Duck Fat Fried Potatoes ( Pomme Sarladaise) Sous vide

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. These potatoes (pomme sarladaise) was a component in the duck confit salad, the French part of the meal.

When you usually read articles about sous vide, you probably hear authors extolling sous vide's wonderful abilities to make a perfectly rare steak or a beautifully soft short rib. Less often do you hear about people using sous vide to cook vegetables.

Yet sous vide is often used in high-end restaurants, and Thomas Keller uses it extensively both at  per se and The French Laundry.

Here, potatoes are cooked sous vide in duck fat. This method reduces the sheer volume of duck fat that needs to be used in order to fully coat the potatoes. Furthermore, excess cooking won't cause the potatoes to become too mushy and lose their shape.

You can buy a duck and render your own duck fat. Or, if you're like me, you can go to your local gourmet market and buy a tub of this stuff. It's not horribly expensive, and will last you a long time.

Potatoes need to be kept in a single layer in the vacuum bag.

Put garlic, thyme, and other herbs in a small bag. I use these disposable empty tea bags, which work pretty well.

Seal it up!

Cook at 180 °F for 20-25 minutes. Remove from bag and pan-fry about 1 1/2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

Duck Fat Fried Potatoes (Sous vide)
4 thin slices garlic
2 thyme sprigs
2 small bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
24 Yukon Gold potato rounds
Kosher Salt
150g rendered duck fat
Canola Oil
25g unsalted butter
10 g minced shallots
flat leaf parsley (minced)

Make herb sachet with garlic, thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns (I used a tea bag to hold it all together). Cut potatoes into 3/8 inch rounds (24 slices). Seal in a vacuum bag with duck fat (mixed with a sprinkling of salt), and herb sachet. Cook sous vide at 180 °F for 20-25 minutes. Remove from bag and pan-fry about 1 1/2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

Enjoy with your class duck confit salad, or just on its own!