Ingredients:
- 6 medium sized Yukon gold potatoes
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1 1/3 cups of heavy whipping cream (about 300 ml)
- 3 cups of milk; whole milk preferred, use at least 2% fat grade
- 3 eggs
- 8 oz of grated Swiss or Emmental (recommended), or Mozzarella cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
- Pre-heat oven to 400F.
- Peel the potatoes and rince them in cold water. Then cut them so that each slice is about 2 inches long. Typically this involves one side slicing followed by a cut in half. The thickness of slices should be approximately equal to 2 to 3 coins (e.g. US quarters).
- Place the potato slices in a 8 x 11.5 baking pan.
- Add the eggs, whipping cream, garlic cloves, salt and pepper in a blender. Blend a first time to dissolve the garlic into the mix. Next, add the milk and blend again for a few seconds.
- Pour the blended mix over the potatoes until they are 95% covered. Given the gratin preparation is going to boil inside the oven, make sure the level is not too high to overflow once in boiling state. Generally, such level is at about 80% of the mold’s height.
- Place the dish in the pre-heated oven at the middle level of the oven.
- Let it bake at 400F for the first 30 minutes so that potatoes cook effectively and become tender.
- Once the 30 minutes have passed, take the gratin out of the oven and layer the cheese uniformly to cover the top surface, then put it back 15 more minutes to let it melt and slightly brown. ***Tip: before adding the cheese, you might see that a little bit of water has developed from the baking process. Take the gratin over a sink and gently (very gently!) incline it to remove some of the liquid. Inclining too much, you can lose the dish in the sink. No need to remove to all the water as the potatoes will absorb it back as they cool down, but taking some of it out does help make the dish more firm.
- Once out of the oven, let it rest about 15 minutes before serving.
