Purée de Pommes de Terre à l'Ail
Purée de Pommes de Terre à l'Ail·(pyoo-ray duh pum duh tair ah l-eye)
Chapter 3 — The Sides
Don't look for shortcuts here. This is the unapologetic, butter-soaked purée served beneath the glow of the zinc bar on Spring Street. It demands a formidable volume of cultured butter, an overnight steep of garlic and cream, and the fortitude to push scalding hot potatoes through a ricer. The reward is a fundamentally silky texture and a resonant flavor that will make you instantly recognize the magic of the American French bistro.
Before you start
Steep the garlic cream overnight.
Combine the garlic and cream in a saucepan, bring barely to a simmer, then hold at the lowest possible heat for 30 minutes. Cool, cover, and refrigerate overnight to pull every bit of sweet, oil-soluble flavor from the cloves without degrading them with prolonged high heat.
Ingredients
- garlic12 large
- heavy cream2 cup
- Yukon Gold potatoes3 lb
- cultured French butter3/4 lb
- Kosher salt2 tbsp
- white pepper1 tsp
Method
- 01
Blend the steeped garlic cream.
Heat the chilled garlic cream gently until steaming, then carefully transfer to a high-speed blender and obliterate until perfectly smooth and frothy. Return to the pan and keep it warm over a very low flame.
- 02
Boil the potatoes in their jackets.
Place the unpeeled potatoes in a Dutch oven, cover with cold water by two inches, and add enough salt so the water tastes like the sea. Simmer gently for 25 to 30 minutes until a knife point meets zero resistance; the skins will act as an osmotic barrier to protect the flesh from becoming waterlogged.
- 03
Peel and rice the hot potatoes.
Drain the potatoes and, working as fast as your hands can tolerate with a folded towel, strip away the skins. Immediately push the scalding hot flesh through a potato ricer back into the empty, dry Dutch oven.
- 04
Dry the potato pulp over heat.
Set the Dutch oven over medium-low heat and vigorously stir the riced potatoes with a wooden spoon for 4 to 5 minutes to steam off residual moisture. You are creating a microscopic dry sponge, desperate to absorb fat.
- 05
Beat in the cold butter.
Turn the heat to the lowest possible setting and aggressively beat in the ice-cold butter cubes a handful at a time. The chilled fat will melt slowly into the hot starch, creating a tight, glossy emulsion rather than a greasy split.
- 06
Whisk in the hot garlic cream.
Switch to a sturdy whisk and pour the hot garlic cream into the potatoes in a steady stream, whisking confidently and continuously until impossibly silky. Season aggressively with the white pepper and additional salt until the massive amount of dairy wakes up.
Notes
Respect the ricer.
Never put a hot potato in a food processor unless you want wallpaper paste. A ricer or food mill is entirely non-negotiable for achieving this texture.
Do not compromise on the butter.
American sweet cream butter introduces too much water for a potato you just painstakingly dried out. You need an 82% to 83% fat cultured butter—like Échiré, Isigny Ste-Mère, or Vermont Creamery—to achieve the necessary emulsion and subtle lactic tang.
Mind the pepper.
White pepper provides the requisite background heat without leaving rustic black specks in your pristine, white-tablecloth purée.