Potato Gratin

This Potato Gratin is the perfect addition to any meal, whether its weeknight dinners or holiday occasions. For this Au Gratin style side dish, thin slices of Yukon gold potato are baked in cream, milk, two cheeses, garlic, and thyme, until bubbling and golden brown.

I understand the love for mashed potatoes, but this Potato Gratin is what you’ll always find on my Thanksgiving table instead. It’s so much better! And for the record, I do think mashed potatoes are wonderful, but you can’t beat the creamy, cheesy, textured goodness that is potatoes au gratin.

There are so many dishes that you can serve with potatoes au gratin, like Slow Cooker Short Ribs, Parmesan Crusted Chicken, and Pork Tenderloin. I’ll share more suggestions below, but it goes well with basically any meat entrée.

What Type of Potato To Use

I recommend using Yukon Gold here, which has a wonderfully tender flesh and delicious flavor. Other good options would be Russets or Idaho potatoes. Try to stay away from waxy potatoes like new potatoes or red bliss.

How to Make It Step by Step:

As a general overview, we’ll need to:

1. Slice the potatoes.
2. Toss them with milk, cream, cheese, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper.
3. Bake.

Set up the cream and milk first to prevent browning and capture starch

Place the cream and milk together in a big mixing bowl before you start slicing the potatoes, then put the potatoes directly into the milk and cream as you slice them. This does two things:

#1. It prevents the potatoes from turning brown and oxidizing.

#2. It lets us capture the precious starch from the potato slices and puts it into the milk and cream, thickening the liquid.

A lot of potato gratin recipes solely use cream for the baking liquid, but retaining the starch allows us to replace some of that cream with milk. This cuts down slightly on the richness without making the liquid thin.

It’s a common default to soak potatoes in water to prevent browning, like for Crispy Hash Browns, so I like to set up the dairy bowl first to make sure I don’t accidentally forget.

Slicing Recommendations

Even though you can slice the potatoes by hand, I highly suggest using a mandolin or a food processor for slicing.

When cutting by hand, the slices will be uneven and it’s very tedious.

If you get a good quality mandolin, it’s not as scary to use as you might think, and I use mine ALL the time.

Add the Cheese

When the potatoes are sliced up, add two kinds of cheese.

My choices are sharp and tangy aged parmigiano reggiano and melty, nutty aged gruyere.

Both cheeses serve different purposes and are equally necessary. I recommend getting both, and know that often times grocery stores will cut larger pieces of cheese into any size you need, so long as you ask.

Add garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper

Add your flavorings of choice directly to the bowl. My favorite flavor combination is tons of fresh thyme leaves, garlic, salt, and pepper:

I find 2 tsp of salt is perfect for me using a coarse kosher salt. Use less if you cook with table salt.

I think thyme is the best herb for potato gratin because it has a wonderful flavor, and a texture that isn’t disruptive. While you can do rosemary, the leaves are a lot bigger and more noticeable, so try to chop it up well if you go that route.

Toss the ingredients well to evenly coat the potatoes, then dump the entire contents of the bowl into an 8×12 baking dish.

Cover Tightly and Bake

Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil, then place the entire baking dish on a sheet pan.

Trust me, don’t skip the sheet pan, or you’ll have a burned mess on the bottom of the oven. Since the liquid has cream in it, it loves to boil over and seep out the sides.

Bake the au gratin potatoes for an hour, then remove the foil. It will look like this:

The potatoes will be mostly tender, but now it’s time to bake for 30 more minutes to really brown the top and let the liquid reduce down:

That’s better.

Your glorious homemade potato gratin should now be very tender in the middle but cheesy and brown on the surface. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 3 lbs yukon gold potatoes
• 1/4 lb gruyere cheese grated
• 1/4 lb parmigiano reggiano cheese grated
• 3 cloves garlic pressed or minced
• 10 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 tsp salt
• black pepper

Instructions 

• 1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• 2. In a large bowl, combine the heavy cream and milk.
• 3. Using a mandolin, slice the potatoes very thinly (if you don’t have a mandolin, you can use a knife, but it will be a lot more work and time). As you finish slicing each potato, place it into the cream milk mixture so the slices don’t brown.
• 4. When the potatoes are all sliced, add the gruyere and parmigiano cheeses to the bowl, along with the garlic, the leaves from the thyme sprigs, salt, and a few cracks of black pepper. Toss well.
• 5. Pour the potatoes and cream into an 8×11 baking dish, then cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil.
• 6. Place the baking dish on a sheet pan, then bake for 1 hour.
• 7. Remove the foil and bake for 30 minutes more, until the potatoes are tender, bubbling, and golden brown on top. Serve and enjoy!

