Clem's Pommes de Terre Fondantes

Menus in French always look impressive even when fairly mundane dishes are being described.
Pomme de terre means "potatoes" and the root word fondant" means "melting". Thus, this dish (also known as Fondant Potatoes) means "melting potatoes". The dish is essentially a sauteed and baked dish where the humble potato is cooked like a meat. It is a little involved to make but is easy nevertheless. Here is how:

Ingredients

• Enough potatoes of a appropriate size to make your potato rounds.
  When selecting your potatoes, choose them all of the same size and dimensions, with two fairly flat opposing sides in order that you can cut good sized rounds from them.
   
• Rosemary and thyme (if preferred).
   
• High smoking point cooking oil and some butter.
   
• Some soup stock; beef or chicken or seafood depending on what your pommes will be accompanying.
   

Method
 

• Peel the potatoes.
   
• Use a round cutter or knife to shape equally sized potato rounds (cylinders).
  Make sure that the top and bottoms of each round has parallel flat sizes.
   
• In an oven-proof pan (I used a Dutch Oven), heat up some oil and then saute the rounds on one side then the other.
  What you want to achieve is a deep browning on the two flat sides of each round.

The first side of the potato rounds being browned off

• After both flat sides of the rounds have been browned off, set the heat to low add a large knob of butter to the pan plus if preferred, some rosemary and thyme for extra flavour.
   
• After some frying, add your chosen stock of a quantity which comes up to around half-way up the potato rounds.
  Let the stock boil and then bring the pan to an oven set at 200^oC and bake uncovered for some 30 minutes.
  In this stage of the cooking, what is desired is for the potato tops to crisp up and for the rest of the potato to become soft (the "melting" part of the dish description) and also absorb to flavour of the beef stock (and herbs if used).
  
  Monitor the bake. The stock should concentrate; and don't let the potato tops burn.
   

The potato rounds after addition of beef stock and herbs, prior to baking in the oven
 

• When the rounds are crisp enough above and soft below, remove and plate with your chosen main.
   
• With the now concentrated stock, make a gravy in your usual manner and you can spoon this over the pomme de terre fondantes.
   

I served my pomme as the carb to a main of Scotch Fillet:

Clem's Pommes de Terre Fondantes with a piece of thick-cut Scotch Fillet, and buttered asparagus and mushroom
 

All my cooking (some without recipes) can be found here (click on each photo to go to that dish's page):

http://clemkuek.com/photoalbum/photo696.html

Video presentations can be found here:

Clem cooks

www.clemkuek.com

07 January 2026
 

Created by Clem Kuek