Continuing cold winter days call for comfort food, and what is more comforting than crunchy-edged slow-baked potatoes? Gratin used to describe those delicious bits of caramelized food that become encrusted onto the side of the dish, to be gratté (scraped off) and enjoyed as a tasty morsel. As a dish, it refers to the golden crust that forms on top of the food as it bakes in the oven. Here, thin slices of yellow-fleshed potatoes and brilliant orange sweet potatoes are layered with red onion and cooked long in the oven to create a simple yet deeply comforting winter dish. No cream needed here, just top-quality vegetables, olive oil, and thyme/time.
Two Potato and Thyme Gratin
Serves 4 | Equipment: small, oven-proof baking dish
Ingredients
350 g small, yellow-fleshed potatoes (such as Yukon Gold), thinly sliced (about 2mm thick, setting 2 on an oxo mandolin slicer)
350 g small sweet potatoes, thinly sliced (about 2mm thick, as above)
1/2 small red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
Several sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves removed from the stalks
Method
1. Center a rack in the oven. Preheat the oven to 165°C (350°F).
2. Rub the bottom of the baking dish with a small amount of oil. Layer the potatoes, alternating between slices of the potato and sweet potato, in a layer to over the bottom of the dish. Scatter over half of the sliced onion, season with a sprinkling of fresh thyme and sea salt. In a very thin stream, drizzle the layer with about a third of the olive oil.
3. Repeat with a second layer of potato slices, the remaining onion, another sprinkling of thyme and salt and a third of the olive oil. Finish with a final layer of potatoes, thyme, salt and the remaining oil.
4. Bake in the oven for 2 hours, until a knife easily pierces all the potato layers and the top is golden and crispy.
This is a Nourish the Planet recipe, part of a collaborative series by Patricia Wells and Emily Buchanan.
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