A few words about the recipe
Potatoes are perhaps the most beloved accompaniment to many proteins and countless national cuisines, with endless and usually delicious recipes. After the famous French Dauphinoise potato gratin, I thought of suggesting a related alternative with thinly sliced potatoes baked in a gratin style, but without cheese. The recipe, which I creatively describe as potato mille-feuille, has three characteristics: First, it combines caramelized leeks with potatoes, a beloved ingredient that flavors everything. Second, it uses a different technique, similar to many braised dishes, where the food starts on the stovetop and finishes in the oven, ideally in a cast-iron pan. Finally, it leaves you free to choose the third main ingredient, which is an aromatic herb that will give the dish its final character, between tarragon (which is the version you will see below), thyme, oregano, marjoram, or fresh rosemary, or even a mixture of these, in the "herbs de Provence" style.
This dish requires a good, cast-iron pan, like the 26cm Lodge skillet I used, for two reasons. Firstly, because it is ideal as a vessel to work equally well on the stovetop and in the oven, without forcing us to transfer the food from a simple pan to a heat-resistant ceramic or glass dish. But even more importantly, having a high heat capacity, cast iron produces a particularly delicious result, as it maintains a high and stable temperature and allows the ingredients that come into direct contact to caramelize deeply, creating crispy, almost burnt, delicious edges on the potatoes and leeks around its perimeter, which hold all the pleasure for the discerning connoisseur. The recipe has a French approach as it uses pure cow's butter and cream, along with plenty of mashed garlic, of course. The liquids from the cream gradually boil the potatoes, along with the water that slowly comes out of them, and by the end of the slow cooking, they have almost disappeared, leaving only the deliciousness of their fats. I leave the choice of aromatic herb that will ultimately characterize the recipe's flavor to you, because the recipe can very well work without the intensely aromatic, but not widespread in Greece, tarragon. So, one can certainly play with fresh rosemary, fresh or dried thyme, oregano or marjoram, or invent something else, as the basic ingredients of the dish are hospitable to aromatic elements. My recommendation, as always in these cases, is to be more singular, choosing one element that will give identity, rather than mixing many flavors together, a classic characteristic of a beginner's insecurity.
Recipe Characteristics
A very easy recipe, with few ingredients and no technical challenges, which will take you about 1:30' including ingredient preparation. Ideally, I recommend using a cast-iron pan, which works on both stovetop and oven, yielding particularly delicious results, but even with two conventional pans and transferring the ingredients from one to the other for the oven, the job will get done. Be careful with the mandoline when cutting the potatoes, because my hand still hurts from the cut!
Ingredients
- 400 gr. potatoes, thinly sliced with a mandoline
- 50 gr. Lurpak butter
- ½ medium leek, cut into 1-2 cm pieces
- 1 medium onion, cut into 1 cm pieces
- 3 cloves garlic, mashed
- 200 gr. Arla heavy cream
- 2 tbsp dried tarragon, or thyme, or oregano, or fresh rosemary
- Salt, pepper
Instructions
-
Sauté the ingredients on the stovetop
In a pan that can be used on both stovetop and in the oven, such as a cast-iron skillet, melt the butter and then add the leek, onion, and garlic. Sauté them over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then, add the potatoes, heavy cream, your chosen herb (tarragon here), salt, and pepper to the pan. Stir well and let the potatoes come to a first boil for about another 20 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 160°C with fan assist (or 180°C top and bottom heat, if no fan assist). -
Bake & brown the food in the oven
Transfer the pan to the preheated oven at 160°C with fan assist and leave it on a middle rack for 30 minutes, covered with aluminum foil, so that the potatoes soften in the steam they release. Then, remove the aluminum foil and switch the oven to grill function (with fan assist if available, or just plain grill) at 180°C to properly brown the food from the top, for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let stand for at least 10 minutes for the ingredients to set and the temperature to drop before serving. -
Serving:
Cut with a spatula or spoon and serve directly from the pan to the table. It perfectly accompanies any roasted or cooked meat or chicken with a light sauce. All the pleasure lies in the caramelized, almost burnt potato pieces at the edges of the cast-iron skillet!
