Pommes Puree, Ready for Top Billing
Mashed potatoes don’t get the credit they deserve. They’re usually thought of as a “side dish,” but I think of them as the perfect base substrate. Served skillfully, they can pair with, provoke, and highlight every other element of the plate.
When I worked at Danube and Bouley, nearly every entree came out with a tableside-plated quenelle of perfectly smooth and buttery potato puree. A perfect accent that paired with everything from Roasted Duck to Lobster. But what if mashed potatoes actually go top billing? Let’s flip things upside down. Let’s make the potato the star of the show.
Supporting Cast
Roasted chicken ‘gravy’- Enrich a chicken stock with roast chicken pieces, reduce, thicken with charred onions using a hand blender and finish with black pepper and herbs
Black trumpet and porcini mushrooms- Toast, roast, chop and bind with creme fraiche, black pepper, and parsley
Sauteed Greens- Kale, spinach, or chard
Grilled Shrimp- Spice and Lemon
Charred lemons, olive oil, hot sauce, parmgianno, creme fraiche- Pass around
The above supporting cast can be served all together or alone. Depends on the crowd.
A few thoughts to guide the potato puree production:
Use your favorite potatoes and simmer in lightly salted water with the skins on, peel after cooking, and use a ricer or food mill. Your potato flesh won’t be waterlogged and it will be thirsty for your butter and cream.
Add a 70/30 ratio of butter to dairy (milk or cream). Season well with salt and pepper
Pro tip: for extra silky push the puree through a Tamis, Chinois, or strainer.
Be loose. It should be ‘on the wave’, and remember that it will set more on the plate than it is when warm in the pan. ‘On the Wave’ is expression used to describe the looseness of properly served risotto. Supple and fluid.
Final instruction: Tell yourself and others that its okay to make a gravy divot with the back of your spoon. Play around with this concept using different potatoes and accompaniments.
