Potatoes Arne

Arne Adolfsen, 21 Jun 1995

How would you prepare a flamingo, Mike [Thomas]?

My first inclination would be to fly Sim in for the weekend.

To share in the repast or to cook the damned thing?

My inclination would be to split 'em in half and grill 'em and then serve 'em with a spicy sauce -- maybe Jonathan Sedler's spicy vanilla sauce, which he used on those big-ass prawns he had on his menu at Bikini.

Or perhaps a mango-habanero chutney. I'll bet that they're really gamey, and need something like that.

Gamey? I don't know ... I think Greg pointed out an important point -- given their feeding habits (they constantly filter briny water in order to get at the tiny shrimp they live on) their flavor has got to be pretty weird.

You'd have to buy a jeraboam or two of that Corton Charlemange though.

Like you need an excuse?

Of course, Minty Brain Bombs would be the cocktail of choice before the meal.

Isn't that de riguer when Sim's around?

Hmmmm. Maybe grilling is really out of the question, given just how big your average flamingo is.

We could always ask to borrow Alice Waters' BBQ pit that she roasts whole goats and pigs in.

I'm sure she wouldn't mind.

As for the wine, although a Corton-Charlemagne would be awfully good, I think I'd pull for a bottle of Howard's favorite champagne: Pol Roger Cuvee Winston Churchill.

Yum. He also was pretty partial to non-vintage Louis Roderrer.

Oh, so am I. It's a fabulous champagne.

Though I don't think he cared a whole lot for Cristal (or thought it was greatly overrated),

He was impartial about Cristal; I'm the one who doesn't like it. For $100+ a bottle I thought it would have been better. Now, the bottle is wonderful, and the wine itself is fine, but it just isn't the be-all, end-all of champagnes. I vastly prefer "J" (another of How's faves), which is one-fourth the price and comes in a pretty snazzy bottle, too.

he constantly talked about buying a magnum of Vueve Clicquot, La Grande Dame.

Oh, yes, but then Veuve Clicquot is super. (Or should that be "brilliant"?) I'm still delighted by their ad campaign for La Grande Dame, which features a photo of Myrna Loy superimposed over where the label on the bottle should be.

ObMagazines: Steam must be an English magazine. Who else would consider sentencing perfectly good meat to such a disgraceful end as Steam'ing it?

Some day, Mike, I'm gonna have to do my tea-smoked chicken for you. You marinate the chicken in ginger and Szechwan peppercorns and stuff for three or four days, then you steam it, then you hang it up to dry, then you smoke the bejesus out of it with more Szechwan peppercorns, tea leaves, ginger, star anise, sugar and so on. It's fabulous. (I did something similar with duck the day Howard died, when Ken, Ellen, Alan, and I had our little wine blow-out in his memory, but it just wasn't as good as the chicken I made about 6 months ago.)

Which reminds me that I haven't given my recipe for Potatoes Arne. It's a cross between a recipe I found in _Cucina Fresca_ and another that I found in one of Julie Sahni's Indian cookbooks, plus some experimentation. Howard always asked me to make them for him, so I've had a lot of experience. Ken and Alan had them the other night (the taters accompanied chicken in romesco sauce [garlic, ground hazelnuts, saffron, garlic, olive oil, fried chicken liver, garlic, thyme, onions, tomatoes, garlic, lots of white wine, garlic] and some rather indifferent broccoli), so they can vouch for how yummy they are.

Potatoes Arne

4 or 5 russet potatoes (or the equivalent weight in red or white rose or baby potatoes)
1/4 cup (or so) olive oil
2 peeled cloves of garlic
2 or 3 teaspoons turmeric
salt (Kosher salt, ideally) and freshly ground black pepper

If you're using russet potatoes, peel them first. (You don't need to peel rose or baby potatoes.) Cut potatoes up into 1 or 1 1/2 inch cubes.
Heat large saute pan and then add 1/4 cup or so of olive oil over medium-low heat. As soon as the olive oil is hot, pop in the cloves of garlic and saute for a minute or two. (If you don't know how to cook, that means you should take your wooden spoon and every now and then toss the garlic cloves around in the olive oil.)
Toss in the cubed potatoes and immediately follow with the turmeric, a pinch of (Kosher) salt, and a couple of grindings of pepper. Toss the potatoes around in the oil and turmeric to make sure they're all coated with both the oil and the turmeric (be careful about burning the turmeric) -- you want the potatoes to be wet and shiny and bright yellow. If there isn't enough turmeric in the pan to make all the potato pieces yellow, add more turmeric, a half teaspoon at a time, stirring vigorously all the while until they are. (And you can't have too much turmeric -- not only is it delish, but it's also been shown to have some promising anti-HIV properties.) Once the taters are wet and shiny all over and bright yellow, cover the pan and turn the heat down to low. Cook the potatoes over low heat for about 20 minutes without taking off the lid of the pan, but do shake the pan around a bit every so often to make sure the potatoes don't stick to the pan.
After about 20 minutes -- it could be about 18 minutes, or it could be 25 minutes, it all depends -- take the lid off the pan (there will be a hell of a lot of incredibly fragrant steam), turn the heat up to high, and stir the taters around to crisp them up, but be careful because they're incredibly fragile at this point. What you want to see happen is for their edges and some of their sides to turn brown. When a lot of the potatoes look like their corners and sides have crisped, they're done.

These extremely soft inside, extremely crispy outside, and spicy throughout potatoes will serve 4 or 5 people. I have yet to make them when no one has asked for seconds.