Recipes - French Potato Casserole

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French Potato Casserole

Zola Gorgon

"One Potato, Two Potatoes, 23 Potatoes, more!"

My husband and I went on our honeymoon 21 years ago this month. We've really been married 22 years but we are one of those couples, that when we married, paid for our own wedding (we were a bit older). We had also started a new company together so it took us another year to save up enough money to go on a honeymoon. We wanted to travel somewhere rather exotic so it was worth the wait.

We traveled to Norway.

What a beautiful country. I can go on and on about the fjords and the mountainous scenery but without pictures what's the point? So I'll tell you a couple of stories instead.

We traveled from the south to the border between Norway and Russia on a very small cruise ship. This same ship was also the mail ship and the Norwegian equivalent of the Greyhound Bus service. The ship stopped up to 15 times a day. We'd pick up or drop off passengers. We'd deliver the mail to each port and deliver some cargo. One thing we delivered to every port was Coke; the universally accepted drink. Diet and regular. Some ports we were only in for about 10 minutes. Just enough time for us to get off the boat, cruise the dock and get back on. Other times we had opportunities for on-shore tours; just like you would on a regular cruise.

We did have a cruise director; a nice woman with perfect English skills, but much of our cruise was very out of the ordinary. There were guests from all over the world. The Germans and English had the upper class suites. We booked in for a regular suite; which we didn't know was actually outfitted in bunk beds. Yep, on our honeymoon we had bunk beds. And yes, a tear or 12 was shed by me but I got over it fast. We'd already been married a year anyway.

The food and food prep was a whole different story. The kitchen was the size of a large shoebox. They let me take a tour! I could not believe it. It was the size of an apartment galley kitchen at best. From this small space they fed 125 passengers 3 times a day as well as snacks for those that were traveling a short distance.

The meals were pretty decent. It took us awhile to get used to the Scandinavian-style breakfasts that include lots of herring and cheese. For the English they had soft-boiled eggs and for the Americans.Corn Flakes. They thought that's what we ate everyday for breakfast so that's what they served us -- everyday. I just could not bring myself to eat herring at 8 AM.

There was something else we had everyday too; and sometimes twice a day. Boiled potatoes. Boiled potatoes were the ubiquitous starch. We were on this ship for 12 days. That's a LOT of potatoes. We counted 23 times they served us boiled potatoes. That was also why I became curious and wanted to see the galley (kitchen).

I guess we could have complained about the food but it just didn't seem to matter. We had candlelight in the evening; rubber table cloths to keep everything in place if the seas were choppy and we had each other. Other than the potatoes I can't remember a thing I ate for lunch or dinner. And I'll never forget the Corn Flakes.

The recipe I'm going to share today is for one of my favorite potato dishes. It's so simple I bet they could have served it on the cruise ship but as I recall they had only one oven so maybe that's why we got so many boiled potatoes. This is a take off of a very famous, old recipe from France. They call it Pommes Anna. I've jazzed it up a bit and "Zola-fied" it. So I'll just call it French Potato Casserole.

French Potato Casserole

Serves 8

4 pounds of Russet potatoes
one cup of melted butter (use real butter)
one half cup of grated onion (white, yellow or shallots)
salt and pepper
paprika

This is an amazingly simple dish and even without any kind of cheese these potatoes taste incredibly rich. Must be all that butter!

Peel the potatoes. Put them in a deep bowl with water so they don't brown while you prepare them.

You'll need a 9 X 13" oven proof casserole. (The size can vary a bit but you'll find out soon that everyone wants some of the "crust" so keep it larger).

Slice the potatoes paper thin. I use my mandolin for this project. On level 2, I get potato slices that are a sixteenth of an inch. Uniform --and you can cut them really fast. Use your guard so you don't slip and cut yourself. If you don't have a mandolin use a very sharp knife and be careful.

After the first potato is cut put a layer of slices in the bottom of the casserole. Sprinkle on a Tbl of grated onion and salt and pepper. Now put on the next layer. After this layer drizzle on some of the butter. You're going to continue like this until all of the potatoes are gone. Don't use salt and pepper on every layer. That might be a bit much. Keep an eye on how much onion you put on between layers so it can last until the last of the potatoes. Same with the butter. You want one last drizzle on top. Then top it off with a light dusting of paprika for color and even a crack of black pepper so you have those specks on top too.

Cover the potato casserole with aluminum foil. Pop this in your 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes take off the foil and let it bake 30 minutes more. You should form a nice medium browned crust on the top. The crust is going to be a major hit. Believe me. Zola knows. Cut with a serving spoon or sharp knife and use a spatula to take it out of the casserole. It will be steaming hot.

This makes great leftovers to go with breakfast or perfect for a brunch table.

Enjoy!
Zola

This news arrived on: 08/28/2006

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