Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (172 page)

Galettes de Pommes Duchesse

[Mashed Potato Pancakes from the Leftovers]

Leftover
pommes duchesse
is delicious when formed into cakes and sautéed in butter. This works for browned
pommes duchesse
but is more successful with the uncooked mixture, and although you may bake rather than sauté the potatoes, which is easier to do, much the best flavor and texture comes from sautéing.

For a dozen 3-inch cakes,
serving 4 to 6 people

About 2 cups of the
pommes duchesse
mixture, Step 1 in preceding Master Recipe

1 cup dry, not-too-fine crumbs from nonsweetened, homemade-type white bread

A sheet of waxed paper on a tray

5 to 6 Tb clarified butter (melted butter, skimmed; clear liquid butter spooned off milky residue)

A large (11-inch) frying pan, preferably no-stick

A buttered baking sheet

If the potato mixture is freshly made, let it cool. Either rolling and patting them in the lightly floured palms of your hands, or forming them on waxed paper with a wet rubber spatula, make smooth cakes of the potato mixture 3 inches in diameter and ¾ inch thick. As each is formed, place it on the bread crumbs, heap crumbs on top, pat a thin layer in place, and arrange the cakes in one layer on waxed paper.

(*)
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE
: If you are not going to sauté them immediately, cover and refrigerate; they will keep perfectly well until the next day.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Shortly before serving, film frying pan with ⅛ inch of the clarified butter, heat to very hot but not browning, and arrange as many potato cakes in pan as will easily fit in one layer. Sauté for 3 to 4 minutes on one side, until nicely browned and crusted, turn and sauté on the other side. Arrange on baking sheet and keep warm in oven while sautéing the rest, adding more butter to pan as necessary. The potato cakes may be kept warm for 15 minutes or more, but are at their best and freshest the sooner you serve them.

Galettes de Pommes de Terre Farcies

[Filled Potato Cakes]

With a stuffing of ham, mushrooms, and cheese, potato cakes become a main course. Serve them with a green vegetable or a salad. Rather than sautéing them, you may find baking easier.

For 8 cakes 3½ inches in diameter,
serving 4 or more people

Ingredients for the preceding potato cakes plus:

¼ lb. (1 cup) finely diced fresh mushrooms

1 Tb minced shallots or scallions

Salt and pepper

⅓ cup finely minced ham

½ cup grated Swiss cheese

Sauté the mushrooms and shallots or scallions in a tablespoon of the butter in a small pan until mushroom pieces begin to separate from each other and to brown very lightly. Season with salt and pepper, add the minced ham, and sauté a minute more. Set aside. Form half of the potato mixture into 8 disks 3½ inches in diameter and about ¼ inch thick. Spread the ham and mushrooms in the center of each, and top with grated cheese. Cover with disks made from the remaining potatoes.

To cook, either dredge in bread crumbs and sauté in clarified butter as in preceding recipe, or arrange on a buttered baking sheet, sprinkle with bread crumbs and melted butter, and bake in upper third of a preheated 400-degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes until lightly browned.

A BEAN PURÉE, THREE TURNIP RECIPES, AND A CRÊPE

Any change from routine is a happy event, particularly when it is a substitute for the usual starchy vegetable choices. Here is a clever purée of beans and pumpkin, two purées involving turnips, plus a turnip sauté, and a new kind of
crêpe
made of green peppers and tomatoes.

GRATIN DE POTIRON D’ARPAJON

[Purée of Pumpkin or Winter Squash and White Beans]

A combination of pumpkin or squash and beans goes especially well with goose, duck, turkey, pork, or sausages. This is also one of the few vegetable recipes where you may successfully substitute canned or frozen ingredients for fresh, as noted near the end of the directions in Step 1, and in the ingredients for Step 2.

For 4 to 6 people

1)
The pumpkin or squash

1¼ cups
mirepoix
vegetables (½ cup each of finely diced onions and celery; ¼ cup diced carrots)

3 Tb butter

A covered 2½- to 3-quart flameproof baking and serving dish 2½ to 3 inches deep

2 lbs. yellow-fleshed winter squash or pumpkin (6 cups peeled and roughly sliced)