"Because they absorb a good deal of whatever fat they are cooked in, it follows that the fat should always be the best possible." Elizabeth David
Today is the day for my Elizabeth David Daube à la Corsoise, which I wrote about the other day. I thought because it was in her later book - Summer Cooking - and because the ingredients and instructions seemed to much clearer than her earlier recipes, I thought it would all be plain sailing.
However, I checked the recipe just so that I knew when to start on it, and found this:
"When the meat is all but cooked, add the mushrooms, and the potatoes which have been cooked in olive oil or butter until nearly tender"
"Cooked in olive oil or butter" what does she mean exactly? Cooked how? Roasted, baked, fried, grilled, boiled, mashed - no not mashed. How big should the pieces be? Should I peel the potatoes? If I'm a bit precious - what kind of potato? And yes - what kind of olive oil or butter, not to mention how much vis à vis the potatoes. She doesn't tell you much about the mushrooms either. Yes it's 1/2lb - which I shall need to convert to metric - somewhere around 250g I think - but all she says in the ingredient list is 'small mushrooms'. I assume she means to leave them whole, but as mine are maybe a bit larger than small - well define small - I'll just cut them into appropriate sizes.
But back to the potatoes. I had an idea of what she meant in my head, but I decided to check out the net and her own recipes for potatoes as well, ignoring those for roast potatoes because I'm sure that's not what she meant. Not that I have any evidence of course. This is what I found.
Even though I added Elizabeth David's name to my search for potatoes cooked in olive oil (I stuck to just olive oil for starters), nothing really came up and the first was Spanish - Patatas panaderas (Spanish potatoes with olive oil and wine) from a website called Karen's Kitchen Stories. It's not what I'm looking for here - I doubt that Elizabeth is thinking of sliced potatoes, however thick the slices are, but nevertheless I add it here because this is not really just a post about what Elizabeth David meant, but it's also an exploration of potatoes and olive oil, albeit with a particular usage in mind.
The author of this recipe - Karen - was a homely looking lady, which makes a change from the glamorous young women who often run foodie blogs, so I warmed to her - and her recipe too and so she gets a mini piece about her blog. She maintains she came to cooking a bit late, and is particularly enamoured of making bread - not my thing I have to say. What we did have in common however was this litte bit in her About Me piece:
"I love trying "stretch" recipes that are a bit of a challenge. My recipes aren't necessarily simple. They may even have lots of ingredients. I am into exploring cooking, and am really into learning new techniques. My posts and recipes are meant to teach you (as I teach myself) that you can make some pretty fabulous food. Trust me, if I can do it, you can too."
Here, here to that last remark.
The recipe itself is for potatoes that are tossed in olive oil, sliced onions and garlic, put in a baking dish, covered with foil and baked for 40 minutes. Then you add some wine, recover and continue cooking.
It reminded me - sort of - of a recipe that I have attempted a couple of times. I think it was from Elizabeth David, and involved cooking your potatoes covered in a mix of olive oil and water in a saucepan and then boiled fairly fast. Shaking them every now and then so that they didn't stick. Mine always stuck, so I gave up. They remained at the back of my mind, however, as I continued my search.
Next up Olive oil glazed potatoes from someone called Annacia on the Food.com website. And theoretically this is what I have just described to you - although cooked in a skillet - well frying pan to us - rather than a saucepan. So maybe I'll give it one last go, using a frying pan. They look pretty nice.
At this point I decided to check Elizabeth David's own options in the same book and found Pommes de terre Rissolées and Pommes de terre à la méridionale. I think I've tried these too some time in the past with complete lack of success because they stuck to the pan. Here is her recipe for the rissolée option - this is a butter one, and is for new potatoes "as much as possible all the same size":
"Choose a small thick pan in which the potatoes will just fit , all in one layer. Melt the butter in this pan, put in the potatoes, whole, cover thepan. cook very slowly, so that the butter does not burn. Turn the potatoes round several times during the cooking, so that they turn golden all over."
Sounds simple, but believe me it's not - they stick, the butter burns ... When I looked for this recipe using the French all I came up with was recipes in French, but later when I changed the search to potatoes rissolées I found Rissole potatoes on a website called Hilah Cooking. This lady says it's from a restaurant in New Orleans, and that they peel a strip from all round the potatoes - maybe to stop them bursting? The method is also simpler. Par boil them first, then drain them, put them back in the pot and add butter before cooking for a another 8-10 minutes, swirling on and off. Well maybe it's worth trying some day as there's probably slightly less danger of the sticking and burning thing. And I guess you could do it with olive oil instead of the butter.
So what about the méridionale version? Now I think that this is possibly the recipe I remember, although there is no water involved:
"Heat some olive oil in a thick saucepan, put in the potatoes, (new ones again) season with salt and pepper and cook at a moderate heat with the cover on the pan for about 15 minutes."
And that's it. No shaking, or stirring involved. I bet they all stick to the pot. And I could find no other recipes for this.
So I returned to potatoes and olive oil and found Potatoes en papillote on a website called Story About Food, whose author said it was inspired by Elizabeth David, although it's actually more or less Elizabethh David's recipe. Now this is very simple, and as soon as I saw the picture I remembered making this with success. You toss the potatoes in olive oil and salt, put them on baking, or greaseproof paper, top with butter, pepper and herbs, wrap and seal and place in the oven (200°C) and cook for 35 minutes. Done.
So I think this is what I shall do, minus the herbs as they are going into my daube, which is flavoured with thyme - so I suppose I could put a bit of thyme in the packet.
Nevertheless although my problem was solved I continued to search and found two other 'classic' recipes which are almost the same thing, but not quite. Also very similar and akin to the Spanish potatoes with which I started because they involve onions, and the potatoes are sliced. They are Potatoes sarladaise - Kerry Saretsky/Serious Eats and James Martin's Lyonnaise potatoes on British Baking Recipes. Another time perhaps.
To conclude - because all the time I had this memory of the potatoes cooked in a saucepan with olive oil and water, I suddenly remembered the term 'fondant' (melted), so I went looking and found this very professional looking recipe from Nagi Maehashi on her website Recipe Tin Eats for Fondant potatoes, which looked gorgeous but not really what is required today, as my potatoes are simply going to be added to the daube, not served as a cheffy side. To give Nagi her due, as well as this cheffy version she does also give a much simpler way of doing it - it's all to do with how you cut the potatoes.
It reminded me of the fondant notion, however, and found an old recipe from Escoffier, who may well have invented them:
"Cut the potatoes to the shape of large, elongated olives, and let each weigh about 3 oz. Gently cook them in butter, in a sautépan, and take care to turn them over. When they are cooked, withdraw them, so as to flatten them slightly with a fork without breaking them. Drain away their butter; return them to the sautépan with 3 oz fresh butter per every 2 lb. of their weight, and cook them with lid on until they have entirely absorbed the butter."
Almost time to go and make my daube. Now what does she mean by 'a very slow oven'? I'll try to remember to take a picture.
YEARS GONE BY ON THIS DAY
October 19
2023 - A ball of string
2021 - Jerk chicken
2020 - Something simple
2018 - Iceberg lettuce
2016 - Ditto for barbecued corn - hot, that is.
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