Series 2: Part 2 - Bread of Life

The Potato Show was the title for the first episode from Julia's television series - "The French Chef 1". Apparently the potato only became fashionable around 1771 and was referred to thereafter as the "bread of life".  Julia found over 200 hundred French recipes for the potato but limited the 1/2 hour TV session to four recipes. These consisted of a combination of scalloped and grated potato dishes.


I choose to cook the "Crepes de pommes de terre" -  grated potato pancakes. Eldest daughter Caroline approved of this as it ticked the potato and pancake box.
4 oz of cream cheese was required to be mixed with one egg with the grated potato at the ready. You had to move smartly as Julia warned that potatoes brown quickly and that would cause "bad psychology for the cook" and I definitely did not want that!


Once you had grated the potato you had to squeeze the living daylights out of them to remove the water. This was referred to as the "amusing part" and I carefully followed Julia's food hygiene requirements of using a clean towel for this part as "not to offend anyone". Once squeezed and mixed with the other ingredients it was simply just the task to pan fry. After watching Julia attempt a few flips with "the courage of her convictions" and losing some of the potato across the kitchen I decided a relaxed non-adrenalin infused turn over with a simple fish slice would do the trick.


The potato pancake went down nicely as an accompaniment to the steak and salad we had for dinner that night... and it got the tick of approval from one of the most discerning food critics (and you thought Michelin rating was difficult!)

Approval from the food critic

Grating

Squeezing

Pan frying