Le patia, plat de résistance d’un repas forézien

The wind blows over the plains of Livradois-Forez. This morning, frost covered the garden. The thermometer indicates winter temperatures and the nose is red as the cold sets in in Auvergne. It's time to prepare a comforting meal. A meal from the Forez mountains: the patia. To warm up from the inside first and experience a moment of gourmet plenitude, of tasting. Therefore, the recipe is simple: potatoes, cream, butter, milk, garlic and its seasoning. Don't look, you won't find any excuse not to succumb.

Patia, which can also be pronounced in the feminine form (la patia), is a very common Auvergne specialty in the Forez mountains. It goes back to the Middle Ages, when the families, settled in the Hautes-Chaumes du Forez, created the Fourme d'Ambert. No blue cheese in this recipe, however, but a key ingredient, also produced by the dairy cows of Forez: cream.

List of ingredients :
-1 kg of good potatoes
(the unmissable Bintje, the Mona Lisa or the Chérie)
-1 liter of fresh cream
-75 g of butter
-250ml of milk
-1 clove of garlic
-salt and pepper

The Livradois-Forez patia recipe

Choose your most beautiful cast iron casserole dish
and rub the previously opened clove of garlic on its wall.
Then enter your thrifty,
this daily facilitator tool invented at Thiers,
and peel your potatoes.
Then dare to use a mandolin
to cut the potatoes into slices (and not your finger)
or just use your favorite knife.

Melt the butter in the casserole.
Then dip the potatoes in
and let them come back for a few moments.
Then add the fresh cream and milk.
And here is the secret of this gourmet recipe:
simmer over low heat for 3 hours.
The magic then happens.

A quarter of an hour before the end of cooking, salt and pepper to taste. Finally, if you want a gratin effect on your patia, bake your casserole for a few minutes in an oven on the “grill” function.

To be enjoyed hot, warm, with your warmest loved ones. To conclude: green salad and local charcuterie go well with the patia.

In summer, the patia is also eaten at altitude at the Black rooster chatter. Meals on reservation then.