Potatoes au Gratin
This is a French-styled potato dish my father used to make a lot. When we lived in Germany, we were about 3 miles from the French border and used to sample many regional French dishes. Their recipes seem to have a lot of butter and cream and somehow are quite healthy. I’ll buy that!
1 clove of garlic
1 large leek
2lbs potatoes, peeled and finely sliced
8oz grated cheese . . . I use Gruyère, but you can also use a mild cheddar, jack or swiss
1 cup whole milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
Preheat oven to 350°. Wait, heat the oven to 350°. I don’t know why people say “preheat”. Aren’t you heating it to 350°? Anyway … Mince the garlic and the white part of the leek and sauté in a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon of the butter for a few minutes and set aside. Beforehand, make sure you clean the leek real good. Lots of dirt gets trapped in it.
Spray an ovenproof dish with non-stick cooking spray and line the bottom with a layer of potatoes. The oven dish should be an appropriate size to pack in all the ingredients firmly. Add some salt, pepper, a sprinkling of the cheese and drizzle with the butter-garlic-leek mixture. Repeat the layers until you are at the top of the dish: potatoes, salt, pepper, cheese and butter-garlic-leek mixture. Add the egg and the cup of milk to a mixing bowl and beat together well. Pour milk and egg mixture over the potato layers. The potatoes should not be completely covered by the milk. Finish with the ground nutmeg, some more cheese and dot with butter. Bake for one hour or until the potatoes are cooked and the top is golden brown. Serve!!
So……Jamie wanted me to “chronicle” my experience with his Potatoes Au Gratin recipe…..here it is. Having recently moved out to New England myself from the W. Coast, I have been cooking a lot of “comfort food” recipes. (Had to join the gym too because of that!) Anyway, I was cooking some pork chops last week and was craving a hearty potato dish. This one was perfect! The best thing about the recipe is it is light however, satisfies completely the potato/cheese craving! I had to use a few substitutions…..2% milk instead of whole milk, scallions for leeks, and I used both a white cheddar and a sharp yellow. Delicious! Even better the next day. They reheat nicely. I will definitely make again and make sure that I have all of Jamie’s ingredients next time! Yankees rule!
(just kidding Jamie, I couldn’t resist)