I’m going to introduce you to my three favorite ways
of using potatoes.
So to start, we’ll have pommes Anna,
which is kind of like a potato cake.
Then we have pommes dauphine, which is this pillowy little
potato fried pillows.
And then pommes puree which is the silkiest of them all
and is this buttery decadence of the mashed potatoes.
Pommes is maybe a bit less common.
You don’t see it very much
just because how labor intensive it is.
It’s basically thin layers of potatoes,
put one after the other, and in between the only ingredient
you will have is clarified butter and a touch of salt.
I’m going to start with Yukon gold potatoes.
Yukon golds are great because of their very rich,
buttery taste.
And also they just hold their shape.
You’re looking for a potato that will get crispy,
but will also keep the nice layers
without going in too much.
So you just want to peel them nicely.
You want to keep all that starch
so you’re not looking to rinse them.
And now the next step is just the mandolin.
It has to be perfect because otherwise
it will not kind of like compact and condense
as like a cake.
So you’re looking for quite a thin potato.
You want to make sure you get quite long
just because first of all, it’s going to take less time
and you’ll have something that looks a bit nicer.
I’m just going to make piles of potatoes
and I’m going to punch just the first layer
that when you put it, when it goes upside down,
you’re going to have a perfect circular pommes.
I would say if you don’t have a mandolin,
you won’t be able to make it the way it should be made.
The pommes really requires very minimal ingredients,
but you do need a touch of it.
When you slice potatoes, they will oxidize,
so you need to move fast because in some recipes
you can rinse them and keep them in water,
which will prevent that.
But in that case, you really don’t want to because otherwise
you’re taking all that starch away
and the potatoes are not going to stick to one another.
So there’s only one rule here, work fast.
That’s my last potato. Here I have clarified butter.
Clarified butter is just basically regular butter
that was brought to temperature low and slow
and the milk solids separate.
And why we’re doing this, it creates a more even coloring.
It doesn’t burn when you’re going at higher temperatures.
So I’m just putting a bit of butter bottom of the pan.
This will help stick the parchment paper bottom.
So to start, we’re going to do what we call a cartouche.
Cartouche is basically this parchment
that it’s going to be cut perfect diameter
of the bottom of the pan.
For that, you want to fold that a certain way.
Paper is parchments.
And now that I folded it, I want to just make sure
that I’m going to be at a perfect diameter of the bottom
like that, as thick.
Then we’ll put a bit of butter, bottom, perfect.
If you don’t put the cartouche
and there’s one slice of potato that’s sticking
in the bottom, when you’re going to flip it,
it’s going to kind of look not so nice.
You’ll have some uneven pieces.
So now the idea is to punch the potatoes.
We have to move fast because it’s starting to brown.
So you want to take the bigger slices of potatoes
that you have and punch them.
We don’t need to do all of it.
It’s just for the bottom layer.
And again, this is not really mandatory. You don’t have to.
It’s just like little extra labor
of love to show that you care.
At the first restaurant I worked at,
we were making them like tiny, tiny potatoes
and also the thinnest possible.
It would take us like two, three hours a day.
And also sometimes we would sell out during service
and we had to make them on the fly
because there was no way
we would be allowed to run out of them.
So it was kind of a stressful preparation for me.
So I think we’re pretty good with the potatoes.
We have the layer.
Now it’s time to build.
This is the bottom of the dish,
but this will be the top of the presentation
because we’re going to flip it upside down.
So this is really where you want to put all your energy
to make sure it looks super nice.
Then it’s just basically layering potatoes,
putting clarified butter and a bit of salt.
That’s it.
And repeating that process over and over again
until we’re done.
You want to make sure they’re nice and tight,
compact together, just because if you leave too much space,
they won’t really mold into each other.
You want to make sure you season every single layer.
It might feel like a lot of salt, but a pinch on every layer
is going to give you a very even cooking and tasting potato.
And you want to just warm it with the clarified butter,
kind of drizzle it.
