Mastering the art of French cooking?

I adore Julia Child and I'm a little obsessed with French food, but French recipes just seem so intimidating. My sister gave me a copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" awhile back and while I marked lots of recipes that I hoped to make, I still haven't mastered any of them. I recently came across this recipe on Pinterest and today I made my first official French dish. It was AMAZING!!


Mini Herbed Pommes Anna

You can find the recipe on Bon Appetit, although, I have tweaked it just a little. Here is my version:

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• dried rosemary
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2-3 large potatoes (I used russet- but Yukon Gold were suggested)
• kosher salt
• ground black pepper

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 425°. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Drizzle 1/2 teaspoon butter into muffin tin and brush sides generously. Sprinkle each cup with rosemary.
• Add rosemary and garlic to remaining butter in saucepan. Remove from heat.
• Slice potatoes into very thin rounds. (Use a mandoline if you have one, otherwise, slice VERY thin.)

• Layer potato slices in muffin cups. Drizzle remaining butter over potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

• Cover pan tightly with foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake until potatoes are fork tender, about 35 minutes. Remove foil; invert a rimmed baking sheet over pan. Turn over and lightly tap, releasing potatoes onto sheet. Using a spatula, carefully turn cakes over and put on platter.
 

They were delicious! Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. My family raved about them and asked me to make them again....SOON! A simple recipe, yet full of flavor.

"Pommes Anna or Anna potatoes, is a classic French dish of sliced, layered potatoes cooked in a very large amount of melted butter. The recipe calls for firm-fleshed potatoes and butter only. Potatoes are peeled and sliced very thin. The dish is generally credited with having been created during the time of Napoleon III by the chef Adolphe Dugléré, a pupil of Carême, when Dugléré was head chef at the Café Anglais, the leading Paris restaurant of the 19th century, where he reputedly named the dish for one of the grandes cocottes of the period. There is disagreement about which beauty the dish was named after: the actress Dame Judic (real name: Anna Damiens), or Anna DesLions.^"