Plus the $3 answer to taming the bloodthirsty mandoline

Wintertime staples like root vegetables get us through the dark days before green sprouts of hope prove we made it through another ice age.

From humble fuel to celebration centerpiece, the potato gets it done. Here’s one of my children’s favorite festive side dishes: potato gratin.

Before reading Jeffrey Steingarten’s recipe in “The Man Who Ate Everything,” potato gratin was firmly established in my mental menu as a cheese dish with potatoes. After making the slightly finicky recipe, I was convinced the work was worthwhile. 

This gratin tastes like potatoes, first and foremost. Elevated on a dairy throne, with shades of nutmeg and garlic, luxuriating in glossy cream. But first, the pomme de terre, apple of the earth, speaks. 

Here’s the basic recipe with annotations, via Well Fed, Flat Broke. My version is below.

But first, a word about mandolines.

Did you cringe?

Mandolines are among the most avoided kitchen tools because they have a taste for blood. Every one I used tasted me, until I got a cut-resistant glove. Now I can slice away and the fabric saves me from lapses of attention.

My beast is a $20 Japanese number that I’ve used for five years. Like this:

Get yourself some proper handwear and dig out that mandoline. For you must fear its shiny teeth no more.

Potato gratin 

(adapted from Jeffrey Steingarten)

4 tablespoons butter

2 cups milk

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 ½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg 

3 pounds potatoes, preferably baking, i.e. russet 

3 cups heavy cream

¼ cup grated romano cheese

½  cup grated/sliced gruyere or sharp cheddar cheese (optional)

1 cup chopped ham (optional)

Peel and rinse potatoes. Pat dry. Slice in mandolin or food processor, one-eighth inch or thinner. Do not rinse. Don’t worry if they start to turn a bruised color, that tinge won’t make it through to the final dish.

Preheat oven to 425.

Butter baking dishes heavily. A 9-by-13-inch works for me, with a smaller overflow pan to use up all the potatoes.

Arrange potato slices, overlapping, in rows. Discard smallest slices or use for something else, for a more uniform look. Each slice should overlap the preceding by two-thirds to three-quarters.

Fill pans that way. Don’t worry about cramming them all in, as you seek uniform thickness. However, you can always budge the rows of slices over to sneak one more row of potatoes.

Put milk, garlic, pepper, salt, nutmeg in a pot. Stir, bringing to a boil while watching closely, then remove from heat. (DANGER: it will boil over in seconds, so watch closely. I’ve scrubbed my stovetop so many times.) 

Pour scalded milk over potatoes, cover with foil, and put in preheated oven. In about 20-25 minutes, most of the milk will have absorbed into the potatoes.

Repeat the scalding with the cream. (Again: this wants to jump out of the pot onto your stove. Don’t wander off.)

Pour scalded cream over potatoes. Sprinkle with romano cheese, and if desired, more cheese and ham. Return to oven.

Bake until as bubbly brown as you like. Let cool for 20 minutes before serving, to thicken into its final pudding-lite form.

#30#