h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Potato and Mushroom Gratin - A80841765
Author: Gnomon - U151503

This is one of my favourite recipes, which I make regularly.

Hi
I like gratins, I like cheese, I like mushrooms even more.

Unfortunately bf and I usually end up with half raw potatoes even after ages of baking.

This sounds very delicious but I think the way you describe the assembling of the thing is a bit complicated. Can you describe it in an easier way? I think you use too many words here to describe something very easy. In fact in my opinion it would be best to just describe every layer bottom to top like you do it a bit further down (just starting with the other side).

Thanks, Tav. I haven't written or used many recipes, so I'm not familiar with what people find easy. I'll see what I can do.

Your recipe is quite easy to follow, but the layer explanation did seem a bit elaborate. This is where photos help. It's usual to describe the layers from the bottom of the dish upwards, and end with the top layer. So, although it may help somewhat, the bullet point list isn't really necessary.

I think my gratins are a bit like Tav's in that it takes ages for the potatoes to all be cooked. Maybe I've not covered the thing in foil? I am sure this is a good point, also perhaps I've not added enough liquid.

I'm certainly going to try this soon. It sounds very tempting.

I've done a dish like this, which is particularly nice with wild mushrooms.

If you want to be sure your potatoes are cooked through, you can par-boil them. You could simmer them briefly in a saucepan, or give them a few minutes in the microwave. (Avoid the sort of potatoes such as King Edwards that fall to pieces when boiled!)

For this amount of potatoes, I would use a larger amount of mushrooms, but perhaps this isn't necessary if you use dried ceps for added flavour. Although ceps are members of the boletus family, there are other edible boletus mushrooms. Strictly speaking, ceps are boletus edulis.

This sounds delicious.

In the US, we call it 'potatoes au gratin'.

I'm not sure how thick a euro coin is, but saying an eight of an inch is pretty clear.

For the layers, I'd just say, 'Alternate layers of potatoes and mushrooms, starting and finishing with potatoes. Don't use more than X layers, or your potatoes may not cook sufficiently.' Or similar?

I've simplified the whole assembly of layers section to just a few sentences.

Looks good to me.

I've found things that cause the potatoes to not be cooked are:

not cutting them thinly enough

too much overlap of potatoes - the mushrooms serve to space the potato slices out to allow them to cook better

some potatoes just take longer to cook than others - everything else being equal, the gratin sometimes cooks in the time stated and sometimes doesn't. I haven't figured out why yet.

I think your Entry is a lot clearer now.

So, when are we invited round for dinner, then
You could consider links to a few related articles, such as:

A738687 Baked Potato Toppings and Fillings
A640027 Great Vegetarian Dishes
A18740522 Potatoes
A49292724 Common Salt (Sodium Chloride)
A672013 Coin Collecting
A330968 Knives
A352784 Forks
A575679 Organic Food in the UK (Is organic food in the UK different to organic food elsewhere?)

<BB<

You've made me feel hungry!


lil x

I might have missed it, but do you need to pre-heat the oven? Or do you put your dish in and *then* switch it on?

Other than that, I think it sounds delicious and I'm going to need some more potatoes.

I'm going to cook this for supper tonight, but as my mother has to have a low fat diet at the moment, I am going to use milk instead of cream. I'll let you know how it turns out. It's going to accompany some poached white fish. Food for the elderly!

My oven heats up in about 3 minutes, and when you're cooking something for 75 minutes, 3 minutes either way won't make a lot of difference, so it wouldn't really matter whether I preheated it or not.

But I should probably put in a step to pre-heat it in the method.

By the way... I hope we'll get a picture of this when the Entry is finished.

I'll remember to take a photo next time I cook this, which won't be long.

Even without cream, the verdict on this dish was that it was very tasty. Parents enjoyed it and asked for seconds.

Next time I make it I won't fill the dish up to the brim, or I'll choose a larger dish. It bubbled over the edges, but that was a small price to pay for the end result.


many thanks!

Can't have a better critique than that!