What's for Dinner, Julia? Pommes de Terre Au Estragon

Yep, this is my first venture into What's for Dinner, Julia?

And we had Pommes de Terre Au Estragon - which is not the same as estrogen.  Men can eat these, too!

This is Estragon - or the French word for tarragon.  And I can't say for sure that I have stated the name of this recipe correctly since the official recipe is titled "Pommes de Terre Au Basilic" or Slice Potatoes Simmered in Cream and Basil - BUT the tarragon option is the sub recipe under the main one, so...

...we had Sliced Potatoes Simmered in Cream and Tarragon.  Ready?

I've somehow never worked with tarragon before, so I wasn't sure what it was like.  As I was slicing it up for the dish, I was picking up licorice overtones, and sure enough when I Google tarragon, the writer says that fennel and anise would be approximate substitutes, but both of those strike me as a stronger licorice intensity than tarragon.  My friend, S, here at work says that he has used tarragon in turkey burgers to give them more of a beefier taste, and I can see how tarragon would do that.

We begin by boiling potato slices in salted water for 3 minutes.  Julia's recipe makes about 7 cups of potatoes or enough for 4 - 6 people.  Since I didn't want to make that much, I used 4 potatoes.

I peeled and sliced them about 1/4" thick and it gave me a little less than 4 cups.  So I cut the rest of the ingredients in half.  I plunged them in boiling water, let the water return to a boil and then cooked for 3 minutes before draining.  This is essentially a parboil to remove some of the starch (I believe any way) before going to the next step.

(Steamy picture, cause there is steam comin' off those taters!)

In a separate pan, we are making a white sauce with 2 T. butter, 1 T. flour, 3/4 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of cream, 1 T. of chopped tarragon, 1 - 2 cloves of mashed garlic, 1/2 t. salt and a large pinch of white pepper.  Once that is somewhat thick, we add the potatoes...

...cover and cook for 10 - 15 minutes.  I don't have a lid for this non-stick pan (non-stick is recommended), so I used foil.

While those were cooking, I poached some fish...

...and sauteed some green beans with almonds.  (They are still a bit frozen in this picture.)

The last step from Julia is to swirl in some butter at the end (cause, why not, right?)  I reduced the poaching liquid for the fish and added a touch of cream at the end, and voila!  We have dinner!

Not a bad looking plate for a Tuesday night at home, right?

G started out giving the potatoes a 6.5, but after he had eaten the whole dinner, he bumped it up to a 7.8.  I would give these an 8.2, but partly because of the cooking method that I learned.  Think of an herby scalloped potato with licorice undertones, and that is just about how these taste.  If I was more of a licorice fan, I would have probably given them a 9.1, but I would do these again.  Definitely.

And I am sure I would enjoy them with the basil.  A few other herbs come to mind such as parsley or thyme or rosemary or even an herbes de provence combination would be tasty.  The same cooking method would be used; it would just be a matter of swapping out the herbs and perhaps the garlic intensity and/or other seasoning.  But I really like how the parboiling helped the potatoes to cook in the sauce without sticking or getting too starchy.  Yep, that tidbit of learning is a keeper!

Thanks for last night's dinner, Julia!

Love,
Deb