So we got a mandoline for Christmas...

Anyone have any good recipes or ideas that demand fine slicing or julienning?

Thanks in advance,
Christian

Try making some waffle french fries.

Start with onion soup!

Slice some Yukon Golds very thin, caramelize some onions, put the onions on pizza dough, top with potato slices, a little salt and pepper, some sauteed wild mushrooms, then some sliced raclette. You know what to do from there.

Potatoes Anna comes to mind. And I just used mine yesterday for onion soup but Stuart beat me to it.

Interesting coincidence here. I also received one for Christmas and I made onion soup for New Year's Eve dinner. The onions were sliced in about 30 seconds, which is miraculous to me. (I have some nerve damage in my hands so knife skills are tough for me, which is why the very thoughtful person who gave me this gift did so.)

I also made my sweet potatoes with chipotle cream Christmas day. I even changed my menu so I could play with it!

It rocks.

Next up, Stuart's Brussels sprouts latkes that he posted.

Start with onion soup!

Absolutey! My 'scary slicer' always comes out for onion soup prep.

Also for potato crisps, pear crisps, Spanish tortilla and a baked 'potato and onion casserole' that is layers of sliced potatoes and sliced onions with cream and seasonings - although I sometimes do the slicing for this by hand.

Not to hijack the thread, but can people posts links to their favorite take on onion soup?

The two best onion soup recipes that I've used are from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" vol 1, and our own Chef Joseph Carey's from his book "Chef on Fire," which by the way is an excellent technique and recipe book.

I sort of do a combination of the two recipes.

Thanks.

I have the first, but will pick up the second. It looks like a great book to add to the library.

G

This Ducasse recipe was in NYTimes couple years ago, I think it's great.

WINTER VEGETABLE TIAN
Time: 3 hours

2 medium-size tomatoes
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 medium-size beets, about 1 pound
1 pound mushrooms, coarsely chopped
2 large shallots, minced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock, approximately
1 medium-large parsnip, peeled and sliced 1/16 inch thick
2 medium white turnips, peeled and sliced 1/16 inch thick
Neck of 1 slender butternut squash, peeled and sliced 1/16 inch thick, about 2 cups
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
12 flat-leaf parsley leaves
6 scallions, trimmed, halved lengthwise and cut in 3-inch pieces.


1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Cut tomatoes in half, brush cut sides with a little oil, season with salt and pepper, place in baking dish in oven, and bake 2 hours.
2. Scrub beets, and trim stems to 1 inch. Place in saucepan, cover with water and simmer about an hour, until tender when pierced with paring knife. Drain beets, and allow to cool to room temperature.
3. While beets are cooking, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy sauté pan. Add mushrooms and shallots, and cook a few minutes, until starting to brown. Place mushroom mixture in food processor, and pulse until chopped medium fine.
4. Peel tomatoes; crush gently to squeeze out seeds and juice; chop flesh. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in saucepan; add tomato flesh, garlic and thyme, and cook a few minutes. Add mushrooms. Add cream. Simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove thyme.
5. In another saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups stock to simmer. Add parsnip, and cook until just tender, about 10 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon; set aside. Place turnips in pan, adding more stock so slices are just covered. Simmer 5 minutes, until just tender. Remove with slotted spoon; set aside. Place squash in pan with as much additional stock as needed so slices are just covered. (Keep 2 tablespoons stock in reserve.) Simmer 2 to 3 minutes; remove with slotted spoon; set aside. Peel and slice beets.
6. Brush shallow baking dish, about 9 by 12 inches, with a little oil. Spread mushroom mixture in dish. Cover mushroom mixture with rows of overlapping slices of parsnip, squash and turnip, with a row of beet slices between each. Dust with salt and pepper. Drizzle with remaining oil.
7. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place tian in oven, and bake about 25 minutes.
8. Melt butter in saucepan. Add parsley leaves, sauté a few seconds, and then scatter leaves over tian. Add scallions to butter, and sauté a few seconds. Remove, draining well, and scatter over tian. Add 2 tablespoons stock to butter, and cook over medium heat, whisking, until slightly thickened. Spoon butter sauce over tian, and serve.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.


This is the second of eight columns by Alain Ducasse, the chef and owner of Alain Ducasse at the Essex House in Manhattan. They are being written with Florence Fabricant.

Oh, yes, I think waffle fries are a must for simply playing with the thing!

B

[Jenise]

I love it for uniform slicing of potatoes for gratins, as others have noted. Ditto wonderfully thin slices of daikon radish or cucumber for marinated salads, and delicately lacy cabbage for slaws.

