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.