Well, well, I feel like a very European spud today.
Thanks to the votes of you nice folks out there, this here blog was the English-language finalist for the first Euro Blog Awards. The final selection was made by way of an old-style Eurovision jury vote on Friday at the nonick conference in Bilbao and what a nail-biter it was, with the Daily Spud leading the pack until the last jury declared. In the end, it was 2nd place for the Spud, losing by a mere point to the eventual über-blog, Netzpolitik. Still, it made me feel all warm and fuzzy, in a silver medal kind of way.
To mark the occasion, I thought I should do something a bit continental. With that in mind, I took up the call by Mindy and Chef E to have a go at making a flammekueche for their Monday Mouthful.
A what you say? Depending on your choice of language, it’s a flammekueche, a tarte flambée or a flammkuchen, a speciality of the Alsace region, consisting of thinly rolled bread dough spread with crème fraîche, onion and bacon and traditionally baked in wood-fired ovens. And, yes, it is very like a thin crust pizza.
Now, I chose not to make mine with bacon, but with spuds, because I’m nothing if not predictable when it comes to tubers. I scoffed quite a lot of this for lunch and have been picking at it periodically since. Someone should probably hide the rest of it, at least until tomorrow.
Flammekueche a la Spud
Spud’s Eurokueche: Potato Flammekueche with Rosemary
For this, I used Mindy’s sample flammekueche recipe as a guide and also had a browse through some potato pizza recipes and came up with this amalgam.
- For the dough part, I just used the simple, unleavened dough as per Mindy’s sample, which is more pastry-ish than pizza-ish. You can, of course, use pizza dough instead.
- I used rooster potatoes but, for those of you Stateside, I reckon that Yukon Golds would be just fine for this too. Or just try it with whatever spuds you’ve got.
- This makes 2 approx. 30cm x 30cm flammekueche, though you can easily halve everything and just make one if you’re only feeding one or two people.
The Dough:
- 300g plain flour
- 3 tblsps olive oil
- 120ml warm water
- pinch of salt
The Topping:
- 2 medium potatoes (about 400g)
- 1 small onion (about 100g)
- 200g crème fraîche or sour cream
- 3 tblsps olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 25g parmesan, grated
- approx 2 tblsps of chopped fresh rosemary leaves or fresh thyme leaves
You’ll also need:
- 2 baking sheets, each at least 30cm x 30cm
The Steps:
- Scrub the potatoes well and (leaving the skins on) slice them as thinly as you can (and yes, if you have a mandoline, by all means use it).
- Rinse the sliced potatoes in several changes of cold water, so that most of the cloudy starch is washed off, then drain using a colander.
- With the potatoes still in the colander, toss them with about 0.5 tsp of salt and leave them sitting over a bowl to continue draining while you get on with the dough.
- Preheat the oven to 220C
- Sieve the flour and salt for the dough in a large bowl, add the olive oil and warm water and (as per Mindy’s guide) just mix to a dough. I kneaded the dough for a minute or two, just to bring it all together.
- Divide the dough in two and roll each piece out thinly on a floured surface – I ended up with 2 square-ish pieces of dough measuring around 30cm x 30cm.
- Dredge your two baking sheets with flour or cornmeal and then lay the dough out onto the sheets.
- Remove the potatoes from the colander and pat dry.
- Slice the onion thinly, then toss the onion slices with the potato slices and 1 tblsp of olive oil.
- Season the crème fraîche with a little salt and black pepper and then spread onto both dough bases, spreading it right out to the edge of the dough.
- Top this with the potato and onion mix, again spreading it out to the edge of the dough.
- Scatter each kueche with the rosemary or thyme leaves, a good pinch of coarse salt and another tblsp of olive oil.
- Bake for about 15 minutes, then scatter with the grated parmesan and return to the oven for about another 5 minutes. The edge will be well browned and crispy and the potato slices cooked through.
- Allow to cool a little before slicing and scoffing, it’ll be good either warm or at room temperature.
The Variations:
- As infinitely variable as a pizza – I would have added capers if I’d had them.
The Results:
- Makes 2 approx 30cm x 30cm flammekueche. I ate half of one of these for lunch (mind you I didn’t have anything else to eat with it) – so I guess it makes for 4 hungry portions and more like 6 to 8 portions for people who are being more polite or who have other stuff on their plates.
By the name, I was hoping you would light it on fire! I’m not disappointed (much), though–this looks great! And, to make you feel better, on Season 2 of American Idol, runner up Clay Aiken is Much More Famous than winner Ruben Studdard. So there! Congrats on your silver, DS:D
I would have to fight you for the leftovers! Wow great job…and thanks for joining us!
Fabulous, I love this potato pizza! Yummy!
huzzah for you! huzzah for potatoes!
Number One to your fans and followers! Congratulations on being the English-language finalist – it’s quite the achievement. The margin between you and the other blog whatchamacallit was almost as thin as the lovely potatoes in this flammakueche. The edges are so beautifully browned and crisp, they almost look like glowing embers! As always, your creativity with the humble spud is untouchable.
This looks delicious…I have 5 lbs of potatoes chilling in my kitchen and was feeling uninspired.
Congrats on 2nd place!
