Rosemary Potatoes

Two new pictures added and some slight text editing 6-30-22 

"Rosemary Potatoes" are fairly common in Germany and Austria (in German they are "Rosmarinkartoffeln"), maybe too in the other German speaking areas of Europe. There are many variations in recipes, most of which call for the skins to be removed from the potatoes. I choose to leave the skins on and to coat the cut sides of the potato halves with breadcrumbs, and the potato halves are then fried until nicely browned. The seasonings are added later in the cooking process to prevent burning. I love both garlic and rosemary, so these potatoes are a favorite of mine.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt (according to your taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chopped rosemary
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
fine breadcrumbs (see in instructions below)

Put potatoes into a pan with sufficient water to cover them. Simmer potatoes until softened, but not mushy. Drain and let the potatoes dry and cool a bit. In the meantime, heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cut the potatoes in half and put them, cut side down, into a plate or bowl with bread crumbs. Put the potatoes into the heated oil in the skillet, breadcrumb side down. Let the breadcrumbs brown lightly, turn them over and then add dabs of butter to the skillet, let it melt. Scatter the garlic and chopped rosemary into the potatoes. Reduce heat slightly. Add the salt and pepper and let cook just a minute or so longer, stirring the garlic and rosemary around to prevent burning and to mix the rosemary and garlic flavors into the butter/oil to season it.

WORD HISTORY:
Morning-This word goes back to Indo European "merek/merk," which had the notion, "to flicker, to sparkle." This gave its Old Germanic offspring, "murganaz," which meant, "morning," in the sense, "beginning of daylight, time around sunrise," but also, "tomorrow," from the idea of, "the next sunrise." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "morgen," with the same general meanings. The "g" sound died out in English, which left the contracted form, "morn." This was then given the "ing" suffix, but English is the only Germanic language to have added this suffix. "We awake and say, 'Good morning.' " Just to show the close relationship of English with German, the West Germanic cousin of English, here is the same sentence in standard German: "Wir erwaken und sagen, 'Guten Morgen.' " ("Say" once also had a "g," as its German cousin still does.) The other Germanic languages have: German "Morgen," Low German Saxon "Morgen," West Frisian "moarn," Dutch "morgen," Danish "morgen," Icelandic "morgunn," Norwegian "morgen," Swedish "morgon."