2023 Tour de France - Stage 8: Libourne to Limoges.
The best part of doing these culinary ridealongs is getting into some deep, regional, grandma cooking. I would never develop some of these dishes, even in the farthest reaches of my mind. There are duds and there are studs. This dish falls squarely in the latter category. Somewhere between gnocchi, twice-baked potatoes, beef wellington, and pot pie, you will find today’s Potato Pâté. Is it pâté? Non! Well, at least not in the way it is commonly referred. So…what is it? This is a dough made from mashed potato and flour (gnocchi), that was cooked, mashed and baked with cheese (twice-baked potato), surrounding savory mushrooms and onions (beef wellington) in a cream-laden slurry (pot pie). Throw it in the oven, slice it up, and wonder why you’ve never thought of this before.
Potato Pate
¾ lb potato, peeled, cut and boiled
2 oz thick cut bacon, sliced into ¼” wide strips
Small onion, diced fine
¾ lb button mushrooms, cleaned and diced
⅓ cup of softened butter
2 oz of shredded Gruyere cheese
½ cup AP flour
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
2 egg yolks
1 cup cream
Prepare your potatoes in salted water until they are just knife tender. Drain and place in a medium-sized bowl.
Meanwhile, render your bacon in a small skillet, over medium heat, until just firm but not crisped. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the rendered bacon to a plate and reserve.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Add the diced onion to the bacon fat and saute a few minutes until beginning to soften, then add in the diced mushrooms, along with 2 tbsp of butter. Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook until the mushrooms have fully softened, about 10 minutes. Uncover, adding the reserved bacon and cook until most of the juices have been reabsorbed.
While the onions and mushrooms cook, add the remaining butter to the reserved bowl of potatoes, along with the cheese, 5 tbsp of the flour, egg yolks, and salt and pepper. Mash everything together, then start to knead it in the bowl until a cohesive dough forms. Split the dough in a 60/40 ratio.
Butter a pie plate, or other small round casserole, and press the smaller portion of dough into the bottom of the dish (the potato layers will be fairly thin).
Once the mushroom mix is ready, dust with the remaining flour and stir with a wooden spoon until fully absorbed. Pour in the cream, stirring constantly. The mixture will seize up and that’s fine. Once everything is mixed together, pour over the bottom potato layer in the pie dish.
Start patting the remaining dough in your hands (or on parchment or wax paper) and place on top of the mushroom mixture. Press the dough out to the edges, or invert the already formed dough disk and peel away the parchment/wax paper.
Prick the top layer all over with a fork. Place the dish on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until the top begins to lightly brown. Turn on the broiler to finish the browning process, approximately another 5 minutes.
Place on a rack to cool for 10 minutes, then slice up and serve. ______________________________ Copyright 2023, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.