Gratin Dauphinois, James Oseland’s Way

With this recipe, adapted from World Food: Paris, author James Oseland breaks several rules usually applied to the classic bistro dish known as gratin dauphinois. Usually the dish is built on starchier potatoes, but Oseland’s recipe specially calls for new potatoes (red ones are usually the easiest to find in supermarkets) or “waxy white potatoes.” Traditionally they’re sliced thinner, and layered raw in the baking dish and baked with cream; Oseland boils those thicker slices a briefly in water and milk, adding heavy cream only for the last part of the baking.

READ: Cookbooks We Love: James Oseland’s new ‘World Food’ title celebrates the iconic dishes of Paris

Conventional, certainly not. But the results are pretty fabulous — perfectly cooked, super creamy potatoes that retain some integrity in their bite, gorgeously browned and crisp on top. It’s a fabulously gratifying gratin. We found the 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt Oseland calls for to be a bit much, so we’ve pulled it back a quarter teaspoon. If you have a saltier palate, you’ll probably want to use his full 1 1/4 teaspoon.

Oseland says it serves 4 to 6 people, but those six would have to be showing impressive restraint to be happy with a portion that small. We’re going with 4 to 5, though in our household, three people in the right mood could easily demolish it in a sitting.

You’ll need a baking dish or gratin dish that holds about 1.75 to 2 quarts; the one pictured is from Sur La Table. If you want to buy one from Amazon, this one from Lodge (which we have not tried) looks like the right size. For reference and in case it’s helpful, ours measures 11 inches by 7 3/4 inches on top and 10 1/2 by 7 inches on the bottom; it’s 2 1/4 inches deep.

Serves 4 - 5.

Ingredients

1 cup milk

2 pounds medium new potatoes or waxy white potatoes, peeled and cut crosswise a little less than 1/4-inch thick

1 garlic clove

I teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Butter for buttering the baking dish

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

3/4 cup heavy cream

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large saucepan, combine the milk with 1 cup of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes and garlic. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook at a rolling boil, stirring frequently, until you can just pierce the potatoes with a fork, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the potato slices to a plate. Discard the garlic leaving the cooking liquid in the pan.

2. Butter a 1.75 to 2-quart gratin dish or shallow baking dish. Arrange the potatoes in the prepared dish, layering them in neat rows and overlapping the slices slightly. Evenly season with the salt, a few grinds of pepper and the nutmeg. Pour the water-milk cooking liquid over the potatoes; the liquid should come about three-fourths of the way up the sides of the dish. Discard any remaining liquid.

3. Bake until the potatoes are almost tender and nearly all of the liquid has been absorbed, 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes. Pour the cream evenly over the potatoes and bake until their surface is golden brown, about 35 minutes. Serve at once.