Right now I'm reading The Hollow Land by Jane Gardam (2014 Europa edition). Here's the quote that sent me Googling:
Mrs. Bateman had done Normandie potatoes and the lovely smell of cheese
and onions floated out of the windows and up the chimney and under the front
door and away over the fell. "You'd think it'd tempt them home," she said.
What a great sentence, especially since her husband and sons are on a fishing trip guided by the local chimney sweep.
While the delightful aroma didn't seem to lure her husband and sons from their soggy (it's raining like mad) expedition (perhaps they were too far away), it did lure me to the Net in search of a recipe. After all, I have the three ingredients listed and we were already planing to have fish for supper....
Search results: There are a lot of recipes for Normandy potatoes, with many variations but I like the one at French Women Don't Get Fat
and I have most of what it calls for: potatoes, apples, onion, garlic, walnuts. No Pont l’Évêque cheese, but I do have a soft cheese that will work. No sour cream or crème fraîche, but there's some plain Greek yogurt in the fridge. I'm reasonably sure that Mrs. Bateman, being in Cumbria some time before 1981 when this book was first published, probably didn't have these exact ingredients either.
Yes, I'll try this, but for now I must find out what happened with the Bateman men and Kendel (the sweep)....
You know what I think would be fun? If you post about your making of the dish with the substitutions and let us know how it tastes :) And have photos, I was hoping the link you shared would have a picture of what this dish is - is it just a variation of mashed potatoes type dish? It kind of sounds like mashed potato casserole with the apples and walnuts.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have a chance to make it yet. I do want to do it, but I don't know when. I think it can be done as a mashed potato dish or as a layered dish with potato slices. I'll probably do the latter. I will try to post on it when (if) i do it.
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