Gratin dauphinoise

Given my blog’s title, it would be rude not to start with a recipe. This one is adapted (as so many of mine are) from Pomiane.

I first dotted a casserole dish with butter, thankful that the Ethnologe with whom I share my WG owns a lovely piece of enamelled cast-iron le creuset. Orange, of course. I then peeled and crushed a large head of garlic, and ground rather more black pepper than I needed.

Unable to find a mandoline in our kitchen, I then scrubbed and sliced a bit less than a kilo of potatoes (I used desirée) as thinly as possible. This was somewhat tedious, particularly as the potatoes were relatively small, with the result that once I had enough to cover the bottom of the dish, I stopped cutting, and did so, spreading over it a couple of teaspoons of garlic, and adding a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Then back to the slicing, repeating the above process once there were enough potato-slices to do so.

There were about 6 layers in total, and no garlic or seasoning on top of the last. I then brought a scant half-litre of milk to the boil, while the Ethnologe stirred a teaspoon of flour into a pot of cream. The hot milk went over the potatoes, and the cream on top. Then into the oven for 45 minutes or so at about 200°c. We ate it with steamed savoy cabbage and leftover beetroot and beef soup.

(Differences from Pomiane’s recipe: he suggests peeling the potatoes, and using only 4 cloves of garlic and no butter)