Description
I think this hearty dish — like scalloped potatoes but so much better — is a meal on its own. A small salad on the side adds the finishing touch.
Ingredients
- Potatoes
- Leeks
- Streaky Bacon
- Hard Cheese
- Chicken Stock
- Butter
- Mustard Seeds
- Creme Fraiche
- Sea Salt
- Black Pepper
- Fresh Sage Leaf
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 f or 200 degrees c
- Peel the potatoes and slice thinly
- Wash the starch off them and then pat dry in a cloth
- Trim the leeks, discarding the coarse green ends, then slice thinly
- Butter a gratin dish and put in half the potatoes and top with all the leeks
- Cut the bacon into strips, fry until crisp, and then put the bacon over the leeks
- Briefly fry the sage leaves in the leftover bacon fat until browned and crisp
- Scatter over the leeks, along with the bacon fat
- Grate the cheese directly over the top of the dish and then cover with the rest of the potatoes
- Heat the stock and pour it over the potatoes until it reaches the top layer, but do not submerge them
- Season with salt and pepper and dot with most of the remaining butter
- Smear the last of the butter on a sheet of waxed paper and lay it, buttered side down, on top of the dish
- Cook for 45 minutes
- Remove and check with a skewer that the potatoes are nearly cooked
- Mix the mustard with the creme fraiche and pour it over the gratin, smoothing with a rubber spatula to spread it evenly
- Place the dish back in the oven without the paper for a further 15 minutes or until it is golden, bubbling and cooked through
- Serve immediately