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Potato pavé

Sat, 11 January, 2025

⯆ JUMP TO RECIPE
Potato pavé, cubes of layered and pressed together potato slices baked then wonderfully crispened in duck fat or oil are amazingly delicious and super elaborate.

potato pave cuisinefiend.com

Not your ordinary spuds

Potatoes pavé, pavé de pommes de terre, are showy, cheffy potatoes. They are not something you would want to whip up for a weeknight dinner, nor for an informal supper with friends. No: they are a restaurant dish, they are a diva of the spud world and they are insanely laborious to make.

So now I have put you off the recipe (ha ha – hope not!), I can explain what they are, why they are called thus and how to tackle the challenge of making them at home.

scalloped potatoes cuisinefiend.com

What does ‘pavé’ mean?

Pavé means paving stones or cobblestones, so the fancy dish is simply paving potatoes.

Although the appearance is somewhat redolent of paving slabs, I consider it a misnomer. The even stacks of potato slices pressed together would be better described, in my view, as ‘stacked potatoes’ or even ‘shingled’ rather than paved.

'Paved’ makes you think of a surface covered with slabs rather than stacks of them – or is it just me being pernickety and arguing with renowned French chefs? Which, as we might guess, you should never, ever do.

paving slab potatoes cuisinefiend.com

What is potato pavé?

Labelling aside, it’s a wonderful albeit impossibly intricate dish. It’s thin potato slices arranged in a dish in tight, overlapping (shingled, see?) layers, each brushed with melted butter. Those potatoes are baked until tender, then pressed down with another weighted dish.

They spend the night or at least a couple of hours in the fridge, to set and firm up.

The following day the stacked potato block is cut into cubes which are eventually fried on all sides until crisp and golden brown.

potato block cuisinefiend.com

Pavé or dauphinoise?

All this slicing and stacking might rightly bring dauphinoise to your mind, so what’s the difference? Even though you might have considered potatoes dauphinoise a fancy dish above your pay grade, they are nothing compared to the pavé thing.

Dauphinoise are sliced and stacked in layers but merely baked in a creamy bechamel or cheese sauce. Spoon them onto your plate from the dish and tuck in. Clearly, compared to the pavé palaver (pa-la-vér, he he), they are a doddle.

pave de pommes de terre cuisinefiend.com

Is potato pavé worth the bother?

That’s a good question, and I’m going to evade a direct answer. If you like a challenge, love potatoes and are looking for new ways to prepare them – by all means.

They turn out deliciously crisp on the outside, quite fluffy in the middle, a little bit like some super-sophisticated chips. Plus, they definitely give you a feeling of achievement, and there’s not much to go wrong provided you painstakingly layer them and brush with butter. It’s just an awful lot of work for one side dish.

preparing potatoes cuisinefiend.com

First step: stacking and baking

I’d say first of all find a pair of oven dishes that you can stack, because once baked, the potato block must be pressed very firmly down. And the easiest way is to use another dish that will fit onto them, and can be weighed down with tins of baking beans.

But first things first: a kitchen mandolin is essential here to slice the spuds super thinly. They should be tossed with some cream so they don’t all stick together.

slicing potatoes cuisinefiend.com

Next thing: layering them into a block. Line the dish with buttered parchment and arrange the potato slices in shingles or tiles, slightly overlapping, in even layers in the dish. Every couple of layers brush them with melted butter and season with salt and pepper. The depth you’ll be aiming to achieve is about 3 cm (1 ¼ inch).

potato layers cuisinefiend.com

This can now go off to the oven, covered with foil, for about an hour and a half. Prod them with a cake tester or a pointy knife – they’re ready when it goes in smoothly.

baked potato layers cuisinefiend.com

Second step: pressing and chilling

That second dish will come handy now, to press the baked spud block down.

