Gratin mania

Inspired by the section in Jeffrey Steingarten's It Must've Been Something I Ate I found myself preparing two different gratin recipes on Monday night. One from his book, the other an older recipe - and simpler too in that it misses a stage of cooking the gratin in milk before adding the cream. Steingarten's recipe calls for a single layer of potato in a large Le Creuset which isn't very space efficient and probably only really serves 4. My older recipe has three layers, just cream, not milk, and adds a layer of crispy cheese on top too.

While I made gratins Kate covered some left over potato slices in paprika and oil and made a crispy oven treat to keep us going...

The results: well even though my attempt at the Steingarten recipe didn't turn out crispy on both sides, as he suggests it will, it was utterly delicious and knocked the spots of the older recipe, which was wet and anemic in comparison. And most tellingly, the Steingarten version had a depth of flavour missing from most gratins.

I'm loving Steingarten's book - his enthusiasm for pushing the envelope of testing is infectious. There's no way to look at one of the infrequent recipes in the book and not want to give it a go.

BTW, the other, multilayered gratin was excellent cold the next day.