Jonathan Meades

Rösti / Pommes Paillasson / Galettes de Pomme de Terre

Preparation info

    • Difficulty

      Easy

Appears in

The Plagiarist in the Kitchen

The Plagiarist in the Kitchen

By Jonathan Meades

Published 2017

  • About

There is no consensus. According to the most celebrated of all Swiss chefs, Fredy Giradet, rösti are made with boiled potato while pommes paillasson are made with raw potato. But in Zurich rösti are made with raw potato . . . and the finest I’ve eaten was at Kronenhalle in that city, after an exhibition of my favourite painter. The finest pommes paillasson were from Olivier Traiteur at the Marché des Grands Hommes in Bordeaux; almost certainly cooked from raw.

Ingredients

  • potato
  • olive oil/peanut oil/duck fat

Method

Grate the potato finely. Put in cold water. Wring it dry with your hands or in a clean cloth to get rid of the starch. Form the grated potato into discs of about 100mm diameter and no more than 12mm deep – this is important: a greater depth won’t allow the centre to cook without the exterior burning. Put them in the hot oil/fat. Push down to make them bind. Lower the temperature. Cook for about 6–7 minutes on each side till crisp.

As usual there are many recipes that call for additions: raw ham, cheese, shallots and so on. As usual resist these adulterants.