Potatoes Au Gratin
11 days ago
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I love playing with food, I love potatoes and I love cheese, so this recipe for Potatoes Au Gratin meets my every criteria. Plus, it is so pretty when it is done. The only downside is that it does take a long time to thoroughly cook, but it is well worth the wait.
Preparing the Ingredients
For this recipe you can peel the potatoes or not. It’s entirely up to you. To thinly slice them, consider giving Cutco’s Traditional Cheese Knife a try. I know it sounds odd, but the holes along the knife’s blade help prevent the starchy potato slices from sticking.
Next, use a 7″ Santoku to mince up some garlic. Chop the garlic and then rock the knife over it to mince.
After mincing, here’s a tip to help eliminate the garlic odor from your hands. Rub your fingers over something made of stainless steel, like a Stainless Teaspoon. You can also squeeze a little lemon juice over your hands, just make sure you don’t have dry skin or cuts where the juice can sting.
Making the Gratin
The potato slices are coated with a mixture of cheese, heavy cream, minced garlic, salt and pepper. Then, they are added to a casserole dish where I like to arrange them in the decorative pattern.
Place the potato slices vertically in the dish, starting around the outside edge. Continue working around the outside and into the center until all the potatoes have been added.
Make sure the potatoes are tightly packed and pour any leftover cheese mixture over the top of the gratin until it comes halfway up the sides of the casserole dish. You may not need all of it.
The Potatoes Au Gratin is tightly covered with foil and baked at 400 F for about 45 minutes. The foil is removed and it goes back into the oven for another 30 minutes to continue baking. Finally, the casserole is removed and topped with cheddar cheese before returning to the oven for a final 30 minutes or until golden brown and crisp on top.
This recipe calls for Parmesan and Gruyere, but cheddar and Swiss would also work really well.
This cheesy side dish is tough to resist and will surely be saved and used over and over again.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 3/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 4 cloves large garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 6 large Russet potatoes, peeled, 1/8-inch sliced (about 4-4 1/2 pounds)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Combine Parmesan and Gruyere cheese.
- In large bowl, mix together cheeses, cream, garlic, salt and pepper.
- Add potato slices and toss with your hands until every slice is coated.
- Grease a 2-quart casserole dish with butter.
- Place the coated potato slices vertically in the dish, starting around the outside edge. Continue working around the outside and work into the center until all the potatoes have been added. Make sure potatoes are tightly packed.
- Pour the leftover cream and cheese mixture evenly over the potatoes until the mixture comes halfway up the sides of the casserole dish.
NOTE: You may not need all the leftover liquid. - Tightly cover dish with foil and place in middle rack of oven. Put a pan below the casserole dish for any boil over. Bake for 45 minutes.
- Remove foil and continue baking until the top is light golden brown, 30 minutes. Carefully remove from oven, sprinkle with cheddar cheese and return to oven.
- Bake until deep golden brown and crisp on top, approximately 30 minutes. Remove from oven and test for doneness by removing a center piece of potato. If needed, bake additional 10 minutes.
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