Potato Caserole

I have a hard time serving potatoes. They are boring, except for my mashed potatoes, which I really wanted to stay away from on the Easter Menu. This dish seemed a good alternative.

I tried this Cook's Illustrated recipe and was rather impressed. The casserole will be enough for ten people. I am going to give the recipe it here with a link to Cook's Illustrated website because I think they put a tremendous amount of time and editorial effort into their recipes and, with SOOOO much junk on the Internet, it is one stop shopping for recipes or ideas. My suggestions and changes are noted with * before the change.

Heat oven to 375 F if you use a glass dish, 400 if not glass.

8 oz. creamy Gouda or *Swiss cheese

4 cloves of garlic minced or * 1/2 head of roasted garlic cleaned and mashed to a puree

4 tsp. minced fresh thyme * or rosemary, just use 2 tsp. instead.

2 tablespoons butter * 3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup all purpose flour

3 1/2 cups chicken stock or canned broth* for vegetarians, veg. broth can be used.

1 bay leaf

2 lbs. Yukon Gold Potatoes peeled* I left the skins on.

2 lbs. Russet potatoes peeled* I left the skins on.

3/4 tsp. salt

Ground black pepper

1. Toss cheese and thyme * or rosemary and minced garlic (if you are not using the roasted garlic mash.)

2. Melt butter on med. heat in a med. sauce pan and whisk in the flour.

Gradually add the chicken stock.* The flavor of the stock is really the soul of this dish and I wish I had paid more attention to it and not treated it as an after thought. This is how I would do the stock about an hour or so before starting the dish:

5 cups of chicken stock if not homemade, a good brand from the store. Put it in a sauce pan and add 1/2 cup white dry wine (no sweet wines) throw in a few carrots, a celery stalk or two and 1/2 small onion . Cook it until it is reduced by about 3/4. Pick out and discard the carrot, celery and onion. If doing it my way, whisk in the roasted garlic mash now. Then add this concentrated rich broth to the butter whisking constantly over med. heat.

3. Add the bay leaf up the heat to high until it boils, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for about 2 min.s until thick.

4. Slice the potatoes 1/8 inch thick with a very sharp knife, on a mandolin, or in a food processor* I used a thin crinkle cut on a hand turned food processor and they came out great!

5. Alternating Russets and Gold slices, arrange 1/3 of the potatoes in over lapping layers sprinkle with 1/3 cheese, thyme, and minced garlic( if you are not opting for the roasted garlic.) and ladle over 1/3 or the broth and add some ground pepper. Do the same thing for a second layer and again for the third, but DO NOT use the remaining 1/3 cheese. Set it aside to add at the end of cooking.

6.. Cover with foil and bake in lower oven 45 min.s. Remove foil and bake another 45 min.s.

7. Sprinkle on the remaining cheese and cook until lightly browned. * My potatoes were curly, so I stuck them under the broiler to give them crispy tips and melt the cheese.

8. Cool 10 min.s and serve.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/?extcode=K00GABC00

Easter Dinner Menu

Easter 2008

-Fromage: Morbier, Trois Comtois, Montrachet Chevre with sun dried tomatoes, L'Edel de Cleron

- Strascinati Primavera al Salmone-
Multi Colored strascinati in a vermouth cream sauce with herbs and salmon garnished with red caviar.

-Shrimp alla Kimberly Jordan, Cajun Pop Corn-

-Grilled Asparagus wrapped in Prosciutto di Parma-

- Sprite Carrots lightly Browned in Ghee( I am thinking of throwing in a little turmeric. Do I dare?)

-Potato Casserole with Comte, Thyme, and Garlic- This is a Cook's Illustrated recipe.


-Spring Greens with an olive oil orange vinaigrette-

-Medium Rare (and Kristen well)Grilled Lemon Rosemary Lamb Loin Chops with Panties of Fresh Rosemary Sprigs. Served with a Pineapple Mint Aspic-

-Southern Biscuits with Blackberry Jelly-

-Chocolate Cake, Cupcakes and Petite Fours-

-Easter Eggs-
Recipes and Photos will follow......





The Southern Dinner Biscuits were the best anyone has ever had. I upped the baking powder to 3 1/4 tsp. and I rolled them out to a thickness of about an inch. I cut them with the medium size biscuit cutter instead of the large. I think this helped them to rise higher too.

