatoes.  I recommend more salt than the recipe calls for but, otherwise, these potatoes rock.

I topped the potatoes with lovage, rather than the parsley that the recipe calls for . . . because I have lovage that I picked up at the Dupont Circle farmers market from Quaker Valley Orchards on Sunday, as a substitute for celery for a dish I'll blog about later this week.  It's the first time I've eaten lovage and it took me awhile to put my finger on its very distinctive flavor.  Then it hit me.  To me, it tastes a great deal like cardamom.  I love it, love it, love it.  And I love these potatoes.  Thanks Gourmet.