Sometimes the simplest, least complex dishes provide the most pleasure. At La Petite Bouchée, we follow this ethos, using prime, locally sourced ingredients and complimenting them with big flavours using homemade stocks, fresh herbs and spices in our scratch kitchen.
With every main course comes a bowl of our legendary crispy French fries, a stunning seasonal salad and another typically French potato based dish.
In February we decided the menu still wasn’t ready for the return of our creamy rich Dauphinoise potatoes and so I substituted them for Provençal potatoes, using our darling Mama’s recipe.
I’m so delighted to say that they have been the hugest hit. We’ve received so many fabulous comments and given the recipe to so many customers we thought we’d share this wonderful winter warmer with you all.
Growing up we often had this dish or my other favourite potato dish the humble Potato Boulangerie , made with potato, onion, stock and herbs as part of a Sunday roast or with other grilled meats during the week.
Like so many classic French Bistro style recipes, these tray baked dishes would be taken to the local Boulangerie and placed in the bread ovens after the morning bake had finished to cook slowly, so that they were ready in time for the main meal of the day.
We don’t have a bread oven here, but I do like to stick with tradition and cook this dish and other potato tray-baked dishes low and slow. It just ads to the flavour and intensifying and enriching every mouthful.
I think our Mama would have been totally overwhelmed by the response to what she referred to as simple French peasant cooking, we are certainly super proud of the love that this dish has been shown this month and so, without further ado. Potatoes Provençal.
Ingredients
A large knob of butter, divided in two.
1 kilo of potatoes, leave unpeeled, thinly sliced ( we used Maris Piper)
2 large white onions, sliced
8 tomatoes sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed and roughly chopped
A large glass of white wine or two
Vegetable stock, litre
Herbes de Provence - We used fresh thyme, parsley, oregano.
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Heat the oven to 225o
Using half the butter, grease a heavy based baking dish. Then layer the sliced potatoes, sliced onion and sliced tomatoes and herbs, until you end up with potatoes on the top. Make sure you season each layer as you go with salt and pepper and a smattering of the herbs. Make up a litre of vegetable stock using wine and hot water. Pour over the potatoes, onions and tomatoes until they are covered. Scatter the remaining butter over the potatoes on the top later then place in the hot oven for 30minutes. Then after 30minutes, reduce the heat to 100 degrees and cook for four hours covered in foil. Take out of the oven and allow to rest for ten minutes before removing the foil. Serve with fish or meat or on their own with a salad and plenty of baguette to soak up the juices. Enjoy !
