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

[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.