FFwD - Potato Gratin (Gratin Dauphinois)

Sometimes, you just shouldn't mess with the classics. That's how I felt about my Potato Gratin for French Fridays with Dorie this week. Potato Gratin is simply layers of thinly sliced potato with cream and salt and pepper between the layers, and cheese on top.

In Bon Idee, Dorie suggests that you can personalise your gratin with different cheeses and by substituting in some sweet potato and, among other things, broccoli. I thought that this was a great idea, because it made the gratin a meal in itself. It worked OK, although it was not as pretty as using just potatoes:



However, there was just not enough kick in this dish to excite me. Admittedly, I did not use the optional herbs, as woody pieces of rosemary in the layers did not appeal to me, but perhaps I should have sprinkled on dried herbs and just used potatoes. I also used "light" cream and low fat cheese - perhaps the extra fat would have helped. Sadly, I found my version of this dish to be rather bland.

You can check out what all the other FFwD members made this week by visiting this week's LYL section at the FFwD website.

Postscript - I salted my gratin up a little more and found it got better as time went on. I still don't think it will be on regular rotation at my place, but maturity and seasoning gave it greater depth than it originally had.