Boulangère Potatoes

I am always looking for new ways to cook potatoes. I found this Boulangère Potatoes while flipping through The Food of France Cookbook and decided to give it a try because I had all the ingredients required for this recipe in my pantry.

I have not heard of or eaten Boulangère Potatoes before and I was curious how it would turn out. It's interesting because the potatoes are half cooked / baked in the stock. It soaks up all the flavour from the stock and is later baked to a crispy golden brown finish. It's a very good side dish to serve with roast and I can tell you that this recipe is a keeper!

Boulangère Potatoes Recipe (Serves 6)

(Adapted from The Food of France Cookbook)

Boulangère Potatoes

Ingredients

• 1 kg potatoes
• 1 large onion
• 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
• 500 ml hot chicken or vegetable stocks
• 25 g butter, cubed

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
2. Thinly slice the potatoes and onion with a mandolin or sharp knife. Build up alternate layers of potato and onion in a 20 x 10 cm deep dish, sprinkling parsley, salt and plenty of black pepper between each layer. Finish with a layer of potato. Pour the stock over the top and dot with butter.
3. Bake, covered with foil, on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and lightly press down on the potatoes to keep them submerged in the stock. Bake for another 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and the top golden brown. Serve piping hot.

Pommes Anna

Pommes Anna is a classic French dish of sliced, layered potatoes cooked in a very large amount of melted butter. Very simple yet delicious. This dish requires only two ingredients: potatoes and butter.

According to wikipedia: "The dish is generally credited with having been created during the time of Napoleon III by the chef Adolphe Dugléré, a pupil of Carême, when Dugléré was head chef at the Café Anglais, the leading Paris restaurant of the 19th century, where he reputedly named the dish for one of the grandes cocottes of the period. (There is disagreement for which of three possibilities the dish was named - the actress Anna Damiens, known as Anna Judic, Anna Deslions or Anna Untel.)"

I made this last weekend as a side dish to go with Gehaktballen (Dutch meatballs). I will post the gehaktballen recipe soon. Watch this space!

Pommes Anna Recipe

(Adapted from The Food of France)

Ingredients

• 850 g waxy potatoes
• 125 g clarified butter, melted

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 210C (415F). Grease a deep 20 cm round cake tin or ovenproof dish with melted butter.
2. Peel the potatoes and cut into very thin slices with a mandolin or a sharp knife. Lay the potato slices on paper towels and pat dry. Starting from the centre of the dish, overlap one-fifth of the potato slices over the base. Drizzle one-fifth of the butter over the top. Season well.
3. Repeat the layers four more times, drizzling the last bit of butter over the top of the potatoes. Cut a circle of greaseproof paper to fit over the top of the potato. Bake for about 1 hour, or until cooked and golden and a knife blades slices easily into the centre. Remove from the oven and leave for 5 minutes, then pour off any excess butter. Run a knife around the edge to loosen, then turn out onto a serving plate.

Potato Soufflés

I made these potato Soufflés to accompany the Poulet Roti - Frech Style Roast Chicken with Herb Butter from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. They are very easy, quick to make and versatile enough to suit any main meal.

Potato Soufflés Recipe (Serves 4)

(Recipe adapted from Donna Hay Magazine Aug/Sep 2008 issue)

Ingredients

• Melted butter, for brushing
• 1 kg sebago (starchy) potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 100 g butter
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper
• 60 g butter, extra
• 1/4 cup (35 g) plan (all-purpose) flour
• 1 cup (250 ml) milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 cup (80 g) finely grated Parmesan
• 5 egg whites

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C (390F). Brush 4 x 1 1/4 cup-capacity (310 ml) ovenproof dishes with melted butter and set aside.
2. Place the potato in a saucepan of cold salted water over high heat. Bring to the boil and cook for 20 minutes or until tender. Darin and return to the pan.
3. Roughly mash the potato, add the butter, salt and pepper and mash until smooth. Set aside.
4. Melt the extra butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until mixture is a sandy texture.
5. Gradually whisk in the milk and cook, stirring, for 3-5 minutes or until thick.
6. Place in a bowl with the mashed potato, egg yolks and Parmesan and mix to combine.
7. Place the egg whites in a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form. Fold through the potato mixture.
8. Spoon into the buttered dishes and place on a baking tray.
9. Cook for 25-30 minutes or until puffed and golden.
10. Serve immediately.

