A few weeks ago my Mother and I threw a dinner party. It was a cozy, kitchen table affair full of our favourite French farmhouse dishes. I made a classically dressed salad, dressed up with crispy lardons, homemade garlic croutons and soft boiled quails eggs to start, and she made Mustard Chicken with our home grown leeks. To go with the chicken (along with some buttery tenderstem broccoli and baby chantenay carrots) I'd been working on a recipe for some crispy, classic sautéed potatoes, anointed with lots of herbs, and finely chopped pieces of garlic and banana shallot. And butter. A lovely, glorious knob of unsalted French butter.
I've adapted this recipe somewhat from a Raymond Blanc recipe, though to be honest it was just a guide; he has several different sautéed potato recipes from what I can find, anyway. Before we move onto the actual recipe, I want to make a note on the shallot and garlic mix that you add to the potatoes. The recipe I've included below serves 4 people, but the mix can be used in anything from a serves 2; it is better just to have more allium in your dish, than to have stupid little odds and ends languishing in your vegetable drawer!
The latest edition to the every growing mountain of bowls and dishes for food styling in this office come care of the team at Hinton's, a Dorset based home-wares and gift store that has a fantastic e-commerce site. These Folklore enamel bowls are great for little individual portions of things like side salads, or for ingredient prep. I've never had any enamel kitchen equipments before, and I love how light and easy they are to store.
Folklore White Enamel Mug: £7.95 | Folklore Enamel Tumblers: £27.50 | Folklore Enamel Storage Pot: £16.95 | Folklore Enamel Jug: £9.95
Exploring the rest of the Folklore collection at Hinton's, I think they'd make great picnic wares (woodland scene enamel mugs anyone? Or how about these amazing cups you could fill up with either my Cucumber & Mint Lemonade of my Lavender Vodka Lemonade?) or home gifts for students who have to keep on packing up and moving each year? I'd love to have been given this biscuit tin, or this white jug for bunches of flowers.
These would make a brilliant accompaniment to a hearty steak with mustard butter (I'm planning on trying the version from David Lebovitz's My Paris Kitchen soon), or practically any French inspired chicken dish. Serve buttered steamed veg, or creamed wilted spinach on the side. If you're after potatoes to serve up alongside something with a more Eastern feel, be sure to try these Indian Spiced Potatoes.
4 Medium Potatoes
2 tbsp Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil
Freshly Ground Sea Salt & Black Pepper
1 Banana Shallot, very finely chopped
2 Large Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
1 Large Handful Flat Leaf Parsley, chopped
1 Large Knob Unsalted Butter
Peel and cube the potatoes into small pieces, as even as possible. Rinse off any excess starch, and just cover with cold water in a large lidded saucepan. With the lid on, bring to the boil and remove the lid, allowing the potatoes to cook for about 10 minutes, until they are slightly tender when you test them with a knife, but not completely cooked through.
Drain the potatoes, and while they cool a little, prepare the shallot, garlic and parsley. In a very large frying pan, heat the rapeseed oil until it is smoking. Add the potatoes, and season well with salt and pepper. Toss the potatoes every few minutes until they are golden and crispy. Depending on your pan and the heat of your cooker, this should take about 20 minutes. Add the butter, shallot and garlic and toss well, cooking for another couple of minutes until the shallot has softened but not browned. Remove from the heat, toss in the herbs and serve straight away.
I've been looking a lot at the recipe content here on the blog a lot recently, and I was wondering that aside from the all in one meals I love doing like bakes, soups and pasta, for things like this would you prefer that I did meals as whole blog posts (so you get meat and all the sides in one recipe), of if you like how I'm doing it at the moment, with different dishes that make up a meal as different recipes, so that you can pick and choose what you want to make out of my recipe archives?