Scalloped Potatoes

I love scalloped potatoes! They are very versitile. "Scalloped" basically means thinly sliced and baked in a casserole dish with a milk sauce. Below I will share my favorite preperation method and at the end of the post I will give a few tips on how to mix it up and make it different.

• 2 - 3 large Russet potatoes
• 3tbs butter
• 3 tbs flour
• 2c milk
• Nutmeg, salt, pepper
• Oven at 375 for 1 hour

I use a mandolin to thinly slice my potatoes. I let them soak in a bowl of water while I prepare the sauce. This helps keep them from getting dried out and funky-looking, as well as remove the leaking starches from being sliced.

The first step is to make the roux. A roux is the base to all sauces and gravies. It traditionally consists of equal parts fat and starch... In this instance I use butter and flour. So go ahead and melt your butter in a sauce pan over medium high heat....

Then add the flour....

Give it a good whisking to mix it up .... And here is the important part..... You need to COOK the flour. Whisk it up while it cooks and bubbles for about 45-60 seconds. Cooking the flour for a bit in the butter is going to keep your sauce/gravy/etc from tasting like paste.

Great! Now go ahead and add the milk a bit at a time, while whisking. As soon as you add a liquid to your roux you will notice it tighten up and latch on to that liquid. Keep adding and whisking until all the roux is incorporated.

 

Here I used 1% milk because that's what I always have in the house. You can use whatever you have and it's not going to make much of a difference, in my opinion.

This is where I add the salt and pepper to taste... I think potatoes need a decent amount of salt to balance the flavor, so I probably added about 1.5 tsp each... It's really just a preference thing. Remember, you can always add more, but you can't take it back!!

 

As for the nutmeg, I use a whole nut and grate however much I want into the sauce, so I never measure this. Of course you can used jarred and already grated nutmeg... Start with a tsp and see how it tastes... Add more if you want more!

 

Mix it up, bring to a simmer, turn it off and set it aside.

Drain your sliced potatoes and pat dry. Toss them in a casserole dish.

On goes the sauce. Mmmmm. No need to toss it, just pour it right on in there... It will bubble and simmer and good to happy goodness while in the oven.

Cover with a lid or foil and bake at 375 for 60 minutes.

I like to sprinkle the top of mine with a bit of parmesan cheese when it comes out of the oven, but it's not really a requirement.

Give it a bit to cool before you dip into it. It's layer upon layer of delicious and hot creamy goodness!!

 

Tips to mix this recipe up:

• Omit the nutmeg and add 1/4 (or more!!) of Frank's hot sauce.
• Omit the nutmeg and instead add a cup of grated cheddar cheese to the sauce. Au Graten potatoes!
• Omit the nutmeg (see a trend here?!) and add a dry packet of ranch dressing mix instead.
• Omit nutmeg and replace with another fresh savory herb of your choice... thyme would be nom nom.

ENJOY!

 

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Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova

About a year ago a friend of mine from New Zealand posted a picture of a dessert she made... Pavlova. I had actually never even heard of it, but turns out it's rather popular in New Zealand and Australia. It looked delicious but I just now got around to trying to make one. My first attempt didn't go so well, but I was pretty sure I knew what I did wrong. My second attempt was an absolute success!!

Ingredients:

• 4 egg whites
• 3 tbs unsweetened coco powder
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 1 - 1 1/4c sugar
• 1 tbs red wine vinegar

Topping:

• Whipped cream (1c cream, 1 tbs vanilla, 2 tbs sugar)
• Berries of your choice (obviously I picked raspberries)

Preheat oven to 300. Mix coco powder and sugar together. In a very clean bowl whip egg whites until soft whip cream-like peaks form. Gradually add sugar and coco mixture, about 1/4c or less at time, just until incorporated. Add corn starch and vinegar to batter and fold or gently whip to incorporate.

 

Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper and plop the batter down in the center. Using a spatula, smooth the mixture into a round disk aprox 9 inches around, 2 inches tall. This is not an exact science so just make it roundish and even.

Pop into the preheated oven for 60 minutes. After 60 minutes turn off the oven and crack the door open. Let the pavlova cool naturally. The meringue part of this dessert is best served room temp or cold.

When you are ready to serve just whip up some cream with sugar and vanilla, slap it on top of the pavlova and top it with delicious fresh fruit. I found a bit of chocolate I had in the house, pretty sure it was a Hershey's miniature, and grated that over the top. Slice with a sharp knife and serve.

Tips and ideas:

• This is practically a no fail dessert, yet I managed to mess it up the first time. I had never made a meringue before and I was pretty sure my mistake was over-beating the egg whites, of which I initially used 6 instead of 4. I had used an electric hand mixer and went to town on those egg-whites!!! What I ended up with was a meringue that was too thick, too tall, had a super sturdy outer shell:

 

Not the light and airy dessert I was going for. More like a kindergarden paper mâché project! This time I used a good ol' whisk, and that was probably a much better idea.

• I wasn't sure what my meringue should look like at the point I should add sugar. Whenever I need a bit of visual help I usually turn to YouTube! I found a helpful little video demonstrating how to make a pavlova. That's always a huge help!
• Traditional pavlova isn't chocolate!!! *gasp* Insane, I know. So if you would like to make a traditional pavlova just leave out the coco powder, add a tbs or two of vanilla to the egg whites (after they've peaked), and use malt vinegar instead of red wine vinegar. Traditional topping is usually sliced kiwi and strawberries.
• This would be the perfect dessert to make the night before a party. Bake it and just leave it in the oven to cool overnight. No need to refrigerate it. When it's time to head out to your party, or have people over, just whip up the cream, top with berries, and wow everyone!
• This is a very light and airy desert. It's sweet, but just barely. In fact, I'm not a huge fan of sweets. Although I love to bake, I usually give away my scrumptious concoctions rather than eat them myself.....But THIS I could eat all day. In fact, I had a slice with my coffee this morning. Omm nom nom.

 

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