Friday, December 2, 2011

FFwD: Matafan

I was not terribly excited about this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe. Matafan (pg 356) are "fluffy mashed potato pancakes." Sounds good. I like latkes. My grandmother makes a mean mashed potato pancake as a good way to use up leftovers.

My hesitation about this recipe came into play when I read the instructions. Dorie describes a step, in which you squish dried out baked potatoes through a mesh strainer, as "tedious." I appreciate her honesty, but I'm not interested in tedious when it comes to a fried bit of mashed potato. Grandma's recipe is easy. Unless these blow hers out of the water (and really, how could they? We're talking about Grandma here), who needs tedious?

Being a sport, I stood over my bowl, forcing gummy potato through mesh. Oh, for a food mill! At least I had warning. As promised, it was a pain in the ass, especially when you take into account the additional aggravation of cleaning the strainer afterward. Oy.
Insert the curse word of your choice here.
Was the result different enough from regular mashing to warrant the effort? It was looser and airier. I'll give it that. I'd be curious to try the batter with regularly mashed potatoes and see if it mattered once eggs and whipped whites and milk and flour all got mixed in. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it would lose its "fluffy" distinction.

Turns out, I needn't have pitted Dorie against Grandma in a potato pancake death match. Their pancakes bear no relation to each other. Grandma's pancakes are, without question, fried mashed potatoes. Dorie's are more like breakfast pancakes. If I didn't know there was potato in there, I never would have guessed. Her comment that her husband puts syrup on his made a lot more sense to me after I tried one.

I planned to serve these as a side to meatloaf, but a particular toddler kept dragging me by the finger from the kitchen to the couch to watch Beauty and the Beast with him, so I was lucky I even got the pancakes made.

On a whim, I bought two duck eggs at the farmer's market last week, just to see what they were like. Dinner became breakfast once I realized the meatloaf wasn't happening. Potato pancakes, fried duck eggs, herbed goat cheese, and slow-roasted tomatoes (I was planning to mix them into the meatloaf). OH BABY, it was sooooo good.
This turned into a great pile, post-picture.
The pancakes were good, but I didn't find them all that special, for the time and energy, compared to regular flour pancakes. However, they worked some miraculous psychological trick on Matt, who normally scoffs at the idea of breakfast for dinner. When he was underway for seven months, I ate a lot of eggs for dinner. Easty, tasty, fast. It's the perfect last-minute meal, in my book. Not so, in Matt's. Regardless, he said last night that having a savory version of pancakes and eggs made a great dinner. If I were on my own, I probably wouldn't bother making matafan again. However, since it's a way to make everyone happy with dinner pancakes, I'll bring out the potatoes next time I have a craving.

Conclusion: Like it, and Charlie Approved! He ate two pancakes. Wahoo!

19 comments:

  1. Interesting, fried duck eggs are good huh? I'm not sure I've ever even seen them before, but now I may have to keep an eye out.

    I'm also curious about your grandmother's potato pancakes because I too read this and wondered if it would work with plain old leftover mashed potatoes. My concern was that all the butter in my regular mashed potatoes would make them fall apart in the skillet, but who knows, maybe once I get up off this couch I'll be motivated to test that little theory out. We'll see.

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  2. I'm a big breakfast for dinner fan! The duck eggs intrigued me, but I have a hard time as it is finding duck to cook, let alone duck eggs. A food mill would make an excellent holiday gift ;-)

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  3. The eggs were good. I've been getting fresh chicken eggs at the market every week since we moved here, so I probably would have noticed a bigger difference in flavor if I were trying the duck eggs after being used to supermarket eggs. I thought the eggs tasted very much like the fresh chicken eggs, but the yolk was thicker and wonderfully velvety. Mmmm. I'd read that they're great for baking, and after feeling that yolk in my mouth, I understand why.

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  4. Yes, a food mill would make your experience much nicer. I can't even begin to imagine using a strainer! Yikes.

    In terms of work to tastiness ratio, I tend to agree that this recipe doesn't give good value. However, if I am making mashed potatoes anyway, I may set some aside for this recipe.

    I'm a huge fan of duck eggs. Glad you like them too!

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  5. You're a better person than me - I didn't even both pushing the potatoes through a strainer! I just mashed like I normally would. :P

    Breakfast for dinner is a favorite of mine and yours looks really delicious!

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  6. I'm glad I wasn't the only one not completely blown away by this recipe! I think I might have to try it again with some of the flavor additions that I've been reading about today!

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  7. I bow down at your commitment to the original recipe, Ei! Using the sieve would've driven me nuts, and cleaning it afterwards will cause much aggro... My boiled and mashed potatoes didn't make ANY difference to the fluffiness of the pancakes, so you can try this time-saving method next time.

    I've only ever eaten salted duck eggs, but now I'm intrigued to have them fried like yours!

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  8. I knew I'd get way too irritated with forcing potatoes through a mesh, so I skipped that part!

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  9. Well, I'm so glad I decided not to peel my potatoes so that I would not even think about pushing them through a mesh strainer or food mill...and potatoes are such a starchy mess to clean up...you've convinced me that I will continue with my method! But yours do look really good.

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  10. Last year while on vacation in Fla., I bought duck eggs at a Farmers market...I had to give them a try. I also thought they tasted very much like chicken eggs. Your matafan look delicious. So glad it was a hit with your family.

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  11. That's funny - my daughter made latkes this week in her potato unit at her culinary program and she kept trying to figure out if these were like what she made (obviously not).
    I totally cheated and used potatoes out of a (gasp) box & found them to be very light and fluffy :-)

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  12. I know what you mean..I was a little hesitant when I read the recipe too. But the results were worth it. Glad you enjoyed them!

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  13. I can't imagine pushing potatoes through a strainer, good job! Glad you enjoyed them, we did too.

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  14. I really must try these for breakfast next time. It just looks so appealing to me. Enjoyed reading your post as always.

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  15. At one point I muttered to myself that I was glad we had a dishwasher. Lots of work for pancakes. I liked the results, but not sure we will repeat. Your dinner looks wonderful however - eggs, goat cheese and slow roasted tomatoes are a brilliant idea for these cakes.

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  16. I'm glad I did these with already made mashed potatoes. I forgot to mention that they also were not strained and more rustic and it was really good:)Yours look fantastic!

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  17. Your dinner looks great! How were the duck eggs? Do they taste any different? I was looking forward to potato pancakes, so I'm a little sad to hear that these taste like regular pancakes. Seems like a lot of work for regular pancakes, and even my latke recipe is easier. Oh well, I'm glad your family enjoyed them!

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  18. I thought the duck eggs tasted the same, but felt much thicker and richer in my mouth. At the farmer's market today, I heard a chef telling someone that duck eggs have extra leavening power that makes them great for baking (the richness is good for baking, too).

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  19. They look great! Would have been much easier with a ricer or food mill. I'm not sure they really need the extra step though. Definitely a great breakfast food.

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