WIAW #9: Sweet Potato and Potato Gratin

I really don’t understand my computer’s alter ego. I know my Horsham pictures are on this thing but, I can’t find this folder anywhere! So unfortunately my recap of my Saturday day trip had been postponed but I can still bring you tourist photos and WIAW which I just know you are all dying for! Things for the most part are more expensive here, obviously. But, the one thing that seems to be much cheaper is fish, notably, salmon! And if you’ve been here before you know, I LOVE SALMON! Since I don’t eat Pork or red meat, a diet of poultry alone can get quite monotonous, but fish is sooooooo expensive for a college foodie like me. In Philadelphia it is $13-16 lb. for farm-raised salmon; don’t even think about wild—that’s for the rich kids.  But here I can’t two nicely sized filets for £4 ($6 or so.) That’s awesome! So of course, I get two meals out of it. Back home, Aaron and I get a tiny ½ lb. and split it. This will be a common meal for me now. Yay!

So I had salmon the first night with Sweet chili Thai Veggie Stir Fry and on night two I pulled the second filet out of the freezer where I meant to keep it for later and paired it with the Sweet Potato and Potato Gratin from Chez Us I’ve been dying to try. Mmmm…I’m spoiled I know.



http://www.peasandcrayons.com/



So finally here’s What I Ate Wednesday for your viewing pleasure:

Breakfast:

Dorset Muesul (grain, sunflower seeds, coconut, hazelnuts, dried fruit, etc.) with Rachel’s Organic Vanilla Yoghurt, honey, with 20 fresh blueberries and 2 strawberries cut up. Yum.

Half cup of black tea with dash of semi-skimmed milk

Snack Break in Politics Class:

Small cup of coffee, a little milk (seen in the lunch photo)

One homemade Strawberry cookie

Lunch:

Homemade Chicken salad with red grapes on Wholegrain bread

Red Grapes (about 15 or so)

Water

Dinner:

Sweet Potato and Potato Gratin with Rosemary and Gruyere

Salmon filet baked with chopped dried apricots, rosemary, and honey

Arugula salad mixed with homemade Dijon honey vinaigrette with apricots and blueberries

Glass of Ribena Black Currant Juice

More Water

Dessert:

I resisted out of pure laziness not to go down stairs.

This was a good food day and as now seems normal; I ate while my house mates watched me.

There are two ways you could make this dish, one with a creamy béchamel sauce, melting the cheese in it. The second, is to simply pour heavy cream over the potatoes and top with grated cheese. Obviously, the latter is easier, but the former is better. I will both but, if you have the time, make the sauce, if not pour the cream, it is still good.

 I’ve wanted to make this for the past week ever since I saw it on Chez Us. As you might know, I love Sweet Potatoes. It took me a few days to get the ingredients together since my grocery store is lowly stocked, but it was worth it. They aren’t hard ingredients, a sweet potato, a russet potato, rosemary, Swiss Cheese, cream, but it’s worth it. Chez Us used cheddar, but I used Gruyere. My grocery store didn’t have Swiss so I shelled out a little extra for the Gruyere. It was good. Mmmmm…

Making a version of Potatoes Au Gratin, I am often reminded of the boxed Au Gratin Potatoes my mom used to make growing up. The funny thing is we always had five boxes of the stuff in our pantry, and several of my sister’s friends loved this stuff even as far as to forfeit their own mothers’ homemade mashed potatoes for it. Mine is better, sorry Mom.

For only using two potatoes, I thought it was a good sized dish for multiple people, or leftovers for one. So whatever you decide, just try it, you won’t be sorry.

Sweet Potato and Potato Gratin: 4-5 servings

(Adapted from Chez Us)

Ingredients:

1 medium potato (Russet works), peeled

1 large sweet potato, peeled

2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, crushed with fingers

½ cup grated Gruyere or Swiss

Garlic Salt

Pepper

½ pint heavy cream (I used milk, use cream if you can)

Olive Oil

1 tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces

Béchamel Sauce used instead of Heavy Cream:

Make recipe and add ½ amount of cheese once done. (Instead of cream, Pour béchamel sauce on top of potatoes and top with remaining cheese.

Directions:

Heat oven to 325 degrees (or 163 Celsius.)

Thinly slice potatoes with potato slicer or knife.

In a pie dish, coat in olive oil with finger. In dish, layer potatoes, alternating between sweet potato and potato to make pretty.

Half way through, sprinkle half of fresh rosemary on the potatoes, sprinkle with some garlic salt and pepper. Layer the rest of the potatoes in the same fashion and sprinkle with most of the remaining rosemary and a little more garlic salt and pepper.

Pour cream over the top of the potatoes, allowing it to fill in the cracks and top with cheese. (Or use Béchamel sauce method.) Sprinkle with a tiny bit more rosemary and places chopped butter evenly on top.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

Serve immediately and Enjoy!

Before I say goodbye here is my playlist for you and a few tourist photos from my time in London.

Cuisiner Playlist:

In The End- Snow Patrol (Favourite song right now!) Basically the whole Fallen Empires album. Love Snow Patrol!

Ride-Cary Brothers

It’s Been Awhile- Staind

And I love Her- The Beatles

Green Eyes- Cold Play

 

 

Love,

The College Cuisiner