Posted by johngl
The versatile hash browned potato boats, homemade crème fraîche, and American farm-raised white sturgeon eggs
To make this party favorite, start with grated Yukon Gold potatoes:
I tried this recipe with Russets, but I liked the Yukon Golds because, um, well, they looked better once they were fried. Either way, you will want to squeeze the moisture out of the potatoes before you try and make the boats (or regular hash browns for that matter). It is amazing how much juice came out of three medium sized potatoes:
I haven’t quite figured out what to do with potato juice yet, so it just winds up dumped in my garden.
Anyway, once you squeeze the dickens out of the potatoes, they are ready to be formed into the boats using a mini muffin pan:
If you have extra taters, you can also make some patties using a 3″ ring mold:
You might recall the above from underneath the duck breast in the previous post.
Boats go into a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes:
The pancakes go into a fry pan:
Remember, neither of these are fully cooked yet. You are doing this just to lock in the shape.
This also gets the bulk of the work out of the way. A quick flash fry in 375 degree peanut oil and they crisp up quickly right before you are ready to serve them.
Making the crème fraîche is pretty easy. Take a cup of heavy cream (preferably not ultra-pasteurized) add two tablespoons of buttermilk and a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Leave this in a covered container out on your counter for 36 hours and it firms up nicely. I suppose you can just buy the stuff, but at about $5 for 8oz. I think it is overpriced. Besides, I like the homemade stuff better.
Since the Caspian Sea Caviar is really expensive these days, and Beluga is outright banned in the USA, I opt for some some pretty good farm raised stuff. Still pricey at $40/oz., I don’t eat this stuff all the time. But hey, it is the holiday season. Also, if you are a caviar piggy and blow through all the boats, just plop some on some Kettle™ Krinkle Cuts:
The boats paired with a great champagne (in this case, Deutz), is tough to beat:
