Baked sliced potatoes, dipped in cream and cheese shavings … This deliciously delicious dish is called "gratin". How to cook it correctly, what secrets and recipe options, read this review.
Recipe content:
- How to cook potato gratin - secrets and cooking rules
- Potato gratin: a classic recipe
- French potato gratin
- Potato gratin with minced meat
- Potato gratin with meat
- Video recipes
Gratin (gratin) - a basic dish that involves baked foods with a crust. Fish, meat, vegetables and sweet treats are usually prepared in this way. The food is extremely easy to prepare, it turns out to be insanely tasty, while incredibly high in calories. Today we will dwell on the preparation of potato gratin, while preparing which you need to follow several basic rules. We will talk about them below.
How to cook potato gratin - secrets and cooking rules
- Potatoes can be used raw or pre-cooked.
- Use a combination of cream and milk for pouring. Then the potatoes turned out with a creamy texture. At high temperatures, water evaporates in the milk, which penetrates the potatoes, making them soft.
- If you pour only cream over the potatoes, the heat will stratify the cream, the proteins will burn, and the butter will melt. In this case, the potatoes will not turn out to be soft, but on the contrary, excessively fatty, because there is much less water in cream, and a lot of oil.
- A variety of seasonings such as garlic, thyme, nutmeg, etc. will improve the taste of the dish.
- You can diversify potato gratin with other vegetables, like parsnips or celery root.
- Meat fillings are also acceptable in the dish. Usually gratin is made from beef or pork. The meat is chopped into small pieces or ground into minced meat. In this case, most often the meat is pre-fried in a pan until half cooked.
- Before placing food, generously grease heat-resistant dishes with butter so that there is no burning.
- Choose a dish for baking in which you can serve the food to the table.
- Cook the gratin at a moderate temperature. The intense heat of the cream will flake and not turn it into a sauce.
- Bake the dish tightly covering it with foil so that the water does not evaporate, but is preserved in the food.
Potato gratin: a classic recipe
The classic recipe for potato gratin consists of a minimum of ingredients, and it turns out to be incredibly tasty. Cooking it at home is very simple and easy.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 144 kcal.
- Servings - 2
- Cooking time - 1 hour 15 minutes
Ingredients:
- Potatoes - 0.5 kg
- Cream 35% fat - 60 g
- Salt - 1 tsp or to taste
- Thyme - 2 g
- Nutmeg - 0.2 g
- Cheese - 30 g
- Milk - 200 ml
- Garlic - 2 cloves
- Ground black pepper - a pinch
- Butter - 20 g
Step by step preparation of potato gratin (classic recipe):
- Grease the bottom and sides of a baking dish with butter and send it to the refrigerator.
- Peel and chop the garlic.
- Combine milk, cheese shavings, nutmeg, thyme and 1/3 of minced garlic. Stir and boil. Turn off the heat and let the sauce sit for 10 minutes. Then add cream and stir.
- Peel the potatoes and cut into thin slices of 2-3 mm.
- Remove the baking dish from the refrigerator and lay out the first layer of potatoes, sprinkle with chopped garlic, spices, salt and pepper. Repeat this process for all potatoes.
- Pour the creamy sauce over the potatoes, cover with cling foil and bake in a preheated oven to 180 degrees for 40 minutes.
- After this time, remove the form from the oven, remove the foil and sprinkle the potatoes with grated cheese. Send the gratin to bake for another 5 minutes.
French potato gratin
The step-by-step French potato gratin recipe is an exquisite dish served in the best restaurants in France. Moreover, this dish can be easily prepared at home on your own.
Ingredients:
- Potatoes - 8 pcs.
- Eggs - 1 pc.
- Cream 15% fat - 200 ml
- Garlic - 2 wedges
- Cheese - 200 g
- Salt - 1 tsp or to taste
- Ground black pepper - a pinch
- Nutmeg - 0.5 tsp
- Vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon
- Ground red sweet paprika - 1 tsp
How to prepare French potato gratin step by step:
- Wash the potatoes, peel and cut into thin round plates of 4 mm.
- Grate the cheese.
- Combine eggs with cream and whisk lightly. Add one minced garlic clove, paprika, nutmeg, pepper, salt and stir.
- Grease a baking dish with oil and sprinkle with the second clove of garlic, which grate on a fine grater.
- Lay the potato layers on top, seasoning them with salt and ground pepper.
- Pour the creamy sauce evenly over the potatoes and sprinkle the grated cheese on top.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake the French fries gratin for 45 minutes under the lid closed.
Potato gratin with minced meat
The recipe for potato gratin with minced meat is a hearty and full-fledged dish not only for the whole family for dinner, it can also be successfully served on a festive table.
Ingredients:
- Potatoes - 1 kg
- Parmesan - 75 g
- Cream - 400 ml
- Garlic - 2 wedges
- Dried thyme - 1 tsp
- Salt - 1 tsp or to taste
- Ground black pepper - a pinch
- Butter - for lubricating the mold
- Pork - 600 g
- Onions - 1 pc.
- Vegetable oil - for frying
Step by step preparation of potato gratin with minced meat:
- Peel and cut the potatoes into thin slices.
- Grate Parmesan on a coarse grater.
- Combine cream, thyme and grated garlic. Season with salt, pepper and stir.
- Wash the meat and twist in a meat grinder.
- Peel and chop the onions into thin half rings.
- Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan, heat and add minced meat. Fry it for 2 minutes and add the onion to it. Season with salt and pepper and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
- Grease a baking dish with butter and lay out several layers of potato, which are salt and pepper. The height of the potato layer should be about 7 mm.
- Sprinkle with cheese shavings on top.
- Then evenly distribute the minced meat with a thickness equal to the potato layer and also sprinkle with cheese.
- Continue this process with all potatoes, minced meat, and cheese.
- Pour the prepared products with cream, cover with foil and send them to the heated oven to 180 degrees for 45 minutes.
- Then remove the foil, sprinkle with cheese and put the mold in the oven again for 15 minutes.
Potato gratin with meat
Do you want to surprise your family and guests? Make potato and meat gratin. This is a simple and fairly economical dish, yet fragrant and tasty. Delicious crust and juiciness are guaranteed for the food!
Ingredients:
- Potatoes - 600 g
- Hard cheese - 300 g
- Egg - 1 pc.
- Garlic - 2 cloves
- Milk - 150 ml
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- Beef - 300 g
- Any oil - for lubricating the baking dish
Step by step preparation of potato gratin with meat:
- Peel the potatoes and garlic and cut into thin circles.
- Wash the meat, dry and cut into small cubes.
- Combine milk, egg, salt and pepper.
- Grate the cheese.
- Grease a baking dish with butter and place the potatoes in one layer. Sprinkle it with garlic, salt and pepper.
- Lay out a layer of meat on top, sprinkle with cheese shavings.
- Repeat alternating layers until you run out of food. The last layer should be cheesy.
- Pour the milk sauce over the food and cover with a lid or foil.
- Send the food to a preheated oven to 180 degrees for 45 minutes.
