Galettes aux pommes de terre (potato pancakes)

6 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1 pounds Potatoes; peeled and cubed
Salt to taste
¼ cup Whole Milk
3 tablespoons All-purpose Flour
2 Whole Eggs
Whites from 3 Large Eggs
¼ cup Heavy Cream
¼ cup Clarified Butter

Directions

Today's recipe also calls for clarified butter. To prepare, simply cut 2 lbs. of unsalted butter into pieces and place in a medium saucepan over low heat. Use a ladle to skim off the foam that rises to the top of the butter, taking care to leave the clear, yellow butter in the sauté pan. Let the butter cool slightly, then carefully strain it through a fine sieve into a clean glass container. Make sure you leave the milky residue in the bottom of the saucepan and discard it. You can refrigerate clarified butter for up to 2 weeks, or freeze it for up to 30 days. Two pounds of regular unsalted butter should yield about 3 cups of clarified butter.

So why all the extra work to remove some solids from the butter? Simply stated, clarified butter burns less readily because milk solids are removed during the clarifying process. Also, you can store your clarified butter longer than regular butter. If you don't want blackened-potatoes potato pancakes, you'll want to make the extra effort to cook them in clarified butter.

Place the cubed potatoes with a dash of salt in a large pot and cover with cool water. Bring the potatoes to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-high, partially cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until soft. Drain well and put through a potato ricer into a large mixing bowl.

Add milk to the riced potatoes and beat until smooth and fluffy. Stir in the flour until well blended. Beat in the whole eggs, one at a time, and then beat in the egg whites in the same, singular manner. Mix just enough to combine the ingredients without overprocessing the mixture, add the cream.

Preheat the oven to about 175-F degrees so you can maintain the warmth of the fresh potato pancakes as they are cooked.

Place about one tablespoon of the clarified butter into a large, non-stick skillet and drop rounds of potato batter into it with a ladle. Cook the pancakes for about 2 minutes on each side, or until lightly brown, with the centers set. Transfer the cooked potato pancakes to a baking sheet and keep the prepared cakes on the tray in your warm oven.

Continue cooking the pancakes until no batter remains, using more of the clarified butter as you need it.

Sprinkle the sheet of warm potato pancakes with a bit of salt, then arrange the cakes as a partially overlapping circular layer around the stuffed veal breasts (yesterday's recipe).

Serve warm.

Posted to dailyrecipe@... by Recipe-a-Day <recipe-a-day@...> on Oct 4, 1998, converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

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