My Aunt is a very beautiful woman; she married a beautiful man and they had three beautiful children. This is the perfect start to a Fairy Tale and I am going to leave it like that, as all I have from them are just good memories. One day, we got invited ( or we invited ourselves, not sure) in the remote parts of “La Creuse”, an unfortunately named region of France wedged between Limoges and Clermont-Ferrand, near the Auvergne. Translated in English, it basically means “The Dig”. They unsuccessfully tried to change the name of the the “County” or department as we call them in the hexagon, but with no luck. Yes, we got invited by Mrs Gillet, the old lady on the right of the picture, mother of Bernard, father of my beautiful cousins who always smelled nice of some softener and after shave. She invited us to spend a bit of time, us Bretons – because we loved her son like our own. She made a local recipe that day, while my sister, my cousins and I entertained the soon to be dinner rabbits in the cage outside; a potato tart! What? It was so good that my mother spoke about it on a regular basis for at least 20 years after that!!! But never tried to recreate it… I craved for many years, this simple and humble recipe. So today, as the fairy tale of December is on its way, I decided to make my own version… My December recipe perfect for this rainy week!
For the pastry: all organic
- 200 g of pasta flour
- 100 g of butter
- 1 egg yolk
- 10 cl of iced water
In a blender, mix all the ingredients and knead the dough briefly in a bowl. Make it into a dough ball, adding a bit of very cold water or flour if necessary. Allow the dough to rest overnight in the fridge if you can… Roll it in cling film with a bit of flour.
For The Filling:
- 4 large potatoes
- 500 g of crème fraîche
- A pinch of cumin
- A pinch of sea salt
- Milled black pepper
- 500 g of Vacherin Cheese
How to?
Try to boil the potatoes the day before the recipe. Roll the pastry in a buttered and floured tart dish and then slice the potatoes. Fill them in the dish…
Sprinkle the potatoes with black pepper, cumin seeds and slices of Vacherin Cheese…
Cover the dish with carefully spread crème fraîche…
With a spatula, just smooth things over…
Before baking, lay generous slices of the cheese on top…
And bake at 180 c for 45 minutes…
For The Salad: You’ll need
- Wash, half and roast 6 Brussels Sprouts in olive oil for 15 minutes max
- Seed 1/2 a Pomegranate
- 3 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar ( reduced)
- 1 tbsp of soya sauce
- A handful of fresh leaves
In a bowl, mix the olive oil, soya sauce and balsamic vinegar together. I like to reduce the balsamic vinegar until it gets syrupy, but you can also buy it like that…
Keep Well and Eat Happy
Slán Tamall
Franck
Hungry Breton 
Thank you. One dinner for the irish guests sorted (pity it can’t be made with gouda cheese)
I’Thank you! I’d say it would be worth trying it with Gouda; maybe run some through the middle too? 😉
Hmmm, now to figure out whether it should be ‘young’ Gouda or ‘old’
(maybe i could ask the local cheesemongers)
I would go old Gouda inside, then young on top. 😉
Thank you. Your suggestion is as good as, if not better, than the one from
‘t Kaaswinkeltje (Gouda)
Well thank you very much! Please, let me know how you get on! 🙂
Really excellent Franck. Excellent ingredients well prepared and all based on happy childhood memories. It’s what cooking is all about.
Thank you so much Conor, I had a lot of fun with this one! Again, thank you!