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What goes better with juicy chicken than mashed potatoes? I can't think of anything else either. Realizing six Idaho potatoes would yield a tremendous quantity of Pommes Puree, I cut the recipe in half. Well, most of it.
Pommes Puree
adapted from Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook
recipe in it's entirety can be found here
click to print
3 Idaho potatoes, halved lengthwise
1 1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1 c heavy cream
6 tbsp butter*
black pepper, freshly ground
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Place the potatoes in the large pot and add enough cold water to completely cover them. Add the salt and bring to a boil.
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Water and salt added to potatoes, water coming to a boil after 18 minutes.
Cook in the boiling water until they are easily pierced with the tip of a paring knife, about 15 minutes.
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Drain the potatoes, discarding the hot water, and when they are just cool enough to handle remove as much of the skins as possible.
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In the small pot, combine the heavy cream and butter and bring the mixture to a boil watching closely.
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This took less than 4 minutes; when it starts boiling, it's seconds before it's boiling over.
In the meantime, return the potatoes to the large pot and mash them with the potato masher.
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Once the cream mixture has come to a boil, pour it in increments into the potatoes and mix well. Add cream. Mash. Add cream. Mix. Do not overwork the potatoes.
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When the mixture is creamy and smooth, season with salt and pepper and serve.
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Guessing, incremental cream additions should've been more generous with the cream and less frequent. I think all of my mixing and mashing to incorporate each little bit of cream at the beginning resulted in my potatoes being overworked, thus a little gluey. Notice how I was catching on to this even as I was mashing them, at the end dumping in the equivalent of the first three cream additions. Flavor-wise though, they are very good and went exceptionally well with the Chicken Marbella, still able to absorb the main dish juices.
I'll certainly do this again, particularly when I repeat the Chicken Marbella. Next time I'll anticipate how long it takes for the potato water to boil so I can better align the dishes coming together. The chicken had to stand around a little while so I could finish the potatoes.
*Interestingly, there seems to be a discrepancy in the cookbook regarding US and metric units. For instance, it says "6 tbsp/75 g butter". My unsalted butter package says 1 tbsp butter is 14 g, which makes 6 tbsp 84 g. I thought I was using 6 tbsp when I measured 77 g at the time. Pricing below reflects the 77 g I actually used.
Cost:
- potatoes: $2.30
- cream: $1.99
- butter: $0.27
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