Sometimes I forget which recipes I have posted and I forgot that this recipe, which I make about once a week at home, is not on the blog. These potatoes work well if people are coming to dinner as they keep in a warm oven for half an hour or more quite well. The main thing is not to under cook them and then just keep them warm once they are cooked.
An eight inch quiche dish or similar pie dish will do 4 people with lots of other food on the plate, we tend to do 2 pie dishes of this as every one so far has loved them.
This is very similar to the cottage smallholders recipe http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=176 and close to dauphinoise potatoes.
About 1 pound of potatoes. They need to cover the base of the dish you will be using to cook them in when cut in half so you may need more or less than this.
A mozzarella ball, the packet in my fridge is 125g (they sell them in sealed packets in most supermarkets)
A peeled and crushed clove of garlic. (or if you do it my way, chop off the ends, crush the middle using a big knife held flat over the garlic and push it down hard with the palm of your hand – be careful. The skin should come away and the garlic should be crushed)
Between 50g and 75g of tasty cheddar, grated.
A pinch of grated nutmeg, which can be left out if someone is not keen on it
salt and pepper
about 10 g of butter
about three quaters of a pint of milk but allow more/less depending on the dish you use and potato size.
You can add a dash of cream if you have some lurking in the fridge but it is optional.
Oven to 180 degrees C or Gas mark 4
Take a quiche or pie dish. Peel a potato and then place on a chopping board. Cut it in half and make fine slices that don’t quite go all the way through the potato. It should look sliced but you should be able to move your half potato in once piece into the pie dish.
Repeat this until your pie dish base is full of halves, if you have big gaps fill them with off cuts of potato. Now pour the milk over so the potatoes are about half covered, add a pinch of salt and put the crushed garlic on top spreading it around a bit. sprinkle over the cheddar and then cut the mozzarella into slices and lay that over the top. Sprinkle over the pinch of nutmeg and finish with a good pinch of pepper.
Cut the butter into little pieces and drop onto the top. If using pour over the cream.
Pop into the oven for about 45 minutes. Try a sharp knife through a potato and it should feel like a cooked boiled potato if it’s ready. The top should be a lovely coating of melted mozzarella.