I saw, on a cooking program on TV today, Jim Lahey from Sullivan Street Bakery in New York and his Pizza Patate. On the rectangular pizza base he placed loads of very finely sliced potatoes that had been mixed with onions, black pepper and a little salt, then "shuffled it like cards" onto the dough. Topped with a little more salt, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with rosemary leaves. It was baked in his very hot pizza oven for about 30 minutes.
I was drooling.

Searching the web for a recipe, I found that this place is now called Grandaisy Bakery. I didn't find a recipe but I hope you get the gist.

Cheers,
Sue

Sichuan dry-fried beef involves cutting celery and carrots into very fine matchstick shreds. I find that the mandoline is the easiest and fastest way to achieve results comparable to what only a guru of the Chinese cleaver can do by hand.

-Paul W.

I saw, on a cooking program on TV today, Jim Lahey from Sullivan Street Bakery in New York and his Pizza Patate. On the rectangular pizza base he placed loads of very finely sliced potatoes that had been mixed with onions, black pepper and a little salt, then "shuffled it like cards" onto the dough. Topped with a little more salt, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with rosemary leaves. It was baked in his very hot pizza oven for about 30 minutes.
I was drooling.

BTW - after posting the comment above I made my own version of Pizza Patate using a pre-made thin pizza base. I layered grated cheese over the base before piling on the mandolin-sliced potatoes that had been mixed with onions, salt, rosemary and olive oil. Yum!

Must.Not.Read.Kitchen.Forum.Before.Lunch!

Yum indeed, Sue!

The NY Times ran this piece by Amanda Hesser a while back; I've made the soup twice and twice it was a big hit:

The onion soup originates from the French cookbook ''Gastronomie Pratique,'' which was written in 1907 by Henri Babinski. The Times published the recipe in 1974, when the book was first translated into English.

It is one of the strangest and most delicious soup recipes I've encountered. Baguette toasts are spread with butter and layered with grated cheese, sautéed onions and tomato purée. Then, in what seems to be a nod to stone soup, salted water is gently poured in. The dish is then simmered and baked, and by the time it is done, the ''soup'' is like a savory bread pudding and the top has a thick, golden crust that your guests will fight to the death over.

''It's a variation on a litany of dishes based on those ingredients,'' Schwertner says of the bread-based soup. Panade and ribollita are probably the most well known.

1907: Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée

From ''Gastronomie Pratique,'' by Ali-Bab. This recipe appeared in The Times in a 1974 article by Craig Claiborne.

1 baguette, cut into 1/2-inch slices (about 25 to 30)

9 tablespoons butter, softened

9 ounces Emmental cheese, finely grated

8 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced (about 12 cups)

1 tablespoon kosher salt, more to taste

1 cup tomato purée.

1. Toast the baguette slices and let them cool. Spread a generous layer of butter on each slice (you will need about 5 tablespoons), then lay the slices close together on a baking sheet and top with all but 1/2 cup of cheese.

2. In a large saucepan, melt the remaining 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add the onions, season with salt and sauté, stirring occasionally, until very soft and golden, about 15 minutes.

3. In a 5-quart casserole, arrange a layer of bread slices (about 1/3 of them). Spread 1/3 of the onions on top, followed by 1/3 of the tomato purée. Repeat for two more layers. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese. To avoid boiling over, the casserole must not be more than 2/3 full.

4. In a saucepan, bring 1 1/2 quarts water to a boil. Add the salt. Very slowly pour the salted water into the casserole, near the edge, so that the liquid rises just to the top layer of cheese without covering it. (Depending on the size of your casserole, you may need more or less water.)

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the casserole on the stove and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, then transfer to the oven and bake uncovered for 1 hour. The soup is ready when the surface looks like a crusty, golden cake and the inside is unctuous and so well blended that it is impossible to discern either cheese or onion. Each person is served some of the baked crust and some of the inside, which should be thick but not completely without liquid. Serves 6.

Try not to slice part of your finger off. I managed to do this the first time I used a mandoline. This seems to be a traditional holiday experience for me. Last week I sliced off part of my left thumb while cutting an onion with a dull knife. How many times have I done this? Dozens.

Learn to play "O Sole Mio" on it.

My favorite mandoline use is with making my own maki. Carrots and Cukes (which were always a pain in the ass) are suddenly easy.

Last week I sliced off part of my left thumb while cutting an onion with a dull knife. How many times have I done this? Dozens.

So how many left thumbs have you got, anyway?

-Paul W.

Paul wants to know how many thumbs I have. Well, less and less.

I knew somebody once who claimed to be "all thumbs" so Ines may have a few more to go, Paul!