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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