Gratin Dauphinois

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg floury potatoes such as Maris Piper, Bintje or Russet
• 500ml double cream
• 250ml whole milk
• 2 fat garlic cloves
• 30g unsalted butter
• A quarter of a whole nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1.5 tsp fine salt
• Plenty of freshly ground black pepper

Before you cook

• Peel the potatoes and slice them three millimetres thick on a mandoline or with a steady knife.
• Leave the sliced potatoes unrinsed, because the starch clinging to them is what thickens the gratin.
• Halve one garlic clove and rub the cut faces hard all over the inside of a shallow two-litre baking dish.
• Butter the dish generously.
• Crush the second garlic clove.

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 150C fan.
2. Pour the cream and milk into a wide pan and add the crushed garlic, salt, nutmeg and a good grinding of pepper.
3. Bring the liquid to a gentle simmer over medium heat.
4. Slide in the potato slices and stir carefully to separate them.
5. Cook for eight minutes, moving the slices gently now and then, until the liquid has visibly thickened around them.
6. Tip the whole lot into the prepared dish and press the top flat with the back of a spoon so the potatoes are just submerged.
7. Bake for one hour and fifteen minutes.
8. Push a knife into the centre to check the potatoes are completely soft, and give it another fifteen minutes if there is any resistance.
9. Turn the oven up to 200C fan for a final ten minutes to brown the surface.
10. Rest the gratin for fifteen minutes before cutting so it holds its shape on the spoon.