Asparagus Cappuccino

Asparagus Cappuccino - a frothy fantasy of asparagus soup. A winter warmer made from summery ingredients. Fancy a cuppa?

Asparagus Cappuccino Recipe (Serves 8)

(Adapted from ABC Delicious: Let's do Lunch)

Ingredients

• 25 g unsalted butter
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 sticks celery, chopped
• 1 baby fennel bulb, chopped
• 1 medium potato, chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped tarragon
• 375ml chicken stock
• 350 g (about 12 spears) asparagus, woody ends trimmed, chopped
• 300 ml thick cream.

Method

1. Heat the butter and oil; fry the onion, celery and fennel for 1 minute.
2. Add the potato, tarragon and stock and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Add the asparagus and cook for a further 5 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
4. Set aside to cool slightly then place in a blender and process until smooth.
5. Season well with salt and pepper and add the cream.
6. Just before serving reheat the soup gently, and you can blend with an electric hand blender to forth the soup. Pour into serving cups.

French Style Rabbit Stew with Baby Potatoes

I always love to cook in France. The markets, the fresh produce, the deli's, the butchers. It's an absolute delight to cook. I manage to get a fresh lapin and the dish turned out so well that Mr J and his father were fighting for the last piece of the lapin.

I still cook this rabbit at home. Unfortunately, I can only get frozen rabbit from my local butcher. Sometimes, I substitute it with chicken but Mr J and little Miss C would complain... "It's not the real bunny!"

French Style Rabbit Stew with Baby Potatoes (Lapin avec Pommes Parisienne) Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 rabbit (ask your butcher to cut it into 6 large pieces)
• 2 large onions, quartered
• 2 carrots, cut into large pieces
• 600g baby potatoes, skin on* (See note at bottom of post)
• 180g diced bacon
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 ripe tomatoes, quartered
• 4 tbsp all purpose flour
• extra flour for coating rabbit meat
• 6 tbsp oil or butter

Method

1. Coat rabbit in flour, dust off excess flour.
2. Add 2 tbsp of oil in frying pan. Pan fry rabbit in batches until brown on both sides. Remove from pan.
3. Clean the frying pan and add 2 tbsp of oil and pan fry the baby potatoes in batches until skin is browned. This is to add the rustic look on the potatoes. Remove potatoes from pan.
4. Add 2 tbsp oil in large pot, fry onions and bacon for a few minutes until onions are soft and bacon is browned. Add carrots and tomatoes and continue cooking for a minute.
5. Add flour, stirring until flour is brown and bubbling.
6. Add wine, keep stirring until the alcohol has evaporated.
7. Add chicken stock, bring to a boil on high heat. Return the rabbit to the pot, bring it back to a boil and reduce to a low heat, covered and simmer for 30 minutes.
8. Add potatoes, continue to simmer for another 30 minutes until potatoes are cooked.
9. Serve immediately.

Note: This dish is best served with crusty bread to soak up the delicious sauce. I substitute Pommes Parisienne (Parisian Potatoes) with baby potatoes.

Accordion Hasselback Potatoes

Named after the Stockholm restaurant that first introduced them in the 1700s, "Hasselback Potatoes", adopted as "Accordion Potatoes" by other European cuisines, provide an elegant alternative to baked potatoes.

I reckon the name "Accordion Potatoes" is better - more descriptive and free of any reminders of David Hasselhoff.

When properly made, the potato should have opened like the folds of an accordion into a fan shape.

This looks like a very fancy side dish, but is actually easy to do. Definitely a unique way to serve potatoes.

This Accordion Potato Recipe is a truly rustic side. Cut thinly like fans, these potatoes will crisp up but still have soft interiors. White or waxy potatoes keep their shape when roasted.

