Best Potaoes Au Gratin / Dauphinoise ?

We’re watching this space for what you make!

2 Likes

Raclette?

1 Like

This looks amazeballz… if you’re up for the labor.

Gift link, natch :wink:

1 Like

I’d done this before Kenjii wrote it up. The vertical orientation gets more browning further into the dish, and the gaps provide spaces for extra and supplemental butter/cheese/garlic/cream. Served portions look prettier, too.

I wouldn’t call this Hasselback, though. To me, Hasselback spuds are kept integral, albeit with fine slices almost all the way through.

You can do this vertical technique with apple pies, tarts, ratatouille, anything baked using slices.

Keller’s pave is like Damascus steel except made of potatoes.

1 Like

I’m probably going to go for some mashup of the various gratin recipes. I haven’t decided if I want to do the ‘pave’ finish or if I want to orient the slices more vertically.

It’s mostly a matter of deciding how much advance work I want to do. The pave treatment means at least the day before prep so it can compress in the fridge.

1 Like

Ostentatiously labor-intensive. I’ll also add that AFTER all that effort, you’d still need to cut, fry, plate and serve the portion without it coming apart. Hence my musing on a crosscut Hasselback. If I try that, I’d probably fry the raw cubes first, then bake or roast to a finish.

I make pommes Anna when I want a dressier potato dish. Dead simple to make and amazing bit of food science in that the sliced potatoes stick together with nothing more than their own starch. I have a midsize cast iron skillet which makes a perfect size for two. Crisp outside moist and tender inside. I do a little riff on the classic recipe by sprinkling some herbes de Provence and a dusting of Parmesan cheese between layers. I have a tea kettle that fits just inside the skillet and I rest that on top while cooking for weight to enhance the browning.

Gabrielle Hamilton wrote a nice story about the dish.

1 Like

Be sure to check out ATK, then – the recipe that has you cook them in a milk and cream mixture. I can PM it to you if you like.

1 Like

If you have custard cups or silicone muffin molds, you could probably stack & cook the gratins in those and invert to pan-fry top & bottom, instead of slicing a loaf, for a cheat’s version of pave.

3 Likes

Totally. Rip Keller off with biscuit-cutter slices stacked in molds, pressed and fried in individual servings. Flat Pringles that taste good!

1 Like

Well, there they are. Thanks to mom’s Cuisinart, I got perfectly sliced 3mm potatoes, and the pictured dish is also from her, vintage 60’s Pyrex.

I sort of Frankensteined various gratin recipes. Rubbed casserole dish w garlic clove and greased w butter. Simmered some half and half with some smashed garlic cloves and some butter for a bit, then layered in potatoes, some half and half mixture, salt, pepper, a little
Gruyère, potatoes, salt/pepper, cheese, etc.

Baked about 50 minutes, then added extra Gruyère and Parm to the top and broiled for a bit.

Texture was perfect, tasted great. Not the most attractive dish I’ve ever made.

I had meant to use nutmeg but forgot it in the pantry.

But hey, potatoes, garlic, dairy. No complaints here.

I kinda love the cuisinart, I gotta say.

Check out the discs:

The 3mm is in the dishwasher, natch.

10 Likes