All Blue or Vitelotte Potatoes

[bleudauvergne]

I picked up some vitelotte (aka all blue) potatoes at the market this morning and am wondering how I might incorporate them into a dinner. Does anyone have any experience with this tuber? What I'm looking for is a dish that will put them in the spotlight, highlight their unique color, add some interest to the plate.

Other things on the menu are smoked autumn pepper soup (oranged color), mini leek tartelettes, boneless saddle of lamb roast with rosemary infused soissons, mixed greens with arugula, herbs, and black radishes, cheese plate, and individual cheesecakes with salted butter caramel coulis. Fresh herbs on hand are thyme, parsley, rosemary, chevril, chives. I also have white stock on hand, cooked duck and chicken wing meat, apples, dates, nuts and pineapples.

What to do with the vitelotte potatoes? From photos I see they take on a homogenous powdery ultraviolet blue color when well cooked. They taste like regular potatoes.

I thought I might slice them ultra thin, give them a quick poach in stock, and float the slices atop the soup with crisped duck wing meat, but what else? Ideas from garnish to centerpiece are welcome. How to work the vitelotte into the courses I have established?

[Dianne]

What I know about these potatoes is that if you toss them with a little vinegar or vinagrette the colour is intensified. They make a splendid salad with red and white potatoes for American 4th of July.

Dianne.

[paul o' vendange]

Lucy, I usually do one of two things to showcase the beautiful color of these potatoes: make pommes anna, or go even thinner, and bake them on a buttered and salted silpat in the oven, at low temp, to make potato "feuilles," for want of a better word. In both cases, I make sure to rinse the potatoes really well to free them of released starch that might discolor. The first presentation is really pretty, I think - it conserves the color of the potato, while edging it with gold; the second is translucent, and pure blue. You may want to place the potatoes between two buttered silpats in the second method, to ensure the edges don't form wavelike curls. You can arrange the thin slices on the silpat to make Pommes Maxim, which will hold up on a diagonal or vertical presentation, or you can use the individual "chips" as a small vertical garnish.

Edited November 19, 2006 by paul o' vendange (log)

[Chufi]

Thin slices, deepfried, to use as a garnish for the salad?

[jackal10]

Fries (sorry about the plate - cooking in another kitchen)

Edited November 19, 2006 by jackal10 (log)

[kutsu]

Fries (sorry about the plate - cooking in another kitchen)

←

Deconstructed fishfingers, chips, mushypeas and ketchup?

[jackal10]

Yup - goujons of sole

Part of a 14 course birthday meal.

The blue colour in potatos is water soluble, so the colour is better if you keep water away - don't boil, but bake, roast, fry, microwave etc.

I guess Dauphinoise would be interesting - the colour would migrate but but only into the dish.

[bleudauvergne]

Thanks so much!

I ended up cutting them into chunks, steaming them, and adding a garlic infused oil, fresh herbs and fleur de sel to them, serving them warm aside the beans with the lamb saddle. Sorry no pics, our night time lighting situation is really awful at the moment, we need better lights!

Paul, I knew there was a reason I got a second Exopat. I never thought about putting things in between them before. What a great idea. I think they did lose some of their color intensity even from steaming. Cooking with oil is probably the best way to go. I think I remember seeing an article in a magazine about this type of potato. I'll try and remember where.

I think I can do better with this kind of potato. Time to start thinking. If anyone else has guidance or ideas about other uses, I'd love to hear them.

[rooftop1000]

We sold them mashed at a gourmet take-out place I worked...people would ask if it was sherbet

The color intensifies as they sit out just like a regular potato will brown

tracey