Milhojas de Papa (Thousand Layers of Potatoes)

Over the weekend, we celebrated Juan’s birthday with some friends.

It was a small but cozy gathering of around 20 friends from all walks of life, and we had a fantabulous  time stuffing ourselves silly with blueberry cheesecake and a dulce de leche brownie cake. There was also of course, plenty of Coke with Fernet  and Cuba Libres to help us get into a festive mood and quench our thirst.

No Argentine party is complete without Fernet and good Reggaeton music so needless to say, we spent much of the night blasting music, and chatting at the top of our voices while sipping our drinks, before continuing the party at Kika, a very popular club in the Palermo neighborhood.

Other than celebrating and dancing the weekend away, I also experimented with a new dish last Friday!

One of my absolute favorite side dishes here in Argentina is the milhojas de papa, which literally means a thousand slices of potatoes.

Take many slices of evenly cut potatoes, season it with butter, salt and pepper, pop it into a baking dish and then into the oven and you’re done! It’s a pretty fast and easy dish to make, provided you have a Mandoline slicer.

What is a Mandoline slicer?

According to Wikipedia, a mandoline is a cooking utensil used for slicing and for cutting juliennes; with suitable attachments, it can make crinkle-cuts. It consists of two parallel working surfaces, one of which can be adjusted in height. A food item is slid along the adjustable surface until it reaches a blade mounted on the fixed surface, slicing it and letting it fall. Other blades perpendicular to the main blade are often mounted so that the slice is cut into strips. The mandoline juliennes in several widths and thicknesses. It also makes slices, waffle cuts crinkle cuts, and dice with firm vegetables and fruits.

With a mandoline, slices are uniform in thickness, which is important with foods that are deep-fried or baked (e.g. potato chips), as well as for presentation. Slices can be very thin, and be made very quickly, with significantly less skill and effort than would be required if cutting with a knife or other blade.

The problem was that I didn’t have a Mandoline slicer till 2 weeks ago, and when I finally got hold of one, I couldn’t wait to make milhojas de papa!

It was a heavenly and interesting twist to eating potatoes. Imagine an entire tower of sliced potatoes, crispy yet soft at the very same time.

Ahhh…. delightful!

Milhojas de Papa (Thousand Layers of Potatoes)

Milhojas de Papa (Thousand layers of potatoes) – serves 4

Ingredients:

1)3 large potatoes (thinly sliced with a Mandoline slicer) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandoline
2) 100g of butter
3) Salt & pepper to taste

Steps:

1)    Peel and slice potatoes using the Mandoline slicer
2)    Melt 80g of butter and then mix in salt and pepper (according to your taste)
3)    Mix potatos slices with melted butter mixture
4)    In a greased glass baking pan, arrange potato slices, making sure no gap is left
5)    Bake in oven at 180 deg cel for 1 hour or until top potato slices turn golden brown

Slice potatoes with a Mandoline slicer:

Melt butter and mix with salt and pepper:

Mix potato slices with the butter mixture:

Grease a baking pan:

Arrange potato slices, making sure no gap is left behind:

Fresh out of the oven!