Saturday 28 December 2013

Potato, Leek and Bacon gratin

This dish was a bit of a "What can I do with the things I have in my fridge?" affair. I had three rashers of smoked streaky bacon, one leek, a pint of "on its sell-by date" milk, and a small piece of Gruyere cheese. With the addition of some flour, some butter and a clove of garlic this sounded to me as if it needed to be made into something along the lines of a Tartiflette! (Yes, I know the link is somewhat tenuous...)


Here in pictures is my method for putting the dish together:

1. Using butter, flour, milk and cheese, make a cheesy white sauce:


2. Cut the bacon into small pieces and lightly fry them with a little finely-sliced garlic:


3. Peel and thinly slice a couple of large potatoes. Put a layer of them into a suitable oven-proof dish, and cover them with about half of the cheese sauce. Wash and slice the Leek and add that too:


4. Add the bacon:


5. Add the rest of the cheese sauce and then another layer of potato slices. Season with salt and black pepper. Dot the top with small knobs of butter:


6. Bake in the oven at approx 120C for about 45 minutes, until the potatoes are tender, then turn up the heat to about 180C and cook for a further 10 minutes to brown the top:


7. Serve - either on its own or with something else to add a bit of colour (I had some carrots):


8. Serving suggestion - this dish needs a glass of nice wine to accompany it. Since it is vaguely Tartiflette-like, I suggest a light French red, such as Cotes du Ventoux.

Here's another thought: this would work quite well with some leftover turkey or ham in it too!

4 comments:

  1. The night before last I made some ham enchiladas. We don't usually use ham for that but we had leftover Christmas ham, so were using it up. Yesterday I made ham and beans soup. I did save some for later soups though. Ham goes so well in soup. You don't need much to add a lot of flavor.

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  2. A resourceful dish! Looks delicious.

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  3. Amazing what you can make with things you're just using up. It looks delicious.

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  4. That looks really tasty and without the potatoes could even e turned into a lasagne.

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