10 November 2017

Pommes de terre... mais comment ?

It's going to be potatoes (pommes de terre) for lunch today. I bought a bag of nice potatoes at SuperU the other day. They are of the Anoë variety, which are « pommes de terre à chair ferme »  and are ideal for steaming (pommes vapeur), sautéeing (pommes rissolées), or scalloping (en gratin). In other words, they are boiling potatoes, not baking potatoes.

So this morning I have to decide how I'm going to cook them. One dilemma I have to resolve involves bouillon vs. cheese. I have a liter of smoky chicken broth (as well as a liter of smoky pork broth) in the refrigerator. I also have some cheeses — Mozzarella, Munster, Neufchâtel, Emmental, and Tomme de Savoie — that are lurking in the fridge and calling out to me. "Melt us!" — that's what I hear them saying.

Truffade

One possible potato preparation for lunch is truffade, a specialty of the mountainous Auvergne region of central France. It is made with thinly sliced potatoes, smoked pork lardons (diced thick-sliced bacon), and a bland young Cantal cheese. You cook it in a skillet on top of the stove. Here's a link. Mine will have to be unconventional, because I don't have the prescribed kind of cheese.

Pommes de terre à la boulangère

A second possibility is pommes de terre à la boulangère — potatoes cooked the way the baker's wife would cook them, which means in the still-hot bread oven after the day's bread is baked. These potatoes are cooked in broth with aromatics (onions, garlic, herbs) as a kind of scalloped-potato casserole. Problem is, the pommes boulangère, don't include cheese or lardons. Here's a link.

Pommes de terre gratinées clermontoises (et deux boudins noirs)

Another Auvergne specialty is called pommes de terre gratinées clermontoises and is definitely a possibility. It's made with whole boiled or steamed potatoes, cream, and cheese. You mash the cooked potatoes slightly with the back of a fork to flatten them, put them in a baking dish, and then you pour on cream, sprinkle on grated cheese, and bake everything in the oven. Again, here's a link. If I choose this one, I might have to be rebellious and add some lardons — or cook some sausages to go with the potatoes.

Pommes de terre fumées

Finally, there's an Alsace specialty that is really tempting. It's called pommes de terre fumées ("smoked potatoes") and is made with sliced potatoes, butter, onions, and smoked bacon lardons — but no cheese. Again, a link to the recipe. I have some decisions to make while I'm out walking in the vineyard with Tasha this morning.

12 comments:

  1. Oh you make me so hungry, and envious, and it's only morning coffee time. I must make one of these dishes. They all look and sound wonderful .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I ended up making a Truffade. I really wanted to use the cheese. It turned out very good.

      Delete
  2. The smoked potatoes are calling my name. They sure sound good.

    This is so American of me, but, I'm not sure I could eat those boudins noir. Maybe if I didn;t know what it is...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Boudin noir is lean and fat pork meat, pork blood, spices and/or herbs, and, optionally, cooked onions or apples. It doesn't have a strong or gamey taste, and it's sold already cooked. I like it better than I like the pigs' intestines sausage called andouillette.

      Delete
    2. These all looked so appetizing! The Truffade reminds me of Tartiflette a bit, which I was just treated to last week, as one of my students brought it for her treat for us at the close of our recipe unit in French 4. I always make sure that someone brings that! LOL

      Delete
    3. J., see my comment to Bob below.

      Delete
  3. Don't forget the Savoie specialty Tartiflette. But I see you've already made a Truffade. These are all delicious dishes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is not a huge difference between a truffade (Auvegne) and a tartiflette (Savoie) except that the tartiflette is a relatively recent invention. Both have regional cheeses, potatoes, and lardons. The tartiflette also contains white wine.

      Delete
  4. Those all look wonderful. Now that our woodburner is being lit in the late afternoons, I often put a couple of spuds to bake in the ash pan. Mona Lisa (which I buy at Leclerc) is a wonderful variety for this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I never heard of the Mona Lisa variety. But then again, there are hundreds of potato varieties. When I buy potatoes at home (in Maine USA), it's usually directly from farms, and the varieties are generally spelled out. However, when we buy potatoes while in France, it's almost always at a weekly market, and varieties are rarely listed. However, from the pictures I just looked at, we may often be buying Mona Lisa.

      Delete
    2. In French supermarkets, the sacks of potatoes normally, maybe always, are labeled by variety as well as by cooking method (for frites, soups, salads, etc.). I'm sure you could ask the people selling potatoes in markets what varieties they are selling.

      Delete

What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?