Gratin Dauphinois

Recipe:

Ingredients:
1kg potatoes (Desirée would be best), 300ml full fat milk, 284ml of double cream, 1 clove of garlic , peeled and halved, 2 sprigs of fresh thyme, plus extra for sprinkling, 1 shallot, roughly chopped, A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg , 25g freshly grated Parmesan

Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 160C/Gas 4/fan oven 140C. Rub the butter all over the inside of a small casserole dish. Peel and slice the potatoes to a width of around 3mm/1⁄8in. Lay the slices on a clean tea towel and pat dry. Keep them covered with the tea towel while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan. Add the garlic, thyme and shallot. Slowly heat the milk and, just as it is about to reach boiling point, remove it from the heat. Strain the liquid into a large jug, sprinkle in the nutmeg and keep it warm while you prepare the rest.
- Layer half the potato slices in the dish, slightly overlapping the slices and sprinkling with a little salt and freshly ground pepper between each layer.
- Pour half the hot milk and cream over the potatoes then finish off layering the rest of the potatoes. Pour over the rest of the hot milk and cream. Scatter the cheese over the top and bake for about one hour, until golden and tender. Leave the dish to stand for about 5 minutes, then serve sprinkled with a few fresh thyme leaves.

Region details:
Gratin Dauphinois comes from the Dauphine region, where they typically grow a lot of potatoes and raise a lot of cattle. The cattle from the region have a distinctly sour tasting milk, hence the frequent use of soured cream in recipes for the dish. As you can see, this creamy potato based side dish exhibits the character of the region. Gratin itself comes from the Rhone Alpes although the word is often mistaken for meaning cheese, actually ‘Gratin’ comes from the French word ‘grater’ ‘to scrape’ as gratin is often made with scrapings of cheese or breadcrumbs; overall, the word translates as crust.