Hi Everyone,
No matter which way you combine potatoes, milk, cream, garlic, fresh herbs and cheese, the result would always be a resounding success. You never have to worry about leftovers and it quickly becomes one of your go-to side dishes when entertaining. The good thing is that people never seem to tire of eating it. Potato Bake is a winner every time.
There are many versions and variations of potato bake and it goes by different names depending on the style of preparation or the origin of the dish. There are Scalloped Potatoes – thinly sliced potatoes layered overlapping each other to create the scalloped look and cooked in cream. Potatoes Au Gratin, sliced potatoes layered and covered in milk or cream and topped with cheese or seasoned breadcrumbs to create a crusty topping. Dauphinoise Potatoes – sliced potatoes cooked in cream with the flavour of garlic.
Potato Pie comes in various forms, the most obvious is the replacing of the pasta for macaroni pie with chopped cooked potatoes. Another take on Potato Pie is to layer par-cooked potatoes with cooked minced meat, ham etc. top it with pastry or cheese and bake in an oven. Potato Bake is a little more free form in terms of how the potatoes are cut; there is no special way of layering or assembling the dish. Other ingredients such as herbs, cured meats such as ham and bacon as well as smoked fish can be added. It can be made with or without cheese and depending on your preference, no topping is necessary. Think of Potato Bake as a free form style of baked potatoes.
The wonderful thing about these baked potato casseroles is that you can dictate the flavour by the types of cheese used as well as the added ingredients of cured meats and flavour aids like herbs, garlic and even spices.
Another major consideration is the type/variety of potatoes used. Some call for russet variety (think Idaho) potatoes that are floury and starchy and fall apart easily when cooked for a long time. Others require a creamy/waxy variety such a Yukon Gold that stands up well to the long, slow cooking that these casserole, baked potato dishes require. However, in my humble opinion, you can use whatever you have on hand to cook. Honestly, when you’re cooking for your family I think you should feel free to just use what you have. As it is, here in the Caribbean we basically get 4 types of potatoes: regular white, russet, Yukon Gold and red potatoes. The first two are starchy/floury and the other two are creamy/waxy.
What I made last week Sunday to go along with my steak meal was a combination of Dauphinoise (doe-fin-wahz) and Scalloped Potatoes, hence I prefer to call it a Potato Bake, I did my own thing and I encourage you to do the same – your own thing.
I had smoked Gouda (cheese) and that’s what I used. I had roasted garlic (which I always have in the refrigerator because it is so handy for many things) and used that too. I didn’t think it was necessary to put in any fresh herbs because I wanted the smoked-cheese flavour and garlic to be the signature flavours of the dish.
So here’s what to do.
● Get 2 pounds of potatoes (I used Yukon Gold, that’s what I had)
● 1 tablespoon butter (salted or unsalted), plus extra for buttering dish
● 1 heaped tablespoon all-purpose flour
● 1 ½ cups of whole milk
● 1 tablespoon grainy mustard (or use any kind you have on hand)
● 1 ½ tablespoons roasted garlic puree (mashed smooth)
● Salt and pepper to taste
● 1 cup of grated cheese
Do not peel the potatoes, scrub them clean and steam them or 15 minutes or you can boil them. However, you do not want the potatoes to be fully cooked, you want to insert a knife but you must get resistance. You are par-cooking the potatoes. If you are boiling your potatoes, it would take less time than if you are steaming them. Be sure to boil the potatoes in salted water to season them. I steamed mine so salt for my potatoes was sprinkled on as I assembled the dish.
While the potatoes are steaming, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and take out an 8-inch square baking dish or a casserole dish of the same depth and size, butter it and set it aside.
When the potatoes are done cooking, remove them from the pot and set them aside to cool a little. Meanwhile, melt the butter, add the flour and stir to mix the two ingredients together. You may need to lower the heat because you do not want the butter and flour mixture to develop a colour, well, except the natural colour that it would take on from the butter. Let it cook for 2 minutes.
Add the milk, garlic and mustard to the flour-butter mixture and stir well to mix all the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Take care with the salt if you boiled the potatoes in salted water. If you had lowered the heat, raise it to medium and bring the pot to a simmer. When the pot comes to a simmer, reduce the heat to low or very low and cook for 4 – 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened, it should be able to coat the back of a spoon and when you run your finger along the middle of the spoon the sauce should separate and not join together. While the sauce is cooking, quickly peel the potatoes, and cut them just shy short of half-inch rounds, or chop them up into large chucks, your choice. Remember this is free-style.
When the sauce is done, remove it from the heat and immediately stir in the cheese until it is melted in the sauce. Assemble the potatoes in the dish anyway you like, if you cut them into rounds (and did not boil in salted water), lightly season each layer with salt.
Pour the sauce on top of the potatoes and using a knife or spatula, nudge the potatoes so that the sauce can trickle down between the slices. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 30 – 45 minutes or until the top is golden with brown spots and bubbly. A knife should insert easily to determine the potatoes are cooked.
Remove from the oven and let cook on a wire rack. The Potato Bake will stay hot for a very long time so you can make this about 1 ½ hours before serving. Covering it with foil when it is done cooking and cooling will keep it hot even longer. Spoon or cut into wedges and serve. The longer the dish is left to cool, the easier it would be to slice. But really, do we care? Gimme de potatoes!
A couple of quick notes: in place of roasted garlic, use 1 teaspoon grated garlic, it must be like a paste. Secondly, as the sauce is simmering, you may need to stir it a couple of times to prevent it from scorching.
Do I need to ask what’s on the menu tomorrow? I think not.
Cynthia
Cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
www.tasteslikehome.org
