Two Potatoes Anna Food

POTATOES ANNA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Using a food processor with a slicing blade or a sharp knife, slice potatoes as thinly as possible, 1/4 inch thick or thinner. (Do not place sliced potatoes in water; the starch is needed to bind the layers.)
• Brush bottom of a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with 1 1/2 tablespoons butter. Starting in center of pan, arrange potato slices, slightly overlapping, in circular pattern, covering surface. Brush with another 1 1/2 tablespoons butter; season well with salt and pepper. Repeat for two more layers.
• Place over high heat until butter in pan sizzles, 2 to 4 minutes.
• Transfer to oven; bake until potatoes are fork-tender, about 1 hour. Remove from oven. Run a small spatula around edges of potatoes; slide large spatula underneath potatoes to loosen. Carefully invert onto a plate, and cut into wedges.

POTATOES ANNA

Steps:

• Heat oven to 425°F. Place potatoes in large bowl of cold water. Grease bottom and sides of 10-inch nonstick ovenproof skillet with 1 tablespoon of the butter. Spray 12x12-inch piece of foil with cooking spray.
• In 1-quart saucepan, heat remaining 4 tablespoons butter, the thyme and garlic over medium heat 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly until butter is melted but garlic has not browned. Remove from heat; set aside. In custard cup, combine salt and pepper.
• Drain potato slices; pat dry between paper towels. Starting in center of pan, arrange 1/4 of potato slices, slightly overlapping in circular pattern, covering bottom of pan. Brush with 1/4 of butter mixture; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of the salt mixture. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese.
• Repeat layers two more times, ending with cheese. Top with one more layer of potatoes, brush with remaining butter and sprinkle with remaining salt mixture. Press top of potatoes firmly with metal spatula. Cook uncovered over medium-high heat 5 minutes, gently shaking pan occasionally to prevent potatoes from sticking. Cover with foil, sprayed side down.
• Bake 15 minutes. Remove foil; bake an additional 20 to 25 minutes or until potatoes are tender and golden brown. Remove from oven. Run small spatula around edge of potatoes; gently shake pan to loosen potatoes from bottom of pan. Carefully invert potatoes onto serving plate To serve, cut into wedges.

TWO AND TWO POTATOES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and rub with the olive oil. Bake until soft enough to yield to gentle pressure, about 1 hour. Let cool for 10 minutes.
• Heat the milk and butter in a small pot over low heat. Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh into a bowl, leaving just a little bit behind to give the skins some structure. Place the scooped-out potato skins back on the baking sheet and set aside.
• Mash the potatoes with a masher until there are no large clumps. Add the heated milk and butter as well as the Gruyere, sour cream, half of the chives, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix with a wooden spoon until well blended and smooth. Scoop the mashed potatoes back into the potato skins and top each with some of the Cheddar.
• Return the potatoes to the oven; bake for 20 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter, garnish with the remaining chives, and serve.

TWO-POTATOES ANNA

Steps:

• Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F. Peel the sweet potatoes and slice into 1/8-inch-thick rounds (use a mandoline if you have one). Peel half of the russet potatoes and slice into 1/8-inch-thick rounds. (Do not rinse-you'll need the starch for the dish to set.)
• Coat the bottom of a 10-inch nonstick ovenproof skillet with 4 tablespoons melted butter. Starting in the center of the skillet, arrange a layer of russet potato slices in concentric circles, slightly overlapping them. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and some of the rosemary leaves.
• Set the skillet over medium heat. Working quickly, add the remaining sliced russets in 2 more layers, then the sliced sweet potatoes in 2 layers, sprinkling lightly with more salt and rosemary between layers. (Check to make sure the bottom is browning evenly; adjust the heat as needed.) Drizzle with 4 tablespoons melted butter. Peel and thinly slice the remaining russet potatoes and add them to the skillet in 2 or 3 more layers, lightly seasoning each layer with salt and rosemary. Drizzle with the remaining 4 tablespoons melted butter.
• When the potatoes are golden brown on the bottom, transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the potatoes soften slightly, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven; center the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan on the surface of the potatoes and press firmly a few times to help the layers stick together. Remove the cake pan and return the skillet to the oven; bake until the potatoes are tender and the top is golden brown, about 20 more minutes.
• Let the potatoes cool 5 minutes in the skillet, then run a small knife around the edge to loosen. Set an inverted serving plate on top of the skillet and carefully flip the potatoes onto the plate. Season with salt and pepper.

