Potato and Leek Rösti
Potatoes and any member of the onion family have the sweetest affinity for one another. A straight up potato rösti is perfect. It teeters into the category of McDonalds hashbrown. Golden crust with a buttery slightly creamy interior is a winning contrast a french fry wished it could. Ever-so-sweet leeks added to rösti build a powerful new relationship thats actually quite familiar. Vichyssoise (potato and leek soup) is a foundational case for how simple soup can be. Potatoes and leeks getting acquainted in a hot pan coated with butter, hold my purse, now thats what I’m talking about.
Makes 1 large rösti, serves 2-4 people
Ingredients:
60g unsalted butter
300g russet potatoes, washed, skin on, coarsely grated
100g leeks, washed, split and very thinly sliced lengthwise
7g kosher salt
Flakey salt to finish
Method:
In a large non-stick skillet, add 30g of unsalted butter to the pan over medium heat. Evenly coat the bottom of the pan by swirling the pan.
In a large bowl, combine potatoes with leeks and salt. Using your hands, mix the potatoes and leeks together until evenly combined. Add to pan immediately to prevent browning. Scatter the mixture evenly trying to not compress the potatoes and leeks together. This allows steam to escape helping create a crisp exterior. Cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes rotating the pan every 2-3 minutes to ensure the bottom of the pan is receiving an even amount of heat. Do not stir or touch the rösti because as the potatoes cook, they release their starch which binds it together.
Flip the rösti by committing to pan flipping, if you’re confident, or inverting onto a large plate and then shimmying carefully into the skillet to cook for 8-10 minutes. Add remaining butter in random spots over the top of the browned rösti as it cooks on the remaining side.
Serve the rösti warm and crispy seasoned with a little bit of flakey salt. Cut into wedges or serve it up as a shareable item.
Parmesan “Roast” Potatoes
These potatoes register as “roasted.” You do not have to turn on your oven or even have an oven to achieve the roasted potato rights. Technical and tender are both method and meaning. The softening of the potato in water and then longly crisping in oil cancels starchy nonsense. A “roasted” potato hath better illusion of oven warmth than stovetop trickery. Apologies for going Shakespeare on y’all.
Makes 4-6 portions of potatoes
Ingredients:
2 lbs of russet potatoes, peeled and cut into one inch thick, long irregular shapes, covered in water
2 cloves garlic, crushed
750ml oil (olive oil, canola, or any neutral oil for frying)
2 rosemary sprigs
4 oz parmesan, finely grated
kosher salt and flakey salt to taste
Method:
Place a wire rack over a half sheet tray, set aside. Drain the potatoes from their water. In a large pot add room temperature water. Add potatoes to the pot with enough water covering the potatoes by two inches. Add a couple of big pinches of kosher salt and crushed garlic cloves bringing to a simmer over medium heat for 20-30 minutes. The potatoes should be tender but not mushy or falling apart. Drain potatoes onto the wire rack spreading out evenly to dry and cool quickly, about 10 minutes.
Using the same pot washed and dried, add 750ml of oil and bring up to temp over medium heat. The potatoes should be dry to the touch before frying. Line a small plate with a piece of paper towel. Heat the oil to 330ºF-350ºF. Start by frying the rosemary in the oil, The initial snap and crackle will fade after one minute, pull the rosemary out with tongs and rest over the paper towel lined plate. When the rosemary is cooled, intentionally scrape the rosemary off the branch into a small dish with a big pinch of flakey salt. Crush the rosemary and flakey salt together, set aside.
Set aside a large bowl with an ounce of grated parmesan in it. Fry the potatoes in four batches, lowering into the oil gracefully with slotted spoon or a fish spatula. Cook potatoes for 5-10 minutes until noticeably browned. Immediately from the oil, toss into the bowl with parmesan. Sprinkle a pinch of the fried rosemary salt over the potatoes, giving them a toss. Repeat with remaining potatoes. Serve the potatoes as their made, also the potatoes taste wonderful as they sit too, don’t worry about serving them very hot if you need to make a couple of batches.
Garlic & Thyme Potato Galette
If you’re “Type A” welcome to the garlic and thyme potato galette. Organization and assembly make this potato dish. Thin layers all build up nicely and bond together in the oven creating a multi-textured potato dish. Crispy exterior potatoes seal in the creamy layers inside. If you have a French friend that never seems impressed by much, pull this one out, surely they’ll nod or even give you a golden compliment of a job well done.
Makes 1, 7-8 inch galette
Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves, core removed, thinly sliced
1/2 bunch of thyme
75ml of extra virgin olive oil
4-5 russet potatoes, medium to small in size, sliced thinly 1/8 of an inch
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
In a small sauce pot gently warm garlic, thyme and olive oil together until fragrant and appears similar to a jacuzzi over medium heat. This process should take roughly 2-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Preheat the oven to 400ºF with a rack in the center of the oven.
When the oil is cooled grab a pastry brush and coat the bottom of a small skillet 7-8 inches in diameter with the oil. Intentionally lay out potatoes in a fanned out design. The most important layer is the first since the dish will be inverted, choose the most round, the most even potatoes for the task. Brush the freshly built layer with the oil over top by dabbing and not brushing to not disturb or move the design. Sprinkle the top with some kosher salt and black pepper and repeat up to 7 times. Depending on size of potatoes more or less might be needed, just keep building, repeating the steps for each layer. Once the 7th layer of potatoes are finished, finish with a couple of generous dabs of oil, salt and pepper and place in the oven.
Check on the galette after fifteen minutes. See how its coming together. The surface should look a bit dehydrated which is good, that will become crispy with more time in the oven. Cook in the oven for an additional 15-20 minutes. The edges and surface should appear golden. Remove from the oven and continue cooking the galette on the stove over medium heat for 4-6 minutes. This will ensure the bottom is browned and very crispy. Cut the heat and set aside for at least 5 minutes. A cooked potato is full of starch and needs a moment to chill before serving. Please note that the pan is still hot from the oven and proceed with caution.
Invert the galette onto an appropriately sized plate. Serve the galette as is or cut into wedges. Since the effort was made to design the now visible surface, present it as a showpiece and smile and laugh, even if you just made it for yourself.