Creamy potato & herb bake
Sneak peek from Homemade Happiness
How to make your family adore you: make them this dish. It’s potatoes at their creamiest, cheesiest best. I’m already crazy about potatoes anyway — boiled with a bit of salt and butter and I’m happy as Pete, so this recipe is like potato nirvana for me. Make sure you choose a nice floury variety of spud. To be safe, just choose the bag labelled ‘mashing’ potatoes at the supermarket. Once I accidentally made a potato bake with waxy potatoes and it was a grey, insipid disaster. To be extra saucy, try adding some fried bacon in the layers too. (Trust me to suggest that!)
Serves: 6–8 as a side
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Ingredients
1.5kg floury potatoes (such as Agria), peeled or scrubbed
50g butter
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 stalks fresh rosemary, leaves finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
1½ –2 cups grated Edam or colby cheese
1 cup full-fat milk
1 cup cream
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
¼ cup chopped fresh chives
1½ tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp milk
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp white pepper
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Method
Preheat the oven to 170c (160c fan-bake). Grease a baking dish.
Prick the whole potatoes all over with a fork if unpeeled, place in a microwave-proof dish with a little water in the bottom, cover with cling wrap and microwave on high for 10 minutes. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice them thinly. If you don’t have a microwave, just simmer the potatoes in a saucepan of salted water until three-quarters cooked (about 15–20 minutes).
Heat the butter in a saucepan over a medium-high heat, add the onion and cook, stirring, for 7–10 minutes or until soft and starting to go golden. Add the rosemary and thyme.
Add a layer of potatoes to the bottom of the baking dish. Sprinkle with some of the grated cheese and some onion mixture. Repeat with more layers of remaining potato, cheese and onions until all used up — try to end with cheese.
Add the milk, cream, mustards, chives, cornflour mixture, salt and pepper to a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour over the potatoes and then sprinkle with the Parmesan. Cover the dish with foil and cut a few steam holes with a knife.
Bake in the oven for 1 hour then remove the foil, turn up the temperature to 200c (190c fan-bake), and bake for another 15 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling. Ideally, let the potatoes sit for 5–10 minutes before serving. This is perfect as a side to a main meal — whether it’s a roast, barbecue or just a quick mid-week meal of fried meat or fish.
Chelsea’s tip
- When you cut the potatoes by hand, cut a small slice off one side so you can use it as a stable platform — it stops the potato moving around as you slice.