Gratin Dauphinois is a French specialty that originated in the southern part of the French Alps. I've read conflicting things about the area of its origin, but what I can cobble together is that it used to be known as the Dauphine region (Grenoble was its main city), and is now roughly encompassed by the departments of Hautes-Alpes, Isère, and Drôme. The dish is a frequent accompaniment to meats, and you might see it offered as a side with the plat du jour next time you're in France. In fact, the best gratin I ever had was served alongside a half roast chicken at an otherwise unremarkable brasserie in Burgundy. I like my homemade version as well, which I've adapted from the cookbook At Home with the French Classics.
The good news is that Gratin Dauphinois is easy to make and sinfully delicious. The bad news is that this dish doesn’t do well as leftovers. I’ve found that reheating makes the potatoes too mushy and turns the cream into an unrecognizable oily substance. Beurk. But the other good news is that Gratin Dauphinois is so sinfully delicious you won’t have to worry about leftovers.
To make your own Gratin Dauphinois you'll need:
4 pounds large potatoes (about 8), cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
Grated cheese to sprinkle on top. The cookbook recommends Gruyère or Emmenthaler. I've had luck with Parmesan.
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Butter a large baking dish.
2. Layer the sliced potatoes in the baking dish and sprinkle with the garlic, salt, and pepper.
3. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk and cream and bring to a boil. Pour over the layered potatoes.
4. Sprinkle grated Parmesan on top.
5. Bake in the middle of the over until the potatoes are brown and tender, 35 to 40 minutes.
4 comments:
My favorite! I use to make it with potatoes and tuna too. Problem is, can't find any cheese that is both cheap enough and good here :-(
Nice to meet you, Tanya. That looks great. And this is a great time to eat potatoes! Earlier this month I bought some that were grown at a farm right near my house, just harvested, and they were so much more delicious than regular same old same old potatoes. Who knew? We could taste the difference. Just roasted in olive oil with some fleur de sel sprinkled liberally over top...mmmm.
Zhu, you poor thing, are you in good cheese withdrawl? You might do better across the river - Quebec grocery stores have much more cheese. Not sure their prices will be any lower though, sorry...getting them to cut it at the deli offers a bit of savings though, instead of buying it packaged. If that helps.
If only I read this before I just made plain old pasta with onion, garlic, chopped tomatoes in a port reduction....seriously though, that looks much tastier than my pasta. Hope all is well Tb's, we miss you over here!
@Zhu, Really? I'm surprised there isn't at least one decent fromagerie near you.
@Margaret, Nice to meet you too! Thanks for checking out my blog.
@Lou, Man, I miss you guys too. Can't believe it's been a year since our late night in London. You and Erin had just moved there!
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