Warm Goat Cheese Potato Cake with Herbed Mixed Greens
Towers of herbed potato salad mixture are topped with goat cheese, which is melted, topped with herbed sabayon, and browned. The cake is a perfect appetizer or even a luncheon dish; the potato salad mixture is wonderful on its own.
Ingredients
- Potato Salad
- Yukon Gold potatoes - 4
- Sour Cream - 1/2 cup
- Heavy Cream - 1/2 cup
- Mixed Fresh Herbs - 3 tablespoons, chopped (tarragon, thyme, parsley, chervil)
- Capers - 1 tablespoon
- Sherry Wine Vinegar - 1/2 cup
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Tomato Compote
- Olive Oil - 1/4 cup
- Shallots - 6, minced
- Clove Garlic - 3, minced
- Red Wine Vinegar - 3 tablespoon
- Tomatoes - 3, peeled, seeded, and chopped
- Herbed Goat Cheese - 8 ounces
- Red Pepper Coulis
- Red Bell Peppers - 2, roasted, peeled, deribbed, and seeded
- Sabayon
- Tarragon champagne vinegar - 2 ounces
- Egg Yolks - 4
- Fresh Thyme - leaves from 2 sprigs, chopped
- Mixed Fresh Greens - 2 cups
- Sherry Vinegar - 2 tablespoons
- Olive Oil - 2 tablespoons
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Capers - 1/2 cup
- Black Olives - 1/2 cup, sliced
Instructions
To make the potato salad: Cook the potatoes, skin-on, until tender. Let cool; peel and cut in two. Cut into medium dice and put in a large bowl. Gently fold in the sour cream, heavy cream, olives, herbs, capers, and vinegar until it resembles a soft potato salad. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
To make the tomato compote: Heat the olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat and cook the shallots for 1 minute. Add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes, until softened and translucent. Add in the vinegar and stir up the browned bits from the bottom. Add the tomatoes, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 5 minutes.
To make the coulis: Cut one half of a pepper into narrow julienne and reserve. Place the remaining pepper pieces in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Put in a squeeze bottle.
To make the sabayon: In the top of a double boiler or a bowl over barely simmering water, whisk the vinegar and egg yolks until blended and warmed through, about 2 minutes. Take the mixture off the heat if it begins to get too hot, whisk to cool, then return to the heat. When heated through, whisk in the tarragon. Keep warm in a thermos until time to serve.
To assemble: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place four 4-inch ring molds on a baking sheet. Fill three-quarters of the way with the potato mixture, pressing down firmly. Add a layer of tomato. Top each with goat cheese, again pressing down. Heat in the oven for 3 to 4 minutes. Using a spatula to lift the molds, place one on each of four heatproof serving plates. Carefully remove the molds. Preheat the broiler to highest setting. Top each serving with a generous tablespoon of sabayon, and place in the broiler until the sauce is browned, 15 - 30 seconds. Or, brown with a small kitchen torch. Toss the greens with the sherry vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Divide among the plates. Drizzle red pepper coulis around the plates and garnish the with capers, olives, and pepper julienne.
