Recipe: Pomme Maquere

Pomme Maquere is not seen very much, but it is a very nice way to use potatoes and gives you an opportunity to surprise your guests.  It's similar to a Duchess potato in that you mix some egg yolk into a potato puree, but has the added element of surprise by the inclusion of a concealed parcel of your choice in the middle - like a really fancy gravy volcano.  If you have or can get a hold of a silicone muffin mold it makes things really easy, but you can still freestyle it on a tray - just make sure your potato mix is nice and firm when you start as you'll need to build up the sidewalls.  Your filling should be made ahead of time so you can pipe the potatoes warm, fill the Maqueres, then cap them off before the potatoes cool off.  The filling can be anything you like, but as an example here, we'll use a nice creamed out wild mushroom saute.  Depending on the size of your potatoes and how much you fill the Maqueres, this recipe should give you 4 - 6 portions in  muffin molds.

You will need:

2                      large Yukon gold potatoes
3 - 4                 egg yolks
45ml / 3Tbs     cream
15ml / 1Tbs     butter
to taste             kosher salt

For the filling:

1L / 4C            assorted wild mushrooms (rough volume measure)
1                      shallot
1                      garlic
15ml / 1Tbs     butter
to taste             cream
to taste             kosher salt
to taste             black pepper

Method:

 - for the filling, cut or tear the wild mushrooms into small pieces
 - sweat the shallot and garlic in the butter in a pan
 - add the mushrooms and saute well
 - season with salt and pepper
 - add cream as desired
 - cook out until the mixture has a nice saucy consistency and tastes great
 - set aside and let cool
 - set the oven to 350F / 177C
 - butter or panspray the muffin molds and set on a baking sheet
 - prick the skin of the potatoes with a fork and roast in the oven about an hour until completely soft inside
 - heat the butter and cream together and set aside
 - open up the potatoes and pass through a tamis sieve
 - measure the potatoes by volume - calculate one yolk per cup (250ml) of potato
 - gently mix the hot potato with the hot cream and butter and season with salt
 - lightly whisk the egg yolks and fold through the potatoes
 - put the potato mixture in a piping bag
 - pipe a solid bottom in the muffin mold, then run around the outside, leaving a cavity in the middle
 - fill the cavities with the mushroom mix
 - use the rest of the potato mix to completely cap off and seal the mushrooms in
 - put the baking sheet in the oven about 15 minutes to set the egg and lightly colour the potato
 - remove from the oven and let cool
 - when the Maqueres are cool and firm, you can remove them from the molds
 - set the Maqueres upside down on a paper or silicone mat covered sheet pan
 - to serve, reheat in the oven