Boulangère Pommes de Terre (Baker Potatoes)

My two years of French has made me somewhat capable of pronunciation en Français, but my middle-schoolesque humor negates those capabilities. While cooking this adaptable, easy potato recipe my lips said boulangère potatoes but my mind thought Lingerie Potatoes, ha ha! Panty Potatoes!!

I'm not used to weighing ingredients, otherwise I might not have been so amused by my tower of potatoes. That's 1kg placed jenga style on my tiny kitchen scale. Although the recipe ended up requiring two baking dishes and then more sliced potatoes, and then more salt and pepper, and then . . . (vicious cycle). Originally weighed out 1kg.

Before the pan/potato quantity issue I ran into the too lazy to make/buy chicken stock so will use beef stock issue. Because beef stock has a deeper bolder richer pimpier flavor I felt justified in adding 2 oz of water to make the required 500ml of stock. Ultimately, if you have to spread this dish out over multiple pans you might need more stock to cover the potato and onion slices.

So pretty. So tear-inducing. I wish I had a mandoline. The first and prettiest layer in the baking dish. Each subsequent layer seemed to hump up more in the middle. Might be due to my uneven slices.

For one of the baking dishes I remembered to put the dabs of butter on top after pouring the stock, that is not this dish. It doesn't really matter. It's hard to mess up this recipe. We ate this with roasted chicken* and a fresh tomato salad.


Recipe Time
(adapted from the Almost Bourdain site, also an adaptation, so this might be some freaky hybrid)
Serves 8ish

2.5 lbs potatoes
1 large onion
2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley (I used dried parsley which can be stronger than fresh but not in a bad way)
14 oz hot beef stock
2 oz water
2 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Thinly slice the potatoes and onion. Alternate layers of potato and onion in a 8"x8" baking dish (or whatever baking dish you think you can fit multiple layers in), sprinkle parsley, salt and black pepper between each layer. Finish with a layer of potatoes.
3. Pour the hot stock over the top and add dabs of butter.
4. Bake, covered with foil, on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the foil. Bake for another 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and the top golden brown.

*And by "roasted chicken" I mean impulse buy chicken that we ate over the kitchen sink to save on plate washing.

 

Spicy Anchovies and Fried Plantains

Spicy anchovies (or sprats as they are called by the coworker who provided this recipe) with a mix of wild and jasmine rice and a side of fried plantains. Because the Little Apple "bleeds purple" the rice magically turned a light violet hue in the rice cooker (though I suspect it was the wild and jasmine rice getting a little too familiar with each other). Anchovies are umami.

All of the fishy ingredients, in no particular order: various types of cherry-size homegrown tomatoes, vegetable oil, red onion, jalapeno, dried and frozen anchovies (with heads removed), garlic, rampe, curry leaves, red pepper flakes, turmeric, and cinnamon.

Dried rampe and curry leaves were provided by aforementioned coworker, but check your local international market or spice seller. The rampe are like bay leaves in that you should remove them after cooking. Rampe is also called pandan, it is nice in sweet dishes too. Turmeric and cinnamon add more sweetness. The recipe called for 2 Tbs of crushed dried chili (which I assumed was red pepper flakes because that's what I had available) but you can see that there is only 1 Tbs on the plate.

Just about time to plate. On a side note, I regret not wearing gloves to cut the jalapeno. And I had to tie a towel around my face to retain some semblance of breathing after putting the spices and veggies in the hot oil.

Plantains!! Not your old bananas that you refuse to make me banana bread with. This stage of ripeness worked well for shallow pan frying slices.

Mmmm. Can we just take moment to look longingly at these plantains. I just ate them and yet....mmmmm


Recipe Time: Spicy Anchovies
this is pretty much the recipe as given, with some clarification

250grams Sprat (anchovies)
1 red onion, diced fine
3 cloves of garlic chopped
4 tablespoons oil
Turmeric ¼  tsp
Cinnamon ¼  tsp
Rampe (unknown amount, gaahhh)
Curry leaves (again, unknown!)
1 small jalapeno, diced fine
2 Tbs of crushed dried chili
Salt to taste

1. Add 4-5 Tbs of vegetable oil and fry the sprats until they turn slightly brown and crispy. (If the oil dries out add more oil). If the sprats are fried too much they will taste bitter.
2. Then add rest of the incredients and stir until the onions are cooked. Don’t over cook the onion. If you like, add a small sliced tomato at the end.
3. These are all rough measurements. So you may need to add more chili.

A special treat for you. Anchovies before cooking and before I ripped their heads off. Arghbraaiins!