Need a quick and tasty side dish? Try this one! Pommes de Terre Pour Garniture are quick, easy, and fun to make and they're yummy too! The recipe called for cutting boiling potatoes into cute little olive shapes about 2 inches by 1 inch. Yeah, right. I'm not that motivated. Soooooo, I just used some small red new potatoes that were about that same size and shape right off the bat. Boom! Saved a bunch of time and no doubt prevented a bunch of minor cuts on my fingers.
That reminds me of a story I recently read about a guy talking to a nurse when she asks what happened to his fingers. His answer was: "You know those chefs that can cut up vegetables really fast? I'm not one of them." Yep, that bag of nice little round potatoes sure seemed like a much faster and safer way to get these made.
Out came the peelers and my lovely sous chefs for the day (Loralie, Kathryn and Rachel - my staff seems to grow during big family dinners) jumped in and we had three pounds of potatoes peeled in no time. Then the real fun began! Because I was too lazy to prepare some clarified butter this time, I used the alternate which was 1 tablespoon of oil for every 2 tablespoons of butter. This lets the cooking temperature be higher without browning the butter. Enough butter/oil was used to coat the skillet with a film about 1/16" deep.
The pan was put on moderately high heat and as soon as the butter/oil stopped foaming the potatoes were added and rolled around to coat them with the butter. Then I patiently waited about two minutes before rolling them around to sear another side of the potatoes. This process was repeated every two minutes or so until all of the sides of the potato were seared and browned. Not only did this step make them look pretty, but the searing kept the potatoes from sticking to the pan while they finished cooking.
After sprinkling with a little salt, the heat was lowered and the lid put on the pan to let the potatoes finish cooking for another fifteen minutes. After that it was just a matter of rolling them around in the pan every couple of minutes -- that part looks really chef-like and impresses everyone who sees it even though it isn't anything special. You know their done when the potato can be easily pierced with a knife of when it yields to slight pressure from your finger (remember, its hot!).
To finish off the potatoes I mixed about 3 tablespoons of softened butter with a tablespoon of minced parsley and a tablespoon of tarragon (I realllllllly like that spice's flavor). The mixture then was added to the potatoes and they were rolled around to evenly distribute it on the potatoes. Into a serving dish and voila! Done.
Considering that we had to ration the potatoes and had no leftovers the only thing I'd do would be to increase the amount of potatoes next time. Well, I suppose I could also decrease the number of people invited to dinner... Nah, that wouldn't be as much fun. Hmmm, looks like I'm going to need some bigger pans! I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!
Bon Appetit!
Double the recipe next time.