- Hey, I'm Alvin, and today, I'll be teaching you
how to make my loaded scalloped potato dome.
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This recipe kinda came about when it was
nearing the holidays,
and everybody loves scalloped potatoes.
I think it's one of the few dishes where
if you bring it to a party, you can guarantee
by the time that you leave, that plate
is gonna be empty, down to the last cheese bit.
So during that time of the holidays,
I was obsessed with using utensils and pots and pans
and different things to make really cool shapes
out of other foods that we love and know.
One of the tools that I think is super, super underrated
is a stainless steel mixing bowl.
'Cause if you get the right kind
of stainless steel mixing bowl,
these are actually oven safe.
You have this amazing hemisphere baking pan.
And I was like "That's really, really cool,
"Maybe I could use this for something."
The idea of scalloped potatoes is that
you slice the potatoes very thinly, very uniformly.
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You have a bechamel sauce, you have some cream,
you have some pepper, and it's really, really delicious.
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I've never done this before.
It was kind of scary, because I didn't wanna mess it up
and waste a lot of food.
The thing was, for this video,
I was carefully arranging potato slices
so neatly that it took me forever to actually assemble it.
I would place a slice, and make sure I had
the right slice that would go next to it,
and cutting it was a pain, so this dish
does take a little bit of time to assemble,
but I think it comes out with a beautiful result.
And you try to make sure that you layer it
in an even way, that when it cooks,
it's this nice little layers of potatoes.
I also liked how loaded baked potatoes,
they have bacon, they have cheese,
they have green onions, so I was like
"Okay, I wanna incorporate flavor
"into the scalloped potato dish."
So, I would alternate layers of potato
and cheddar cheese, and bacon, and more potato,
and then chives or green onions,
and other kinds of cheese, until...
Basically building layers, and layers, and layers of flavor.
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My hope is that by the time the cheese melts,
it would actually serve as a glue
to keep the whole thing together,
so that when you flipped it over, it wouldn't fall apart.
So that's also why there's that much cheese in there,
and cheese and potatoes, holidays,
nobody's gonna complain why you have
that much cheese in there.
But if you're lactose intolerant,
maybe not the right dish for you.
I think the key here is really, really make sure
you have a tight, overlapping seal
with your potato slices all around,
'cause that is essentially your shield
for the entire thing.
If that breaks, the whole thing's
just gonna fall apart.
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It was pretty nerve wracking the first time
I took it out of the oven, because you also
have to let it cool for a very long time,
because you take hot potatoes, cheese,
you flip it over, it's gonna go everywhere.
The most nerve wracking part for me
was when I finally inverted it, and tapped it a bit,
and felt something plop hard onto a sheet,
and I was like, "This is it!
"Either half of it's gonna be on the tray,
"or the whole thing's gonna be on the tray.
"So either I'm going home very happy, or very sad."
When I unveiled it, it was really, really cool,
because the potato had formed to the edge
of the mixing bowl, making a really nice dome shape,
and it really had a nice fan pattern.
After it's flipped onto a tray, I bake it in the oven
for a little more, just to make sure
that the edges can crisp up, potatoes look delicious
and golden brown and crispy.
After you cut into it, and you pull it apart,
you can see all of your work pay off.
There's just so many layers in there,
it looked really, really cool the time I did it,
I thought it was really fun.
And to add in that sauce that pour as much into,
I think you can serve it with the sauce on the side.
It's almost like a plated version of scalloped potatoes.
I think it just is a different visual way
to showcase scalloped potatoes,
if you want to put in the extra effort.
You can definitely throw in other fillings as well,
just make sure they're not too watery.
Because if they're too watery, it'll cause everything
to be a little watery, and we don't want watery potatoes.
It is quite a interesting thing to pull off,
it does take some time, it's not the easiest dish to make.
But I think the results are well worth it.
So if you do make it, please let me know,
because that is an achievement,
I think, that deserves to be seen.
So, happy potato-ing.
Wow, these lights are bright.
Cool.
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