We used to open for winter weekends, until we realised that heating a château in the winter meant that we were essentially gifting people their stays with us, but before we did the maths, we used to cook lovely, hearty winter meals on cold, dark nights, and these potatoes were always a crowd pleaser.
Layered up with butter, cream and garlic and cooked low and slow for a good few hours, our dauphinoise potatoes are a treatful side dish to any winter stew or roast and perfect for Christmas time. I don’t add cheese to the top of my dauphinoise, I prefer instead to let the cream caramelise in the oven to make a fudgey crust. But if you love cheese, then by all means scatter some on top – though I’d urge you to try it my way first.
When they come out of the oven they are lava hot, so I like to let them rest for 20-30 minutes or so before we eat, which is perfect if you’re rushing to finish other parts of your meal. And if I’m being perfectly honest they are utterly lovely at room temperature the next day, forkfuls eaten sneakily while no one is watching.
Serves 4 with leftovers or 6 without.
Butter
6 large potatoes
1 large clove of garlic
Salt and pepper
Nutmeg
500ml cream
250mi whole milk
Preheat the oven to 160c/320f.
Generously butter a 20cm x 25cm (8in x 10 in) baking dish. Peel and then slice the potatoes about 3mm thick. You can do this with a sharp knife or carefully use a mandoline. Cover the bottom of the buttered dish with one layer of potato slices, scatter with salt, a little grind of pepper and a grating of nutmeg. Thinly slice your garlic and add one of two slices on top of the potatoes. Be generous with the salt, potatoes need a lot of seasoning, but go easy on the pepper and nutmeg, you can add these every other layer to keep the flavours balanced.
Continue layering up the potatoes like this until you’ve filled the dish. Mix together the milk and cream and pour it over the potatoes. Shimmy and shake the dish to encourage the cream to ooze between the layers of potato. Add a final scattering of salt, pepper and nutmeg to the top and dot with butter.
Slide into the oven and bake two hours until bubbling and golden on top. Slide a sharp knife into the middle to check that the potatoes are soft and cooked, cook for a little longer if they aren’t. Leave to rest for 30 minutes before serving.
