Potato Gratin and Cauliflower Gratin

One of my favourite dishes to cook whenever I am stumped for a side dish or if I need to 'beef up' a meal is to make a Gratin. To get a bit technical, culinary wise, a Gratin is usually layers of a vegetable mixed with cream and topped off with a browned crust, often using breadcrumbs or grated cheese. The gratin is baked and is traditionally served in its baking dish.



My preference when making gratins is to use potatoes as I love the starchiness of the potatoes and the cream and butter just seem to meld so nicely with potatoes. I also love to top it off with crispy bacon. This is what I do for a Potato Gratin.

Ingredients
6 potatoes thinly sliced
1.5 cups cream
40g butter
6 slices bacon - chopped
150g Cheddar Cheese - grated
Salt
Pepper

Method
Grease a shallow baking dish. Fry the bacon until well cooked - it will crisp a little more in the oven but not much. Heat the cream and butter over low heat until butter is melted whisking to combine. Layer the potatoes in the dish and then pour over the cream between layers. Top with cheese and bacon. Bake in a 190C oven till potatoes are nicely cooked through.

If you prefer a variation on the same these, just substitute the potatoes for cauliflower, or broccoli or any other vegetable you like really. Sometimes I add some garlic to the mix or even fry some onions first and add it in.

This is how the Cauliflower Gratin looks like. I didnt fry the bacon quite as long as I did for the potato gratin and so it turned out slightly less crispy. Still delicious though!



This dish is really simple and yet makes quite a stunning side dish. Enjoy!

Sarah's BBQ Part Two - Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes to me are a MUST at any Barbecue. The Lovely Wife wanted to make a Potato Salad but I insisted on Mash simply because my little princess wanted Mashed Potatoes, so how could I refuse?
This was a little last minute as I had forgotten about the potatoes as I was busy with starting the BBQ and all sorts of other tasks. But I guess that's the beauty of Mashed Potatoes. As long as you have already boiled the potatoes, the rest is dead easy!

I dont think a recipe is required for mashed potatoes, but this is what I did:

8 potatoes - peeled, cut into quarters and boiled till soft
Generous Glob of Mayonnaise
Glob of soft Butter
Dash of Salt and Pepper
Spash of milk
Spring Onions for garnish

See? Nothing easier. Just mash all the ingredients together, tasting every now and again and you have a lovely creamy dish of mashed potatoes. Dress it up a little with some chopped Spring Onions for a 'wow' factor!




My little princess enjoyed the mash and that was all it needed to vindicate me from the Potato Salad that the Lovely Wife kept insisting would be much better. Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, Daddy really Does know best!

Lamb Sausage with Caramelised Onions and Potatoes

You ever have one of those days when you are just tired? Not a lazy tired kind of day but just tired. Not just physically tired but mentally too. You know, the ideas just dont seem to come and you're too tired to think about it too much coz well, your just tired.
I think you get the drift. The last week has been kinda like that. Just tired. I know tiredness is never an excuse for anything but I just wanted to vent that I felt tired. And I'm not going to apologise for it. So maybe that's why I fell short of posting last Friday. I had the intent, really I did. I even started writing something but then I started getting a block at every step so I just swore softly to myself and turned off the computer.

So anyway, now that I've vented, lets get on to food once again!

I love sausages, especially the nice meaty kind that's full of 'real' meat rather than all sorts of fillers. So when my mother called me some time ago and said that she had bought a whole bunch of Lamb Sausages and asked if I could make fry them up as part of a family meal, I happily said YES!

At first I considered just frying them whole. Then I thought of cutting them into rounds and just frying them. I reckoned that that would be kind of boring though so what I figured would be a good idea would be to fry the Sausages with Potatoes - kind of like an all in one Fry-Up.


No real recipe here but this is kind of what I did.

Ingredients
1kg lamb sausages
6 onions
2 cloves garlic
5 potatoes
fresh rosemary
Black Pepper
Chilli Flakes

Method
Slice the sausages into thick rounds. Slice onions and chop garlic. Peel and cut potatoes into large cubes. Fry the onions until they turn a nice brown. They are now caramelised and will tend to be slightly sweetish. Add in the garlic, rosemary, black pepper and chilli flakes and mix well together. Add in the sausages and cook well. Add in the potatoes and cook till tender. The oil from the sausages will flavour the potatoes as well. Season with more black pepper if desired.



This was a really satisfying dish although I must admit it was a tad fatty/oily. It went down really well with thick slices of french bread and was a firm favourite with the kids.

I mean really, who can complain about Sausages and Potatoes...?