17 June 2009

Coined Potatoes



Mezza Luna is a great restaurant! The owner/chefs trained under Frank Stitt in Birmingham and put their own creative touch to food in Huntsville. Beginning in May, they started a once a month cooking class. It's a demo style class where everyone sits around the bar and watches. And of course anyone is free to get up and go behind the bar to look if they can't see well from where they're sitting. Most of us seem to be a lazy bunch. We just sit and have some drinks while we watch. LOL. Once all the food is prepared, the attendees have dinner. I have loved both classes so far.

Classes are normally to be held on the 3rd Sunday of the month. In May, one of the dishes was Coined Potatoes. These are both simple and elegant. Served at room temperature with a vinaigrette dressing, I consider them a salad. Our veggie box had quite a few new potatoes and spring onions, so I decided to make a batch of these today. They're a wonderful recipe for "eating local". And I used the mandoline for slicing. I figured it was safer than a knife as it has a guard.

Mandoline


Let's start with the onions and new potatoes.


The mandoline does a fabulous job of slicing things very thinly. Check out the onions.


Mandoline in action (guard removed for photo, only. ALWAYS use the guard when slicing veggies with the mandoline!)


And perfectly sliced potatoes



Potato slices in the pot with salted water


Draining


Potatoes and onion vinaigrette


And our lovely plate of coined potatoes



Here is my slightly adapted recipe.

Coined Potatoes

3 spring onions
6 Tbsp pinot grigo vinegar or other white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar
1 tsp of sugar
kosher salt
12 red new potatoes
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Peel and slice shallots very thin. A mandolin is good for this. Combine sliced shallot rings, vinegar, sugar, 1/2 tsp of kosher salt. Mix together and allow mixture to sit for about 10 minutes.

While the mixture is resting, slice potatoes 1/8” thick. Put the coined potatoes in a pot of cold water. Salt the water with 3 to 4 Tbsp of kosher salt and bring to a boil. The water should be about the same salinity as the sea. Strain and place potatoes in large bowl. Pour the shallot and vinegar mixture over the top of potatoes and toss with extra virgin olive oil. Spread the potatoes on a sheet tray and let cool to room temperature to serve.

Now how easy was that?
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Becky...

Chuckled out load when I read...'How easy was that?'

Your 'coins' look delicious and I can't wait to try the recipe, although I do not trust myself with the mandoline!!! I would cut myself for certain.

Glad you felt well enough to cook today.

I must go back and check to see what size jar you have the wonderful citrus 'resting' in.

I want to have some prepared asap so that I can think of you this summer while I sip...(as if I don't every day!!!)

Susan

Becky said...

Susan, you make me smile. :-) The potatoes really are easy and so good. In our class they were served with grilled asparagus, and grilled mahi mahi with salsa verge. Last night I served them with rotisserie chicken.

As to the mandoline, it's safer than a knife. The problem comes when people take shortcuts and use them without the guard. And it cuts the potatoes so thin that really all you need to do is bring them to a boil and they are done. I'd never really seen them cooked like that before and I love the technique.

The vin de pamplemousse, I scaled down and only made enough to fit in a one gallon glass jar. I won't be here. so my Mom is gonna take charge of it. She's not really able to handle or store more than that. And as she really loves grapefruit, I was making it to share with her anyway. :-) If you like, when you serve it, you can always pour it with some prosecco in the same glass to give a little bubbly. Hope you will enjoy!!!

And I thank you so much for your continued good thoughts and support.