I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it here before, but I’m a HUGE potato addict. French fries are literally my favorite food, and I pick entrees at restaurants based on whether or not they come with potatoes on the side. Unfortunately my forays into cooking potatoes at home have been relatively limited in relation to how much I LOVE them, in the past I’ve mostly stuck to home fries or baked potatoes when making them at home. Nothing beats a great baked potato with some butter and pepper, IMO!
A few weeks ago, during Passover, a friend who was “keeping” came over for dinner, and I had to scramble to make something presentable for him that didn’t break any of the rules. I ended up making Smitten Kitchen’s Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic and this potato side from Anne Burrell’s show. (aside: my SK fandom status is through the roof at this point, I only started watching Burrell’s show because Deb recommended it!!)
“Pommes Anne” is a pretty classic dish that I’d previously come across in The Joy of Cooking, it involves slicing potatoes and layering them in a frying pan, then cooking the cake in the oven. A mandolin is absolutely crucial for this recipe, as slicing thin slices of potatoes is a really big PITA without one. Anne recommends this Japanese model (Amazon link) on the show, but I have a generic white one I got at Target that works well enough. Had I seen the recommended model for sale I would have bought it, but I bought the cheapest one I found when I went out looking . . . and anyway Target isn’t the place to go for the Japanese model of anything, probably!
Anyway, this recipe is Anne Burrell’s version of the classic, which she calls Pommes Chef Anne (it makes sense that if you’re a chef and there’s a recipe with your name on it, you HAVE to make it!). It’s not hard to make but it does take a while to slice and lay out all those potato pieces nicely in the frying pan, so definitely set aside some time at the beginning when you decide to make this for yourself (and you totally should!). The ingredients list couldn’t be easier (aside from the mandolin!), just potatoes, olive oil, and some cheese! You definitely want to work as quickly as possible when you’re slicing and laying out the potatoes to keep them from turning brown — I found that the second time I made this dish I was significantly faster and more efficient at this point, so practice definitely helps in this case.
I found it nice that all the work is done up-front and then you stick it in the oven and forget about it while you finish dinner. It does require flipping half-way through, and that can definitely be nerve-wracking, but I didn’t have trouble with that step at all. It probably helps that I have no fear of burns though, because our guest who anxiously watched me do it seemed really amazed that it worked out so well!
The only other tip I have for you is to slice the potatoes as thinly as you can — I had a few that got through thicker and I used them anyway, and my cake split apart at that point because the potatoes didn’t stick together well at that point. Other than that, hop to it! It’s easy and delicious!
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Found you because of Twitter. Can’t wait to read about your first breaf for BBA. Have a great day!