Potatoes Au Gratin

Guest author: Cynthia MacGregor
Website: Cynthia MacGregor
I hope you didn’t miss Cynthia’s great meatloaf recipe from yesterday!

As given here, the recipe calls for 3-4 potatoes, which will serve 5-6 people, and will fit in your average-sized casserole dish. When doubling the recipe (as for holiday cooking), don’t try to fit it all in one casserole–it won’t fit. Divide it between two dishes. Or treble the recipe and use three casserole dishes. It’s foolproof and majorly yum. Enjoy.(And if you have any left over, it warms up nicely–not “company quality” the second day but still eminently edible–makes a nice lunch–is freezable too.)

Potatoes au Gratin

3-4 medium-to-large potatoes
1/4 cup butter (can use butter sub but better with the real thing)
1 medium onion, chopped small
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
a liberal shaking of garlic powder, to taste–I use a heavy hand
black pepper to taste
2 cups milk
3 cups grated cheddar cheese, divided 2+1
approx 1/4 cup breadcrumbs (you can use fresh or store-bought, but if using store-bought, please use UNSEASONED, and if using fresh, please crumb them FINELY)

Unless you are preparing this ahead of time, to cook later, preheat oven to 325. (I have cooked it at temps as high as 375 when necessary to accommodate a meat cooking at the same time.)

Peel potatoes and cut into thin circle slices. Layer slices in a casserole dish (perhaps a 2-quart size). Heat butter in a (preferably nonstick if at all possible) pan over medium-high heat and, when melted, add the onions, cooking till they are soft and translucent but not yet browning. Stir in flour, salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Turn heat down to medium-low, and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring. The mixture should thicken. Add the milk and 2 cups of the grated cheese, turning the heat back up to medium-high, and bring to a boil, stirring fairly constantly. Cook for about 2 minutes after it begins to boil. Keep stirring! Mixture will thicken nicely into a lovely, rich cheese sauce. Carefully pour this over the
potatoes in the casserole dish.

At this point, you will either put the dish in the oven, preferably at 325–without a lid–or store it away in the fridge, covered, for cooking later on.

When you do put it in the oven–whether immediately or later–it goes in uncovered and cooks for 1 hour and 20 mins. (When I have prepped it early, refrigerated it, and put it in the oven later on, I add 10 mins to the cooking time at this stage of the process.)

After the 1 hr and 20 (or 30) mins, remove the casserole from the oven, evenly distribute the remaining 1 cup of the grated cheese across the top, evenly sprinkle the bread crumbs across the top, and return to the oven until browned on top, which takes about another 20 mins. Though–here is where the dish is so flexible–you can cook it for 30 mins if you want to, and/or you can remove it from the oven and let it stand–uncovered–for up to half an hour before serving if you need to delay it because the meat
isn’t ready yet.

Image: FreeFoto