One of our favourite things to have with a roast is scalloped potatoes. This recipe is an adult version of those scalloped potatoes you remember from your childhood.
Leave it to the French, who call these dauphinois potatoes, to create over a dozen variations of this dish which may include the use of eggs, egg yolks, a light bechamel sauce, different herbs and an assortment of different types of cheese so that you can distinguish one from the other. Au gratin potatoes tend to be on the richer side
I think the secret to success here is the infused sauce - it adds layers of deliciousness that you'll appreciate.
There is nothing low-fat about this dish - save it for a day you feel the need for a treat and enjoy!
Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes
4 med-large size waxy potatoes
1 cup broth (chicken or vegetable)
1 cup cream
6 Tablespoons butter
S&P
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of thyme
Pinch of nutmeg
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ onion, grated with the juice
3 cups cheese (for example, fontina, asiago, parmesan, gruyere)
First peel the potatoes and slice lengthwise on a mandolin, this is important to get paper thin potatoes that will layer perfectly in your baking dish.
Add the broth and the cream into a medium sized pot and add in all of the other ingredients except the butter and cheese. Bring to a boil and then turn off and set aside to steep all of the flavors together. In the meantime, grease your baking pan with a pan spray, oil or butter. Then begin overlapping the potatoes lengthwise until you have covered the entire bottom of the pan.
Gently salt and pepper the first layer and spread out 1 cup of cheese over the entire layer, along with a few nobs of butter. In all, you will create 3 layers, so make sure to have enough butter and cheese for 3 layers. If you want to add some to the top, you can save a little extra for that. Repeat with the second layer, and then again with the third, but do not put the cheese on top of the final layer yet. Once you have everything completed, gently pour the liquid through a fine mesh sieve to catch all of the flavorful remnants we used to poach in the liquid. You can pour this into another container or directly onto the potatoes.
Cover this with a greased piece of foil, so that the top does not stick to the foil as it is baking. Depending on the thickness of your layers, this may take up to 1 1/2 hours to cook at 350°F. At the 1 hour mark, uncover the potatoes and use a knife to slide through to see if it meets with any resistance. By this time, all of the liquid will have boiled off and the potatoes are perfectly tender. At this point, add the remaining cheese (if you like to have cheese on top) and continue to bake uncovered for another 30 minutes until golden brown on top. It is best to let it rest for about 5 minutes to let the potato layers come before slicing. As the melted cheese throughout the dish cools, it helps cement the layers together.
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