Secret Recipe Club: Garlic and Herb Potato Gratin

Time for another Secret Recipe Club! For those who haven’t seen my previous Secret Recipe Club posts, this club includes a group of bloggers who are assigned a different blog each month and secretly make a recipe to post on their specified reveal day. I look forward to my assignment email every month and discovering new blogs. It is also fun to see what someone chooses from your blog.

This month I was assigned to Dorothy’s blog, Shockingly Delicious! Dorothy has been writing about food for 25 years and currently freelances as a food and financial writer. She began cooking at an early age with her mother and eventually went into journalism writing food stories and recipes. Her focus with the blog is simple to prepare, budget-friendly, tried and true recipes that are also delicious. I love that the bottom of her recipes include helpful notes such as variations, make-ahead and leftover ideas, and tips for kids (she has two children).

Dorothy has so many amazing recipes to choose from. Due to the timing of this post, I stuck to Thanksgiving picks and was immediately drawn to her Garlic and Herb Potato Gratin. Here are some other recipes I have pinned for later: Bob Andy Pie, Asian Citrus-Marinated Mushrooms, Sweet Potato Spice Cake with Pecan Streusel Topping, Eggnog French Toast, Irish Elephant Ears, Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins, Alabama Light Bread, Meatball Lover’s Sandwich, and Beef Migas.

This Garlic and Herb Potato Gratin is an incredibly easy side dish would make a delicious addition to the Thanksgiving table. With the help of a mandoline (always use a guard!), the potatoes were sliced quickly and the longest step was arranging them in the baking dish. The creamy cheese sauce is just thin enough to seep through all the layers as it bakes. To check to see if the potatoes are done, press the tip of a butter knife through the center. If it gives easily, then the potatoes are cooked through.

I used a round biscuit cutter to cut out circles of the gratin for a different type of presentation. This is definitely not needed, but I liked the way it showed off the layers.

Boursin cheese is in the specialty cheese section of most larger grocery stores. Don’t have half and half? You can substitute with 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream.

The chives are completely optional. I like the extra pop of color and used garlic chives from my garden.

Dorothy had some great ideas of how to re-use any leftovers. They can be served with a fried egg, or chopped up and added to a frittata or soup.

 

Check out what everyone else in Group D made!

 

Garlic and Herb Potato Gratin
Adapted from Shockingly Delicious
Serves 8-10

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half and half
1 (5.2 ounces) package Boursin cheese with garlic and herbs
1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
2 large garlic cloves, minced
3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch thick rounds
Freshly ground black pepper
Chopped chives for garnish

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 inch baking dish (at least 2 inch sides) with butter or oil.

In a medium saucepan, mix together cream, half and half, Boursin cheese, and salt over low heat until melted and smooth. Do not bring to a boil. Remove from heat and whisk in parsley and garlic.

Arrange half of the potato slices in the prepared baking dish. Season the top with pepper then evenly pour half of the cheese sauce. Arrange the remaining potato slices over the top, slightly overlapping them. Top with more pepper and the remaining cheese sauce.

Bake in preheated oven until the top is golden brown and the potatoes are tender all the way through, 55-60 minutes.

Serve warm topped with chopped chives.