Snack Time for Napoleon

Not Bonaparte. I'm talking Dynamite.

The Little Chef prepared some very fancy-sounding potatoes this week to accompany our pork medallions: pommes dauphine. The recipe called for pureed potatoes mixed with choux pastry (the same dough as used for eclairs, but without milk or sugar). Oh la la, I thought. Then I saw the finished product, and burst out laughing:

Pommes Dauphine

Yes, the fancy French potatoes in question are known back home as Tater Tots, that ubiquitous cafeteria spin on French fries. Even more shocking is that stripped of all corn-based additives, they're pretty bland tasting. I was nevertheless disappointed in practical when Chef Fireman showed me how to pipe the tots in small circles onto baking paper to make them safer for deep-frying. (The paper is then lowered into the hot oil and the dough peels right off, rather then cutting the dough directly from the pastry bag into the deep fryer, where the "plop" of dough hitting the oil could burn you.) I mean, they promised me tots, so I wanted tots!

What could I do but chuckle to myself all day long, thinking of nothing other than Napoleon Dynamite? *GOSH!*