After Much Debate: The Southern Biscuit Defined

There are three denominations in the south:
-Southern Baptist
-Southern Fried Chicken
-Southern Biscuit

Well, my recipe elicited much response and constructive criticisms among the true Southerners in the family. Here is my revised recipe from the previous blog entry.

There are two distinct styles of Southern biscuits which I briefly touched on in the first recipe. I gave a suggestions as to what flour to use to make a more delicate biscuit suggesting two styles; one for, let's say, breakfast or for use with with sausage and gravy and one to be served with a Sunday or church dinner accompanied by a fine jelly.

There is also some biscuit etiquette:
-Biscuits must be served immediately from the oven to the table and cannot sit for more that two minutes!
-They must be round
-They must have distinct layers which pull apart.
-Never cut them with a knife.

I will now give two recipes and separate the two styles and no longer treat them as variations on the same recipe as most recipes and cookbooks do.

These recipes is differ from any other one I have seen in its method of incorporating the butter into the flour. It goes back to classic pastry technique. Keep the butter COLD as you work it into the flour. The less you handle it the easier is to keep it cold and it will remain separate from the flour which will absorb the liquid The butter, upon baking, will melt and produce the fluffy exquisite layers and texture found in Southern biscuits and other pastries. You will be able to get an idea as to what the the texture of your buiscuits will be when you roll them out.

This recipe is for four people. You can halve it for two. I make square buiscuits ( Oppps,not anymore. I was told all Southern biscuits are round) because I can't stand waste. They are soooo good.( just lump the left over pieces together to make a less than perfect round biscuit.)

BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
This makes a drier, crispier biscuit for gravies.

1. Preheat the oven to 425. I use a baking/pizza stone, but a cookie sheet is fine. I put this in to heat up as my oven preheats and I will put the buscuits on them right in the oven. I find this makes a crispier bottom and helps them get hot faster and rise higher.
2. Take a generously large bowl and chill it in the freezer or 'fridge for a few minutes. You can also fill it with ice water, dump it out and dry it to have it cold quickly
3. Sift toghether ( I use a screen colindar or a little old fashioned hand sifter):

2 cups sifted Souther Biscuit Flour or all purpose flour.
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt

I use Southern Buiscuit Flour ( available at Food Lion) it works better than cake flour . I have even used bread flour and the recipe will still work and be good. Bread (high gluten, high protein flour) will yield a tougher, crunchier biscuit. I recommend lower gluten . Southern Buiscuit is the best or a general all purpose flour. Avoid Robin Hood. I have never had a good baking experience with that flour. In other words, if you want to make buscuits on the spur of the moment make them with the flour you have and don't stress. For this type of biscuit, any all purpose is OK.

A note on measuring teaspoon and tablespoons. I can't always find my little plastic measuring sets and, yes, I have more than one set . A small every day coffee or teaspoon that you use everyday is a standard teaspoon. Use it. A large soup spoon is a standard tablespoon. Use that and don't stress. It will work.The most common mistake when using the plastic measuring spoons is to grab the 1/2 tbl. instead of the 1/2 tsp. which is the one you almost always want.

Dump the dry ingredients in the chilled bowl .

Now here comes the best part. Most recipes will tell you to cut in the butter which is a pain in the but , takes too much time and nobody knows what that means. It usually involes two knives held side to side and cutting the butter into little inconsistant pieces. This is what I do:

4. Take 10 tablespoons butter and make sure it is straight out of the 'fridge and as COLD as you can get it. Just use the markings on the paper wrapper to measure. Take a hand grater and using the large holes of the grater, grate the chilled stick of butter on top of the flour / baking soda/ powder mixture in the big chilled bowl as you might grate cheese. Very quickly, toss the butter and flour so the individual butter strands are dusted with flour and don't stick together. This accomplishes the "cutting into the flour " step and gives you beautiful, long, consistent strands of butter which will yield a much better texture.

5. Add all at once 3/4 cup buttermilk. Using an open hand with extended fingers mix /toss coursly until ingredients at least stick together and form a ball. If you feel the dough is a little unevenly drier or wetter in some areas, don't worry. Knead it a few times in the bowl. Lightly form it into a slightly flattened patty, cover with wrap and put it in the 'fridge for 30 mins.

