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I'm supposed to do a potato dish for a dinner coming up. My notion was to make pommes macaire in two stages, the first at home and the second on-site.
In case you don't remember your Escoffier, pommes de terre macaire is basically a cake of coarsely-mashed potatoes that are browned in a skillet and flipped at last minute. If you like, you can then spread the top with a little sour cream, sprinkle generously with Parmesan, and run under a broiler, but this is sort of gilding the lily.
Traditionally, you boil the potatoes, peel while warm, mash coarsely with butter and salt, and then press the mixture into a well-buttered skillet (an oven-proof nonstick skillet is fabulous for this) to make a firm cake. You shove this in a 350F oven for about 30-40 minutes until the underside is deep golden, then invert it onto a plate.
My idea was to make the mash and pack it into the buttered skillet, then put that in the fridge. The next day, I dot the edges with little cubes of additional butter, put the skillet over fairly high heat until it's starting to sizzle, and then bake at 350F for about 20-30 minutes.
What do you think?
I'm a little worried that what amounts to reheated mashed potatoes will have a stale, blah flavor. Everyone (including Escoffier) says that mashed potatoes have to be used immediately or they're dead. I've also heard that covering mashed potatoes once cooked makes it worse.
Any secrets or tricks or ideas?
In case you don't remember your Escoffier, pommes de terre macaire is basically a cake of coarsely-mashed potatoes that are browned in a skillet and flipped at last minute. If you like, you can then spread the top with a little sour cream, sprinkle generously with Parmesan, and run under a broiler, but this is sort of gilding the lily.
Traditionally, you boil the potatoes, peel while warm, mash coarsely with butter and salt, and then press the mixture into a well-buttered skillet (an oven-proof nonstick skillet is fabulous for this) to make a firm cake. You shove this in a 350F oven for about 30-40 minutes until the underside is deep golden, then invert it onto a plate.
My idea was to make the mash and pack it into the buttered skillet, then put that in the fridge. The next day, I dot the edges with little cubes of additional butter, put the skillet over fairly high heat until it's starting to sizzle, and then bake at 350F for about 20-30 minutes.
What do you think?
I'm a little worried that what amounts to reheated mashed potatoes will have a stale, blah flavor. Everyone (including Escoffier) says that mashed potatoes have to be used immediately or they're dead. I've also heard that covering mashed potatoes once cooked makes it worse.
Any secrets or tricks or ideas?
