Potatoes, Anchovies, & Jansson's Temptation

[Chris Amirault]

I pulled down the Gourmet Cookbook to find a basic potato gratin to serve tonight with a sage roasted chicken and roasted green beans, and I found something very different: Jansson's temptation (Janssons frestelse), a Swedish dish that layers potatoes atop onions mixed with chopped anchovies. Here's what it looked like coming out of the oven:

I chose the dish because the combination of potatoes and anchovies has always been something I enjoy. In fact, it's probably true that I like to have salade nicoise primarily because I like to eat a well-boiled potato with a slab of anchovy, some pepper, and a bit of garlicky vinaigrette. However, I'm not aware of other dishes that combine potatoes with anchovies, and my fantasies about potatoes roasted in olive oil and rosemary and drizzled with an anchovy dressing need to be addressed.

What other dishes fuse potatoes and anchovies? Or am I and Jansson alone here?

[maggiethecat]

Chris, you must try anchovy Champs.

For four big russets, cook half a can of anchovies in the butter/milk cream mixture for a minute or two, then pass them through the ricer or food mill with the spuds.. Lots of s and p (well check for s ---anchovies are salty ---)then stir in the chopped scallions. It's a haunting fabulous flavor.

[JAZ]

Last year during cardoon season, a friend and I bought some at the farmers' market. Of course we had no idea what to do with them, but in Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini we found a recipe for a warm potato and cardoon salad dressed with an anchovy-lemon-garlic vinaigrette. It was excellent (and pretty good cold too, the next day).

If you can't find cardoons, artichoke hearts would be close. Or you could just make the salad with potatoes.

[Gifted Gourmet]

and, if you don't mind a bit of interference by a bit of cold turkey (no, not the stopping smoking blog) there is this British concoction: BBC's cold turkey with potato salad. Apparently the addition of black olives, capers and sun-dried tomatoes makes for a lively offering! Good luck, Jansson!

[rlibkind]

Did you use regular anchovies, either packed in oil or salt? Next time, try Swedish anchovies, which are really sprats preserved in a spiced brine. A bit of a different flavor. If you can't find them anyplace else. Ikea's food stall usually has them. Though I'm sure using the regular anchovies worked (never met an anchovy or a savory dish made with them I didn't like), the Swedish variety would be more authentic. Just make sure to drink some akavit with it.

As for other dishes fusing anchovies and potatoes, well, since Swedish anchovies are really a type of herring, there are lots of herring and potato dishes. Does that count?

[The Old Foodie]

I have a book with a recipe for a potato "pizza" supposedly from Puglia. It is a sort of layered mashed potato dish with a filling of tomatoes, garlic, anchovies and capers, baked in a shallow pan (potato - filling - potato). It is a relatively new book, so I cant post the recipe here but will send it to you if you PM me - but you can probably get the idea.

[The Old Foodie]

Also - there is this recipe from Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery (circa 1870's) which might go well over boiled potatoes:

Anchovy Butter.

Take six pickled anchovies, cut off their heads, wash and bone them; then pound them with sufficient butter to make a paste, and add a little scalded and chopped parsley. If a pestle and mortar should not be at hand, the anchovies may be made into a paste and mixed with the butter with a broad knife on a piece of board. This butter is very useful to flavour many sauces, especially those that are to be used for beef steaks. Average cost for a half -pint jar, 1.s 8d. Time, half an hour.

I guess we could miss the first step nowadays. The cost, regrettably, will have increased, but if we use a blender I guess the Time taken will be less than half and hour.

There's an Anchovy ketchup recipe too - if you wanted to have it with your fries!

Janet.

[Chufi]

I don't remember where I've seen this recipe, but it's more of an idea, really.

Roast tiny new potatoes (tossed in olive oil) in a hot oven until crispy and golden. Sprinkle with a bit of salt.

