Apples of the Earth

Potatoes Au Gratin are the ultimate mac and cheese of France. The perfect pots au gratin have all the same wonderful caracteristics that a nicely made, oven-baked batch of mac and cheese will provide: the chewy yet tender starchy base, a creamy cheesy sauce that bubbles and thickens as it cooks, a cheesy topping that crisps up nicely in the last few minutes of baking and adds the perfect crunch, and an immense capacity to contain 1,000 calories in a single serving. Formidable! I decided to make some to accompany a turkey burger dinner, as I was wary of fries and ready for something that packed a more solid caloric punch. I went scrounging around the internet for a good recipe.

Simply Recipes
had a great recipe that looked simple enough, but did not leave much room for invention, so I made room.

Instead of whipping cream, I used crème fraiche. Instead of gruyere, I used reblochon that was handily sliced for a raclette, so I had a really hard time grating it. Then I sandwiched some sliced and blanched baby zuchinni, or courgettes as everyone, even the Brits call them, between the two double layers of red, not Yukon, potatoes. The creamy sauce that I cooked up had a flavor base of home-made roasted garlic, then crème fraiche, then milk, salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg, and finally flour and cold water gruel for the eventual thickening. I followed Elise’s recipe and sprinkled some salt and pepper, as well as grated parmesan halfway through arranging the potatoes, which provided and nice, milky bath for the courgettes to mellow out in. After leaving the gratin pan in our itty-bitty ‘oven’ on oven setting 71/2 for 30 minutes, I added a bit more reblochon and some crumbled cheese straw-type crackers (a touch gleaned from B.’s grandma’s mac and cheese recipe) and broiled that mofo for 5 minutes or so. The onions, the cheese, and the crackers made a crust worthy of being turned into one of those “it looks like an apple pie but it’s really a candle” things. I wish I had pictures, but I had to taste my creation while it was still excruciatingly hot and by burning my mouth and hand was incapacitated until it had gotten cold and a bit shriveled, i.e. not at all suited for a photo op. The only thing my potatoes au gratin lacked was a sufficient amount of salt for my taste; otherwise, they were très bon!

Coming up soon: the mystery of Mami Nova yogurt.

Oh, but here's a link to In Praise of Sardines : he's got great photos of everything and a link to a Flicr slideshow of a dinner at the Spanish Wonder Restaurant, El Bulli, as well as some amazing pictures of food period.