Pommes De Terre Au Lard Or Speckkartoffeln Bacon Potatoes Recipes

POMMES ANNA WITH GRUYERE

Steps:

• Combine salt, pepper, and thyme in a bowl.
• Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir onions until soft and golden brown, about 8 minutes. Move to a bowl.
• Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in the skillet; remove from heat.
• Arrange 1/3 of potato slices in the skillet in a slightly overlapping layer. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt mixture. Top with 1/2 of the onions and 1/2 of the Gruyere cheese. Repeat layers, ending with potatoes; sprinkle with remaining salt mixture.
• Cover and cook over medium-low heat, reducing heat to low if necessary, until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking, about 5 minutes. Run a spatula around edges to loosen; let cool, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Invert potatoes carefully onto a serving dish.

POMMES DE TERRE AU LARD OR SPECKKARTOFFELN (BACON POTATOES)

Steps:

• Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add potatoes and bacon, stirring frequently until potatoes are golden yellow and cooked through, about 20 minutes.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Finally, remove the potatoes and bacon from the pan. Place them on a plate lined with paper towels to soak up some of the fat.
• These beautiful country potatoes go well with sausages (Vaud sausage) and sauerkraut.

HOW TO RENDER LARD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 225 degrees F.
• Wash and chill fat.
• Cut into small pieces (1 inch).
• Place 1 cup of fat in roasting pan.
• Place in oven.
• When fat starts to melt, add more pieces until roaster is about half full.
• Render until all is melted and all moisture is cooked off and evaporated.
• Let cool slightly.
• Dip liquid from roaster and strain through triple layer of cheesecloth.
• (Note:After you have dipped out most of the lard and you have bits of crackling left, continue to cook these down on top of stove but watch it closely and don't let it get too hot.) Pour into 5 to 10 pound containers.
• Cover tightly.
• Store immediately in a freezer if possible.
• Quick cooling produces a fine grained lard.
• Store in freezer.
• You can increase storage time for this lard by adding a 3 pound can of vegetable shortening to every 50 pounds of lard.

FèVES AU LARD (TRADITIONAL QUEBEC NAVY BEANS)

Steps:

• Put the beans and water into a jar with a lid for 18 hours (counting the cooking time, that's 5 hours later than you want to be eating them the next day, so if you want your beans at 5 pm on Tuesday, soak them at 10 pm on Monday. It's ok to give or take a couple hours, but I'd rather give than take.).
• When the 18 hours are almost up, finely dice the fatback, discarding the skin, and dice the onion.
• Put the diced fatback in the pressure cooker, lid off, and cook it on medium heat until it starts to sizzle.
• While you're waiting for it to sizzle, drain the beans, reserving the water.
• Also, mix together the molasses, ketchup, mustard and savory in a small bowl, adding a little bean water so it can pour easily.
• When the fatback sizzles, stir it a little and add the beans.
• Then, add the onion, about half of the water and the condiments and stir well.
• Add more bean water just until it covers the beans, using it to rinse the remaining condiments from the small bowl if necessary.
• Put the lid on (with the high pressure valve, not the one for vegetables), put on high heat until steam comes out and reduce the heat to the lowest you can without stopping the whistling sound (for me it's a little lower than medium).
• Cook that way for 40 minutes, take the cooker off the heat and wait at least 20 minutes before opening it.
• Troubleshooting and tips : if there's a significant amount of liquid left on the bottom of the cooker, stir the beans, screw the lid back, put on high heat, let the pressure build and take off the stove as soon as it whistles. Then, wait 10 minutes before opening.
• Also, beans are at their best when reheated. Once refrigerated, always stir them well before serving the first leftover portion, so as to distribute the sauce that will have settled to the bottom and hardened.