My 5 favorite potato recipes!

We’re going to make my five favorite potato recipes! Off course there are many more great recipes, but these are my favorite! We’re going to make a pommes dauphine, a pommes fondant, pommes soufflé, a creamy potato purée and finally my favorite. A pommes paolo.

The pommes fondant

	Waxy potatoes
2 knobs	butter
	Demi glace
4 sprigs	thyme
2 cloves	garlic

Peel a couple potatoes and trim both sides. Then if the potato is big enough cut it in half. Now cut the slices with a round cutter. Keep the trimmings for another recipe. Submerge the rounds in water and rinse them till the water is clear. After that dry them on some kitchen paper. Then pour some oil in a frying pan and pan fry the potato rounds with some salt. Once golden on one side turn them around and add some knots of butter. Pan fry till both sides are nice and golden and keep turning them if necessary. Now add some demi glace till the potatoes are halfway submerged and also add 4 sprigs of thyme and 2 cloves of garlic that are cut in half. Now cover the potatoes with some parchment paper and let them cook on a medium low heat for around 10 to 15 minutes. Once they’re cooked gently turn them around, turn off the heat and let them cool down for another 10 minutes. Then transfer the pommes fondant on a tray and glace them with the demi glace we just cooked them in. Now they’re ready to be used. You can keep them covered in your fridge for a couple of days and reheat them in an oven at 150 degrees Celsius for around 5 minutes. Don’t forget to give them a quick glaze before serving them. They’re great with a beautiful duck breast, some green asparagus and a tarragon sauce.

The pommes dauphine

600 grams	floury potato
50 grams	water
50 grams	milk
50 grams	butter
5 grams	salt
50 grams	flour
2	eggs
	black or white pepper
	flour

Start by peeling the floury potato. I use a Dore potato. Then cut the peeled potatoes in even big chunks and transfer them into a pan. Add a liter of water and season it with 10 grams of salt. Bring this to a boil and boil the potatoes till cooked. This takes around 15 minutes. Once cooked drain the water and let them steam dry for 5. Then use a ladle or a big spoon to press the potatoes through a fine sieve. In total you need 500 grams of potato. Now mix the water with the milk, the butter and the salt. Heat this on a medium heat till the butter is melted. Then add the flour and while stirring cook the flour for 2 to 3 minutes. We do this to remove the floury taste and make it taste a bit nutty. Once that’s done take the pan off the heat and let it cool down for 5 minutes. Then one by one add the eggs and mix it till both eggs are incorporated. Now add the choux pastry to the 500 grams of potato and mix it. Then season it with some black or white pepper. Mix it once more. Now transfer it into a piping bag and fill a sphere mold. You can also roll them by hand once the dough has cooled down, but this way is just so much easier. Then let them freeze till solid. After that remove the top and trim the pommes dauphines. Now you can keep them covered in your freezer for a couple of weeks. If you want to serve them just cover them frozen with a thin layer of flour and deep fry them at 180 degrees Celsius till golden brown. Mix them every now and then to create and even color. Once golden transfer them on some kitchen paper and season with salt. Then they’re ready to be served!

The potato puree

For this recipe I also use a Dore potato, so a floury potato. Peel a couple of them and then cut them in even big chunks. Now transfer them into a pan and add a liter of water and 10 grams of salt. This is my standard ratio to season potato water. Boil the potato till cooked. Meanwhile melt some butter. The quantity is 80% of the weight of the potatoes. Do this on a low heat. Once the potatoes are cooked drain the water and let them steam dry for 5 minutes. Then when still hot press them through a fine sieve or through a fine flour sieve. Now add the hot melted butter and mix it till everything is incorporated. Because the fat content is so high there’s a possibility the puree might split. To fix this just add a splash of milk and mix it once more. Then when necessary season it with salt. Now as a final step I always pass the puree through a fine sauce sieve. This is optional, but it will really bring your puree to the next level. Look at that beauty! For me this is the perfect consistency for a good puree. Now you can keep it covered in your fridge for a couple of days. To reheat it it’s quite simple. Just keep it covered and slowly reheat it on a low heat. Once it’s hot all the way through give it a mix before serving it. Now you can also heat it up fast on a higher heat, but this way you have no danger of burning the puree and it takes very little effort.

The pommes paolo

	waxy potatoes
400 grams	duck or goose fat
3 cloves	garlic
5 sprigs	thyme

First peel some waxy potatoes and slice them in thin slices on a mandolin. They need to be around 3 millimeters thin. Then place the slices in stacks on your cutting board and cut them with a round cutter. The cutter needs to be the same size as the bottom of metal cups we’re going to cook the slices in. Now submerge the slices in water and rinse them till the water is clear. We do this to remove any excess starch. Otherwise the slices might color to much when frying. Keep the trimmings for another recipe. Now season some boiling water with salt and blanch the potato slices for around a minute. Don’t over blanch them otherwise they will fall apart. They need to snap when bending the potato. Then spread them on a kitchen towel and let the slices cool down in your fridge. While that’s cooling down we can marinade the goose or duck fat. Pour 400 grams into a saucepan and add the garlic that are cut in half and the thyme. Now heat this up on a medium heat for 15 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let it cool down for 30 minutes. After that pass the fat through a fine sieve. Now add the cold potato slices to the fat and mix it so every slice is covered. Let it marinade for 5 minutes. Then stack the slices till they have the same height as the metal cups and press them well together so they stick to each other. Now place the stacks in the cups and repeat it with all the slices. Then fill the cups with the remaining fat and make sure the potato is covered. Let this set in your fridge. Now to finish the pommes paolo place the cups in a pan and add enough oil to submerge the cups halfway. Don’t add ttoomuch oil, when it heats up the oil expends, and it might overflow the cups. Heat the pan on a high heat to deep fry the pommes poalo. Refill the cups with some more hot goose or duck fat when necessary. Once the potato is golden brown gently turn the cups around while pressing the potato in the cup. Now place them upside down on a rack and remove the cups. Be careful, the cups are still very hot! Then remove the top disc and keep that as a snack for yourself. Now season them with some flaky salt and they’re ready to be served! It’s be to served them straight away, but otherwise you can deep fry them before service and heat them up at 180 degrees Celsius for a couple of minutes.

The pommes soufflé

waxy potatoes

egg white

potato starch

Peel a waxy potato and slice it in thin slices on a mandolin. They need to be around a millimeter thin. Now place them in rows of two on your worktop and try to match the size. Dust a thin layer of potato starch on the top row. You can also use cornstarch, but I find that potato starch works better. Now brush the excess powder off. Then take some egg white and brush a thin layer on the bottom row. After that place the slices on top of each other with the egg white side facing the starch side. Now cut them with the desired cutter. It can be any size or shape. Then remove the trimmings and place the slices on a tray. While you’re making the pommes soufflé make sure you have some frying oil that’s 170 degrees Celsius ready. Then directly deep fry the potato rounds in small batches. Once they start to float baste them with the hot oil to make them souffle even more and to give them a nice even color. Start with a small amount and focus on the quality. Once you get the hang of it you can deep fry more at a time. I always say, practice makes perfect! Now season with salt and then they’re ready to be used. Making pommes soufflé might take some time, but it’s such a nice and beautiful crisp. You can keep them dry and covered for a couple of weeks.