Make a pungent aioli (garlic mayo, ofcourse I cheat sometimes and just mix crushed garlic into good storebought mayo). Mash up some anchovy fillets (rinse them first if you like) into the mayo, amount is to taste. Season with pepper. Serve the potatoes with cocktailsticks in them to dip in the mayo, as an appetizer, salty creamy goodness!

btw I love Janssons temptation!

Edited August 27, 2006 by Chufi (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Did you use regular anchovies, either packed in oil or salt? Next time, try Swedish anchovies, which are really sprats preserved in a spiced brine.

←

Thanks -- the Gourmet gang makes the exact same recommendation. There's a "European" market here (Eastern European and Russian) that I'm going to check out for them, too.

As for other dishes fusing anchovies and potatoes, well, since Swedish anchovies are really a type of herring, there are lots of herring and potato dishes. Does that count?

←

Absolutely!

[Soupcon]

Mmmmm anchovies. I hated anchovies until I was introduced to anchovies packed in salt in large tins found in Italian/Greek grocery stores in Toronto. Rinse them under the tap (cold water) and debone. Eat as is. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm.

However anchovies in oil in a small tin.... uck! Nothing good to say about them.

I have never had Janssons temptation but will do so now. Great idea. Champs also sounds yummy.

[snowangel]

It was two years ago that I was asked to make the mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. Knowing what I know about making food special (not much), the potatoes were sort of flat, so I added a couple of mashed anchovies. Voila! Everyone raved about them, including the little old ladies. Yes, potatoes and anchoves. But then again, anchovies can add that little something to so many things...

[slbunge]

Did you use regular anchovies, either packed in oil or salt? Next time, try Swedish anchovies, which are really sprats preserved in a spiced brine.

←

Thanks -- the Gourmet gang makes the exact same recommendation. There's a "European" market here (Eastern European and Russian) that I'm going to check out for them, too.

←

There are lots of Eastern European canned version of Baltic Sprats. The only caution is that the sprats I have had in the past (fresh, not tinned) has been much larger and meatier than tinned anchovies. I say this only because you may have to macerate them to get the same texture as what you had last night.

Another anchovy/potato combination is having chunck of potato as part of the vegetables for dipping in bagna cauda. Roasted fingerlings or tiny boiled red potatoes (or chunks of larger ones). I steer clear of Yukon Golds because I think their flavor doesn't match well with the buttery/oily/anchovy-ey goodness of bagna cauda.

Edited August 27, 2006 by slbunge (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Next time, try Swedish anchovies, which are really sprats preserved in a spiced brine. A bit of a different flavor. If you can't find them anyplace else. Ikea's food stall usually has them. Though I'm sure using the regular anchovies worked (never met an anchovy or a savory dish made with them I didn't like), the Swedish variety would be more authentic. Just make sure to drink some akavit with it.

←

Finally tried the Abba (I'm not joking) brand from Ikea, and, honestly, I like the bolder salt-packed anchovies, inauthentic though they are.

[KateinChicago]

I just happened upon this thread. I like to add anchovies to Potatoes Anna. I just chop the anchovies and alternate between the layers of potatoes.

I also add to potato salad smushed in the vinaigrette. Loverly!

Kate

[Dianabanana]

I made Jansson's Temptation for the first time last night; this morning I looked it up on eGullet and found the picture of yours, made in the same red Le Creuset gratin dish as mine. Anyway, I just wanted to add that IKEA has a cookbook with a ton of anchovy/herring/other tinned fish and potato recipes, some of them very unusual (to me). I've seen that cookbook before and kept on walking because, come on--IKEA? But the tinned fish recipes are all very intriguing.

Patricia Wells's Bistro Cooking has a great recipe for marinated smoked herring, which is then used in a salad with boiled potatoes.

And if you are interested in tinned fish, you should check out the offerings at Trader Joe's. The smoked herring in particular is huge and beautiful, the anchovies are nice and plump, the smoked trout is lovely and delicate, etc. All very nice.