SWEET POTATOES ANNA

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Thinly slice the potatoes using a mandoline, the slicing blade of a food processor or a chef's knife.
• Place the butter in the cast-iron or ovenproof skillet and melt it in the preheated oven. Remove and swirl the butter around to coat, and then pour the butter into a dish.
• Arrange the sweet potato slices in overlapping concentric circles in the skillet, brushing each layer with some of the butter, sprinkling with salt and pepper, and pressing down to compact, until all of the potatoes and butter have been used. Place a layer of foil directly on the top layer and place an empty pan on top to pack the potatoes down.
• Bake until the potato cake can be easily pierced with a knife indicating the potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes. Run a metal spatula around the edge and then carefully invert the potato cake onto a serving platter.

SWEET POTATOES ANNA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Meanwhile, slice the sweet potatoes on a mandoline. Soak prunes in port for 20 minutes, then drain and roughly chop. Coat a cast-iron skillet with butter, then arrange half of the potatoes in an overlapping circle until the bottom of the skillet is covered. Brush the top generously with melted butter, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Scatter half of the prunes over the sweet potatoes, then repeat the whole process. Press down on the potatoes so they are compact.
• Bake 20-30 minutes until potatoes are cooked through and nicely caramelized. Run a knife around the edge of the skillet to loosen. Place a serving plate on top of the skillet and flip over to serve.

HOW TO MAKE POMMES ANNA

Steps:

