Today, we're gonna do a classic potato dish, Potatoes Gratin. We're gonna do it simple, but we're gonna use techniques to try and make it like you might see in one of your favorite steakhouses. Gratin, generally consists of thinly sliced potatoes. Today, I'm using russets. I want a little bit of starch in the gratin so that it can hold together and create those layers that you want when you cut into it. I’m also using some Gruyère and Parmesan, which will also help to bind everything together. Good quality cream infused with garlic and shallots will add a ton of flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds russet potatoes - or Yukon golds
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 3 shallots - sliced
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 sprigs thyme
- ½ pound Gruyere cheese - grated
- ½ cup Parmigiano Reggiano - grated
- salt - to taste
- pepper - to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Make the infused cream:
- Slice the shallots thin and smash and dice the garlic.
- Get a small pot on the stove on medium-low heat.
- Add a tablespoon of butter and add the shallots and garlic. Sweat the shallots and garlic until they are translucent, not browned.
- Once softened and translucent, add the cream and the thyme and gently bring to a simmer. The goal here is to basically steep those flavors into the cream. The cream is the delivery unit for the flavor. But we don’t want to boil this too hard. We just want to treat it almost like a tea. Once the cream tastes like all those flavors, remove from the heat and slice the potatoes.
Slice the potatoes:
- Using a mandolin with a safety glove (a metal, cut resistant glove), slice the potatoes either 1/8 of an inch or 3/16 of an inch. Whatever size you prefer. Slice the potatoes lengthwise so they look a bit like lasagna sheets. When layering we are going to approach the assembly like we would lasagna. Continue to slice all the potatoes thin and then get right into assembling the gratin.
Layer the potatoes:
- In a 1-quart baking dish, add a little cream to the bottom of the baking dish, then layer the potatoes, slightly overlapping each other, in a single layer.
- Season that layer with salt and pepper.
- Sprinkle a light layer of the Gruyere and parmesan.
- Finally add another light layer of the cream.
- Repeat the layers, but alternate the way you stack the potatoes in each layer to create a nice structure. Fill the baking dish up as much as you can, compressing the potatoes, leaving a tiny space at the top for the cream to bubble a bit. Don’t add the top layer of cheese yet. We are going to bake the potatoes tender first.
Bake the potatoes:
- Toss the baking dish into a 350-degree oven, uncovered, with a sheet tray underneath for 45-1 hour or until the potatoes are just fork-tender.
Top with cheese, finish baking, and brown:
- Once the potatoes are fork-tender, add a more generous layer of the gruyere and parmesan and then put it back in the oven and let the potatoes finish cooking through. If the top layer of cheese hasn’t browned by the time the potatoes are cooked perfectly, then use the broiler to brown the top. Always rely on the broiler if you need it.