So I stumbled upon gratin dauphinois when it was a winter time and I was missing French comfort food A LOT. I found this dish and another one called Gratin de Pâtes (I’ll give out the recipe for it some other time) and I had the urge to make it right away that night. The first recipe I tried out was the original gratin dauphinois, pure potato and cream and garlic and that’s it. There has been some debate on whether you put cheese or not in the dish, many say the original does not but in the end you can be creative and put anything you want. This dish is usually served with chicken or turkey dish, but in this recipe I tried out putting bacon inside the dish (because I’m lazy like that) and thankfully this ended well so I’m using it.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
What you’ll need:
– 5 medium to big sized potatoes
– 350 ml of full cream fresh milk
– 200 ml fresh cream
– 4 cloves of garlic
– Nutmeg powder
– Salt and pepper
– Bacon (I use beef bacon in this recipe but normal or turkey works as well)
– 1 stalk of leeks
First off, cut a clove of garlic in half, rub them face down all over the surface of a gratin dish.
Mince the rest of the garlic cloves, the finer the better
Boil the milk and cream in low heat, add the chopped garlic and nutmeg powder. Let it simmer for a while. MAKE SURE you keep it in low heat because you don’t want those bubbles coming out of your sauce mixture.
Wash and peel off the potatoes, then slice them with 2-3mm width (DO NOT wash them after you slice the potatoes).
Cut the bacon into small pieces.
Cut/chop the leeks as well.
Layer the potato slices in the dish, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper (and extra nutmeg if you want), cream mixture and leeks between each layers, add the bacon for every other layers. You can overlap the potatoes and no need to be too neat with the lower layers, but keep some of your best slices for the top ones (or you can completely ignore this last sentences if you don’t care about how it looks haha).
Bake your gratin in high heat for 45-60 minutes.
Aaaand done!
There’s no way to make this look pretty once you’ve transferred it to a plate, but the taste is ah-mazing! Especially since now is winter or rainy season and all.
PS. If you’re one of the lazier bunch (like me on every other weekend) or if you’re cooking for 1-2 servings instead of a whole gratin dish, you can just mix all the ingredients and boil everything in a medium heat with the lid closed for 15-20 minutes (just make sure you cover the potatoes thoroughly with the cream mixture).
Here’s to the long winter nights and rainy days,
TLMC
