Thursday 23 February 2012

Hello from Foodland

Hello.

It has been a year. I am lazy. I haven't stopped cooking.

I made Savoyarde Potatoes the other day and nearly fainted at how good they were. It ain't my recipe, it belongs to Matt Tebbutt from Cook's Country fame. But damn. Just seriously, damn. You must make it and devour it. You must.

I found this recipe online on the UKTV website so I am copying and pasting it as I see it. I did the dauphinoise the night before and slung it in the fridge. (You must get a decent cookie cutter to cut out the dauphinoise disks). This would serve 4 people 2 each. If you can eat 2 as part of a main meal, you deserve a slap and need to go for a run - and that's coming from a fatty!

Ingredients

For the dauphinoise

100 g butter, plus extra for greasing
250 ml milk
250 ml double cream
1 bulbs garlic, halved horizontally
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
3-4 bay leaves
1 kg floury potatoes, such as Maris Piper or Golden Wonder, peeled


For the savoyarde

200 g Fontina, Gruyere or Emmental cheese, grated - I used Gruyere
8 slices Bayonne ham (I just used nice ham from behind the deli counter at Sainsbury's)
700-800g ready-made puff pastry (all butter is best belieeee dat!)
1 egg plus 1 egg yolks, beaten together, for glazing

Method
1. For the dauphinoise: preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Grease a large ovenproof dish with some butter.

2. Place the milk, cream, butter, halved garlic bulb, thyme and bay leaves in a medium pan. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for ten minutes.

3. Meanwhile, thinly slice the potatoes using a mandoline or very sharp knife. Arrange in alternate layers in the ovenproof dish. (I used a knife for 2 potatoes and nearly cut my hand off trying to get them so thin. Then I used the Magimix slicer and did the whole kilo in under a minute. Go figure.

4. Strain the milk mixture through a fine sieve, then pour the mixture over the potatoes.

5. Bake the dauphinoise in the oven for 20-30 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 150C/gas mark 2 and continue to cook for 40-50 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

6. For the savoyarde: once the dauphinoise is completely cool, cut out eight potato rounds using a small circular cutter.




7. Top each round with a large spoonful of grated cheese. Wrap a piece of ham around each.


8. Roll out the pastry to the thickness of a pound coin and cut out 8 discs with a small side plate or saucer that is slightly bigger than the dauphinoise rounds. Gently mould the pastry over the top of the rounds and stretch to fit completely around each base. (I used a rolling pin and made the shells look like presents). See pic.


9. Pinch the pastry together and cut away any excess. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.



10. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.

11. Place the pastry-wrapped rounds on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Brush the pastry all over with the beaten egg and cook for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden-brown and puffed up. Insert a skewer into the middle of the potato to check if it is piping hot all the way through. Remove from the oven and set aside in a warm place.


I served this with a roast leg of lamb, some red wine lamb gravy, baked onions in double cream and parmesan. All the guests died of a coronary.

But for a minute they were Henry the VIII, they were, they were - and they were happy.

Seriously. It will take a few hours but it is fun and the results are scarily good.

I'm back in the game!!!