Now it’s all about speed, making sure you’re moving fast,
the potatoes are not browning.
There’s not a specific amount of layers
that you’re looking for.
I would say you do want a certain amount
just to make sure you have texture.
I feel like if there’s not enough layers,
it’s going to be quite crispy, kind of like rosti,
and you want it quite soft and I don’t know,
like you’re cutting into butter in a way.
You want to make sure also it’s quite pressed down
that everything cooks together
and I’m adding butter at the end.
It’s just this thing that we used to do at the restaurant
I worked at, it gives this little amount of the milk sod
that you want, but not enough for it to disrupt
the perfect color that you’re looking for.
It’s a lot of butter.
Put a lid on.
This will allow the potato to really steam, cook through
and kind of get that sweetness out of it.
And then you’re looking for caramelization, nice color,
and the exterior that’s a bit crunchy.
In the oven, the pommes will cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
for roughly 50 to 55 minutes.
Then I’ll take the lid off probably another 45, 50 minutes
just to make sure you have this nice golden crust.
Okay, so moment of truth, this is kind of like the tahdig
level of stress version for potato.
Let’s pray we don’t break this plate.
[upbeat music]
Okay, I’m super happy with the pommes.
I love the crispy edges.
This is what you’re looking for,
for something that has some crispiness,
but also to have the kind of really nice super fondre,
which means you’re cutting through the potato
and it’s melting in your mouth with all the butter.
So let’s cut into it.
This is really what you’re looking for,
this like mille-feuille of potatoes cooked through,
nice crispy edges.
You could see that it’s full of butter.
It’s like a potato cake.
[upbeat music]
So now it’s time to make pommes dauphine.
A pommes dauphine is a mix of potato pulp
that you fold into a pate a choux.
The pate a choux is the base for very classic
French desserts such as choux, eclair, religieuse,
and all these things.
So it’s just a mixture of this batter, potatoes,
fried and just like golden, crispy, delicious and perfect.
So first step for this recipe,
it’s just cooking the potatoes in salt.
Why I like to cook potatoes in salt?
It’s like when you’re making gnocchi,
you want to release the moisture from the potato
so you’re not adding moisture to the pate a choux.
Now the potatoes are cooked.
Best way to check is just to run your knife inside.
They come out like that. We’re good.
Every recipe calls for different ways
of cooking potatoes.
You might think, oh, I mean cooking them on salt
and in water is pretty much the same thing.
But depending on what you’re looking for to achieve
in this recipe, you need to adapt the cooking method.
So here at salt is you really wants a dry, firm pulp.
So this is a lovely food mill.
Basically, it makes mash of any vegetable that you want.
It keeps really just the pulp.
You want to work those potatoes while they’re still hot
because otherwise it gets a bit gummy and hard to work with
because of the starch.
You cut the potato in-half, you want to peel the potatoes.
We’re using Yukon gold.
I think it’s a very versatile potato.
It’s the one I’m using for all three recipes.
This is another French recipe named after a woman,
which is Dauphine.
Which means the wife of the heir to the throne.
Just smashing that, making sure we get all that dry pulp.
Great. We have our potato pulp.
Now we’re going to make pate a choux.
Pate a choux is pretty simple.
It’s one of the first recipes
they teach you in pastry school.
It’s an easy recipe, but it’s also very easy to mess up
if you don’t do it the right way.
Some people do half water, half milk. Here, water it is.
You add your butter and we’re just going to wait for it
to simmer.
So pate a choux is a very classic pastry dough
that puffs in the oven into big hollow shells.
It’s the base for Gouger, this little cheese puff
that’s very famous in France.
Here we have water and butter simmering.
We’ll add our flour.
And here you just want to make sure
everything is incorporated.
It’s going to start looking like potato pulp
kind of like dough because you want to dry out that dough
so you don’t want it to stick to the sides anymore.
You want to make sure that the flour is cooked off.
I like to use this with a hard spatula compared to like
one like that that bends a bit more
just because you want a hard grip.
