HAUTE POTATO: THE SUPER SIDE
There are so many recipes to prepare this wonderful peasant dish
You say po-tay-to, and I say more, please.
“I've never met anybody who doesn't love potatoes, in the winter especially,” says Jean-christophe Poirier, chef-owner of St. Lawrence restaurant. “It's peasant food. In Quebec in winter, it's potatoes and cabbage braised with pork. It fills you up and it's affordable.”
Adds Jean-claude Douguet, the executive chef of Gotham Steakhouse, “There are so many types of potatoes available all year round and so many recipes as well. It is easy to find recipes ranging from easy-to-make to more technical.”
Boiled, fried, mashed or smothered in cream and gratinéed, potatoes are the quintessential comfort food, a soothing, budget-friendly companion to just about any main dish.
But come the holidays — especially these holidays, in this challenging pandemic year — and it's worth putting in the extra effort of transforming that humble sidekick into something extraordinary. Perhaps even making it the star of the meal.
For that, we turn to the classics and the legendary French chef Georges Auguste Escoffier, who collected dozens of recipes for pommes de terre in 1903's Le Guide Culinaire, most of them lavished with cream and/or butter.
Before you start on your pommes dauphine or fondant, though, there are a few things to keep in mind.
The most important is that not all potatoes are the same, and they can't be used interchangeably. There are big potatoes and small ones, starchy ones and waxy ones, in almost every colour of the rainbow (except green, because green potatoes can be toxic — see sidebar).
“You've got to choose the right potatoes,” Poirier says. “Fingerling is my favourite for pommes purée. They're rich and they absorb butter quite well. For gratin, I would use the Yukon gold potato. Not the russet, it's too floury. But the russet is great for french fries.”
There are, indeed, more than 5,000 varieties of the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum, a member of the nightshade family that originated in South America, likely in Peru, where the Incas first cultivated them some 10,000 years ago.
Potatoes get a bad rap as junk food, but that's just because we tend to enjoy them deep-fried. On their own, potatoes are a nutritional powerhouse. They are low in calories (110 for a medium baked one) and a good source of vitamin C, potassium, and a host of other nutrients.
But for a cook, the value of the potato lies in its mild flavour and amiably versatile texture, both of which make it a vehicle for other delicious things like butter, cream, salt and a global array of sauces.
No one knew that better than Escoffier, who assembled a sort of lexicon of potatoes.
For instance, potato gratin, properly known as gratin dauphinois, comprises thinly sliced potatoes baked in garlic-infused cream, no cheese. Replace the cream with chicken stock and it becomes a gratin de pommes boulangère. Add cheese to the cream and maybe some onions and it becomes a gratin Savoyard, though Poirier says, “I feel like adding onions is Lyonnaise. It's all little twists. You can play with it by adding or removing something else.”
Douguet describes pomme de terre à la Lyonnaise as “slices of potatoes cooked in duck fat with caramelized onions and finished with chopped fresh parsley,” which sounds perfectly delightful. Even more delightful? Pommes soufflés, thin slices of potatoes that are airdried and fried twice. “They fluff up like little pillows and turn golden brown,” he says.
“In the winter season I enjoy a dish named pâté Bourbonnais, which is originally from the middle of France,” Douguet adds. “These are sliced potatoes baked in a puff pastry with shallots, parsley and cream. You can add truffles, morels or cured ham.”
Scalloped potatoes are a humbler version of the classic gratins, often made with milk or béchamel instead of full-fat cream, sometimes with meat, fish, eggs or vegetables tucked into the spuds.
Some other classic potato dishes include potatoes Anna, which are sliced thin and baked with butter; fondant potatoes, where the potatoes are cut into cylinders then slowly baked in butter and stock until they are crisp outside and melting inside; Parmentier, cubed potatoes tossed with olive oil and fresh herbs and roasted until crisp; dauphine, in which potato purée is mixed with choux and fried into crisp little clouds; and duchesse potatoes, in which the purée is mixed with egg yolk, piped (as on a shepherd's or fish pie), then baked.
“When you bake it, the egg yolks help develop the crust and beautiful texture,” Poirier says. “It'll be nice and crispy and golden, with pomme purée inside.”
Speaking of pomme purée — or as you may know it, mashed potatoes — there are countless ways to make it and even more things to do with it. You can peel your potatoes, or not, mash 'em with a fork or put them through a ricer (the latter gives you fluffier texture), add butter, milk, cream or chicken stock, flirt with add-ins like chives, parsley or roasted garlic, then turn leftovers into croquettes or samosas.
Or you can opt for the ultimate indulgence and make the late “chef of the century” Joël Robuchon's famously silky potato purée, which calls for a half-pound of butter for every pound of potatoes.
Too rich? Well, you can always make potato salad, potato pancakes (a.k.a. latkes) or that quintessential Québécois dish, poutine. Even better, you could make Poirier's Gratin Savoyard Québécois mash-up, which he plans to serve during his “cabane à sucre” (sugar shack) dinners this January and February. “It's like a gratin poutine, with cheese curds and poutine sauce,” he says. “There's so much you can do with that recipe, and it's fun, too.”
Fancy or humble, potatoes are almost certain to appear on your table this holiday season. However you choose to prepare them, Douguet has one piece of advice: “Keep it simple and season liberally.”
Here's what you need to know about buying and storing potatoes; it's also wise to pick up a good vegetable peeler — those little Y-shaped ones are both cheap and efficient — as well as a mandoline for slicing potatoes thin for gratins.
HOW TO BUY
High-starch potatoes are good for baking, mashing, frying and making into gnocchi. Look for: Idaho, a.k.a. russet Burbank, or any of the russet varieties.
Waxy, low-starch potatoes are good for roasting, boiling and tossing in potato salads. Look for most red potatoes, fingerlings and new potatoes. Medium-starch spuds are good for roasts, stews, gratins, latkes and most recipes. Look for: Yukon gold (the most versatile of them all), as well as white or purple potatoes.
HOW TO STORE
Keep mature potatoes in a dry, cool, dark spot, preferably in a paper bag or basket. At room temperature they'll last one to two weeks; in a cold cellar they will keep up to three months.
Do not store potatoes in the fridge or freezer; the cold temperatures will convert starch to sugar, making them sweet and mealy, even mushy.
Do not store potatoes and onions together — they emit gases that make the other spoil more quickly.
Discard any soft, shrivelled potatoes. If potatoes begin to sprout “eyes” or develop green patches, cut them off — they contain small amounts of toxins that can cause digestive distress — although the rest of the flesh should still be fine.