Potato Flowers From the Cookbook, Feasts of Wine and Food by William Rice and Barbara Goldman

Recipe at the bottom:

This cookbook has travelled with me since I've been 21years old and has been absolutely pivotal and probably the most influential in teaching me how to make succulent, classic, beautiful dishes for my family, friends, boyfriends and hubby!  I can still remember the moment I saw it in a bookstore in downtown Vancouver.  I thought I'f found the secret to well-balanced high-end menus of good taste.  It's also where I first learned how to make Yorkshire puddings.  

So, while this cookbook was put together by William Rice, it would appear that the real master chef and woman behind all of these recipes was a woman named, Barbara Goldman. Why I wondered was her name not on the front cover?  I did a little google search and still cannot really find her.  She may have been married to a wine maker named Max Goldman, but I got to thinking, perhaps she did not want any accolades for doing something she truly loved. I will say however that I have become completely intrigued by many of the women's names in this cookbook including a woman by the name of Narcisse Chamberlain, the project editor for this book, but also a legend in the cooking and recipe world as well.  Looking forward to learning more about these women.

Potato Flowers:  1/2 lb unsalted butter, clarified, 1 cup olive oil, 10 new white potatoes, washed, skin on, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.  

Recipe:

Heat the butter with the olive oil.  Using a vegetable peeler, cut the potatoes into long, paper-thin flexible slices (or a mandolin).  Immediately, to prevent the potato slices from discoloring, coat them in the butter oil mixture.  Form the "flowers" in a muffin pan:  Start building eight potato flowers by laying flour slices in the form of a cross in each muffin cup.  You now have a base to start creating flowers.  Curl the slices around one finger to form little cones and place in the cups, jamming them in so they stand upright.  Open some of the cones, carying their shape slightly.  They will look like flowers.  Sprinkle them with salt and pepper and any extra oil and butter you have left.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Bake the flowers until they are browned, about 35 minutes.  They may drip while cooking, so place a large baking pan underneath.  Notes:  This sounds hard, but once you get the hang of it, it is very easy as long as the potato slices are thing enough to be flexible.  A mandoline for cutting will speed up the process.  Well coated with the butter and oil, the flowers can be held uncooked for about 1 1/2 hours.  They don't reheat well.