[Sca-cooks] Anchovy-Potatoes

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Curious about incarnations of the recipe of which Phlip posted the 
skeleton, i searched the web using - potatoes anchovies cream - as my 
search parameters.

On a Finnish website i found it listed as Janssonin kiusaus. And on a 
Swedish website, I found a recipe with a Swedish title - Janssons 
Frestelse, which apparently translates as Jansson's Temptation - it 
was listed as a festive dish for an Easter smorgasbord. The page 
owner said she'd learned the recipe from her "daughter in UK"...

One website said the recipe was from Jeff Smith's Frugal Gourmet on 
Our Immigrant Ancestors

It also turned up looking Danish as Janssens, looking English as 
Johnson's, and lastly, as looking a bit scary as Jason's Temptation - 
i'm envisioning arranging the top layer to look like a hockey 
goalie's face mask....

The quantities are fairly consistent, so for the benefit of those who 
need sort-a kind-a specifics...

Janssons Temptation

INGREDIENTS
6 medium potatoes, about 2 1/2 pounds
2 medium or large white or yellow onions
1 or 2 cans anchovy fillets packed in olive oil
----- one recipe says Scandinavian sprats are better
1 1/2 cups (3 dl) heavy cream
olive oil from the anchovy tin
1 to 2 tablespoons butter
----- 3 if you saute sliced onions in 1 Tb first
Optional:
(1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper)
(1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary)
(2 tablespoon to 1/4 cup bread crumbs)

DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter 8"X8" Pyrex baking dish.
Finely slice potatoes, or julienne them or grate them... Finely slice 
onion into rings (or chop, but rings are more elegant). Drain 
anchovies and save the oil, then cut the anchovies into 1/2-inch 
pieces.
Layer potatoes, anchovies, and onions, repeat, then end with a layer 
of potatoes. Dot with butter.
Beat together oil from anchovy can and cream. Pour half over potatoes.
Cover with lid or aluminum foil. Lower oven temperature to 350 and 
bake casserole for 1/2 hour.
Remove pan from oven, and pour in remaining cream. Bake covered or 
not for 15 minutes. Test potatoes and bake longer if not yet fork 
tender - how long will depend on your potatoes - up to 15 more 
minutes.

NOTES -and- COMMENTS -and- DRIVEL

There are a couple tricks, repeated in the various incarnations...

First:
Only a couple recipes specify what type of potatoes to use - one says 
russets (the big rough brown baking potatoes) - one says russets or 
Yukon golds (that's what i just bought)

Second:
Besides thinly slicing the onions and potatoes, you are supposed to 
cut up the anchovies. OK, maybe that was obvious to some, i imagined 
leaving them whole.
-- Optional: Saute the onions in butter before layering in the baking dish.

Third:
The beginning and ending layers should be potatoes. And be sure to 
dot the top layer with butter.
-- Optional: Put fresh rosemary in the first and second layers
-- Optional: Sprinkle all three layers with ground pepper

Fourth:
Using anchovies packed in olive oil, drain and save the olive oil, 
then beat it into the heavy cream.
Pour 1/2 to 3/4 of this over the dish after all the layers are 
completed. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes.
Remove from oven, pour in remaining cream, and return to oven for 
another 15 minutes.
-- Optional: Cover baking dish with lid or foil during both stages of baking.

Actually, this baking part is quite variable - some say to bake first 
at 400F. then reduce the heat to 300F. for the second baking. Others 
bake at 300F. the whole time. Lengths of time in the oven for each 
segment vary (35/15; 20/30; 30 at 400/30 at 300). And one recipe gets 
real nit-picky, adding the cream in three stages, etc.

This much fiddliness seems unnecessary, but all the recipes i found 
other than this added the cream in two stages, so that's the first 
way i'd try it.

And Finally:
Several recipes sprinkle the top with bread crumbs during the last 5 
or 10 minutes of baking.

And as a Post Script... i'm thinking this might be nice with the 
addition of sliced kalamata olives, maybe a sprinkle of capers, and 
maybe some thyme... Sure all this Mediterranean stuff doesn't really 
go with the northern cream, but what the heck.

Anyway, i was going to make this tonight, but i was so hungry, having 
not eaten breakfast or lunch, that when i was in the market, i got a 
roasted chicken and laid into it after putting the perishables away.

I will be having Christmas dinner tomorrow afternoon with complete 
strangers - a Goth couple who are friends of a Goth friend of mine 
who have an "orphans" dinner every year. So i guess i'll have the 
taters'n'chovies on Sunday...

Anahita