Pommes de Terre Anna

Ingredients

• potatoes
• butter for layering
• five or six layers

Method

1. 1

   Cut potatoes into thin roundels, wash and dry.

2. 2

   Layer them in a buttered pan, seasoning and buttering each layer.

3. 3

   Cover and cook in a good oven for thirty minutes, then drain and serve.

As published

This recipe was extracted from A guide to modern cookery (1909) by A. Escoffier, page 376. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

potatoes are generally served, baked in their skins, and accompanied by fresh butter. They may also be prepared according to the majority of potato-recipes, especially the following :— Sautées, Gratinées, Mashed, Duchesse, &c. They may also be fried; but, in that case, they should be served the moment they are ready, for they soften very quickly. Finally, they may be prepared soufflé-fashion, after the directions given under ‘* Soufflé de Pommes de Terre.”’ 2188—PEAS (Petits Pois) Whatever be the treatment to which peas are to be subjected, always take them very green and freshly gathered, and shell them only at the last minute. Peas are one of the vegetables most prone to lose their quality through want of care. If pre- 656 GUIDE TO MODERN COOKERY pared with pains, the delicacy of their flavour is incomparable; but the slightest neglect on the part of the operator renders them savourless and commonplace. 2189—PETITS POIS A L’ANGLAISE Cook them quickly in salted boiling water; drain them, and dry them by tossing them over a fierce fire. Dish them in a timbale, and serve some pats of very fresh butter separately. 2190—PETITS POIS AU BEURRE As soon as the peas are cooked, drain them and toss them over a fierce fire, to dry. Then season them with a pinch of powdered sugar, and cohere them, away from the fire, with butter, in the proportion of three oz. per pint of peas. 2191—PETITS POIS A LA BONNE-FEMME Fry twelve oz. of small onions and four oz. of breast of bacon, cut into dice and blanched in butter; add one-half oz. of flour to the latter; cook the roux for a moment; moisten with one-half pint of consommé and boil. Put one quart of freshly-shelled peas into this sauce; add the onions and the bacon, together with a bunch of parsley; and cook, reducing the sauce to half in so doing. 2192—PETITS POIS A LA FLAMANDE Prepare one-half Ib. of new carrots as though they were to be glazed. When half-cooked, add two-thirds pint of freshly-shelled peas to them. Complete the cooking of the two vegetables together, and, at the last moment, add butter away from the fire. 2193—PETITS POIS A LA FRANCAISE Take a saucepan, of a size a little larger than would be neces- sary to just hold the following products, and put into it one quart of freshly-shelled peas; a faggot containing the heart of a lettuce, two sprays of parsley, and two of chervil; twelve small onions, four oz. of butter, one-third oz. of sait, and two- thirds oz. of loaf-sugar. Mix the whole together until it forms a compact mass, and place in the cool until ready for cooking. Add three tablespoonfuls of water, when about to cook the peas, and cook gently with lid on. When about to serve, withdraw the faggot; cisel the lettuce; add it to the peas, and cohere the whole with butter, away from the fire. N.B.—Raw, ciseled lettuce may be added to the peas; but, as various tastes must be allowed for, it is better to insert the VEGETABLES AND FARINACEOUS PRODUCTS 657 lettuce whole, and to mix it with the peas afterwards, if it be so desired. The lettuce may also be quartered and laid on the peas without being mixed with them. 2194—PETITS POIS A LA MENTHE Cook the peas in salted water, together with a bunch of fresh mint. Then prepare them in the English way or ‘‘ au Beurre,’’ and lay a few parboiled mint leaves upon them when serving. 2195—PUREE DE POIS FRAIS, dite SAINT-GERMAIN Cook the peas with just enough boiling water to cover them, and season it with one-half oz. of salt, and one-sixth oz. of sugar per quart. Add a lettuce and a few parsley leaves (tied to- gether). When the peas are cooked, drain them; and reduce their cooking-liquor while they are being rubbed through a - sieve. Work the purée with four oz. of fresh butter per quart, and finally add to it the cooking-liquor, reduced almost to a glaze. 2196—MOULDED PEASE PUREE FOR GARNISH Prepare the purée as above; but keep it a little creamier. Mix with it, per quart, two whole eggs and the yolks of three, beaten and strained through muslin. With this preparation, fill some dariole- or baba-moulds, according to the piece for which the timbales are intended, and poach them in a bain-marie for from twenty to twenty-five minutes. Remember to let them stand for five minutes before un- moulding them. N.B.—Timbales of haricot-beans, flageolets, or lentil purée, are prepared similarly. 2197—CAPSICUM OR PIMENTOS (Poivrons doux) The capsicums used in cookery are of various kinds: the Chilian and Cayenne kinds (Chili and Cayenne peppers) which have a strong, burning taste, are only used as condiments. The large or mild capsicums, green, red, or yellow, are used more particularly as garnishes. Although the difference in their colouration is accompanied by a difference of quality, they are not easily distinguished in this respect; and, although the large, red Spanish capsicums are the best, the other varieties may be treated in the same way as the former. Whatever be the kind of capsicums used, either grill or scald them in order to skin them, and clear them of their seeds. According to the purpose they are intended for, they are either cut up or left whole. UU 658 GUIDE TO MODERN COOKERY 2198—PIMENTOS FARCIS For this purpose take some small, green, carrot-shaped cap- sicums. Remove their stems, after having skinned them ; empty them, and half-fill them with half-cooked, pilaff rice. Then set them in a sautépan, and carefully braise them with excellent stock. 2199—CAPSICUMS FOR GARNISHING For this purpose, the large red, Spanish capsicums are best. Braise them when they are peeled, and, when cooked, cut them up as the requirements may suggest. 2200—PUREE DE PIMENTOS Braise some large, red capsicums, with two-thirds of their weight of rice. When the whole is well cooked, rub it through a sieve, and add butter to the extent of two oz. per quart of the preparation. N.B.—This purée is particularly well suited to poached fowls and white meats, and it is well to keep it thin. 2201—POTATOES (Pommes de Terre) Ordinary potatoes are rarely of good quality in England, and they do not lend themselves as well as certain Continental varieties do to the various culinary uses to which this valuable tuber may be put. The very best kinds of potato are almost unknown in Eng- land, and the Dutch and Vitelotte potatoes have to be imported. 2202—POMMES DE TERRE A L’ANGLAISE Turn the potatoes to the shape of large garlic cloves, and cook them in salted water or steam. They accompany more especially boiled fish. The English method is to cook them without salt. 2203—POMMES DE TERRE ANNA Cut them to the shape of cylinders; slice these into thin roundels; wash them, and dry them in a piece of linen. Set these roundels in circles on the bottom of the mould proper to this potato preparation, or in a well-buttered thick- bottomed sautépan; let them overlap one another, and let the lay of each circle be reversed. Season; spread a coat of butter upon the first layer, and proceed in the same way with a second layer. Make five or six layers

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.