What if we cooked our twice-cooked potatoes while they were still in their jackets? Theoretically, the moisture inside the potatoes should be enough to gelatinize the starch. Since the potatoes would be whole, there would be no need to rinse off damaged starch cells during the cooling process. The idea was interesting, and we needed to see if it was sound. We set about cooking fingerling potatoes (all the same size) in 65-degree Celsius water for one hour, then iced them down so they were completely cool, and then cooked them, beginning in cold water, until they were tender. Once the potatoes were cooked through, we pressed them through a ricer. The skins remained in the ricer, and the rich, steamy flesh emerged ready to be embellished. We cooled these twice-cooked potatoes down and then used them to make fingerling potato puree.
The results were amazing. The potatoes had a more potato-y flavor; the nutty nature of the skins seemed to permeate the flesh. The starch was gelatinized, so the resulting puree was creamy and decadent without any starchy buildup. This small evolution in how we looked at the process of potato cookery actually streamlined the preparation process while allowing us to enhance the flavor in our potato puree.
Our next thoughts were about trying this approach with larger russet potatoes for our flourless potato gnocchi. We were actually able to test this idea yesterday and taste the results this morning after an intense culinary workshop with Tony Maws and his enthusiastic team at the Craigie Street Bistrot. (We will actually be talking further about this workshop since Tony is happy to let us share the experience.) As it turned out, Tony has been cooking potatoes in their jackets for twice-cooked potatoes for about three years now. It was great to see we were looking at food from different angles to reach the same end goal of delicious. Tony’s words on cooking potatoes in their jackets: “It just made sense, and that way we do not waste flavor and allow the potatoes to become waterlogged.” Our thoughts exactly, just a few years later.
The potato gnocchi made from the twice-cooked, unpeeled potatoes were unbelievable; the texture was simply amazing, a definite improvement on what we had previously thought to be pretty darned great. Now that is why we cook: to learn, to break through old achievements, and work with people who push us to continue to improve, refine, and perfect.
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