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Herby Boulangere potatoes recipe

boulangere potatoes are delicious with lamb

Boulangere potatoes dish straight from the oven

I like to bake food in the oven every now and then. Somehow I think that this releases me to get on with other things rather than keeping me anchored to the sauté pan or grill. So I prepare the dishes, work out the timings and pass responsibility over to a small green portable timer, that has a bleep so irritating that it can’t be ignored.

I decided to make Boulangere potatoes to celebrate Danny’s first full trug of spuds. These are scrummy and low fat. They were to accompany pork chops baked in blackberry and apple jelly and oven braised celery – my alternative to a traditional Sunday roast.

The trick to great Boulangere potatoes is to use just enough stock to leave the top layer of potatoes dry. Then you can sit down to melt in the mouth spuds topped with a crispy top. The other thing to note is to cut your spuds into really thin slices. Most people use a mandolin or the slicing disc in the food processor. This evening I left the skins on Danny’s spuds as they were still quite soft. I didn’t notice the skins in the main dish at all but the layer on the top was extra crisp. I’m going to try leaving the skins on older potatoes when I make it again.

I love the combination of mint and potatoes. Danny isn’t keen but he loved the freshness of the dash of mint in this dish.
“I don’t know what herb this is but it’s delicious.”

This is a great recipe for disguising the fact that you are short on spuds. Like mini roasts, the actual amount of potatoes in the dish is fairly low – our recipe would easily feed four.

Last night I had one helping and The Potato King had three…

 

 

Herby Boulangere potatoes recipe
Recipe Type: Side
Author: Fiona Nevile
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 90 mins
Total time: 1 hour 50 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 725g of potatoes, scrubbed and sliced very fine
  • 125g of thinly sliced onions
  • 1 large handful of fresh parsley and six large leaves of fresh mint chopped very fine
  • 750ml of hot vegetable stock (I added 2 tsp of Marigold stock powder to boiling water)
  • A drizzle of olive oil
Instructions
  1. In a gratin dish layer the potatoes, then onions, then a scatter of herbs. Finishing with a layer of potatoes.
  2. Gently pour over the stock to just below the final layer of potatoes.
  3. Drizzle this layer with a small amount of olive oil and bake in a preheated oven for 90 minutes at 200c (180c fan).
  4. Check every now and then that the top layer is not getting too brown, move to a lower shelf if necessary.

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9 Comments

  1. I referred to potatoes Boulangère on my blog a few years ago and no one had heard of it, not even the person living in France. I love it – much less rich than Dauphinoise and my mother used to cook it when I was a child, which is an added reason to enjoy it.

  2. Sounds great and I think I will try it tonight along with some chanterelles and cranberries picked in the forest this morning along with some sweetcorn from the garden and a bit of local lamb. A way to celebrate – our tractor arrived today.

  3. Fiona Nevile

    Hi Veronica

    Your recipe sounds delicious – thank you.

    Hi Ruth

    Hope that you liked it. It’s the mint that makes all the difference.

    Mandolins can be lethal…

    Hello Jane

    I haven’t heard of this recipe. Can’t wait to try it. Thanks.

  4. Hi- This is one of my favorite potato recipes too but I use half milk, half stock a la Delia.

  5. I have to try these potatoes tonight – sound fantastic!
    Hope you’re on the mend soon Fiona, bet you’ve had enough of being confined to bed? Lots of good wishes at ya. 🙂
    I can’t even watch people using Mandolins ever since Rick Stein sliced himself on tv with one – trusty Kenwood it is I think!

  6. Yummy! I love potatoes done like this. If you are feeling rich, put a leg of lamb directly on the oven shelf above the dish of potatoes. The juices from the roasting lamb drip down onto the potatoes — even more gorgeous if you spiked it with garlic and rosemary first!

    Recipe here — one of the easiest ways I know of treating people to a great meal.

  7. Fiona Nevile

    Hi Michelle

    Those Boulangere potatoes were very good – feeling much better this morning 🙂

    Poteen would be great. In my dreams…

    Hi S.o.L.

    There is a great baked gammon recipe here – with pinapple and star anise

    https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=876

    I used the slicing disk in the Magimix. We used to use a mandolin until Danny slipped and slimmed down a finger.

  8. How did you cut them so uniformly thin? Do you one of those chefy things?

    Also, I have tried to look but nothing is coming up on your recipes. But, I have a question concerning a gammon ham. We dont normally eat any form of pork or bacony type things in the house. I cant stand the smell of it cooking. no not pregnant….

    How do you cook gammon hams? Boil then bake? Or Nigella it in cola??? I nearly died a death when PB got 6 slices of ham from the deli counter and it was near £4.50. So I made him buy a 2 kilo ham from Tesco (shudder). This cost £6. Any info would be most appreciated

  9. Michelle in NZ

    What a way to celebrate – I’ll be trying this recipe with some roasted/baked chicken drumsticks tomorrow (chook legs currently brining in a bag in the fridge)

    And washing maching repair person comes some time tomorrow – that’s about a 10 hour window of time for them to arrive in.

    Zeb has just washed and is now warming up my side of the bed!

    If eating the spuids isn’t helping to heal you then get Danny busy making and distilling poteen. Anything that potent has to be a cure-all!

    Sending care, Michelle and the Purrball, xxx and purrrrrumbles

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