Round of applause for potatoes, squared

All Andrew wanted for his sixth birthday a couple of weeks ago was to go to the Lego store at Downtown Disney - you know, the free part of Disney where everything is double the price.

There he found the construction kit of his dreams: a Star Wars Republic Attack Gunship with 1,034 itty-bitty Lego pieces.

This is not a wise choice for a boy whose mother is neurotic, whose father is a by-the-book instructions follower and whose younger brother loves to tinker, smash, crash and explode things.

Can you imagine what happens when a curious little brother is compelled to break off 392 pieces from the gun ship and attach them to the opposite hull?

I can tell you what happens. The vessel no longer functions like a $129 Star Wars Republic Attack Gunship.

Birthday boy cries; Dad's frustrated because he can't find missing pieces; and I storm into the garage to get the shop-vac to suck up bricks, which are really, really painful when stepped on.

For comfort from this celebration maelstrom, I wanted potatoes. For the first time in the Steamy Kitchen, I grabbed a cookbook and followed a recipe exactly. No substitutions, no tinkering, no eyeballing measurements.

Creating them is a bit like building a Lego toy. But a whole lot easier. And tastier.

POTATO DOMINOES

The recipe is from "Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way" by Francis Mallmann.

If you feel like tinkering, you might add a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg. And if you don't want to go through the trouble of clarifying butter, just use regular butter.

4 Idaho (baking) potatoes

4 tablespoons chilled clarified butter (see accompanying recipe)

coarse salt (such as sea salt or kosher salt)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a Silpat nonstick baking mat, or use a nonstick baking sheet or a medium-sized baking dish.

Cut off the ends of one potato and reserve them. Trim the four sides of the potato to form a brick. Slice a potato about 1/8-inch thick on a mandoline, keeping the slices in order if you can (just like a line of shingled dominoes).

Hold the stack of potato slices in the palm of one hand and use the other to shape them back into a brick, as you would a deck of cards. Lay the stack on its side on the baking sheet and put the reserved potato ends, cut side down, at either end to keep the stack aligned. Then, with the palm of your hand, angle slices slightly to resemble a line of dominoes that has tilted over.

Adjust the end pieces to keep the stack and the shape, and align the slices if necessary. Dot the top and sides with pieces of the clarified butter. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Repeat with the remaining potatoes, keeping the stacks at least 2 inches apart.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are browned on the edges and tender in the middle when tested with a skewer. Serve immediately.

To make clarified butter:

1/2 pound unsalted butter

Sowly melt the butter in a heavy, small saucepan over medium low heat.

Do not stir. Remove from the heat and carefully spoon off all of the foam from the top. Pour the clear liquid butter through a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth, leaving behind the solids in the pan.

Once cool, the clarified butter can be refrigerated for weeks.