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Potato Croutons
To one cup of mashed potato add one egg yolk, and beat well together. Spread half an inch thick on a flat, buttered platter, and when quite cool cut in two-inch squares, then each square diagonally across, to form triangular pieces. When ready to use, brush over with milk and brown lightly in the oven or in a very little fat in the frying-pan.
These make an attractive garnish for a platter of chops or a platter of fried fish, alternated with slices of lemon.
A tidy way to use up leftover mashed potato as a garnish. The whole thing hinges on the potato being cold and stiff enough to cut cleanly.
- Start with dry potatoMash made with a lot of milk, cream or butter will not hold a cut edge. If your leftover potato is loose, dry it out for a minute or two in a pan over low heat before adding the yolk.
- "When quite cool" means coldSpread the mixture and refrigerate it until fully firm, an hour or more. Cutting warm potato gives ragged triangles that slump in the pan.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no temperature; it says only to brown lightly. Use a hot oven on a well-buttered or parchment-lined sheet and watch them rather than timing them, turning once; browning lightly takes only a few minutes a side. Brush the milk wash on generously.
- Pan methodA thin film of butter or oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, two to three minutes a side. Move them as little as possible; they release once a crust forms.
- YieldOne cup of mashed potato spread half an inch thick covers roughly a 5-by-5-inch area, which yields about 8 to 12 triangles — a garnish for two to four plates, not a side dish.
- Scaling upThe proportion is one yolk per cup of potato. Two cups and two yolks spread the same half-inch thick will cover roughly an 8-inch square, and a flat pan is easier to spread evenly than a platter.
- Season before shapingLeftover mash is usually underseasoned for something eaten as a crisp garnish. Taste and correct for salt and pepper before the yolk goes in.
"Crouton" in older English and American cookbooks means any small shaped piece browned in fat or in the oven, used as a garnish or to prop up a dish -- bread was the usual material, but potato croutons appear too, cut into the fancy triangles, crescents and diamonds that period platters favoured. The instruction to alternate them with lemon slices around chops or fried fish is period plating: food was expected to arrive dressed. A book of this sort makes a virtue of turning yesterday's mashed potato into something that reads as deliberate garnish rather than remainder, and the single egg yolk doing the binding suits a kitchen where nothing was bought specially for a decoration.