Pommes Anna (Page 571)

RECIPE #777

• Date: Sunday, July 6, 2008 -- 8pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: Matty's Apartment
• Fellow Chef: Rachel
• Dining Companions: Eric and Matty
• Recipe Rating: A-
  

I have been eying this recipe for years, but waiting until I had a proper mandoline with which to make it. Emilee bought me a beautiful mandoline for my birthday in April (thanks again Em!) so I am slowly going through the mandoline-required recipes. Pommes Anna is a dish that I have always loved, and this recipe did not disappoint. Honestly, there is no way this was going to be bad. It only had 4 ingredients: potatoes, butter, salt, and pepper. The potatoes were very thinly sliced, then layered in a nonstick skillet. Between each layer the potatoes were brushed with butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. The whole thing was then baked in the oven until the potatoes were brown and crispy around the edges and deliciously tender in the middle. Yum! Usually this dish gets inverted before it is served, to expose the beautifully browned bottom. The little blurb before the recipe in The Book says it will get inverted, but the recipe calls for it to be served right-side-up. Weird. So I didn't invert, but as you can see, it was still quite pretty. Rachel and I were very impressed by this dish. Matty thought it was just ok -- nothing terribly exciting or special. I would happily make this again though. It was quick to throw together, very pretty, and delicious!

Here is the recipe.

When choosing the recipes for dinner on Sunday, I was trying to keep everything pregnancy-friendly: no soft cheeses or deli meats, nothing with high levels of mercury or raw eggs, nothing likely to induce nausea or high-risk for food poisoning... It is a set of restrictions that until the last year or so have never really been a part of my life. Recently, though, things have changed. No, I am not pregnant, but Rachel is (congratulations Rach!), and many of my friends are either knocked up or have just recently given birth. I am super-excited about this. I love babies! I make a big fuss whenever I am around a baby -- I ooh and aahh with the best of them. So much so in fact that in the last few months at least three different people have made comments about how they can tell my "biological clock is ticking."

Actually, it's not.

Don't get me wrong, I love kids. I even hope to have some of my own someday. Emphasis on the SOMEDAY. But now? Not so much. I have a not-permanent job, I generally live alone, a thousand miles away from my better half, and I travel every other week. Just the sight of parents in airports trying to handle their kids makes me terrified of the idea of ever being a parent! I think it's funny that because I am 28 years old and ooh and aahhh over babies everyone assumes I have some kind of agenda. When I was 12 years old I ooh and aahhhed over babies and no one asked me about my biological clock! Maybe someday I will look back and wish that I had kids when I was younger, but right now I am happy to not even think about it for another few years! That said, I couldn't be more excited for my friends who are pregnant/new parents! It's so fun having babies in my life!