• Crisp frites, creamy gratins - the French do beautiful things with potatoes. And of all the magnificent potato dishes they make, pommes Anna is a classic, one that deserves more acclaim beyond France. A buttery cake composed of paper-thin slices of potato, pommes Anna is similar to potato gratin in the way it is layered and baked. But unlike a gratin, which is lightly browned on top and creamy soft all the way through, pommes Anna emerges from the oven with a tender, slippery interior and a crunchy golden crust. It is a gorgeous contrast in textures. To make it, the potatoes are trimmed into cylinders (to ensure a neat and attractive shape), sliced and then layered into a skillet sizzling with clarified butter. The potatoes are first cooked on top of the stove, to sear and brown them on the bottom, then moved to the oven to bake until the slices in the center turn soft. After baking, the pan is inverted onto a platter and presented as a stunning, burnished cake of crunchy potato petals. You can dress up the basic recipe with an array of aromatics, cheeses and other vegetables. (Here, we've added an optional touch of garlic for a sweetly pungent contrast to the mild potatoes.) But pommes Anna doesn't need it. The simple flavor of potato and butter is always a comfort, but the interplay of crisp and soft in this dish elevates it to another plane.
• Pommes Anna was created in the mid-19th century by the chef Adolphe Dugléré at Café Anglais in Paris. It was most likely named after Anna Deslions, one of the café's grandes cocottes, who is said to have entertained an international coterie of princes and other dignitaries in a private salon above the dining room. It's telling that the dish was named for a glamorous courtesan. At that time, the potato still had a somewhat shady reputation among the French, having been considered poisonous for centuries after its introduction to Europe. It seemed delectable, yet just a little bit dangerous. Potatoes arrived in France in the 16th century via the Spanish, who encountered them in what is now Colombia. The combination of the Northern French climate and the varieties of potato that were imported produced sad, watery tubers, thought to be toxic and unfit for human consumption. As late as 1748, potatoes were outlawed as crops in Paris. Because of their resemblance to the twisted limbs of lepers, the tubers were believed to cause the disease. This began to change in the late 18th century through the efforts of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French army officer who developed a taste for potatoes in a Prussian jail in Hamburg, where he was held captive after the Seven Years War. Once he returned to France, Parmentier persuaded King Louis XVI to embrace the potato, both as a delicacy for the court when dressed up with cream and butter, and as cheap, reliable food for the poor when made into soups and gruels. This is why his name is linked to several French potato dishes, including hachis Parmentier, a baked dish of minced meat and mashed potatoes, and potage Parmentier, a puréed leek and potato soup. Over the next centuries, potato preparations flourished, and potatoes soon became a necessary accompaniment to roasts, stews and sautéed dishes across the French repertoire de cuisine. Today, pommes Anna is considered to be among the finest of all French potato dishes, one skillful cooks take pride in making. Above, "Harvesting Potatoes During the Flood of the Rhine in 1852" by Gustave Brion (1824-1877).
• Mandoline This very sharp slicing tool allows you to cut potatoes thinly and evenly. There's no need to buy a pricey, stainless-steel model; an inexpensive plastic mandoline is fine and can go in the dishwasher. A sharp chef's knife will get the job done, but a mandoline is made for this task. Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has a guide to the best mandolines.Skillets Traditionally, pommes Anna is cooked in a copper pan made specifically for that purpose. A skillet, either well-seasoned cast iron or heavy-duty nonstick, works just as well (or perhaps even better). Use one with a tightfitting cover. You'll also need a slightly smaller skillet or a saucepan for pressing down the potatoes, which helps compress the cake and cook it evenly.Rimmed baking sheet It's a good idea to place the skillet on a baking sheet before transferring it to the oven; it promotes even browning of the potatoes and catches any sizzling butter overflow.Offset spatula A small metal offset spatula, which has a long, thin, blunt blade (it is often used for frosting cakes), will help you remove the potatoes from the pan easily and in one piece. If you don't have one, use the smallest spatula you have, or a butter knife.
• This recipe brings out the best in the humble potato, with a crisp exterior and satiny slices within, all of them bathed in clarified butter (a recipe is below). The garlic isn't traditional, but adds pungent sweetness. Serve it alongside roasted meat, or top it with eggs for an unusual meatless main course.
• Clear, golden clarified butter can withstand heat without burning for a longer period and at a higher temperature, making it ideal for pan-frying. The process is simple and takes just a few minutes.
• What sets pommes Anna apart from other fried potato recipes is the refinement of its technique. All the tiny details, from the potatoes themselves to the way you slice them, may seem like a lot to absorb, but understanding them is essential to success. • For the potatoes, you can use either waxy boiling potatoes or starchy baking potatoes, depending on the texture you're after. Or, if you'd like, you can use a combination of the two. Julia Child recommends waxy, low-starch boiling potatoes, such as round white potatoes, red potatoes or Yukon golds. When you use these, the potato slices remain in distinct coins as opposed to merging into a uniform cake. These slippery potato pieces make it harder to cut through the cake neatly after unmolding. It can easily fall apart. But the buttery flavor and satiny texture of the waxy potatoes are marvelous, making up for the precarious presentation. Russet baking potatoes make for a more compact cake; the starchy potato slices glue themselves into a uniform disk, one that slices into neat wedges. Texturally, the cake will have a crisp exterior with a mashed-potato-like heart. Because of their oblong shape, Russets are easier to work with than round potatoes, and you'll have less waste. • Use good butter: European-style butter with a high fat content (at least 82 percent) works best here because it contains less moisture than regular butter. • You can make pommes Anna with regular butter, but it really is worth the few extra minutes it takes to make clarified butter first. It can take the heat for longer and at higher temperatures than butter that has not been clarified, so it will be less likely to burn. • If you don't want to clarify your butter, use a combination of oil and regular butter instead. You will end up with a more neutral and less buttery flavor, but the recipe will still work. (If you decide not to clarify, then it is especially important to use that high-fat, European-style butter.) Or you could use ghee, which is basically clarified butter in which the milk solids have been allowed to brown before being removed. It has a lightly caramelized, nutty flavor.