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Spaghetti Carbonara

This creamy Spaghetti Carbonara has crispy pancetta, mushrooms, and Parmesan cheese for a delicious and easy meal!

Say hello to yet another instance where the greatness of eggs shines through. In this case, egg yolks give us the most lusciously delicious pasta sauce. 

I remember having frozen meal carbonara when I was a kid and hating it, but became a total convert once I tried it freshly made.

The thing I’ve discovered about spaghetti carbonara is that it must be enjoyed promptly. All pastas tend to dry out a bit after pulled from the water, but this is especially true of carbonara.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 oz pancetta diced
• 8 oz baby bella mushrooms sliced
• 1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
• 1 cup peas thawed if using frozen
• 1 egg
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 oz grated parmigiano regiano cheese (1/2 cup measured)
• 1 lb spaghetti
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• salt
• black pepper

Instructions 

• 1. Start preheating a big pot of salted water for boiling the spaghetti.
• 2. Combine the olive oil and pancetta in a skillet set over medium heat, and cook for 5-8 minutes, until crisp.
• 3. Remove the pancetta with a slotted spoon to a paper towel, then add the mushrooms and yellow onion to the skillet. Season with 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp black pepper, and sauté for about 10 minutes, until the onion is soft.
• 4. Add the peas and cook for 1 minute to briefly warm them, then pour the mushroom mixture into a very large bowl (5 qt). Add the pancetta.
• 5. Cook the spaghetti in the prepared pot according to the time stated on the box, and make sure to save the pasta water after it's done cooking. In the meantime, whisk to combine the eggs and grated cheese in a medium bowl.
• 6. As the pasta cooks, prepare for the following to go very quickly: Drain the pasta and immediately put it into the mushroom bacon peas bowl. Immediately pour in the egg cheese mixture and toss the pasta vigorously. The heat of the pasta will cook the eggs and melt the cheese and form a creamy sauce. Toss in the chopped parsley.
• 7. As the pasta dries out a bit from the heat, add pasta water as necessary. I usually add about 1/2 cup of pasta water to make sure it stays saucy. Once everything is tossed, serve the pasta promptly. Enjoy!

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How To Make Spaghetti Aglio e' Olio Peperoncino

 

Name : Spaghetti Aglio e' Olio Peperoncino

Yield : 10 Portions

Description : Spaghetti served with garlic, chilli, and olive oil based sauce.

Ingredient :

1. 1 kg Cooked Spaghetti
2. 50 gr Garlic Chopped
3. 100 ml Olive Oil
4. 25 gr Peperoncino Chopped
5. 20 gr Parsley Chopped
6. 50 gr Parmesan Cheese
7. Salt

Method Of Cooking :

1. Heat the olive oil, saute the garlic without coloring.
2. Add cooked spaghetti, mix well.
3. Sprinkle with peperoncino.
4. Season with salt.
5. Add chopped parsley.
6. Add parmesan cheese, check the taste.
7. Serve hot, and garnish with spring parsley and chopped parsley on top.

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Fattoush

We really do love eating pita bread with everything, even salad! Fattoush is a delicious salad with toasted pita bread, sumac, and other veggies. Eva loves making fattoush for parties and get-togethers on hot summer days. For this recipe feel free to add or take out any veggies. What makes fattoush different from a usual salad is the pita chips and sumac, so make sure to include those!

Ingredients:

1 garlic clove
Lettuce (any type, Eva uses romaine and spring mix)
1 scallion diced or 1/4 cup diced white onion
1 cucumber sliced
2 beefsteak tomatoes diced
1 large pepper or 2-3 small peppers diced
16 spearmint leaves chopped
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2-3 radishes sliced
5 tablespoons of olive oil
3 teaspoons of sumac (found in most Middle Eastern stores)
Salt
Pepper
4 teaspoons of lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Toast pita by using a toaster oven or regular oven. Once toasted break into small bite size pieces

2. Mince garlic at the bottom of a bowl with a dash of salt. If you can't mince the garlic, finely chop the garlic on a cutting board and press it down with the back of a spoon - transport to bowl

3. Add all veggies to bowl with olive oil, sumac, lemon juice, pepper and toss well *taste prior to adding lemon juice - sumac has a lemon taste to it (depending on how fresh it is) and it might be enough without the lemon juice

4. Right before serving, add toasted pita and toss. Toasted pita can also be served as a side for those who don't like it tossed into their salad

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