Potato Gnocchi/Gnudi

Is the perfect potato gnocchi actually more rightly called a potato gnudi? I'm not sure, but this potato dumpling recipe is almost all fluffy, unadulterated, potato flesh.

Steamed potatoes

Ingredients:
Russet potatoes
AP flour
Fine grain salt
Method:

Food-milled potatoes

Cut the potatoes in half and steam them until soft. Pass them through the finest setting on a food mill onto a tray, sprinkle with salt and let cool.  Form into small balls and roll in the flour.
Cover with more flour and let sit for 2 hours in the fridge. Blanch for 5 seconds in boiling water, let cool on a tray, redust/cover with flour. Chill again for 2 more hours. At this point they are ready to be reheated and eaten.

I tried some different potato doughs...

... and some different coatings.

After blanching; adding back to coat again in flour.

Plate it up!

Potato gnocchi and olive braised lamb with picked yellow squash

Quickly,

Adam

French Fries

This is how I make "triple cooked" chips. This idea has been around for a long time, even though it has gotten more attention recently from the likes of Heston Blumenthal. The details that I found were most important(although each detail is infinitely important if you want it to come out right) were the type and age of the potato, the temperature, size and seasoning of the water cooking step, and the first fry. This picasa page has photos to go along with the following recipe.
Ingredients:
Freshly dug, middle of the road amylose to amylopectin potatoes(I've tried superior, katahdin, NY114, and carola with great results, 5 lbs is a good starting point, but you could do more)
10000g water
230g salt
3qt oil
2 cup beef tallow
Method:
Peel the potatoes and cut them into large fries, the size of the potato will dictate what size is ideal, but they should be around 2cm by 2cm by the length of the longest side of the potato. Place the fries into cold water. In a very large pot bring the 10000g of water to a boil and add the salt. At a rolling boil, add a small amount of fries(you want to pot to recover a boil quickly) and cook for 13 minutes. They will be very soft, but remove them carefully and let them cool on a tray. Keep boiling the potatoes in batches until all are cooked. Let them further cool in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Once fully chilled, bring the oil to 310F. Fry, in batches, until the potatoes have developed a dry exterior and just start to turn color, about 8 minutes. Remove the potatoes, place on a tray, and let fully cool to room temperature(you can refrigerate them). Freeze the potatoes completely, in an air tight container if you are planning for long term storage. Once frozen, remove and let thaw in the fridge. Bring the oil, with the addition of the beef tallow, to 375F and fry the thawed potatoes until they are dark brown. Remove from the oil, lightly sprinkle with salt(they are already pretty seasoned) and serve once they have cooled slightly.

Oh dear...

Creamy seasoned middle, crunchy outside

Make 10 pounds at once, or 50, and freeze them all, then amazing fries are a thaw and quick fry away.

Oh, and remember Russet Burbanks have a high proportion of Amylose to Amylopectin(mealy), fingerling potatoes have the opposite(waxy), carolas are in the middle(trip-fries).

Longingly,

Adam

Doughnuts

What could be better than Krispy Kreme? These are my best attempt through many trials. The biggest criteria I had was that they must be good eaten hot or cold. Almost every variation I tried was good hot, some better than others, but they were all good. However, very few were enjoyable after cooling. These are delicious right after frying or the next day.

The recipe requires a puree of potatoes, olive oil, and coconut milk. I make a big batch of the puree in advance and then use it whenever I want doughnuts.

Ingredients for recipe #1:

135g russet potato, peeled and cut into 2cm pieces

100g full fat coconut milk

20g olive oil

Method for recipe #1:

Steam the potatoes until they are soft. Add the coconut milk and oil to a pot and bring to a boil. Add the hot potatoes to the pot and boil everything while mashing with a spoon or a potato masher. Once you get the potatoes into a fairly uniform mash, pass them through a fine mesh sieve(make sure to get everything through the mesh). Let the puree cool to room temperature and then you can refrigerate or freeze until you need it. 

Ingredients for recipe #2:

200g potato puree with coconut milk and olive oil (from recipe #1)

50g honey

4g salt

5g yeast

17g egg yolk

8g apple cider vinegar

227g bread flour

Method for recipe #2:

Mix everything but the flour in a large bowl until it is relatively uniform. Add the bread flour all at once and mix until the dough is uniform. It should be soft and tacky, but not sticky. The variability of the potato may make you add a little more flour to get the right texture. Ferment, covered, at room temperature for 3.5 hour or until the dough doubles in size. Punch down and roll out into a rectangle, with a thickness of .5 cm. Cut out the shape you want and let rise again for an hour or until the dough doubles. Fry at 375F, flipping only once, after the dough has lightly browned.

Plate it up!

Glazed Doughnut

The Inside

I tried both traditional circle doughnuts and squares. I like the squares better, but only because they were easier to cut and didn't have as much waste.

Maybe cake doughnuts next?

No, but,

Adam

New Potato Gratin

When I first learned to make a potato gratin it was with russet potatoes. A few, some may call "progressive", chefs used yukon gold potatoes(or similar varieties), but mostly it was all about the potatoes with a high amylose to amylopectin ratio(more on these starches here). I like both approaches, but here is a recipe using freshly dug red new potatoes. They aren't like russets or yukon golds. The result is a soft and creamy gratin throughout.
Ingredients:
1250g new potatoes
284g cream
12g thyme
4g fresh bay
38g shallot, sliced
16g garlic, smashed
1g black pepper corn
5g +7g salt
76g Berkswell, grated
140g Pyrenees Brebis, grated
30g water, depending on evaporation (see method)
Method:
Bring the cream, thyme, bay, shallots, peppercorn, and garlic to a boil. Keep the infusion on very low heat for 30 minutes. Pass the cream through a fine strainer, but keep whatever doesn't pass through in the strainer, you will need it soon(don't let it drip all over the place). Weigh the cream and subtract this weight from 290g. Add the difference, in grams of water, to a separate container and then pour the water over the leftovers still in the strainer, being sure to mix this water with the already passed cream. I know this seems like a lot, but I(and I think you) want this extra water during the cooking process and pouring it over the aromatics in the strainer gets out any little bits of flavor or cream you would have otherwise left behind(I'm positive no one wants to throw away free flavor). Press all of the liquid out of the strainer that you can, and then discard anything that doesn't go through. Add 5g of salt to the cream.