• You need to trim the potatoes so they are about uniform in size, but don't obsess over it. Using a paring or chef's knife, remove the ends from each potato, then trim the sides so you end up with cylinders. It may seem like a lot of waste, especially if you are using round boiling potatoes, as opposed to oblong baking potatoes. But you can use the trimmings in mashed potatoes or soups. • If you'd like, skip all the trimming and merely peel the potatoes. You won't get as nice a presentation when you unmold the cake, but if that doesn't bother you, you will save yourself a lot of work. • The beauty of a mandoline is that it gives you very thin and even slices of potato, and does so very quickly. (In this recipe, you are aiming for pieces that are 1/8-inch thick.) Take extreme care when using a mandoline. The blade is sharp, and your hand is moving quickly; it is easy to slice your finger. It's best to use the protective hand guard or gloves (the mesh gloves meant for shucking oysters work well). • Once you have sliced the potatoes, it is essential to dry them so they don't stick to the pan. To do so, place the slices between paper towels on a counter and press slightly. Let them sit in the open air and dry, about 5 to 10 minutes. (One way to save time is to let them sit out while you clarify the butter.) • Never rinse the potato slices. It removes their starch, which is what helps them bind together into a cake.• Before you begin layering the potatoes into the hot skillet, take a moment to place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat it. Later, you can place the skillet with the potatoes directly on the sheet, which will distribute the heat more evenly and catch any stray splashes of butter. • Do not worry about forming a perfect circle of overlapping potatoes; it will look stunning even if a potato or two is not exactly aligned. • Take care when adding the sliced potatoes to the hot butter. It can splatter and burn you. As long as you keep the pan at medium heat and add the slices quickly, you should be fine. • For a compact cake with uniform thickness, use a second skillet or large saucepan to press down on the potatoes. Choose one that is large enough to cover most of the potatoes, and butter the bottom of the pan. Press down on the potatoes twice: once before the pan is transferred to the oven, and again after 20 minutes of baking. • Remember what you're looking for: a brown, crisp bottom in the pan. (The cake is flipped out of the pan, so the bottom will become the top.) Be careful that the bottom does not get too dark; you can peek, lifting up the cake slightly with an offset spatula or butter knife. You also want all of the potatoes to be cooked through, but to maintain a bit of texture (they should not be completely mushy or too soft to the touch). The top does not need to be golden as long as the potatoes are cooked through.• Unmold the potatoes by running a spatula around the pan rim. Try to get the spatula under the potatoes, too, making sure they are not stuck to the bottom of the pan. Once you feel confident the potatoes can unmold, quickly turn the baking dish over onto a large serving platter. Or, if it makes you feel more comfortable, you can put a serving platter on top of the pan, and flip the pan over so the potato cake falls onto the platter. (Use oven mitts; the pan will be hot.) If some potato slices stick, remove them with the spatula and place them on top of the cake. • If the dish looks like a disaster, follow Julia Child's advice: Cover the cake with grated Gruyère, Parmesan or Cheddar cheese, dot with another spoonful of butter, then brown for a few seconds under the broiler. The cheese will mask any imperfections. • You can make pommes Anna up to 4 hours ahead. After draining the excess butter from the pan and unmolding the cake, flip it back in the pan and cover it. Then gently place over a very low flame to crisp up again and reheat before serving.
• Served plain, without embellishment, pommes Anna is a stunning dish. But after mastering its most basic form, you can take liberties with the recipe, adding cheeses, herbs and spices, and other vegetables.Adding cheese gives you a more intensely flavored dish with a melting, gooey center. And if you're using low-starch potatoes like all-purpose white or Yukon gold, the cheese acts as an adhesive, helping to glue the cake together. Add 6 ounces Gruyère, Cheddar or Emmental cheese, grated, along with (or instead of) the garlic. Make sure the cheese doesn't touch the bottom or sides of the pan or it can burn. You can also experiment with crumbled feta, blue cheese or goat cheese.Potatoes aren't the only vegetable that you can prepare in this fashion - other root vegetables and squashes will also work. Be sure to choose vegetables with a low moisture content so you get a crisp, browned exterior. Try sweet potatoes, turnips, winter squash, beets or rutabaga instead of (or in combination with) regular potatoes.For a bolder take on pommes Anna, substitute a thinly sliced shallot for the garlic, or add it along with the garlic. Ditto a sliced chile. You could also add a few tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs, such as tarragon, thyme, rosemary, sage or chives, or a dusting of nutmeg, cinnamon, cumin, fennel or other spices. Sprinkle herbs and spices on top of each layer of potatoes along with the salt and pepper.
• Photography Food styling: Alison Attenborough. Prop styling: Beverley Hyde. Additional photography: Karsten Moran for The New York Times. Additional styling: Jade Zimmerman. Video Food styling: Chris Barsch and Jade Zimmerman. Art direction: Alex Brannian. Prop styling: Catherine Pearson. Director of photography: James Herron. Camera operators: Tim Wu and Zack Sainz. Editing: Will Lloyd and Adam Saewitz. Additional editing: Meg Felling.
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POMMES ANNA

