Gratin Dauphinois is a rich and delicious gratin dish

made of finely sliced potatoes covered with cream,

topped with grated Gruyere cheese and baked until browning crispy on the top.

This healthy recipe of Savoie,

located in the French Alpes is easy and

practical to make as you can cook it in advance

and reheat it just before serving.

To make Gratin Dauphinois, you will need a starchy potato,

today I am using Russet potato because they are very rich in starch,

salt, pepper, nutmeg,

whipping cream- about 33% of fat, gruyere,

chopped garlic and little bit of butter.

Pour the cream about 2 cups in a large pot or casserole, add the garlic.

Season the cream with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Smells wonderful!

Grate the nutmeg, about a quarter of a whole one.

Good. Don’t buy ground nutmeg as it will take forever to go through.

Buy whole ones and grate them when you need them.

And it will have much more flavour.

After peeling your potatoes, keep them in cold water

to prevent them from browning

and before slicing them with mandolin, then dry them out.

Now always use a guard when you are using a mandolin,

because this is very sharp. You see.

You want to adjust your mandolin to have about 2mm slices

which is not measured in inches, ok.

But probably the thickness of a coin. Ok.

So like that. Here we go. That would give a good idea how thick you want them.

So slice your potatoes.

So put the potatoes in the cream as they get sliced.

You can use a knife to slice a potato

but they wont be as regular as they will if you use a mandolin.

You can also use a slicer machine,

but they wont have the same roundness, you know they wont be as regular.

So cut by a mandolin. Place all the potatoes in the cream.

And add the remaining cream. Mix well.

You don’t want to have the potato slices totally covered

by the cream because otherwise it will be too much.

Then take the pot to the stove. Bring the cream to a boil on medium heat.

Meanwhile, prepare the gratin dish.

Melt the butter and pour it into the dish.

Grease the dish.

Then if find out you put a little bit too much,

you could always remove some with an absorbent paper.

Like so. You don’t want to hand over a very greasy dish

because it will be rich in gruyere cheese.

Stir the cream and as you will see, the cream will thicken.

It is the starch getting to the cream and that will thicken slightly your cream.

Taste the cream. Not bad. And rectify the seasoning.

So pinch of more salt and tiny bit more pepper.

Stir. Taste again.

I am going to use the other side of the spoon.

Excellent! Transfer the potatoes in the gratin dish.

I am using a skimmer. You may use the serving spoon.

Arrange the potatoes to make it flat.

You can see the brown little dots. This is the nutmeg.

I love nutmeg, it’s pretty strong flavour, but it gives a nice flavour to the dish.

Then pour some of the cream over.

Grate the gruyere. Sprinkle the gruyere cheese all over the potatoes.

So make sure you have cheese everywhere.

Place the gratin dish on a cookie sheet.

I like to put some parchment paper under just in case the cream overflows.

It won’t dirty too much the cookie sheet or the resting tray underneath.

Bake the gratin dish at 425 degrees F for about half an hour to start with.

See you in 30 minutes.

Its been 30 minutes, let’s have a look.

The gratins have become golden brown.

So we turn the temperature to 350 degrees F.

And we are going to bake it for another 15-20 minutes. See you in 20!

It’s been 20 minutes, let’s have a look.

Nice colour. The potatoes are tender.

Wow! The gratin smells wonderful! It is very appetising.

Serve it with roasted chicken or

roasted leg of a lamb or other dishes.

Bon appétit!