Work quickly at this point or the potatoes will start to brown. Peel and slice the potatoes 2mm thick. Once sliced, do not place the potatoes in water. Place the potatoes into a large bowl and toss with 7g salt. Coat the bottom of the a baking pan with infused cream and shingle the potatoes in one uniform layer over the cream. You want to leave behind any liquid or salt that runs off of the potatoes during this process(i.e. the bowl should have a few tablespoons of brine left when you are done).
Coat the potatoes with cream and a small amount of both cheeses. Repeat until you run out of potatoes. Any left over cream or cheese should be applied to the top layer.Bake uncovered at 300F for around 3.5 hours, until the top is dark brown and enough moisture has evaporated so that the potatoes are not swimming in cream.

The cross-section

The plate it up

Lamb rack, flap, and sausage with Berkswell and Pyrenees Brebis new potato gratin, fava bean and morel mushroom stew, mustard greens, and lamb jus

If you keep baking until fat starts to collect on top of the gratin you have evaporated too much water, broken the cream, and separated the cheeses. You want to bake it slow for a long time, but not too long. Adding water back to the cream after infusing should prevent this from happening, but if it starts to get fatty take it out, unless it isn't brown, then you should broil that thing hard and fast before removing from the heat. Making this days in advance and letting it chill completely will allow you to cut uniform, accurate portions. It tastes great freshly baked, but it doesn't look pretty out of the pan it was baked in. The cheeses I used are expensive, the Berkswell especially. I think it was worth it, but I can't be sure until I do a side by side, blind, tasting. I just used them because they are both delicious sheep's milk cheeses and I was serving it with various delicious sheep parts. It made sense at the time.

Hugely,

Adam

Pommes Soufflée

The first time I was exposed to souffléed potatoes was when a Certified Master Chef(CMC) decided to make them, randomly, while teaching a class at culinary school... we didn't have much success. Conceptually, they do not really appeal to me; they are a hybrid, not a chip, and not a fry. However, I love frying potatoes, so I couldn't resist exploring this uncommon preparation.  I did some research and found that all of the recipes called for two frying stages.  Other than this, there were subtle differences in fry temperature or shape of the potato.   I bought a few potatoes and decided to run the gamut; fry at a bunch of different temperatures and cut a bunch of different shapes.
Here are the short answers:
Does the shape matter? Not really.
What thickness is best? 2mm
Does the type of potato matter? Yes, a lot.
What temperature for the first fry? 310°F
What temperature for the second fry? 380°F
How long do I let the potato rest in-between frys? Do not let the potato rest.

Now the long explanation:
I used russet and carola potatoes. I started by ring cutting some and leaving some in the natural shape of the peeled potato. I tried frying in increments of 10 degrees Fahrenheit for the first and second frys. The range for the first fry was 270-360. The range for the second fry was 360-400. Through these temperature ranges I was trying 3 different thicknesses 2,3 and 4 mm. Here are some shots of what it looked like.

From these trials I found that the 2mm slices had the best texture, and starting at 310F dried them out, generated a good amount of steam to puff the sides, and didn't prematurely brown them. Also, finishing above 380F turned the potatoes dark brown in just a few seconds, but below this temperature doesn't generate enough steam to get the puff.

To be honest though, none of the potatoes really puffed, they blistered, and all looked liked they wanted to puff, but they all looked like this. LAME! I wanted crunchy potato pillows. I was feeling defeated, all of these trials and not much to show for it.

I then decided to try a different technique. I didn't think to do this initially because when I was researching for this little project I read a story about how these were supposedly "discovered" when a chef started to fry a chip and then had to pull it out before it was done, and then refried it.  This implied a resting period. I noticed that the potatoes would start to puff in the first fry, and then deflate, they would even hiss as they cooled down.  I started to realized that if I just went directly into the hot oil they would go from kind of starting to puff, to fully puffed and never deflate.  All of a sudden I had the pillows I wanted, crunchy, crisp, and airy. I also was getting all of the potatoes to puff. In the earlier trials a few of the potatoes, like one out of 50, would really puff up, but most would just kind of half-puff. There was one exception to the no-resting-double-fry technique, the carola potatoes never puffed as much as the russets, not even close. Check it out.

Two frying pots!

Above: carolas right russets left

Here, on the right, is the close-up of the not so great puff of the carola, everything above is russet, little potato pillows!

Oh, and if you don't have a use for the trim from the ring cut potatoes, just fry them crisp at 310F the whole time and then cover in an egg(knoll krest farm) and cheese(gouda parrano), this was my roommates late-night snack while I was trying to figure out how to get the potatoes to puff.


No matter how you fry them, potatoes are going to taste pretty good after getting some hot oil treatment. I had to eat a lot of mediocre ones during these trials, but I didn't mind.  If you want the specific taste and texture of a souffléed potato then I hope my experience with them helps you along the way.

Let me know what you think!
Have you noticed I have a hard time formating pictures so they fit with the text!? I would appreciate some help.

As always,

Adam