Crispy Potato Stack with Truffle Cream
Prep time - 60 minutes
Cook time - 55 minutes
Difficulty - Medium
Serves / makes - 4 starter portions
Ingredients
4 medium potatoes
2 large leeks
1 tbsp fresh or dried thyme
2 preserved lemons
1 clove of garlic
60g cashews
50ml non-dairy milk of your choice
Truffle oil
12 dried morel mushrooms
Olive oil or rapeseed oil
Equipment
Mandolin or knife
Baking trays
Parchment or silicon sheet
Baking dish
Small saucepan
Blender
Frying pan
Method
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Whilst your oven is heating up, give your potatoes a good wash but don’t peel them. One by one, take a potato and slice carefully with a mandolin or a knife. They should be approximately 0.5cm thick. Try to keep the slices from each potato together in a pile as you will need to rebuild them later on.
Line a large baking tray (or two) with parchment or a silicon sheet. Lay out each group of potato slices on the tray, keeping each group together and identifiable. Sprinkle a good pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive or rapeseed oil. Flip each slice over and rub the oil in to make sure each slice is well covered. Put the trays into the oven and roast for 30 minutes or until golden and crispy.
Finely julienne your leeks and place into a baking dish. Next, finely chop your preserved lemons and the garlic clove and put into the dish with the leeks. Finally, add your fresh or dried thyme, a big pinch of salt and a big glug of olive or rapeseed oil into the leek dish. Give all of the ingredients in the dish a good stir. Put in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
Fill a small saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the morels and simmer for 7 minutes. Then remove from the water and put them to one side for frying later.
Now it’s time to make your truffle cream. You will need a blender to whizz the ingredients together. Put the cashews, truffle oil and plant milk into your blender jug or cup with a good pinch of salt. Blend until the cream is smooth. You want the consistency to be quite thick so that it doesn’t run down the side of your potato. If it’s too thin, you can add some more cashews, and if it’s too thick to blend, add a small splash of plant milk. Put the cream to one side until it’s time to plate up.
A few minutes before your potatoes and leeks are ready, heat a frying pan and add a drizzle of oil. Take your soaked morels and add them to the frying pan. Fry the morels until they are brown and crisp - this will take about 5 minutes but it depends on the size of the mushrooms.
Now it’s time to plate up! For each plate, take one of the groups of potato slices. You’re going to rebuild the potato in the order you sliced it. In between each potato layer, spread a thin layer of truffle cream. This will help your potato keep its shape. You can also add a small dollop of cream on the plate where you are going to put the potato stack, which will help it stay in place. Then take a quarter of the leeks and place next to the potato, top with the three morels.