Moscow Potatoes

Hello, friends, we are back from our hols – more to come about that later!  Never have I agonised over a post as much as I have over this one.  Not because these Moscow Potatoes weren’t fabulous.  They were delicious and tasted like something special even though they are made from only four ingredients! My dilemma was about whether this might be seen as me taking a pro-Russian stance on wider world events. So just to be really clear, this is not a political statement, this is a food blog.

The recipe for Moscow Potatoes comes from the February / March 1990 edition of Vogue Entertaining which is the same magazine that brought us the flowery delights of a rose petal salad.  For this one, we are turning away from flowers and turning the usually humble spud into a ritzy item.  It’s the culinary version of the plain girl taking off her glasses and becoming a glamour puss.

I had some of the salmon caviar left over from making the Oysters with Caviar so  it made sense to give the Moscow Potatoes a try.  We had these as a little starter before our New Year’s Day dinner of Tomahawk Steak with a coffee spice rub and a caesar style wedge salad.  This was a delightful way to welcome in 2023!  I served these on a plate meant for deviled eggs and I think they looked adorable! You will see I left some of the potatoes un-caviared in case people did not like it.  In the end, I had to add some of the gorgeous salmon caviar pearls to the plain ones as no one wanted them!

Moscow Potatoes – The Article

The recipe for Moscow Potatoes comes from a feature called “Fed in The Clouds” .  It is about Alan and Elizabeth Crompton Batts who are as posh as they sound.  He was a food writer, and chef and owned a PR company that was involved with a LOT of very famous London restaurants including Chez Nico,  Tamarind, and Christopher’s.  He was also at one point the manager of The Psychedelic Furs whose song Pretty in Pink is in my Top Ten of best-ever songs.  Her family used to own The Ivy. In short, these two are food royalty!

Although I had never heard of either Alan or Elizabeth Crompton Batts before starting this post, and coming into this wanting to be a bit mocking about the whole 80s excess of it all, I was actually very sad to read that Alan Crompton Batts passed away in 2004 at only 50 years old.  This meant at the time of this article in 1990, he was 36 and had already achieved everything I mentioned before!  This took my breath away.  What an absolute powerhouse!

Their menu is also amazing and I”m sure we will see more from the Crompton Batts’ in future posts.

In the meantime though, let’s find out how to make Moscow Potatoes!

Moscow Potatoes – The Recipe

You will see from the pictures that I swapped out the mint for some chives.  I think you can go your own way on this.  Dill would also be amazing.

Have a great week!