24 May 2016

It’s been a fun week at chez Maureen. Despite the continuing rain’s best attempts to keep us down and out, we had two rounds of delightful dinner guests and the accompanying opportunity to try out some new recipes. There was asparagus: on one evening floating in a light cream of chervil soup; on the other steamed and accompanied by an improvised, and ultimately inedible, sauce (lessons learned #56: go easy on the starch thickener or it’ll go hard on your sauce and no quantity of milk or cream will be able to salvage that jiggly blob.)

To build the suspense, on both occasions, the apples and potatoes made their debut on the dessert menu in proper “save the best for last” fashion: the Fleur de chérie et pomme tarts (Potato and apple flowers) with crème de caramel au beurre salé (salted caramel sauce) and vanilla ice cream; the Pommes en meringue (apples with meringue) with a coulis de fruits rouges (red berry sauce). There was even a highly edible, to everyone’s surprise, Süßer Kartoffelauflauf (Sweet, potato casserole—note: the comma is not an accident but serves to indicate that this recipe is not to be confused with a similarly-named casserole made out of yams). It’s slated to appear among next week’s recipes.

When we weren’t throwing wild decadent dinner parties, we walked around wet in the rain, then ate Timballo di patate (twice) and a Fine potato soup (Feine Kartoffelsuppe) that became a potato soufflé that would have become slices of fried potato bread if it had lasted long enough. Intrigued? Keep reading!

Straight from our kitchen:

Timballo di patate (Italian potato cake)

Fleur de Chérie et pomme (Potato and apple flowers)

Feine Kartoffelsuppe (Fine Potato Soup)

Compote de pommes meringuée (Apples with meringue)

Timballo di patate (Italian potato cake)

Jump to Recipe

I may have previously mentioned the frequent presence of a certain Italian in our house. This is Margherita: friend, babysitter, food critic, excellent cook herself and, therefore, our expert source on all things Italian. Margherita suggested that Timballo di patate would be an ideal destination for some portion of our potato stock. Her recipe is simple: riced potatoes, mozzarella and sausage or ham mixed together, placed in a cake pan, topped with parmesan and bread crumbs and baked. So I tried it, to the letter. Unfortunately, it turns out, despite my obvious affinity for improvisation, I lack the red, white and green thumb necessary to turn ordinary Italian ingredients into delicious Italian soul food. We ate it anyway but Margherita gave it a lousy 2 stars. At least it hadn’t burned.

The next time around, I did a little bit of background research and added a few more ingredients. The result earned me one and a half more stars (she’s a tough critic). It’s really a delicious meal that is easy enough to master. That is, with the help of a potato ricer. As you may recall when I prepared gnocchi, I barehanded pushed steaming hot potatoes through a sieve sacrificing both the skin off of my fingers and my patience in the quest for those adorable fluffy little potato dumplings. I recently acquired the equipment one needs to actually be able to enjoy the potato ricing process. Ricing potatoes is the extremely satisfying, for-adults-only version of turning the crank on the Play-doh barber shop and watching the colored hair come out the top of the plastic figurines. And if that doesn’t make you run out and buy a ricer right now, you deserve burnt fingertips and/or store-bought gnocchi.

All credit to Margherita and to the recipe that guided me further here.

Potatoes, 2 lbs (1 kg)

Eggs, 2

Mozzarella, 4 oz. (100 g) (not the hard-pressed mozzarella sold under the pretenses of being *perfect for pizza and baked dishes*. This, according to our expert, is an imposter product that doesn’t even exist in Italy. Look for the real thing swimming in a pool of milky water. Drain before using.)

Parmesan, ¾ cup (80 g)

Scamorza (provola), smoked, 4 oz. (100 g) (We couldn’t find this either, but if you can, bravo! I used a flavorful aged Gouda instead.)

Mortadella bologna, 2 oz. (50 g) (Oscar Meyer bologna could be considered as the neglected stepchild of mortadella. The original shares little more than the name and maybe the color with its corrupted American offspring. I’m not sure if real mortadella is available in the U.S.. Like the Hershey-ists preventing chocolate not made with wax from being imported, mortadella may have been blocked by the bologna lobby. If in doubt, replace with prosciutto.)

Proscuitto, 2 oz. (50 g) (Be easy on yourself if prosciutto is hard to come by and use any ham or replace with a nice sausage, cooked beforehand.)

