Back when I posted about my large stash of potatoes and asked for advice on how to use them up, I got a number of good suggestions, one of which came from my girlfriend Linell. Her recipe immediately caught my eye because it involved a lot of cream, as in three cups of cream. I have way too many quart jars three-quarters filled with cream (cream I skimmed from our half gallons of raw milk that we purchase from a local farmer) piled in my chest freezer, so a recipe that used up that much cream seemed mighty handy. Not to mention that I’m rather fond of cream.
This particular recipe was simple, too. All there was to do was simmer the thinly sliced potatoes in the cream, pour them into a buttered baking dish, give them a light dusting of Gruyere, and then bake them in the oven till bubbly and golden brown. Simple and rich—it couldn’t get much better than that, now, could it?
I’ve made them twice, and I’m smitten. The recipe calls for only a few tablespoons of cheese, but the potatoes taste like there is more cheese than that, I guess because the starches from the potatoes combine with the cream to create its own unique potato-y cheesiness.
Potatoes in Cream with Gruyere
From my girlfriend Linell, and according to her, originally from Julia Child.
3 cups cream
1 large clove of garlic, peeled and sliced
1 bay leaf
salt
black pepper
6-7 cups potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3-4 tablespoons Gruyere cheese
Put the sliced potatoes, cream, garlic, and bay leaf in a heavy-bottomed kettle. Simmer on the stove top until the potatoes are tender. Season with salt and black pepper.
Pour the potatoes into a greased 9 x 13 glass pan, sprinkle with the cheese…
…and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
7 Comments
Amber
Yummmm all that fat and dairy sounds delightful.
Jennifer Jo
Kris, That’s funny—Abi moaning.
And 40winkzzz—cream as “Mom’s Butt-Thickener” is, well, just about perfect.
-JJ
Anonymous
I made this last evening for supper and Abi moaned while she ate it.
K
40winkzzz
Oh my goodness, three cups of cream, plus cheese? That recipe is positively evil.
(PS- You probably haven't been reading my blog long enough to know that I drink cream– well, half-&-half, actually– in my coffee, and that my smartmouth teenage daughter refers to coffee cream as "Mom's Butt-Thickener".)
You Can Call Me Jane
Wow. That does look amazing and I’m not generally fond of potatoes. How about trying to convert me. You know where I live. (Just a joke. Well, kind of a joke:-)).
Zoë
JJ, how are you not 300 pounds?!?
Anonymous
Excellent! Kirk just harvested the rest of our Onaway potatoes (marvelous flavor, by the way) and I too have more than several pint and quart jars of cream in my freezer.
It won’t be a stretch for you to believe that mashed potatoes made with cream (slightly soured) are way better than those with milk. Speaking from experience over Thanksgiving.
Abi says YUM.
K