2013 Cooking Club Week 43: Cheesy, garlicy potato gratin

TeletextPear

I've chosen a side dish as my contribution to the Cooking Club this year. Potato gratin is always a crowd pleaser and this one is packed with flavour and is really simple to make. You can adjust the recipe based on how many people you're feeding and the size of the dish you're making it in, but the amounts I've used here will feed four average eaters - or two very greedy eaters - as a side dish.

Ingredients:

800g potatoes (I used roosters)
5-6 cloves of garlic
400ml cream
1 wedge of Grana Padano cheese (you can get it in Dunnes; gruyere would be good too, or whatever cheese you have to hand will do fine)
Salt & pepper





Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 200C/Gas 5.

Peel the potatoes and cut into thin slices. (Optional part: if you have a steamer you can steam the slices for five minutes to get them a bit softer and it will cut down on cooking time later, but it's not essential)



Grate the garlic cloves.

Grate the block of cheese.

Assembly time! Get your oven dish out and start layering (I fit four layers in my dish). Lay a quarter of the sliced potatoes in a thin layer on the bottom of the dish. Scatter a quarter of the minced garlic over them, distributing it evenly. Pour 100ml of cream over this. Then top with a quarter of the grated cheese. Repeat this layering process until the dish is full. Season with salt and pepper.



Cover with tinfoil and pop into the oven. When you can slide a knife easily through the potatoes the dish is done (around 20 minutes if you've steamed the potatoes or 40 if you haven't). At this point, take off the tinfoil and put the dish back in the oven for a minute or two to brown the cheese. Enjoy!

Dizzyblonde

Oh yum - I'll definitely make this

Lovely Bloke

Making this to have with Pork Belly for tonight's dinner

Daisies

This recipe title contains 3 of my favourite food objects.

TeletextPear

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

Making this to have with Pork Belly for tonight's dinner

Hope you enjoy it!

John Mason

had this for dinner last night with a nut roast. it was lovely, really really tasty.

Padraig Mor

Yum yum. Love potato gratin! I was actually going to do a very similar recipe for my turn a few weeks ago - even prepared and photographed it - but changed my mind at the last minute!

fitzcoff

I made this well something similiar over the weekend.

I love garlic potaotes, I had never added cheese to it before, all I had was some cheeder/mozzerella mix so added that. I don't think there was enough of taste from the cheese or maybe I had too much garlic ( can you have too much garlic) in them.

I'll try them again with the cheese you have mentioned

TeletextPear

fitzcoff wrote: »

I made this well something similiar over the weekend.

I love garlic potaotes, I had never added cheese to it before, all I had was some cheeder/mozzerella mix so added that. I don't think there was enough of taste from the cheese or maybe I had too much garlic ( can you have too much garlic) in them.

I'll try them again with the cheese you have mentioned

No such thing as too much garlic! Yeah the grana padano is quite strong flavoured so you should taste it a bit more I reckon

wmpdd3

I'd love to make this but the padano is so expensive (200g for €3) , is there anything else cheaper you could reccommend. I love all types of cheese except feta.

TeletextPear

wmpdd3 wrote: »

I'd love to make this but the padano is so expensive (200g for €3) , is there anything else cheaper you could reccommend. I love all types of cheese except feta.

You could just use a regular strong cheddar instead

JohnK

I made this last night and it was quite tasty to have with with some turkey. I didn't steam the potatoes first though so it took closer to an hour but turned out nicely in the end.

TeletextPear

JohnK wrote: »

I made this last night and it was quite tasty to have with with some turkey. I didn't steam the potatoes first though so it took closer to an hour but turned out nicely in the end.

Looks great!

Wurly

I'm viciously hungover and cant fathom a trip to the shop to buy cream. Is there any chance I could use fat free yoghurt instead of the cream? Or would that be horrible?

TeletextPear

Wurly wrote: »

I'm viciously hungover and cant fathom a trip to the shop to buy cream. Is there any chance I could use fat free yoghurt instead of the cream? Or would that be horrible?

I don't think the yoghurt would really work for it unfortunately, I know you can substitute yoghurt for cream in some dishes but as the cream is such a major part of this recipe I don't think it'd really turn out right with yoghurt instead

Wurly

TeletextPear wrote: »

I don't think the yoghurt would really work for it unfortunately, I know you can substitute yoghurt for cream in some dishes but as the cream is such a major part of this recipe I don't think it'd really turn out right with yoghurt instead

Yeah, I thought you'd say that. Ah well. I'll leave it for another night. Thanks.;)

Princess Peach

Made this last night to have with sausages. Very tasty and comforting!

Billy86

TeletextPear wrote: »

I don't think the yoghurt would really work for it unfortunately, I know you can substitute yoghurt for cream in some dishes but as the cream is such a major part of this recipe I don't think it'd really turn out right with yoghurt instead

If you got the texture thinner it could. Greek yoghurt in place of cream is great for mash, for example.

Exiled2NY

I made this on Monday, forgot to take pictures as it was too tasty. I made it with lactose free cream and cheese, it was still perfect!