TOD:
Potatoes Anna -- (I use the recipe in a cookbook I have) - 3 or 4 potatoes peeled and sliced to 1/4" thickness. Butter a 9" pan or dish, lay out the slices (overlap) in circles, starting from edge (reverse the direction of each new circle). Add fresh sprigs of rosemary along with individual rosemary leaves scattered over the potato slices. Drizzle potatoes with melted butter...1/4 cup or more depending upon your heart condition. Cover tightly and bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Then uncover, reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake another 50 minutes or so until the potatoes are golden brown. Oh, yum! This is a simple variation of the traditional
pommes Anna which is, naturally, a French concoction. I LONG to try one cooked the original way in one of those
la cocotte à pommes Anna special pans (very expensive and unique to this one dish).
At any rate, "Potatoes Anna" is potato heaven. The potatoes will caramelize on the outside and be tender on the inside. There are variations on this recipe that allow you to mix it up, say with garlic and parmesan. Ooof. Most recipes for the French version call for "thin slices" but my recipe wants them a bit thicker. I've also read a recipe that instructs you to rinse the potatoes under cold water to remove the starch and then to individually salt and pepper each slice before laying them out in the pan.
The photo below shows a version that has been layered prior to cooking. Likely, it was flipped during the cooking process to ensure the caramelization on both sides of the potatoes. That special pan I mention above allows the entire pan to be flipped for continued cooking. I also read a recipe that indicated the writer used her stove top to cook the dish in a 9-inch skillet. When she determined the bottom was cooked sufficiently (by using a spatula, one can lift the edge and look under to see if the caramelization has begun). She then lifted the potatoes out of the pan by sliding them onto a plate...she inverted the plate over another plate to expose the cooked side...and then she slid the potatoes back into the skillet from the plate to continue the cooking until the dish was done.
I loves me my potatoes Anna!
