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Mushrooms
Joaquin Moragues
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La Belle Cuisine
Potato Gratin Forestier
Food and Wine Presents
Best of the Best: theBest
Recipes From the Year's
25 Best Cookbooks, Vol. 3
Editor in Chief Judith Hill, 2000,
American Express Publishing Corp.
 
from
 
Daniel Boulud's
Cafe Boulud Cookbook:
French-American Recipes
for the Home Cook
By Daniel Boulud and Dorie Greenspan,
1999, Scribner
Editor’s Choice Award – Best Recipe of the Year
Makes 4
main-course or 5 to 8 side-dish servings
“As a
son of the Dauphiné, the French region famous for its potato gratins, it
would be unthinkable for me not to have at least one of these soul-soothing
casseroles in my repertoire. Actually, I have several potato gratins in my
files,
but the potato-mushroom gratin – forestier always means there are
mushrooms
in the dish – is a favorite and one I’ve made for many years.
Early in my career,
I was the chef at the Baron of Beef, the famed
restaurant of the Hotel Plaza in Copenhagen. The restaurant was named for
its specialty, a combination of two
top rounds of beef carved tableside, and
I always served the dish with a potato
gratin, most often one like this in
which the potatoes are layered with wild mushrooms, drenched with heavy
cream, and baked until they are soft, custardy,
and saturated with the
cream. Topped with a dusting of Parmesan that browns
as the potatoes bake,
this gratin would sit easily next to chicken or beef, or
take center plate
with a well-dressed salad on the side.”
1 pound assorted wild mushrooms, trimmed,
cleaned,
and
separated by variety
2 tablespoons (approximately) unsalted butter
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
2 cloves garlic, peeled, split, germ removed,
and finely
chopped
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped thyme leaves
3 cups heavy cream
Freshly grated nutmeg
4 pounds Idaho potatoes
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1. Working in a medium sauté pan or skillet over medium
heat, sauté each variety of mushroom in just enough butter to keep the
mushrooms from sticking. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper and cook,
stirring,
just until they are tender but not colored, a few minutes for each
batch.
When one type of mushroom is cooked, drain, turn it into a bowl, and
repeat with the next type. You need to sauté the mushrooms separately
because each type has a different cooking time, but, once cooked, all the
mushrooms should be mixed together in the bowl, along with the garlic
and
thyme. Set aside at room temperature until needed. (The mushrooms
can be
sautéed up to 2 hours ahead and kept covered with plastic wrap at room
temperature.)
2. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter the bottom and sides of an ovenproof 10-inch sauté pan or skillet.
3. Pour the cream into a large bowl and whisk in salt and
pepper and
freshly grated nutmeg to taste. (Add more salt than you might
normally,
because the potatoes will need it.) One at a time, peel the
potatoes and
slice them into 1/8-inch-thick rounds. The best way to get
rounds this thin
is to use a mandoline. Lacking that, use the thinnest
slicing blade on the
food processor or a sharp knife. Toss the potatoes into
the cream as you
slice them.
4. Using you hands, pull enough potato slices out of the
cream to make a single layer on the bottom of the buttered pan, arranging
them in even,
slightly overlapping concentric circles. Make a second layer
of potato
slices and then pour some cream over the layers. Press down on the
potatoes to compact the layers – when you do this, some of the cream
should
rise up between the slices. Spread the mushrooms (minus what-
ever liquid they
may have accumulated in the bowl) over the potatoes
and pour in more cream,
again using your hands to press down on the ingredients and bring the cream
to the top. Arrange the remaining pota-
toes in attractive layers over the
mushrooms, pouring in cream and
pressing down as you finish each layer. You
may not need all of the
cream – you’ll know you’ve added enough when,
without pressing
down, you see cream at the edges of the pan. Dust the
gratin evenly
with the Parmesan cheese and place the pan on a foil-lined
baking
sheet that can act as a drip-catcher…
5. Bake the gratin for 45 minutes, then check that it’s not
getting too
brown. If necessary, lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F
to
keep the gratin from coloring too much. Bake for 15 minutes more,
or until
you can easily pass a slender sharp knife through all the layers.
6. Remove the gratin from the oven and let it stand in a
warm place
for about 20 minutes, time enough for the potatoes to soak up
more
cream. If it’s more convenient, you can keep the gratin warm in a
200-degree
F. oven.
To serve:
Bring the gratin to the table and cut it into wedges.
To drink:
A light, earthy Givry from the Côte Chalonnaise
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Potatoes, Onions and Mushrooms
au Gratin (Gigi's)
Potato and Mushroom Galette
"Ultimate" Potato Gratin (Tyler Florence)
"Upper Crust" Potato Gratin
(from 'Simply French')
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Potato Gratin
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