Potato Basket, Potato Shitake Puree

Michel Richard is one of my all-time favorite chefs.  While I’ve only tasted his cuisine at Citronelle once, he’s been able to influence me from afar. If and when I have the time to experiment with cooking ideas each and every day (someone help me make this happen!), I’d want to model myself after the likes of Chef Richard.  Unlike the molecular gastro-chemical, guar gum, rocket science infused innovation going on these days, Richard understands the primal experience of enjoying food.  His dishes come across as simple and approachable – honest ingredients that we know and love - yet he's able to utilize complex, sophisticated techniques to create surprises for his guests.

Richard’s new cookbook, Happy in the Kitchen, is a must own.  I’ve been enjoying it thoroughly but haven’t really experimented with many of his ideas yet.  I had been excited by many of his dishes, one of them being a potato basket.   He creates long, thin ropes of potato with a vegetable turner, then wraps them around the bottom of a cucumber.  He then plunges the bottom of the cuke into hot oil, frying the potato and forming the basket.

After enjoying a terrific potato basket salad at Blackbird last week, I realized the culinary gods had spoken – potato baskets were in my future.  I finally kicked myself in the rear and went to pick up a Benriner vegetable turner for around $65. 

My first attempt at a potato basket is above.  I stuck closely to Richard’s recipe in the cookbook, filling the baskets with a silky, rich potato puree.   I added another element of earthiness by folding chopped shitakes into the puree, which I cooked previously with garlic, olive oil, chili flakes and chopped rosemary.  I garnished the baskets with whole baby shitakes and a handful of garlic sprouts. 

I enjoyed the textural contrasts in each bite of this dish – it’s a great idea that immediately begins to spark others.  As long time readers know, whenever I get hooked on a new piece of kitchen equipment or ingredient, I tend to O.D. on it.  So you’ll be seeing other iterations of the potato basket in the coming weeks.  I already have been thinking about a beet basket….a yam basket….a plantain basket...daikon basket...celery root basket.....If it were summer, I’d certainly do a fruit basket (sans frying).  Any other ideas I should consider?

Comments

[Roanne]

How about radishes as a bed for, um, smoked salmon? I'm just about to buy a similar gadget that turns vegetables into long spirals as well as threads. I hate deep frying though. I wonder if the potato baskets could be baked instead.

[joe]

radishes - good idea.

i think you could bake them at very high heat, roanne. but you'd need to wrap the threads around something like a ring mold vs a cuke...

[Roanne]

Good idea. I'll try doing that since I have a zillion molds.

[Aileen Bordman]

Michel Richard appears in my new film Monet’s Palate with Meryl Streep, Alice Waters, Daniel Boulud et al..Chef Richard’s talents and contributions as a Chef and his charming personality have entertained all. - Aileen Bordman

[Amien]

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