Jenni: ah thanks and I do like silver a lot :) as for the flammekuche being, in actual fact, flameless, I can only say that I forgot to get that wood-fired oven when I was out shopping last week, so I just had to make do, lol :)
Chef E: delighted to join in and of course I’d let you have some of the leftovers :)
Natasha: thanks, it was yummy and there’s very little of it left now…
Manuel: huzzah indeed!
Tangled Noodle: thank you TN – it would be a lonely little outpost here without the likes of your good self adding such lovely commentary – and who cares about the other whatchamacallit blog anyway :)
Caitlin: thanks so much, delighted to have you drop in – I hope you found some inspiration for your 5lbs of spuds!
Congrats!1 Silver is way better than gold. That flammekueche looks delish. Do you have any leftoevers? lol
How I would love to lift off the top layer with my fork. It looks absolutely delicious.
Word to the wise–licking the screen doesn’t do that rosemary any justice. ;-) Thanks for joining in this week!
Congrats on your EuroBlog gong. Those spuds look the business.
Congratulations! Love tarte flambe. One of my favorite non-fancy foods in Paris is Flams – all you can eat tarte flambe. Like your Eurokeuche version with the sliced potatoes.
OMG!! This is looks like lunch for me today! Thanks for the great recipe and idea!!
This would make a special lunch. But I gather from all the comments ahead of mine that whatever leftovers there were, are now spoken for! GREG
Please share the leftovers. We’ll take a couple of pieces for sure. We’d have to put the bacon on there…just once!
Congrats to you, Spud, this is a tremendous honor and I’m just delighted for you!! :)
I call it tarte flambee … but whatever anyone calls it, I know it must be delicious. I think I’m in love with that picture. Yum!
jenn: of course silver is better, very nice of you to say so :) as for the leftovers, I’m afraid that they have now left the building…
noble pig: oh yeah, have at it with your fork!
Mindy: duly noted, lol
ToastedSpecial: cheers! I do try to do me best with the oul’ spuds :)
gastroanthropologist: all you can eat tarte flambe? lead me to it!
Stacey: enjoy :)
Greg: well, that being the case, I guess I’ll just have to make some more, ‘cos I wouldn’t want you to feel left out!
Duo Dishes: the bacon could go on there too, absolutely
Diva: aw, thanks! and you can of course call it anything at all, so long as it tastes good, right? :)
Congrats on 2nd place! But your no. 1 to me, I don’t care what they say! Delicious potato pizza!!!! The picture is mouth-watering.
Congrats on the finish, I can only imagine how exciting that was. Sounds like the judges were on the right path until the end – seems kinda fishy to me =) The dish looks amazing and I cannot wait to give it a try.
Got your note about coming to SF – cannot wait to connect.
sorry you didn’t make it all the way in the contest, but i still love your blog anyway :)
this pizza thing sounds DELICIOUS!!! i love potatoes on pizza… and pizza like things ;)
Potatoes + “Pizza”?! Where do I sign up?! Wow, this looks absolutely awesome! It may take some time to prepare, in my opinion, but the end result looks well worth the sweat! A job well done…
P.S. It is funny that you mention capers, I just used capers in my latest grilled cheese concoction.
This just looks heavenly!! I had potato pizza in Sullivan Street Bakery once and It’s my favourite pizza ever since! I have to make this – will just substitute soy cream/milk for the sour cream.
Congratulations on your silver! Your flammekueche looks incredible!
congrats on the silver that is pretty cool and – WOW on the tart – this looks so fantastic…..
Congrats on your winning! I can honestly say that I have never met a potato I didn’t love! I will be back for more!!!
Reeni: aw thanks, I blush!
OysterCulture: yeah, who knows what was going on behind the scenes :) Excited about SF – will email you
Heather: thanks – I’m rather fond of potato on pizza too (no great surprise there!)
Grilled Shane: yep, it did take a fair bit of prep time but it was worth it :) – and I like how you persisted with your latest grilled cheese sambo – the caper-based aioli alone sounded excellent
Mary Bakes: Oh, I’d love to try the Sullivan Street Bakery potato pizza – I gather it’s rather well known!
lisaiscooking: why thank you, most kind of you to say so
doggybloggy: thanks, it was pretty cool :)
sarah: thank you and welcome along – drop in any time!
Congratulations on your fantastic showing in the Euroblog Awards! I don’t really know what the competition is based on, but I hope you feel good about your accomplishment. And speaking of accomplishments, your flammekueche a la spud looks award-worthy, too!
Hey Sapuche, thanks, I do feel good about it – feel pretty good about the flammekueche a la spud too :)
I’ve seen a few recipes for this kind of thing and it has always appealed to the starch hog in me. Potato AND bread? Why, thank you, yes.
And here’s a major big congrats on your showing for the Euroblog Awards. In solidarity I sang “Making Your Mind Up” by Bucks Fizz for you. (Found a video on You Tube with Terry Wogan presenting back when he was, like, 12. Totally creepy.)
Thanks AB! Bucks Fizz, now that does take me back, would love to have actually heard your rendition of that song :)
Congratulations on your Euroblog Award! Well deserved.
Thanks Megan, much appreciated!