Blinis

Here's another recipe I got from the French Laundry cookbook.

I've tried to make potato pancakes from scratch before, and I haven't been too successful, but this recipe is excellent. The final product has a great mouth feel and is a great vehicle for other things on top.

You can serve these as an appetizer with savory toppings. You can serve them as a side dish, or you can make them big and serve them for breakfast! (I think that's what Crystal wants the most.)


Ingredients:
1 lb Yukon gold potatoes
2 Eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 tablespoons creme fraiche (or sour cream)
Kosher salt to taste
White pepper to taste

You want to keep two eggs whole and separate out the yolk from the third.

































Put the potatoes in a pan with cold water and make sure there is at least two inches of water on top of the potatoes. If you start with cold water, the final texture of the cooked potato is more creamy and consistent, not gummy.

Bring to a boil and when it boils, turn down to a simmer. Cook the potatoes until the potatoes are throughly cooked and tender. The whole process, from cold water to finish took me about a half hour, but if you get to a boil quicker, it will take less time. Once the water boils, turn it down!! If you continue to boil the potatoes, the starch granules will explode, and the final product won't be as nice!










Here's a nice simmer.




































When the potatoes are done, peel them. They will be hot, but it is important to keep them warm, because if the potatoes cool down too much they won't absorb the liquids later.

































I mashed them with a hand masher and ran them through the food processor to get all the lumps out. A food mill would be nice, a potato ricer, or a tamis.

A tamis is nice because it makes the potato very fine and consistent.

































Weigh out 9 ounces of potato (a little more than half of your original product. Whisk in the flour and two tablespoons of the cream.


































Add one egg, whisk until the batter is smooth and the egg is well incorporated, add another egg, whisk until smooth and incorporated, and add the yolk last.






































































































Here's the consistency you want. It holds a thick "V" when you pour it, but it isn't too thick or too runny.

If it's too thick, add some sour cream.

If it's too runny, add a pinch of flour.


















Cook the blinis in a non stick pan. You can fry them in butter, but if you want a more even browning, just right in the pan is great.

You can do whatever size you want. Here, I'm making them for hors d'oeuvre, but if I were making them for breakfast, I would do a five inch diameter circle.









































































Here they are topped with smoked salmon and a touch of cream cheese on the left and bacon on the right.

Large dice, medium dice paysanne of russet

Allright, i'm back with a few potatoes.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it; from only two potatoes create eight large dice, twelve medium dice and twelve paysanne (if you scroll down to the bottom you can see what they look like).


To begin, you will need a peeler, a large knife, and two large russet potatoes.











Again, like with the carrot, I like to use the santoku chef's knife (on the right) because the blade is thinner at the top. This will be up to you. The downside of the santoku is that it is lighter in weight, and there is no bolser on the heel of the blade, so your middle finger might get a little sore of being pushed up against the heel of the blade.








Next, peel your potato. I like to peel it on a paper towel so the cleanup is really easy. I like to hold the potato as shown, and then up and down motions with the peeler while I rotate the potato.








Next, slice off one side of the potoato.

Then, put the potato on this cut side and cut another side creating a 90 degree angle where the two sides meet (not pictured).









Then, slice off a chuck of the potato, keeping perfectly parallel with the cut on the side. You want to cut at least 3/4 of an inch because that's how thick the large dice is.










Next, with the chunk you just cut off, cut off a spear that has perfect 90 degree angles in an elongated rectangle.

























Next, trim off the ends that aren't square, and cut off a perfect cube with each side measuring 3/4".











If it's not perfect, because mine was not, trim it up so it is a perfect cube. (I like to have a little ruler with me to perfect it.)

You now have your template.









Take your template and line it up with some of the bigger pieces sliding it along the length so that your next cut is exactly the same as the template.

























You will end up with another rectangular spear, so then put the template at the end, and cut off a cube that is exactly the same size as the template.











Keep doing this until you have eight.














Now, you need to create medium dice, so with the scraps you have left from the large dice, look around for anything that has a thickness of at least a half inch.















I found a large segment that was kind of pristine, and did the same thing as with the large dice; cut off a section that is at least a half inch thick.































I then trimmed this so it was an elongated rectangle with perfect 90 degree angles, and cut off a section that would be my template.














I then used the template on the spears, making sure they were exactly 1/2" on all sides.

































Now paysanne. I created another spear with the medium dice template,
















And cut off 1/8" thick sheets from this spear.



































It is important that your paysanne are the same size as your medium dice (except a sheet, not a cube).

















There it is! And I did this all from one potato. As you can probably guess, the small dice (1/4" cubes) are made exactly the same way: create a template and use it to perfect your cuts.

I have to admit, these aren't perfect, and it kind of bothered me (you can really tell with the medium dice.

For recipes, these are really good for soups and stews. It is important that all of your cuts are extremely uniform, because then everything cooks evenly.






Next up: a quick honing demonstration.