Steps:

• Heat large knob of butter with a healthy drizzle of olive oil over medium low heat until butter melts and just starts to foam. Shut off heat under pan.
• Using a sharp and stable Japanese mandolin - or the real French metal one if you're lucky enough to have one - slice the potatoes into very thin but not paper-thin slices.
• Arrange the slices tightly, careful shingling around the pan in concentric circles starting at the outer edge of the pan and working your way into the center. Season the first layer with a little salt. Repeat with each potato until you achieve three tight and gorgeous layers.
• Turn the heat back on under the pan at medium. Drizzle the potatoes with a generous pour of olive oil and dot a few more pats of butter around the pan of potatoes. Season with salt. As the pan starts to sizzle, you will see the fat bubbling up and spitting a bit. Put a lid on the pan and seal tightly for a minute or two, giving the potatoes a little steam bath, helping to soften and cook the flesh. Remove the lid and swirl the pan with a little muscle to see if the potatoes are binding together as their starch begins to heat up. If they slip loosely all around the pan, tuck the slices back into the tight circle using a heat-proof rubber spatula and allow to sizzle and cook longer uncovered. Bump up the flame a little if the cooking sounds and looks listless - you want to hear sizzle. When you start to smell the potatoes turning golden and crisp - like the smell of toast - swirl the pan again to confirm that the potato layers have formed a cake, and then flip the pommes Anna and cook on the other side also until golden and crispy. Slide onto serving plate or cutting board, season with salt, and cut into wedges.

POTATOES ANNA

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 400 degrees F/200 degrees C. Line an 8-inch/20 cm baking tin with parchment, and brush with butter.
• Peel and thinly slice the potatoes, then toss in a bowl with the cream to saturate. Pulling the potatoes from the cream, build layers of them in the baking tin, seasoning and scattering over the herbs as you go. Brush another sheet of parchment with butter and place it butter-side down on the potatoes. Set another heavy dish on top to weigh down the potatoes. Bake until tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Let cool before turning out and cutting into squares or wedges to serve.

POTATOES ANNA

Steps:

• Arrange& overlap potato slices in a greased 8 inch pie plate.
• Melt butter in a skillet& stir in salt; drizzle over potatoes.
• Cover plate tightly with foil& bake in preheated 425 oven for 20 minutes.
• Uncover& bake an additional 55 minutes or until potatoes are very tender& crusty; let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes.
• Using a metal spatula, carefully loosen the potatoes from the pie plate& place an inverted serving plate over the potatoes; Holding both plates, invert& unmold, then cut into wedges.