An experiment with potatoes au gratin

I deviated a little bit this evening from my international cooking routine to whip up a side dish for my friend Cathy's nifty birthday party (Happy Birthday Honey :)

The word on the street was that her daughters were making steak, so I thought I'd put together a potatoes au gratin. It's a simple enough dish, but I'd never made it before. And when I started looking for recipes online I wasn't very happy with any of them. I wanted a cheese that would be full of flavor, and off the beaten path. Not just your typical cheddar.

So I reviewed a bunch of recipes and did what I've been doing quite a lot of these days - made up my own. It was a toss up in the end between using a Gruyere and this cheese called Dubliner that a friend turned me on to when he brought it one time we were fishing (yes fishing with me typically looks like a wine and cheese party).

Dubliner is an Irish cheese named - big surprise - for the city of Dublin. It reminds me of a sharp cheddar, but is also has a nutty flavors like swiss. I combined it with some parmesan. I used quite a bit of cheese because it just seemed yummy.

Here's how I did my potatoes au gratin:

Ingredients:

About five red potatoes

One yellow onion

Two blocks of Dubliner cheese, shredded (about four cups)

One half block Parmesan cheese, shredded (about one cup)

Salt

Pepper

3 tbsps. butter

3 tbsps. flour

1 cup half and half

1/2 cup Chardonnay

What I did:

I start by peeling and slicing all of the potatoes into extremely thin rounds. I also slice the onion into thin half circles. Then I start layering the potatoes in a 9 by 13 baking dish, placing bits of the onion in between the layers.

I start the sauce by melting the butter in a saucepan. When the butter is melted, I add the flour and mix until combined. Then I add the milk and stir until combined and season with salt and pepper. I add the cheese (reserving some for a topping) and stir until melted. I stir in the wine and cook until well combined.

When the sauce is done, I pour it over the potato layers and lightly shake the pan to make sure it all gets coated. Then I cover it with tin foil and stick in a 350 degree oven and cook for about 1 hour. You want the potatoes to be tender and the sauce to be thick. Toward the end of the cooking, uncover, sprinkle with remaining cheese. You can also put it for a few minutes under a broiler so the topping gets crispy (watch to make sure it doesn't burn though).

I let mine sit over night and it was great the next day!

There are no pictures of this one because I didn't think of it before I took it to Cathy's. But there will likely be an encore presentation : )

An amendment on the potatoes au gratin: I tried a second batch later in the week to get rid of the copious amounts of potatoes and cheese I purchased. This time I used gruyere and the dubliner cheese. I think I liked the combo version better. Just a nice, sharp contrast. Oh and that time I used red onions, which lended a different flavor.