Butter

Salt + pepper

Nutmeg

Breadcrumbs, 2 Tbsp

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water for 40 minutes. Let them cool, then peel and rice or shred the potatoes into a large bowl.
Add ½ cup (50 g) of grated parmesan, the eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix well.

Slice the mortadella and the prosciutto into strips. Cut the mozzarella and the scamorza into pieces. Add to the potato-egg mix.

Put into a greased baking dish. Smooth the surface then sprinkle with the rest of the parmesan mixed with the breadcrumbs. Dot with butter.

Bake for 15 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 400°F (200°C) and bake for another 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool at least 10-15 minutes before serving to your in-house critic(s).

Ingredients

Potatoes 2 lbs (1 kg)
Eggs 2
Mozzarella 4 oz. (100 g), see Note below
Parmesan ¾ cup (80 g)
Scamorza provola, smoked, 4 oz. (100 g)
Mortadella bologna 2 oz. (50 g)
Proscuitto 2 oz. (50 g), see Note below
Butter
Salt + pepper
Nutmeg
Breadcrumbs 2 Tbsp

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water for 40 minutes. Let them cool, then peel and rice or shred the potatoes into a large bowl.
Add ½ cup (50 g) of grated parmesan, the eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix well.
Slice the mortadella and the prosciutto into strips. Cut the mozzarella and the scamorza into pieces.
Add to the potato-egg mix.
Put into a greased baking dish.
Smooth the surface then sprinkle with the rest of the parmesan mixed with the breadcrumbs.
Dot with butter.
Bake for 15 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 400°F (200°C) and bake for another 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool at least 10-15 minutes before serving.

Notes

Mozzarella: Not the hard-pressed mozzarella sold under the pretenses of being *perfect for pizza and baked dishes*. This, according to our expert, is an imposter product that doesn’t even exist in Italy. Look for the real thing swimming in a pool of milky water. Drain before using.

Proscuitto: Be easy on yourself if prosciutto is hard to come by and use any ham or replace with a nice sausage, cooked beforehand.

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Fleur de Chérie et pomme (Potato and apple flowers)

I perused a food porn magazine while waiting to check-out at our local supermarket. The ones with the bent corners that everyone flips through when the line is moving unbearably slow but probably no one ever buys. Except that this one was French. If you subscribe to the common belief that everything is sexier in French, just imagine the cooking magazines. The magazine I picked up would make Martha Stewart blush. When I came across a borderline indecent photo of a dessert tart that includes apples and potatoes, I was red in the face. With a salted caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream? The rest is history…

The adult cooking magazine to be blamed for the following is papilles: les plaisirs de la table, the April 2016 edition, pg 63.

Potatoes, 3 (The recipe calls specifically for “Chérie” potatoes. But under our special circumstances, I ignore such recommendations. We have only one type of potato in our house.)

Apples, 3 (Again, if you are a stickler for details, use “Rubinette” apples. We have only one type of apple in our house.)

Flaky pie crust (pâte feuilletée)

Butter, sweet cream (demi-sel), melted, 3-½ Tbsp (50 g)

Applesauce, home-made preferably, ½ cup (100 g) (This time I did go above and beyond the call of duty when I made a homemade apple purée. I wouldn’t think less of you if you opened a commercially-produced jar.)

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
Peel the potatoes and slice them as thinly as possible. Cut the apples in two, remove the cores and cut each half into thin slices.

Roll out the pie crust and cut into strips 10 inches (25 cm) long and 2 inches (4 cm) wide. Brush the strips with the melted butter.

Spread the apple sauce onto the upper half of the pastry dough strips. Alternately layer the potato and apple slices onto the apple sauce. Fold the bottom layer of the pie crust strip onto the slices. Brush again with butter.

Starting at the end, carefully roll the strip into a flower and place into a cupcake tin. This isn’t a very elegant process. Don’t fret if the end product looks rather un-flower like. Focus on getting the whole mess into the cupcake tin where it will all bake together into perfection.
Sprinkle the flowers with a bit of sugar.
Bake until brown. The recipe says this will take 12-15 minutes. Mine took nearly an hour. As long as you keep an eye on them to make sure they won’t burn and there’s enough butter to keep them from drying out, I reckon it’s best to let them crisp up so that the bottoms aren’t soggy.

A front-row view of a Potato and apple flower