You want to make sure that you’re hitting all the sides.
And here you see that the pate a choux is ready.
It’s rolling on all the sides. It’s not sticking at all.
Let it sit for like a minute, minute and a half.
The reason why is because when you’re going to add the eggs,
you don’t want it to cook instantly.
You want it to fold gently. It’s not a scramble.
I’m going to add the egg one by one.
You really want the eggs to be fully incorporated
before you add the next one.
It’s going to take a bit of time
to kind of incorporate at the beginning.
So you see how hard it is to incorporate the egg
already with one egg?
If you put the three at the same time,
it’s like mission impossible.
We’re lacking of that clear V that I’m looking for.
So just a touch of water.
This is a question of experience,
understanding what you’re working with.
This is what we’re looking for, is V drop, no.
Want to make sure there are no lumps.
Here we have the pate a choux.
We’re going to mix in with the potato pulp.
Anyway, you want to work it together.
[upbeat music]
Let’s try it for salt.
That is again, a great canvas for you to season
through legging, Espelette pepper, thyme, chopped,
I don’t know, tarragon, whatever you want.
So now we’re looking pretty good. Again, try it.
We’re good to go.
There are different ways of shaping those pommes dauphine.
If you want to be fancy, you put it in a piping bag
with a piping tip and you put like twine
attached to both sides of here, just like a string of twine,
and you’re just going to pipe it upside down like that
and they’re going to fall naturally,
which can look a bit fancier, a bit more restaurant style.
Today, we’re going to do a bit of a more rustic version
and that is just with a spoon.
I like to have a bit of oil in a little cup
like that, oil, spoon.
This really helps release the dough that’s quite moist
and we’re just going to take it with one spoon.
We want to just shape it, dump it, that’s it.
Because it’s going to be imperfect,
there’s going to be lots of little nooks and crannies
where you’re going to have this very crispy edge
that’s super delicious.
It’s probably going to take four minutes.
You want a really nice golden exterior
and the temperature with four minutes
should cook the egg through.
Potato is already cooked, so you’re just looking to cook
the flour and the egg.
You don’t want to overcrowd the pots,
want to make sure they have room to breathe and fry.
It’s hard to resist, not pull them too early,
but you want to wait the proper amount of time.
It’s horrible, I feel like I’m like,
it’s like saliva just by the smell.
It just reminds me of my childhood.
You just want to eat them right now
but you know you’re going to burn yourself.
But that with a bit of maybe like smoked salmon
and farm fresh chives, that’s like a dream.
They’re beautiful. You see that they start bursting.
The potato is kind of like trying to get out.
That’s perfection.
Salt
So you want to make sure when you’re frying
that you always salt straight after.
Like that, it kind of like soaks in the batter
and always put a towel or paper underneath
to really get all the moisture from the frying onto this.
Because if you, for example, put these old pommes dauphine
straight on a tray, they’re going to release oil
and absorb back into it
and you’re going to have something that’s mushy
and not crispy.
That’s it. That’s what you want.
Oof, this is piping hot.
It’s like a cloud.
So now it’s time to make pommes puree,
which is the French way of saying mashed potatoes.
It’s the version that resembles the potato puree
from Joël Robuchon,
which is this very famous Michelin star chef
that makes this ultra silky, buttery, melt in your mouth
potato puree.
Yukon golds are my preference.
Potatoes go in and then you want to cover
probably like that amount above the potatoes to make sure
that when it boils, it doesn’t evaporate.
Or you want to cook your potatoes in a cold water
to start just because by the time it goes up in heat,
the potatoes will cook evenly.
If you put your potatoes straight to hot water,
it will cook the outside, but the inside won’t be cooked.
So you have our water and potatoes and now heavily salted.
One, two, three.
Looks like a lot, but the skin actually prevents it
from getting too much inside
and you need the potatoes to be salted throughout.
We’re going to wait for these to boil for 25, 30 minutes
and I’m going to warm my milk in the meantime.
