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POTATOES (a la Baregoule)
Peel some potatoes, and boil them in a little water with some oil, pepper, salt, onions, and savoury herbs. Boil them slowly, so that they may absorb the liquor. When they are done, brown them in a stewpan in a little oil, and serve them to be eaten with oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt.
A Provençal braise-then-fry treatment for potatoes, given in the loose style of the period: no quantities, no times, and an assumption that the cook can judge a pan by eye. The points below fill in what the original leaves out.
- The hinge: liquid, not a boilThe potatoes should sit in barely enough water and oil to come partway up them, covered, at a bare simmer, so the liquid is absorbed rather than drained off. If it boils away before they are tender, add a splash of hot water; if the pan is swimming when they are done, uncover and drive it off before browning.
- Quantities to work fromFor about 2 lb (900 g) of peeled potatoes: 4 tablespoons olive oil, 1 sliced onion, roughly 1 cup water, salt and pepper. That serves four as a side dish.
- "Oil" means olive oilIn a Provençal-style dish in a British book of this date, oil unqualified is salad or olive oil. A fruity extra-virgin is right for the final dressing; a plainer olive oil is fine for the braising and browning.
- "Savoury herbs"The Victorian bundle of sweet or savoury herbs was not fixed, but commonly included thyme, parsley and bay, often with marjoram or savory. Thyme and bay suit this best; add them whole and fish out the bay before browning.
- StewpanA straight-sided lidded pan, roughly what we would call a sauté pan or shallow casserole. Use something wide enough to hold the potatoes in one layer, since they have to brown in the same vessel.
- Choice of potatoA waxy or all-purpose potato holds together through braising and then frying. Floury bakers will collapse into the liquor before they ever reach the browning stage. Cut them to a uniform size, halved or quartered if large.
- TimingTwenty to thirty minutes covered at a slow simmer for medium chunks, then five to ten minutes uncovered over higher heat, turning, to colour them.
- The dressing at tableThe oil, vinegar, pepper and salt are added to the hot potatoes as they are served, not cooked with them. Roughly three parts oil to one of red wine vinegar, spooned over while they are still warm enough to take it up.
The name is a corruption of barigoule, from the Provençal barigoulo, a mushroom \em>artichauts à la barigoule, small artichokes trimmed, stuffed and cooked — though the exact link to the mushroom is disputed. By the nineteenth century the phrase had drifted loose from artichokes and attached itself to the method: braising in oil with onion and herbs, then finishing with a browning. The finish of oil and vinegar over hot potatoes is a habit shared with modern warm potato salads, where the dressing goes on while the potatoes can still absorb it.