Receta Potato Gratin with Herbs and Garlic, from ‘The Two Fat Ladies’
Remember the Two Fat Ladies?
Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson were gregarious, joyful cooks that rode around the the UK on a motorcycle (with a sidecar), taking over kitchens and cooking feasts. They only used fresh, local ingredients but, with a liberal use of lard, butter and heavy cream, their dishes rarely qualified as healthy.
The Two Fat Ladies cooking show started the year we lived in Ireland and ran for four years. We still watch the reruns when we get a chance.
This is based on a dish I watched them make, modified, of course as they were making it for the cricket team.
And it was the hit of our dinner party last weekend.
Use whatever fresh herbs you have on hand, just use a variety and a lot of them.
The Gratin serves four – but increasing or decreasing is easy.
Potato Gratin with Herbs and Garlic
Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Ingredients:
- 4 medium potatoes, depending on size, (24oz, 720gr)
- 2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tbs chopped fresh basil
- 2 tbs chopped fresh oregano
- 2 tbs chopped fresh chives
- 2 tbs chopped garlic chives
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbs good olive oil
- 1/3 cup (3oz, 90ml) chicken stock
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp pepper
Instructions:
With a sharp knife or mandolin thinly slice the potatoes.
Put slices in a large bowl of cool water and set aside.
Mix garlic, herbs, salt and pepper.
Remove potatoes from water, lay out on kitchen (paper) towels and pat dry.
Drizzle a bit of the oil in a glass baking dish, just large enough to hold ingredients.
Make a layer of potatoes, sprinkle with a bit of the herb/garlic mixture and drizzle with a little oil.
Repeat 4 more times.
Pour the stock over all, cover with foil and bake at 400F (200C) for 30 minutes.
Remove foil and continue baking another 30 minutes. Top potatoes should start to brown and get crisp.
Remove from oven and serve.
Want to know what else we had?
To start, I made a pizza using puff pastry. It was topped with Avocado Cream (mashed avocado with Greek yogurt, lemon), smoked salmon, fresh herbs and a few Greek olives.
The main course was Grilled Lamb Steaks.
For vegetables, we had the Chard and Yellow Tomato Gratin, and Green Beans with Caramelized Shallots and Chopped Red Pepper.
All that was followed by a selection of cheeses, then the Cheesecake and lastly, coffee and chocolates.
Yes, there was wine…..
Everyone loved the potatoes.
Last update on August 20, 2014