Grilled Herb Potatoes

First week of September and the temperature broke. Eighty-eight one day, sixty-seven the next, the kind of swing that confuses the garden — the tomatoes don't know whether to keep pushing fruit or to start shutting down, the squash leaves yellowed in the cool snap, the corn bowed in a wind we hadn't been having. Oklahoma weather. You learn or you don't.

I cleaned out a row of bush beans that were done — pulled them, hung the dried pods to fully dry in the workshop, and turned the soil for the fall greens. Kale, collards, mustard greens, turnips. I planted them all in one afternoon, watered them in, and put a row cover on for the cool nights. The cover is an old tarp with grommets I welded into a frame three years ago. I keep it in the workshop loft. Bringing it out in early September is one of the markers of the year for me — the season I always think of as the bridge season, neither summer nor fall, but the work of preparing for the second half of the growing year.

Made a long-cook venison stew Wednesday for the cool weather. Cubed shoulder from a deer Caleb and I processed back in February, browned, deglazed with red wine, into the Dutch oven with stock and the last of the summer potatoes and a couple of carrots and a head of garlic and a sprig of rosemary from the herb bed. Two and a half hours at 275. The kitchen smelled like winter for the first time in months. Hannah came home and stood in the doorway and said: I'm not ready for this smell. I said: it's sixty-seven degrees outside, Hannah, the smell is on schedule. She laughed and took her boots off and we ate stew at the kitchen table and the house was right.

Caleb took a Saturday off — first one in eight weeks. He said over the phone: I'm taking a Saturday. Going fishing with Art. I said: good. He said: you're not mad? I said: why would I be mad. He said: I just felt like I should ask. I said: don't ask. Take. He said: okay. He went fishing with Art at Fort Gibson Lake and they caught nothing and he called me Saturday night and said it was a good day anyway. That sentence — a good day anyway — is one I haven't heard in his voice in fifteen years. Maybe twenty. The Caleb who could have a good day with no fish caught was a Caleb I hadn't met yet. I have met him now.

The potatoes that went into that stew Wednesday were the last ones out of the ground — I dug them the week before and they’ve been sitting in the workshop staying cool. Most went in with the venison, but I kept a few back, and with the rosemary still going strong in the herb bed and the grill sitting there in sixty-seven-degree air, it felt right to finish them the way the season started: outside, over heat, with something from the garden. This is the recipe that used them up and didn’t waste a single one.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 lbs small to medium potatoes, scrubbed and halved
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (for finishing)

Instructions

Parboil the potatoes. Place halved potatoes in a pot of cold salted water. Bring to a boil and cook for 8–10 minutes, until just tender but not falling apart. Drain and let steam dry for 5 minutes.
Make the herb oil. In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper. Add the drained potatoes and toss to coat thoroughly.
Preheat the grill. Heat a gas or charcoal grill to medium-high (about 400°F). If using a charcoal grill, let coals ash over before spreading.
Grill the potatoes. Place potatoes cut-side down on the grill grates. Cook undisturbed for 5–7 minutes until grill marks form and the cut face is golden. Flip and grill the skin side another 5 minutes, until tender through and slightly crisped.
Finish and serve. Transfer to a platter. Scatter fresh parsley over the top and taste for salt. Serve immediately while still hot from the grill.

Nutrition (per serving)

Grilled Herb Potatoes — The Last of the Summer Harvest, Sent Off Right