If you absolutely don’t have a suitable dish, cover the potatoes with a double layer of parchment and foil and pour all your baking beans and coins over it. Add more weight in the shape of tins or other heavy objects and chill the whole thing in the fridge – best overnight.

pressed potatoes cuisinefiend.com

Third step: cutting and frying

Once the potato block comes out of the fridge, the first issue is to get it out of the dish. It will need some prodding, pulling the parchment and running a knife around it to release it onto a chopping board. Any breakages can be trimmed off before cutting neat cubes of about three centimetres.

cutting potato cubes cuisinefiend.com

The fat for frying should have a high smoking point, so ghee or duck fat will be the best. Either way though, add a knoblet of butter to the frying pan at the very end, for the flavour.

frying pave cuisinefiend.com

The pavé can be browned all over, on all sides or leaving the top and bottom as it is. Be mindful: the first side takes four minutes to brown but each next will be shorter and shorter.

A sprinkling of sea salt flakes is the finishing touch, plus some finely chopped rosemary. And they need to be served piping hot!

fried potato layered cubes cuisinefiend.com

More potato recipes

Triple cooked chips, recipe developed by Heston Blumenthal, is the best chips recipe ever. The perfect homemade chips cooked on a deep fryer or simply an oil pan.

Hasselback potatoes, Swedish baked potatoes, are also known as ridgeback or hedgehogs. Take unpeeled, medium sized potatoes and slice them almost, but not quite through - that's the trick.

Potatoes boulangère, or baker’s potatoes; sliced thinly and baked in stock in the oven. A simple side of potatoes boulangère is traditional with beef bourguignon. Potatoes boulangère are baked with thinly sliced onions and a little butter.

More impressive side dish recipes

Salt baked celeriac, sweet and earthy and a Michelin grade impressive centrepiece dish. Salt crust dough made from flavoured salt and flour, you crack it open like an enormous soft boiled egg. Or a pathologist opening the skull.

Anchovy braised vegetable medley, Provençal style aubergine, courgette and mushrooms gently cooked in anchovy sauce with garlic and a touch of lemon.

Flat iron mushrooms, a mix of cultivated mushrooms pressed flat whilst cooking, to concentrate and wonderfully enhance their flavour.

pave potatoes cuisinefiend.com



Potato pavé

Servings: 4Time: 3 hours plus chilling overnight

INGREDIENTS

  • 600 g (1½ pounds) all-round potatoes like King Edward
  • 60 ml (¼ cup) double cream
  • 100 g (7 tbsp) unsalted butter
  • salt and black pepper
  • groundnut oil or ghee for frying


METHOD

1. Peel the potatoes. Slice them paper-thin, less than 1mm, using a mandolin. Place in a bowl and toss with the cream.

2. Prepare a rectangular gratin dish or tin, preferably one of a pair so the other can be used to weigh the potatoes in the dish down. Butter it and line the bottom with a strip of parchment, with two ends overhanging. Butter the parchment. Melt the remaining butter and keep warm.

3. Start arranging the potatoes in the dish in layers, slightly overlapping like shingles. After every couple of layers season with salt and pepper and brush with melted butter (leave a little butter to add to frying at the end). You’re aiming for the depth of at least 3 cm/1¼ inch. In the meantime preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4.

4. When all the potatoes are used up, cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 80-90 minutes until a skewer inserted into the potatoes slides in easily.

5. Take off the foil and cover the potatoes with a piece of parchment. Weigh them down with the other, fitting dish, or anything you can find like a length of foil and baking beans or small coins. Press down, add more weight like tins and leave to cool down for half an hour, then in the fridge overnight.

6. To turn the potato block out, release it by sliding a sharp knife around the sides. Turn it out with the parchment and peel it off. Trim the edges with a sharp knife and cut the block into cubes about 3 cm.

7. Heat the oil or ghee in a non-stick pan, enough to cover the bottom. Add the cubes layered side down and fry over medium heat for 4 minutes, until browned and crisp. Turn them over and fry on the opposite side, which will take about 3 minutes. You can crispen the other sides as well or leave them pale. At the end of frying add a knob of butter left over from brushing, for flavour. Remove the pavé onto paper towels to drain the fat, sprinkle with flaked salt and serve immediately.


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