Hold onto your hats! If you tried the mashed potato recipe, this goes even further. If you're passionate about mashed potatoes, and love cheese, this could put you over the edge. When I first saw the video to the right, I started getting that ohmygodohmygodohmygod feeling. Aligot potatoes are a traditional L'Aubrac (south central France) regional dish that fuses mashed potatoes and cheese into a stretchy delicious concoction. Done right, it's almost impossible to plate with any consistency or accuracy - it has a strong personality and will not be bossed around. The video shows the traditional tableside ceremony (go visit my hero Michel Bras in Laguiole - it's almost a mandatory part of the show).
I have done this with the starchless mashed potatoes, so feel free to use this as an extension of that recipe, but you should ease up on the butter and cream to make room for the cheese. For the sake of this recipe, we will work with a base of mashed potatoes made from two Yukon Golds and to emphasize that we left out some of the cream and butter we'll refer to it as potato puree.
You will need:
potato puree from two Yukon Gold potatoes
1 Tbs unsalted butter
1 clove garlic minced fine
1/3 C creme fraiche (loose) - equal parts sour cream and heavy cream will work
4-6 oz cheese (see note on cheese) shredded on broad grater
to taste salt and black pepper
The cheese:
If you can, I would use nearly 100% Tomme de Laguiole or Tomme d'Avergne, but they can be tricky to find at times. Common substitutions are Cantal, or a mixture of Mozzarella and Gruyere. I've found that fresh cheese curds are a lifesaver here as they inherently have that stringy quality when melted without an obvious Mozzarella flavour, so even if I can get the Tomme, I will usually get some curds too. Since cheese is also one of those things you can often add to taste, once you get the hang of the Aligot technique you can adjust the amount cheese - more will make it stringier, less will make it less.
Method:
- prepare your potato puree and keep it warm (not too hot)
- sweat the garlic in the butter in a pot and pull off the heat
- add creme fraiche and curds to warm pot and let them get cozy a few minutes
- bring the pot back up to low heat, add the potato puree and stir with a wooden spoon
- keep stirring in same direction and gradually add in cheese until it starts to get stringy and elastic
- turn off the heat, season with salt and pepper and work it vertically with a second spoon (like the video)
- it is possible to overwork or overheat this dish, so when you are pulling long strands of potato, serve now!
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