Pate aux pommes de terre

Sounds fancy? Well it isn’t! It’s Potato Pie by any other name. You could call it Potato en Croute. French is a very useful language. Something that sounds ‘run-of-the-mill’ or ‘middle-of-the-road’ can sound much better in French. But there is nothing boring about this recipe.

In fact Il n’y a rien de banal dans ce qu’on propose. And no I cannot speak French, this is a dodgy internet translation so it probably says ‘My dog is dead’ when it fact should say ‘There is nothing run-of-the-mill about it’. I shall be corrected.

Whatever you want to call it, you will need

• 1 pack puff pastry
• 4 baking potatoes
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 thyme sprigs
• 1 egg yolk mixed with  dash of milk
• 150ml double cream
• 1 tbsp chives, chopped

Peel the potatoes and slice. Boil for 8 mins with the sliced onion, thyme and some salt. Drain and add to iced water to stop it cooking.

Cut the pastry block in two, with one piece being two-thirds of the block.

Roll out the smaller piece to create a rectangle and lay the potato on top.

Brush some egg mix round the edge and then roll out the larger piece. Lay over the top, trim the edges and seal.

Brush over the remaining egg, pierce the top of the pastry with a knife a few times down the middle and then bake in the oven for about 45 mins at 180 centigrade.

Once golden (cover with foil if it starts to catch during cooking) remove from the oven. Enlarge the holes slightly. Combine the cream with the chopped chives and season.

Gradually pour the cream into the holes. The chives will block up the holes so do this slowly and clear the chivey blockages as they occur.

Leave to cool.

You could serve this with a salad, or a steak. Or, as here, with bacon wrapped chicken breasts stuffed with cheese.