Monday 6 July 2015

Tarragon potato gratin

The photo was an after-thought...

Last weekend I made Diana Henry's chicken and cherry salad with creamy tarragon dressing. Which was delicious (although I used pan fried chicken thigh fillets instead of poached breasts, so it wasn't nearly as elegant looking). And I tweeted about it and people tweeted back about the things they do with tarragon - in a creamy dressing with squid, bean and bacon salad, on tomato and green bean salad, on potato salad with capers, with watermelon. None of which I would ever have thought of. I like tarragon in bearnaise sauce, in chicken dishes and with mushrooms, but I clearly haven't given it enough attention in the kitchen.

So to accompany our Sunday roast (which was a lovely boned saddle of Texel Saltmarsh lamb) I made a potato gratin with sprigs of fresh tarragon and slices of garlic between the layers of spud. Usual (for me) stock/white wine (actually vermouth)/cream mixture and a long slow bake until it was meltingly tender and well-browned on top. I just seasoned the meat with salt, pepper and garlic because I didn't want other herbs to compete with the delicate aniseed flavour of the tarragon. It was pretty darn good. Would be wonderful with a roast chicken too.

4 comments:

Bettina Douglas said...

Chicken and tarragon are a good combination. I like the aniseed flavour.

Faux Fuchsia said...

this looks magic. xx

Joanne said...

I don't give tarragon enough love either. Definitely need to work on that!

grace said...

i know for a fact that i don't like dried tarragon, but i've never had it fresh and i suspect there are differences. i'd love to try it in something like this!

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