desperately seeking starch
Oct. 26th, 2007 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekittyYesterday I made a five cheese mixed root veggie gratin, with enormous help from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
f_butterfly.
The thing that made this easy was having a mandolin. If you do not have a mandolin, it will take much longer and the layers will be thicker.
Things that are Necessary
an assortment of root veggies (I used potatoes, carrots, daikon, beets, turnips, and celery root)
an assortment of cheeses (I used parmesan, gouda, swiss, cheddar, and asiago)
a baking dish
a pot for parbroiling
a strainer
Things that are Nice
a mandolin
pesto, nuts, and/or breadcrumbs to top the gratin with (I used artichoke pesto mixed with chopped walnuts and parmesan)
a second pot for faster parbroiling
an oven
a helper
cream
So, basically, you peel the veggies that have thick skins (like celeriac and beet). You thinly slice all the veggies. You parbroil them until tender (one veggie at a time, so you can get them all to the same doneness before baking). You grate up lots of cheese. You layer the cheese and the veggies. (You could mix all your cheeses up beforehand, but I preferred to use different cheeses for each layer.) After this is all done, you top them with your topping, if you have one - if not, just use more cheese. Then you put it in the oven at 350 for an hour and you take a nap. If you don't have an oven, you could warm it up and melt the cheese in the microwave, it just wouldn't get brown on top.
This dish was well-received. The number it serves depends on how many root veggies you started out with. I basically filled a large baking dish with all of my farmshare veggies from the last two weeks except for the squash and greens.
If I had it to do over, I would do the following -
1) Slice and cook the veggies you have the most of first. That way, there can be more distance between the identical layers.
2) Remember to grease the pan before adding veggies.
3) Add spices and salt, probably in the cheese layers.
4) Include onions or garlic
It was still yummy, though.
f_butterfly.The thing that made this easy was having a mandolin. If you do not have a mandolin, it will take much longer and the layers will be thicker.
Things that are Necessary
an assortment of root veggies (I used potatoes, carrots, daikon, beets, turnips, and celery root)
an assortment of cheeses (I used parmesan, gouda, swiss, cheddar, and asiago)
a baking dish
a pot for parbroiling
a strainer
Things that are Nice
a mandolin
pesto, nuts, and/or breadcrumbs to top the gratin with (I used artichoke pesto mixed with chopped walnuts and parmesan)
a second pot for faster parbroiling
an oven
a helper
cream
So, basically, you peel the veggies that have thick skins (like celeriac and beet). You thinly slice all the veggies. You parbroil them until tender (one veggie at a time, so you can get them all to the same doneness before baking). You grate up lots of cheese. You layer the cheese and the veggies. (You could mix all your cheeses up beforehand, but I preferred to use different cheeses for each layer.) After this is all done, you top them with your topping, if you have one - if not, just use more cheese. Then you put it in the oven at 350 for an hour and you take a nap. If you don't have an oven, you could warm it up and melt the cheese in the microwave, it just wouldn't get brown on top.
This dish was well-received. The number it serves depends on how many root veggies you started out with. I basically filled a large baking dish with all of my farmshare veggies from the last two weeks except for the squash and greens.
If I had it to do over, I would do the following -
1) Slice and cook the veggies you have the most of first. That way, there can be more distance between the identical layers.
2) Remember to grease the pan before adding veggies.
3) Add spices and salt, probably in the cheese layers.
4) Include onions or garlic
It was still yummy, though.
