Potato & Leek Gratin

When you hear "beef and potato", which dish comes to your mind? Maybe it's "steak and french fry", "beef & potato stew", "ground beef pie with mashed potato" or "beef hamburger with potato chips".

There are so many beef and potato dishes. I think it is because beef and potato are both versatile ingredients. They only need salt and pepper in a simple dish, but you can also transfer them to deep flavored stew with herbs, wine, and other vegetables.

Today, I cooked a perfect medium steak and one of the classic French bistro style potato dish, "Gratin Dauphinois". Yes! a potato gratin.

It is very easy to make a rustic potato gratin. It is crusty, creamy, cheesy, and very filling. :) Traditionally, you don't add leek, but I think a little sharpness and sweetness from leek helps the taste. Also, garlic cloves are added directly to the mix, rather than being rubbed over the gratin pan as in traditional recipe, just because I want to have a bit more garlic flavor in my gratin.

Please come back tomorrow when the recipe for a perfect medium steak will be posted. :)


Potato & Leek Gratin
(Yield: 2 servings / Cooking time: 50 minutes)

Ingredients:
+ 2/3 lb potatoes*
+ half leek (white & light green part only)
+ 1.5 cup half & half (equal part of milk & heavy cream)
+ 1 clove of garlic, minced
+ pinch of ground nutmeg
+ Gruyere cheese, grated
+ salt & pepper

* I used fingerling potatoes, but any potato is okay... probably starch potato (e.g. Idaho potato) is the best.


Procedures:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).

2. Peel potatoes, and slice into 1/8" thin pieces. Add the slices into half & half. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.


3. Bring to boil the half & half and potatoes, and lower the heat to simmer potato slices for 5-7 minutes. Stir gently a few times to make sure the potato slices do not stick together.


4. Turn off the heat and add cleaned & sliced leek and minced garlic. Mix well with potato.


5. Pour the potato, leek and half & half mixture into gratin pans. Please make sure you don't fill the pans up to top, because when you bake them later, half & half might boil over the pan. Just to make sure not to make any mess in the oven, place the gratin pans on a baking sheet as well. Top the gratins with ground pepper and ground nutmeg.


6. Grate enough Gruyere cheese and cover both the gratins.





7. Bake the gratins in preheated oven for 25 minutes. You can see the gratin is bubbling and the top is getting browned.


Before serving, cool down the gratin slightly to set the potato and half & half. Potato & leek gratin is a perfect side dish for steak!


Enjoy~