Dinosaur potatoes
Okay, there are no dinosaurs in this potato bake. The vertical potato slices might look like a reptilian spine but the taste is classic dauphinoise – crispy on the top and creamy underneath. Serve with roast chicken or lamb and a big green salad, or even with just the salad. Delicious.
Ingredients:
- 30 g unsalted butter, plus extra to grease the casserole dish
- 2 anchovies
- 330 ml thick (heavy) cream
- 50 g freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, plus extra to serve
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 6 medium potatoes, about 1 kg
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C and grease a small casserole dish, about 20 x 15 x 6 cm.
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat and add the anchovies, stirring and squashing them until they almost melt into the butter. Add the cream, half the parmesan, the garlic, bay leaf, thyme, salt, pepper and nutmeg and bring to the boil, stirring. Remove from the heat and allow the flavours to infuse for 5 minutes, then discard the garlic cloves and bay leaf.
3. Peel the potatoes and cut them into 3 mm slices. Immediately drop them into the cream mixture and stir gently to ensure each slice is covered in cream. Using tongs, pick up stacks of potato slices and place them vertically in staggered rows in the casserole dish. Pour some or all of the sauce that remains in the saucepan into the casserole dish, ensuring that the tops of the potato slices protrude from the sauce by about 1.5 cm so they will brown. Cover the dish with foil, place on a baking tray in the oven and bake for 1 hour.
4. Remove the foil and scatter the top of the potatoes with the remaining parmesan. Bake until the potatoes are tender, with crisp tops where their dinosaur spines poke out of the cream. This should take about a further 30 minutes.
5. Serve immediately, sprinkled with additional thyme leaves.
Tip: use waxy potatoes.
This is an edited extract from The Potato Cookbook by Dale Whybrow published by Hardie Grant Books RRP $24.99 and is available in stores nationally. Image credit: Ben Cole.
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