I love potatoes, the French love potatoes, everyone loves potatoes. One of my missions in life is to collect every single potato recipe ever written, try them and write my own variation. I know, it’s a big job, but someone has to do it. This particular recipe is supposed to get it’s name from a time in France when wood for cooking was in short supply, so the villagers would take their potatoes in pots along to the local boulanger and have him cook them in the bread oven at the same time as the bread was cooking. I don’t know how accurate that story is, but it’s cute, so I’ll stick with it. Credit for this one definitely goes to France.

The great thing about this is it’s almost impossible to screw up. It’s very simple and takes less than an hour to cook. The best utensil to cook this dish is a wide, shallow baking dish - a lasagne dish will do also.

You will need:

Equipment:

• A sharp knife
• A cutting board
• A shallow baking dish

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs potatoes
• 1 large onion
• ¼ pint hot stock (Bouillon cubes are OK for this recipe)
• ¼ pint of milk
• 3 oz butter
• Salt and pepper
• A large bottle of wine

First open the wine, pour and sip. Now, peel the potatoes and cut them into thin slices. Not as thin as for Spanish Omelet, but fairly thin. Don’t worry, if they are a little too thick it just takes a few minutes longer to cook. I promise this one is easy. Now, peel the onion and chop finely. Heat the stock in a small saucepan while cutting the vegetables. Wash the potatoes and pat them dry. Butter the baking dish or Lasagne tray generously. Arrange a layer of potato slices, sprinkle with some chopped onion and salt and pepper. Continue layering in this way until all the potatoes are used. You should finish with a layer of potatoes on top. Season with salt and pepper. This dish should be a little salty. Now pour the stock and milk over. Place a few small knobs of butter on top and bake in the oven at 350F for about 45 minutes, until the top layer is golden brown. This dish goes well with roast chicken, roast lamb or roast beef. If serving with chicken use chicken stock if beef, beef stock. I like to serve this with a vegetable medley: peas, corn and carrots. For variations, try adding a few cloves of garlic, or using leeks instead of onions. For some reason, I can never get a combination of garlic and leeks to work, but if you do, let me know.

Bon Apetit!

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