We first came across this dish when camping in the Auvergne region of France, earlier this year. The campsite owners hosted a dinner, featuring locally sourced food and wine where Paté aux pommes de terre made an appearance. The hills and vineyards of Burgundy were within eyesight so the wines were an excellent accompaniment.

The recipes for French regional food vary a little from place to place, each of course being exquisite and claiming to be the most authentic. We think that this is a fairly representative version which, for us, brings back wonderful memories of the wild Loire, remote and upstream of it’s tamer, more popular navigable sections.

Potatoes

Lardons

Pate

pate

Ingredients:

• 4 or 5 large potatoes, peeled and sliced into 2mm thick rounds
• frozen puff pastry works well – 1 pack is enough for top and bottom,
• one onion or two shallots – chopped finely
• fresh parsley – finely chopped
• crème fraîche – one tub of full fat is generous (it must be full fat to melt)
• one egg yolk for glazing the pie
• smoked ham lardons – one pack

Method

• Gently fry lardons in olive oil until they take on a colour
• Par-boil the potatoes for 10 minutes
• Meanwhile, roll out the pastry and line a tray/dish
• Layer the potatoes sprinkled with onions, parsley and cooked lardons, seasoning with salt and pepper. Easy on the salt though – the lardons are salty.
• You should aim for about four layers
• Cover with a sheet of rolled pastry, crimping the edges and brushing with egg to give that golden glaze so loved on a pie.
• Cut a small hole in the pastry top to let out stream while cooking
• Place into a pre-heated oven at about 190C, gas mark 6/7, for about 45 mins.
• When it is done and while still hot, cut off a big circle (saucer/sandwich plate size) in the top of the pie and add a large carton of full fat crème fraîche (you want it to melt over the potatoes – it won’t if it’s not full fat), replace the pastry top and serve!