Pommes de terre

Nothing to see here. Just a potato recipe I like

YOU WILL NEED

1 small onion

3 or 4 cloves of garlic

a pound or so of potatoes – I like Yukon Golds or anything waxy like that. Starchy spuds can fall apart

2 or 3 cups of stock – chicken or veggie is best.

Fresh herbage – thyme is beautiful, so is rosemary or sage, or dried herbes de provence

Oil – olive oil is nice, but don’t waste the really good stuff on this dish

Salt and pepper

WHAT TO DO

Preheat the oven to 400

Chop up whatever herbs you’re using, finely dice the onion, and mince (or microplane) the garlic. Set them aside, separately.

If you have a mandoline, great. But if not, just slice the potatoes about 1/8^th inch thick.

Start a nice heavy pot over medium heat with a little oil, and add your onion. Stir it around while it sweats and becomes translucent. A pinch of salt will help the onion release some of its water. Add the garlic next, and keep it moving. Pour in just a quick glug of the room-tem stock, enough to get everything wet.

Now drop the slices in a pot, sprinkling the herbage in as you go

Pour in some more of the stock, just to cover the spuds by about an inch at first. Add another pinch of salt and a few cracks of pepper. Bring it to a boil and let it go for about 5 minutes. The potatoes will begin to release some starch and thicken the liquid

Once they’ve softened a bit, pour the contents of the pot – spuds, stock and all – into a baking dish. Try to make the surface as even as possible. Give the liquid a quick taste and add more salt and pepper if you want to

Bake it for about 40 minutes, until the top gets kinda brown and crispy looking

You can add more stock midway through cooking if you really really think you need to. But this dish tastes better a little too dry than a little too wet.