Best of the best gratin dauphinois

Best of the best gratin dauphinois

The side dish of dreams, the comfort food of the gods – gratin dauphinois is France’s creamy, beige gift to the world. This recipe ensures something firm and sliceable with plenty of flavour from the aromatic infused cream.

Best of the best gratin dauphinois

Serve your dauphinois alongside this butterflied leg of lamb with rosemary salt. You can’t go wrong!

  • Serves icon Serves 6 as a side
  • Time icon Hands-on time 30 min, plus 20 min infusing. Oven time 1 hour 30 min

The side dish of dreams, the comfort food of the gods – gratin dauphinois is France’s creamy, beige gift to the world. This recipe ensures something firm and sliceable with plenty of flavour from the aromatic infused cream.

Serve your dauphinois alongside this butterflied leg of lamb with rosemary salt. You can’t go wrong!

Nutrition: per serving

Calories
494kcals
Fat
27g (17g saturated)
Protein
7.4g
Carbohydrates
53g (4.9g sugars)
Fibre
5.7g
Salt
2.4g

Ingredients

  • 200ml whole milk
  • 300ml double cream
  • Bunch thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 rosemary sprig
  • 1 tbsp black peppercorns
  • 6 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1 tbsp sea salt
  • Freshly grated nutmeg
  • Butter to grease
  • 1.8kg floury potatoes, such as maris piper or rooster

You’ll also need

  • Mandoline
  • 2 identical deep baking dishes, around 25cm x 20cm
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Method

  1. Add the milk, cream, thyme, bay, rosemary, peppercorns, garlic and salt to a saucepan. Put over a low-medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until the pan is just beginning to simmer. Remove from the heat, grate in a little nutmeg, then cover and set aside to infuse for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 160°C fan/gas 4.
  2. Grease a baking dish with butter and strain the warm cream mixture through a fine sieve into a large mixing bowl, discarding the solids. (If you’ve infused the cream ahead of time in the fridge, gently warm it through before using). Peel the potatoes, then use a mandoline to finely slice them lengthways directly into the warm cream mixture. When all the potatoes are sliced, use your hands to separate the slices in the cream mixture so they’re all coated in the liquid.
  3. Begin layering up the dauphinoise in the baking dish, trying to keep all the slices flat and even, and packing them down tightly. Once they’re all in, pour over enough of the cream mixture left in the bowl to just cover (a few slices of potato poking out of the top are fine). The size and shape of your baking dish will dictate how much cream mixture you will need, but any leftover can be saved in the fridge for a few days and used to cook other dishes (it’s great with pork, chicken or pasta).
  4. Bake the dauphinoise in the oven uncovered for 1 hour 30 minutes, or until a knife will cut through it with only a little resistance. The top should be a dark golden brown but don’t let it blacken.
  5. Remove it from the oven, cover with a sheet of baking paper, then put the second baking dish on top. Fill with heavy weights such as tins and leave to press while it rests for 10-15 minutes. To serve, uncover the dauphinoise and slice into rectangles.

Nutrition

Nutrition: per serving
Calories
494kcals
Fat
27g (17g saturated)
Protein
7.4g
Carbohydrates
53g (4.9g sugars)
Fibre
5.7g
Salt
2.4g

delicious. tips

  1. Don’t waste it Any leftover cream mixture is wonderful to cook with – just keep it in the fridge and use it up within a few days.

    Next time Serving the dauphinois with lamb? Up the amount of rosemary. Serving it with pork? Add some sage.

    Halve it You can halve the quantities in this recipe to serve 4 – just start keeping an eye on it after it’s been in the oven for 1 hour.

  2. You can infuse the cream mixture up to 24 hours ahead; just keep it in the fridge. The cooked dauphinois can also be pressed overnight and then sliced into thin rectangles and reheated in a very hot oven or fried in a little butter. Slices of cooked dauphinois will also freeze well.

Buy ingredients online

Recipe By:

Tom Shingler
Head of food, delicious.

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