Pommes Anna
- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 3large russet potatoes, washed but not peeled
- Butter
- Olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Well seasoned slope sided iron or non-stick pan, 8-10 inches wide. (An omelette pan is ideal.)
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Preparation
- Step 1
Heat large knob of butter with a healthy drizzle of olive oil over medium low heat until butter melts and just starts to foam. Shut off heat under pan.
- Step 2
Using a sharp and stable Japanese mandolin — or the real French metal one if you’re lucky enough to have one — slice the potatoes into very thin but not paper-thin slices.
- Step 3
Arrange the slices tightly, careful shingling around the pan in concentric circles starting at the outer edge of the pan and working your way into the center. Season the first layer with a little salt. Repeat with each potato until you achieve three tight and gorgeous layers.
- Step 4
Turn the heat back on under the pan at medium. Drizzle the potatoes with a generous pour of olive oil and dot a few more pats of butter around the pan of potatoes. Season with salt. As the pan starts to sizzle, you will see the fat bubbling up and spitting a bit. Put a lid on the pan and seal tightly for a minute or two, giving the potatoes a little steam bath, helping to soften and cook the flesh. Remove the lid and swirl the pan with a little muscle to see if the potatoes are binding together as their starch begins to heat up. If they slip loosely all around the pan, tuck the slices back into the tight circle using a heat-proof rubber spatula and allow to sizzle and cook longer uncovered. Bump up the flame a little if the cooking sounds and looks listless — you want to hear sizzle. When you start to smell the potatoes turning golden and crisp — like the smell of toast — swirl the pan again to confirm that the potato layers have formed a cake, and then flip the pommes Anna and cook on the other side also until golden and crispy. Slide onto serving plate or cutting board, season with salt, and cut into wedges.
Private Notes
Comments
Come on folks, let's get into the spirit of the recipe here! Ms Hamilton is making the point that cooking is not about "metrics" so much as the cook and her ingredients. Pay attention to how things look and feel and smell and you will be a better cook than if you always go by measurements (or, god forbid, what Google says). If it turns out to be a greasy pan of potato discs the first time, great. Play with it until you learn why, and then make it work the way you want. Cook!
I make a recipe similar to this, but in my oven. I put a little oil in my cast iron skillet, then arrange the potatoes like in this recipe. Add some slivers of onion and minced garlic between and on top of the potatoes, and top with about 2 slices of raw bacon, chopped, for 3-4 potatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Bake at 425 for 35-40 minutes, until potatoes are tender and bacon is crisp. Pour 2 T. melted butter over the top, and return to oven for 5 minutes to crisp.
Doesn't anyone own a cuisinart anymore? 2 mm slicing disc works perfectly.
Please show some sense and responsibility! Lawsuits are a wasteful way to manage risk but maybe suing publishers of dangerous recipes is the only way to prevent their publication. Sure, you can eat raw meat and eggs without getting sick a few times. Or maybe a lot of times. But you, or some other poor reader who believes that a recipe published in a respected magazine has to be safe, is sooner or later going to get very sick eating raw meat and/or raw eggs. I just hope it's not a small child or old person whose life could be jeopardized.
Flipping is so easy. It’s a quick easy recipe I make all the time and have never missed a flip. Practice a bit, it’s a cinch.
Sorry to say, but this recipe is far inferior to Melissa Clark’s recipe of the same name. Clark’s is much more detailed and comes with a video explaining the essential step of pressing the potatoes with a 2nd pan at several stages in the process. Unfortunately I tried this recipe first and came out a total mess, the potatoes didn’t stick together at all. I then followed Clark’s instructions to the letter and I’m happy to say this time it came out perfect.
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