Hero Pommes Fines Herbes

I made these as a side dish last night with some dinner. They looked gourmet and reminded me of some MREs, in their package. They came all foiled and when they spilled out in the pan, came out in a giant lump.

While cooking, the directions, which were extremely sparse, mentioned that it would take about fifteen minutes. In actuality, it took about a half hour before any crispiness was present, and by that time, all the potatoes were reduced to tiny potato shards, and although they were very soft, they were bubbling and freaking out and skipping all over the pan.

I was also disappointed in the usage of sunflower oil over duck fat in the potatoes. Call me an asshole or a gourmand or a lover of trans fats, but if you're going to make easy to cook French cuisine for the every day housewife or aficionado, use the actual ingredients. I don't want the damned sunflower oil. But maybe I'm just picky and when I die at the age of 35 from liver failure, cite this article and raise a glass of Riesling for me.

When the potatoes were finally ready, we had them after dessert. And to be honest, they were decent, but none too impressive. They weren't fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. They were very irregular and some were undercooked and slimy and some were very crispy. The good ones were tasty and had an earthy, very natural taste and the herbs were intense and also delicious, but the remainder wasn't impressive and the overall package just didn't yield what we expected at all.

Labels: 5