Recipe no. 419 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 195.
Ingredients
- potatoes
- oil
- fat
- salt
Preparation
- Preparing and plungingChoose red Dutch potatoes, peel them, cut into slices about 4 millimetres thick, then plunge them into a deep fryer barely warm, not too crowded.
- First frying and drainingRaise the heat and let the potatoes rise to the surface and swell. Once they start to firm up, take them out into a large colander and let the fat heat up strongly.
- Second frying and finishingOnce the fat is smoking, drop the potatoes back in, stirring them with the skimmer to colour them evenly. Drain on a cloth, sprinkle with salt and serve.
Reboul's text
Choose for this red potatoes known as Dutch potatoes, as equal in size as possible. Peel them, then, cut into slices about 4 millimetres thick, plunge them into a deep fryer, its fat barely warm. Whether oil or fat is used is unimportant, but neither should be skimped. The potatoes must have room, that is, not be too crowded.
Raise the heat under the pan and you will soon see all the potatoes rise to the surface of the fat and swell. Once most of them have swollen and are starting to firm up, which you can tell by touching them, take them out into a large colander and let the fat heat up strongly. As soon as it is smoking, drop the potatoes back in, stirring them at once with the skimmer so that they colour evenly. Once they are nicely golden, crisp and thoroughly puffed, drain them on a cloth to blot off the excess fat; sprinkle with salt and serve at once.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| fregiduro | frying fat |
| pela | to peel |
| trancho | slices |
| agouta | to drain |
| daura | to gild/colour golden |
| saupica | to sprinkle |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 419, page 195. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.