Potato fondants
Make your roast dinner super classy with these pommes de terre fondantes, potatoes cut into neat little cylinders and then slowly cooked in butter and stock.
Ingredients
- 4 large Maris Piper potatoes
- 200g/7oz clarified butter (or ghee)
- 200ml/7fl oz chicken stock
- 3 garlic cloves, whole and unpeeled
- 3 springs fresh thyme
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Top and tail each of the potatoes with a sharp knife, then trim them where needed to make them all similar heights and thickness, removing all of the skin as you do. They should end up as a roundish, cylinder shapes.
In a small saucepan that just fits the potatoes in (you want them to be compact), add just a knob of the clarified butter.
Get it on a medium high-heat and add the potatoes, bottom-down. Squidge in any off-cuts around the neatly shaped potatoes – these are chef’s treats! You want the pan to be snug, so that the potatoes don’t move around.
Cook for 5–10 minutes, allowing the spuds to get some colour.
Flip them over and add the remaining clarified butter to cover the potatoes about halfway up.
Pour in the chicken stock, making sure the potatoes are just covered, then add the garlic cloves and thyme. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Leave to cook on a medium-low heat for around 50–60 minutes – it’s a long process but it’s worth it! You are looking for all the stock and some of the butter to have evaporated, leaving you with super soft, fluffy potatoes in a pool of caramelised butter.
Turn the heat off but leave the spuds in the pan. After about 10–15 minute they will be ready to wiggle off of the bottom of the pan. Enjoy your off-cuts as the chef’s treat and serve the neat potatoes straightway.