Jansson's Temptation

[dianeduane]

I have fine potatoes, ripe potatoes!
Will your Lordship please to taste a potato?
'Twill advance your wither'd state,
fill your honour full of noble itches.
From The Loyal Subject by John Fletcher

(heh) That Fletcher. Always digging you in the ribs with one elbow, going nudge-nudge-wink-wink in the Pythonesque manner. He was of course referring to the early rep potatoes had of being an aphrodisiac.

Never mind that. I've never made this dish before -- one of those archetypal cold-weather dishes. It's essentially potatoes (matchsticked / julienned), anchovies, and cream, with some breadcrumbs on top to make a nice crust. We'll see how it comes out. I'll take some pictures, and if one or two come out well, I'll post them.

While it's baking, I'll put a couple of things up in the eBay store. This house is full of galleys and manuscripts: I don't see why interested parties shouldn't have them.

(BTW, apparently there's some way to generate an RSS feed of the store's contents and changes. I'm still struggling with figuring this out...as soon as I do, I'll put the link up in the central column of the weblog under the store's link.)

Comments

Is that why....

[carpdeus.livejournal.com]

He was of course referring to the early rep potatoes had of being an aphrodisiac.

McDonalds sell so many fries to teenagers? <nods knowingly>

Re: Is that why....

[dduane.livejournal.com]

(heh heh) You could never tell.

But potatoes have had many strange reputations over time. For a good while there, in France, they thought they caused leprosy.

Re: Is that why....

[carpdeus.livejournal.com]

True, as have other foods (a British spy who cooked General Washington a poisoned meal and then committed suicide out of shame. Course, the tomatoes that he used had no ill effect, other than possibly hastening the existence of pizza in the New World, but I digress). The Incan mythos is filled with potato references and inhabited a land that defined both past and future.

So, how did your recipe turn out? I'm not big on sardines, personally, but I can think of some substitutions that would make it work for me.

Re: Is that why....

[dduane.livejournal.com]

It came out really well. Kind of bland, though. I ground chilies over mine. Peter added one of his patent hot sauces (they all have names like "Sudden Death Endorphin Overflow Capsaicin Murder Potion", so don't ask me to tell you which one...) and also added some Worcestershire sauce. And I hear his plate being scraped quite hard: so that must have worked.

galleys and manuscripts

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can hear Jerry now:

"Just because her house is full of galleys and manuscripts that are cluttering the place up, doesn't mean you have to remedy the situation all by yourself!"

Off to hit the refresh button on ebay...

[ailbhe]

Rob's mother makes it. It's an acquired taste, her family's recipe. His father used to call it Janssons Stress.

[dduane.livejournal.com]

(grin) You're right about its acquired-ness: it's very bland. Chilies ground over it help it no end.

But I also think it might be better with smoked haddock. Or smoked bacon.

[ailbhe]

Rob's mother's version is anchovies and potatoes in layers. *shudder*.

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Gah. No onions?? Urk.

[ailbhe]

I don't know - I've never got past the top layer of little fishtail bits in white sauce. I am profoundly grateful to Rob's dad for hating it for years before me.

[dduane.livejournal.com]

(eyeroll) I wouldn't be wild about that either. Fortunately the anchovies I was using were so macerated in their olive oil that no physical bits were discernible. And the top was nice and crunchy, which always helps.

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.... I make a similar dish (when I can be bothered) with spuds, onion, chopped bacon (sometimes gammon or smoked ham), cheese and anything else I feel the need to throw in... usually layered, and topped with grated cheese and sometimes crushed nacho/taco crisps (doritos or similar). Sour cream is a nice substitution for the cheese.

Tomorrow is set to be "baking and restocking the freezer day". It's the day when I take all of the leftovers and last autumn's frozen fruit and veg that hasn't been used yet and make lots and lots of pastries and pies and stuff, thus condensing things and creating room in the freezer. *thinks* I need to make square pies/pastries so that they are more space efficient :)

It's a pity we currently have no leftover venison and rabbit stews this year - Bambi and Thumper pie goes down very well in certain circles ;) So much so that I may have to go out and buy some to make pies with.