Best way to check if they’re cooked,
you put your knife through them.
If potatoes release instantly, they’re cooked.
Take the potatoes out, on a tray.
And then you have to act fast.
You don’t want the potatoes to cool too much.
So the idea is to just peel them.
I like to cut them in four and put them in the food mill.
I love potato skins and fries
and love different preparations.
I just don’t think that in mashed potatoes
it’s very enjoyable.
I think that having this very silky, smooth consistency
is like pure luxury in a way.
When you do a pommes puree,
you can’t really use a food processor or blender
just because it’s going to release the starches
and make it extremely gummy.
That’s the one thing even in restaurants,
we have to use the food mill no matter what.
This is more like taking it up a notch.
This is called a tamis.
It’s also the utensil that we use in bakeries to sift flour
or any powder to make sure it’s really nice and uniform.
This is maybe the only step that you can skip
if you don’t want to go through the hassle of doing that.
It really ensures that there’s no more pieces of pulp
in the potato, but this is also why
when you go to the restaurant and you’re like,
Why is that puree so good?
This is what we do.
So this is a plastic bench scraper.
It’s really the ideal tool.
And then just take all of the bottom part like that.
When I use a tamis, I love to kind of scrape anything
on parchment because it’s clean
and I could just dump it directly in my pan
without making a mess.
So what makes the Robuchon potato so special
is that you’re going to add moisture, but it’s controlled.
For example, if I don’t dry out my potato puree,
I already have moisture in that.
I’m going to add more moisture
and it’s going to dilute this flavor of potato
because this is like water in that.
So by taking that water out and adding flavored moisture,
which is milk and butter, it will just intensify
the flavor of potato.
And now you just want to dry it out.
So what you’re looking for is to see that the potato
is not really sticking to the edges anymore,
so that’s when they’re dry.
So a few minutes. Don’t go crazy.
Don’t bring color to the bottom of your pan.
Try and move fast. Pretty good here.
The goal now is to really add the milk bit by bit.
You want to warm the milk because as soon as the potato
gets cold, the starch gets really hard to work with,
and so you want that temperature to be similar
to what it already is right now.
You have to work fast because you want to make sure
the potatoes don’t cool off.
It’s all about keeping all the components warm.
The texture you’re looking for puree is kind of spoonable.
I’m going to keep the rest of my milk and adjust
after I put the butter to see if it needs a bit more.
You want the butter cold to really kind of emulsify
with your potato.
What makes the Robuchon potato famous
is the amount of butter.
It’s roughly for like a kilo of potato,
you’ll have like 400 grams of butter.
So it’s quite rich. It’s a lot. You can warm a touch.
Don’t go full heat when you reheat it
because otherwise the butter will split.
There’s just too much fat in that preparation,
so you want to go low and slow.
It smells like butter. It’s crazy.
I want to use a whisk to make sure there are no lumps.
Take a spoon, taste. It needs a lot of salt.
So we’re going to go quite generous here.
I think it does need the last cubes of butter.
Add the touch of milk.
Sounds crazy, but I think it’s not enough butter.
So you know that the potato puree is done
when the texture is kind of like this.
You see unspoonable, it kind of folds,
kind of does this V-shape.
It’s kind of like pate a choux,
you’re looking for a really like V-shaped drop.
It’s luscious, silky smooth,
and also it just tastes good.
So again, just taste.
Make sure the salt hits it.
That’s it. All you need is a bowl.
I like the plating, quite simple.
So the idea is you take your spatula,
you’re just going to come at an angle
and make this little decoration.
Touch of fleur de sel on top.
That’s potato puree, pommes puree, time to taste.
Honestly, there’s nothing better in this world
than butter and potato, and together it’s just the best.
We are done with what I think
are the three most impressive potato recipes.
These are the three most technical recipes
that I think represent what French food is about.
It’s about simplicity in ingredients and care of technique.
[bright music]
Dining and Cooking