Let's hear what Nigella Lawson has said about Accordion / Hasselback Potatoes:

"I think of these Swedish roast potatoes as being rather like sauteed potatoes on the stem: each one is cut into think slices across almost right through, but not quite, and then roasted in buttery oil; as they cook, the potatoes fan out, like slightly fleshy crisps with their bottoms still attached. Traditionally, maincrop potatoes are used, but I love these made with new potatoes, too; in which case, Charlotte or Ratte, which are waxy-fleshed and taperingly oval in shape, are best. If you are using maincrop potatoes, avoid those huge floury monsters; moderately proportioned Cara potatoes, or similar, would be just fine for the job. The advantage of using new potatoes is that they take less time to cook, but the disadvantage is that they take longer to prepare. Finely slicing a lot of little potatoes is a much more fiddly exercise. But whatever size of potato you're using, the important thing is not to cut the whole way through. I find the easiest way of doing this is by putting the potato in a bowl of a wooden spoon while I slice it; the outer edges of the spoon - if you understand what I mean - prevent you being able to get your knife right through to the bottom of the potato which is cradled in it, so you couldn't botch the job even if you wanted to. The potato has to fit in the spoon for this to work, so use a larger one for maincrop potatoes, small one for new potatoes. It's as simple as that. If you want to peel the potatoes, do, but I find it isn't necessary. And if I buy those shinny, pebbly supermarket ones, I don't even scrub them."

Accordion / Hasselback Potatoes

(Adapted from Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer)

Ingredients

• 18 medium oval-shaped potatoes, about 125 g each, or 36 new potatoes, approx 60 g each (I used Kipfler Potatoes)
• 45 g butter
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• salt

Method

1. If you are using the larger potatoes, preheat the oven to 210C; for roasting new potatoes, preheat to 200C.
2. Put each potato, in turn, in the bowl of a wooden spoon, like you would carry an egg in an egg-and spoon race, and cut across at about 3mm intervals.
3. When you've cut them all, put the baking tin on the hob with the butter and oil and heat up till sizzling.
4. Turn the potatoes well, putting them in upside down (ie, cut side down) first, then the right side up, and spoon the fat over them.
5. Sprinkle each potato well with salt and put in the oven: cook the large potatoes for about an hour and 10 minutes, testing to see whether the flesh is soft (you may need another 10 minutes for this); 40 minutes should be fine for the new potatoes.
6. Transfer to a warmed plate, and serve.

Parisian Potatoes (Pommes Parisienne)

Parisian potatoes is one of the most elegant and simple ways to prepare potatoes.

I have always loved Pommes ParisiennesI have had them countless times in Europe and I have found a recipe that is so good that I now can cook them at home!

It's called Pommes Parisienne because the potatoes are cut into small balls using a Parisienne scoop (1" diameter).

Sometimes, I can't be bothered with scooping small balls from large potatoesInstead, I use new baby potatoes and they turn out equally well.

Parisian Potatoes (Pommes Parisienne) Recipe

(Adapted from SBS Food)

Ingredients

• 9 Desiree potatoes
• 3 small shallots
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 sprigs of thyme, leaves only
• 1 tbsp parsley - finely chopped
• Salt to taste

Method

1. Peel the potatoes.
2. Using a Parisienne scoop (or melon baller), scoop out balls of potato, approximately 1.5cm in diameter.
3. Place the potato balls in a pot and cover with cold water.
4. Bring to the boil and then drain, and add the shallots.
5. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and add potato balls, shaking the pan occasionally to ensure they are cooked evenly.
6. Once cooked, drain, then return to the pan, adding butter, thyme, parsley and salt

Ikea's Swedish Meatball Kebabs with Mustard Cream Sauce

This gives a whole new meaning to Meal On A Stick! We have a complete Meat and Three Veg here. Clever or bizarre? You decide.

I came across this interesting recipe in Ikea's cook book and couldn't resist to make it for dinner. It turned out to be a winner! Mr J gobbled down 4 sticks as soon as they left the grill.

Ikea's Swedish Meatball Kebabs with Mustard Cream Sauce Recipe

(Adapted from Ikea's Real Swedish Food Book)

Ingredients

• 24 Ikea's frozen meatballs "Köttbullar", thawed
• 6-8 cold cooked potatoes, thickly sliced
• 1 onion, cut into chunks
• 1 green capsicum (bell pepper), cut into 1 inch pieces
• 8 wooden skewers (soaked in cold water for 1-2 hours)

Dipping Sauce:

• 3 tbsp Swedish mustard "Senap"
• 100 ml cream

Method

• Thread meatballs, potato, onion and capsicum alternatively onto wooden skewers.
• Brush the kebabs with a little oil and brown them until the grill.
• To make the sauce: Whisk the mustard and cream together.
• Serve immediately.

Note: Please refer my earlier post Swedish Meatballs with Cream Sauce for Ikea's meatballs and cream sauce recipe.