I figure that this dish is a culinary school standard, so you guys might have ideas on where I went wrong.
Cut potatoes into barrels, Browned top and bottom in neutral oil. Drained oil, added butter, thyme, rosemary, garlic. Chicken stock ⅔ of the way up the potatoes. Put in hot (425) oven for ~15 minutes. Stock evaporated. Potatoes cooked and delicious, but the browned top was soggy not crunchy. Is there a trick to keeping the crunch??
I find it amazing that with so much stock it evaporated out in 15min. Use a shallow pan and less stock, but insulate the pan underneath by using crumples layers of foil or placing a slightly smaller pan underneath to create an insulating air gap. 2 dissimilar sized round oven pans work great. That way you could go to 500F if you wanted. You can take the remaining viscous goo and butter, add it to the plate, and drop the potatoes on it, the butter goes over the top. Or use the goo for something else to preserve the subtleness of the potatoes, but goodness don't just toss it.
Yes, they will not stay crisp for long. It is recommended that they soak in cold water for a while, but if you really want some crispness then par-boil for 5 or 10min before browning.
Thanks for all of the advice. I think also I took them out too soon / used too much stock. Once the steam has gone, they should probably (re-)crisp liked roast potatoes. The rapid evaporation may have been due to airflow in a convection oven; maybe I should use a cartouche in a convection oven.
Thanks for the suggestions. The Guardian article was pretty good. It was a different style of potato: all butter, no stock.
In the end I turned the convection off, and that seemed to get me 90% of the way there.
Slowly cooking the barrel-shaped potato in butter, according to a post I came across a while back, was the original Fondant potato. There is no browning or added water here. I've done it this way and it is a delicious outcome.
I've always used PEI taters, but large Yukons would work well for the slow cook, and they might work for the Gaurdian butter-boil method. Yukons would definitely need some boiling to get a decent crust.
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