Name: Easy Decadent Fondant Potatoes
Ingredients: 3-4 russet potatoes; water as needed; 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed with the flat side of your knife; 3 fresh bay leaves; 6 oz butter, or your whole stick of Sierra butter; Salt and black pepper

Easy Decadent Fondant Potatoes

Author: Danielle Goldstein

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Ingredients

Scale

3–4 russet potatoes
water as needed
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed with the flat side of your knife
3 fresh bay leaves
6 oz butter, or your whole stick of Sierra butter
Salt and black pepper

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel the potatoes and cut off the rounded tops and bottoms to make flat edges the potatoes can stand on. Cut each potato in half through its equator, making 2 cylinder shapes out of each potato. If you want to get fancy, you can use a vegetable peeler to keep trimming the potato pieces into nice, even cylinder shapes. Otherwise, just make sure they are all about the same size and can stand on the flat top and bottom ends. Season the potatoes with the salt and pepper.
2. Heat up a cast iron pan or skillet and add 3 TBS of the butter. When it is melted, add the potatoes with a cut flat side down, so that they look like short pillars standing in the pan. Cook on the stove on medium high heat for 5 minutes, until the bottoms are a somewhat dark shade of golden brown and they release easily from the pan.
3. Add the rest of the butter, the bay leaves, and the garlic, and with tongs carefully flip each potato so it stands on its other flat side and the browned side is on top. Place the pan carefully in the oven, and using a container with a spout (like a measuring cup) add just enough water to come halfway up the potatoes; careful, it might bubble and spit a little.
4. Close the oven and cook about 20 minutes, until the liquid has reduced, the potatoes have browned on the bottom and are tender throughout. Remove the garlic and bay leaves, and serve hot.

Notes

Chef Tip

Traditional fondant potatoes are made with chicken stock or veal stock, but this vegetarian version does not sacrifice any luxurious flavor!
You can save the cooking liquid from the potatoes, reduce it further in a pan on the stove, if you want, and serve it as a sauce for the potatoes and chicken.

Make it Your Own

Try adding fresh thyme or rosemary to the butter. If you have ghee, you can use it instead of butter. If you have duck fat, try using half duck fat and half butter.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 4