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Potatoes a La Neige
These are mashed potatoes made as in the preceding receipt, pressed through sifter into a dish in which they are to be served. The potatoes then resemble rice or vermicelli, and are very light and nice. They make a pretty dish and must be served very hot. They make a favorite accompaniment to venison, and are often served around a rolled rib roast of beef.
A plating technique more than a recipe: mashed potato forced through a coarse sieve so it falls in loose threads. Everything depends on the potato being dry and floury and on the dish reaching the table before the strands slump.
- The missing recipe"The preceding receipt" would have been the book's plain mashed potato, most likely boiled floury potatoes, drained and dried over the heat, then mashed with butter, hot milk or cream, salt and pepper. Keep it on the stiff side here; a soft, wet mash will not hold separate threads.
- Sifter means ricerA period wire sifter or colander pressed with a wooden pestle does much what a potato ricer does now, and a ricer is easier. Choose the coarse plate; a fine one gives paste rather than the vermicelli effect the recipe is after.
- Do not smooth it afterThis is the hinge. The threads must fall into the serving dish and be left alone. Any stirring, spreading or levelling collapses them into ordinary mash and the whole point is lost.
- Potato choiceRussets or another high-starch baking potato. Waxy varieties such as red or new potatoes turn gluey under pressure and will not rice cleanly.
- Serving very hotThe instruction is not decorative. Riced potato has a large surface area and cools fast, so warm the serving dish, rice directly into it, and send it out immediately. Reheating tends to collapse the strands together.
- QuantityThe original gives none. Reckon about 6 oz of raw potato per person as a side dish, rather more if it is being banked around a roast as described.
- With gameThe receipt names venison as a favourite partner and says the potatoes are often served around a rolled rib roast of beef, so arrange the mound or ring around the meat in the serving dish.
"A la neige" means "snowed" or "in snow" — French kitchen shorthand for anything reduced to a light, white, drifted texture, the same idea behind œufs à la neige. The name and the presentation are borrowed from French practice; the potato itself is ordinary. Venison and roast beef are the partners the receipt itself names.