(Experiment 13) Patate dauphinoise

Traditionally, for dauphinoise you slice the potatoes super thin and put them raw in your pan, cover with sauce, and cook for well over an hour. This is somewhat of a hybrid between dauphinoise and gratin as I am pre-cooking the potatoes a little bit.

If you want to go the traditional way, simply layer your potatoes in the pan without pre-cooking them. You will need to cook it 15-30 minutes extra.

Also, the real dauphinoise doesn’t have cheese on top… this is so sad that I include it in my recipe.

What does it change? If you don’t pre-cook them they cook 100% in the oven so it changes the texture of the potatoes, a bit more crunchy. In either case, they are good!

You need

• 8 medium-sized potatoes ( Yukon gold gives the best result )
• ~450g heavy cream ( 35%)
• ~450g milk
• 50-100gr cheese ( gruyere is the classic french one but you could use mozzarella )
• 3  garlic cloves
• ~10g butter
• pinch nutmeg

Instructions

1. First, peel the potatoes and cut them a maximum of 1/8″ thick. Do not rinse the potatoes have the starch they contain will thicken the sauce. You want to slice them all at the same thickness else you will have some cooked potatoes and some will left uncooked. You can use a mandoline for that, I don’t have one, and last time I used one I almost chopped myself so a knife it will be 😉
2. Grease up an oven-safe pan and set it aside.
3. In a pot combine the garlic, milk, cream, nutmeg, salt, pepper and bring to a simmer. Add the sliced potatoes and let them cook for 5 minutes. Mix them every now and then so they don’t stick together
4. Remove the garlic from the cream and using only 1, smash and rub it in the pan. Put all the potatoes in the pan then add the remaining cream until you are up about halfway covering the potatoes. Cut the butter into small cubes and place them on the top potatoes. Bake 30 minutes at 350F.
5. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the cheese on top of the potatoes. Put back in the oven for another 30minutes ( or until cheese has browned a little).
6. Before serving let it cool for 10 minutes

**Note that I’m using yellow potatoes here and they are NOT ideal for this.