Day one of this week was dedicated to potatoes and more potatoes! We made:
Pommes Duchess (Potatoes Duchesse)
Pommes Anglaise (Potatoes Anglaise)
Pommes Frites (French Fries)
Gratin Dauphinoise (Potatoes Dauphinoise) aka Potatoes Au Gratin
Gnocchi
The word “pommes” in French (the direct translation) means apple of the ground.
First up Potatoes Duchesse
2 # potatoes, mealy
1 tbl whole butter
Nutmeg TT
Salt and pepper TT
1 egg, whole
2-egg yolk
Clarified butter as needed
1. Peel and quarter potatoes. Place in cold salted water simmer until tender. Drain and immediately turn them out onto a sheet pan to allow the moisture to evaporate. Don’t leave in water after they are cooled.
2. WHILE STILL WARM, press the potatoes through food mill. Blend in butter, season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
3. Mix in eggs and yolks, blending well
4. Transfer the Duchesse mixture to a piping bag, fitted with a large star tip
Pipe single portion- sized spirals onto parchment paper. Brush with clarified butter and bake at 375 F until the edges are golden brown app 8-10 min. Serve immediately
While making these – it was easiest to mix everything together by hand, and then put it in the piping bag. It was surprisingly hard to make evenly rounded “blobs” on the parchment paper.
Our second dish was
Potatoes Anglasie
2 # Russet potatoes
2 oz butter, melted not browned
1 tbl parsley, minced
Salt and pepper TT
1. Peel and wash potatoes, place them in cold water
2. Tour née the potatoes
3. Place them in cold water, add salt, and bring to simmer – simmer until just tender, drain
4. At service time, toss in melted butter and parsley – adjust seasonings. Serve immediately
This dish was the most difficult because it entailed cutting the potatoes in those dang 7-sided shapes that are extremely unnatural… and HARD! I attempted, they were not very pretty but they slightly resemble the proper shape!
The THIRD dish was everyone’s favorite
FRENCH FRIES
2# potatoes, Russet works best
Deep fat as needed
Salt and white pepper
Optional garnish- whatever your mind can come up with!
1. Peel potatoes, if desired and cut into desired shape- All potatoes cooked in the same batch must be cut into the same size and shape
2. Blanch in a deep fryer @ 250 F until the potatoes just start to color. Approx 2-3 min
3. Remove and drain
4. Spread the blanched potatoes in a single layer on a sheet pan. Place in the refrigerator until cool
5. For service, increase fryer temp to 390 F and cook blanched potatoes until golden brown
6. Season to taste. Garnish if desired.
Another option for blanching is to put the potatoes until tender in salted water (starting them in cold water). Let cool, and then blanch with steps as above.
Checking the oil temperature.
The French fries were a little harder then I thought they would be. Even though the recipe above says that in the blanching stage they should get a little bit of color. – This is not what you want. When they are in the 250 F temp you want them to cook but not brown – the trick to this is test your temp of the oil after the fries go in because most likely the temp will have risen, so you will need to turn down your flame.
Ours didn’t come out quite cooked enough – they were cooked and still tasted delicious, however they were not as perfect as they could have been.
FUN FACT: French Fries are the number one way potatoes are prepared. Our nation LOVES fast food, so most farmers grow the same type of potato in order to serve the needs of our cravings. However more and more farmers are starting to grow different potatoes as more chefs are have rediscovered different variations.
The fourth dish was:
POTATOES DAUPHINOISE
3 # Russet potatoes, sliced
whole butter, as needed
salt and white pepper TT
1/8 tsp nutmeg, freshly ground
½ # gruyere
14 oz cream, heated
10 oz milk, heated with cream
3 egg yolks
1. Peel the potatoes and cut into very thin slices
2. Place a single layer of potatoes in a well buttered half size hotel pan
3. Season with salt, white pepper and small amount to nutmeg - Sprinkle on a thin layer of cheese and potatoes and repeat until all the potatoes and ¾ of the cheese are used
4. Heat the half and half to a simmer
5. Whisk the egg yolks together in a bowl, then gradually add the half and half…while constantly whisking
6. Pour the cream and egg mixture over the potatoes. Top with remaining cheese
7. Bake uncovered at 350 F until potatoes are tender and golden brown – 1.5 hrs. Let stand for 45 min before service. (This allows the cheese to set)
Before going in the oven.
PROBLEM: We did not cut our potatoes thin enough, so they didn’t cook quite enough, again still tasted good but not as fully cooked as should have been.
SOLUTION: cut potatoes to about 1/8 of an inch.
THOUGHTS- I think that this dish would be good with a different kind of cheese, I personally don’t like how gruyere melts…and maybe a little bit more seasoning – something to kick the spice up!
Last but not least (and actually one of my favorites at an Italian restaurant)
GNOCCHI (serves 4)
1 # potatoes, russet or Yukon – baked simmered or steamed in their skins until very tender
¼ # AP flour
1 ½ egg yolk
2 T salt
nutmeg – tiny pinch
1. “Rice” the hot potatoes. Make a well in the center
2. Add half the flour, salt, egg and rest of flour
3. Chop in quickly with a scraper. Adjust with flour to be almost sticky
4. Form one rope and cut gnocchi. Boil to test
5. If too soft, add more flour to the mixture, add salt if needed.
6. Form the rest
7. Freeze on parchment in a single layer after cooking
8. To cook, boil in salted water till they rise to the surface
9. Shock if not serving immediately, Drain
10. You can also sauté the cooked gnocchi – but only use a small amount of olive oil.
NOTES: We did a few things wrong – we tried sautéing before cooking them, so we actually ended up pan frying them… which was fortunately a delicious mistake! The ones that we did end up boiling in order to cook were a tad over done…still yummy though! I wish I had some tomato sauce to enjoy it with!
Also our gnocchi was a little bit to long…when cutting; try to make small uniform shapes.
To “RICE” a potato means run it through a giant garlic like press…since most people do not have this in their kitchen, we used a food mill. The basic idea is to mash the potatoes and end up without lumps… don’t use a food processor though because this usually comes out to gooey.
OTHER FUN FACTS:
The egg and the flour keep the potatoes together.
When you freeze the gnocchi – you only need to flash freeze them about 15 minutes.
Below is picture of some salt, white pepper, and nutmeg … these three spices were used through out the night, so it’s easiest to just grab and season!
They all look amazing! And again, I'm starving after reading your blog. The Potatoes Dauphinoise and I will never be together though. I will appreciate from here.
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