A Potato Dish for Julia Child

Delicate, buttery slices of new potatoes get an extra boost from salty mashed garlic and cracked pepper. Judith Jones created this side dish while working late one night on a cookbook manuscript with Julia Child, who turned to Judith and said: "You make a nice little potato dish while I fix the meat." She uses a 4 1/2-inch square cast iron pan but says any small skillet will do.
This recipe is one of Judith Jones' meals for one.

Ingredients:

Serves 1

• 2 new potatoes (about 6 ounces)
• 1 small clove garlic
• Salt
• 4 tsp. butter
• Freshly ground pepper

Heat 2 teaspoons butter in a small pan over medium-low heat; lay in half of potato slices, overlapping slightly, to fill the bottom. Lightly salt and pepper, and smear garlic paste on top. Add rest of potatoes to make a second layer, again overlapping.
Cook, setting a small cover askew on top of pan. After about 8 minutes, turn potatoes, which should be brown on the bottom, by setting a sturdy plate on top of pan and flipping them over onto it. Heat rest of butter in pan, then slide potatoes back in and arrange them as neatly as you can. Cook semicovered for 5 minutes, and uncovered for a couple more minutes, at which point they should be done and browned, both top and bottom. Slide them onto a plate; season with salt and pepper.
Adapted from The Pleasures of Cooking for One, by Judith Jones, copyright © 2009, with permission from the publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

from O, The Oprah Magazine e-mail newsletter and website

_/\_/\_