6. Roll it out quickly about one inch thick. Cut into squares ( NO! round shapes, remember) and place each one individually onto the hot oiled cookie sheet/baking stone and bake for about 10 min.s or more or until it is lightly or strongly golden brown; your choice. My husband likes his very lightly browned where as I preffer them crispier. Note: you can roll these biscuits out just like the Dinner Style below and fold the dough into thirds, but these biscuits are supposed to be simpler and more direct, so I don't reccomend it stylistically

7. Serve them immediately. True southerners demand the biscuits come out of the oven as soon as the meal is on the table and should not sit, literally, more that two or three minutes before eating.

A note on cutting biscuits. Use a biscuit cutter or a cookie cutter at least. Do not use a glass as the edge is not sharp enough and will press the dough together too much so it will not rise as high or propperly flake apart. If you really don't have anything to cut them with, well, use a very sharp knife and cut them imto sguares for this time!

SOUTHERN DINNER STYLE BISCUITS
This is a beautiful, richer and more formal biscuit.

1. Preheat the oven to 375 . I use a baking/pizza stone, but a cookie sheet is fine. I put this in to heat up as my oven preheats and I will put the buscuits on them right in the oven. I find this helps them get hot faster and rise higher.

2. Take a generously large bowl and chill it in the freezer or 'fridge for a few minutes. You can also fill it with ice water, dump it out and dry it to have it cold quickly

3. 1 cup of Southern Biscuit or all purpose flour and 1 cup cake flour.
1 1/2 Tablespoons of peanut oil.

I use Southern Buiscuit Flour ( available at Food Lion) it works well and is easier to find than cake flour . This recipe will also be OK if you want to use all purpose too. I personally have had optimum results with half Southern Biscuit and half cake flour.
Put the flour into a bowl and sprinkle with the oil. Now, holding your hands flat together as though you are praying, work the oil into the flour by rubbing your hands together back and forth.

4. Sift the flour into the chilled bowl along with:
3 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt.

A note on measuring teaspoon and tablespoons. I can't always find my little plastic measuring sets and, yes, I have more than one set . A small every day coffee or teaspoon that you use everyday is a standard teaspoon. Use it. A large soup spoon is a standard tablespoon. Use that and don't stress. It will work.The most common mistake when using the plastic measuring spoons is to grab the 1/2 tbl. instead of the 1/2 tsp. which is the one you almost always want.



5. Now here comes the best part. Most recipes will tell you to cut in the butter which is a pain in the but , takes too much time and nobody knows what that means. It usually involes two knives held side to side and cutting the butter into little inconsistant pieces. This is what I do:

Take 10 tablespoons butter and make sure it is straight out of the 'fridge and as COLD as you can get it. Just use the markings on the paper wrapper to measure. Take a hand grater and using the large holes of the grater, grate the chilled stick of butter on top of the flour / baking soda/ powder mixture in the big chilled bowl as you might grate cheese. Very quickly, toss the butter and flour so the individual butter strands are dusted with flour and don't stick together. This accomplishes the "cutting into the flour " step and gives you beautiful, long, consistent strands of butter which will yield a much better texture.

6. Add all at once 3/4 cup half and half or whole milk. Half and half will make a richer biscuit. Using an open hand with extended fingers mix /toss coursly until ingredients at least stick together and form a ball. If you feel the dough is a little unevenly drier or wetter in some areas, don't worry. Knead it a few times in the bowl. Lightly form it into a slightly flattened patty, cover with wrap and put it in the 'fridge for 30 mins.

6. Roll it out quickly into a rectangle that is 1:3.(one part wide, three parts long). Place it infront of you horizontally, dust off ANY excess flour.
Now, take the right end and fold it so it is in the middle. Take the left side and fold it all the way over to the right. You now have three layers of dough and should have a square shape.

7. Lightly and quickly, roll out to 1 inch thickness. Cut with a biscuit cutter.
8. Bake at 375 for about ten minutes. You can give the tops more color if you like by placing them under the broiler for a several seconds. Serve them immediately. True southerners demand the biscuits come out of the oven as soon as the meal is on the table and should not sit, literally, more that two or three minutes before eating.

A note on cutting biscuits. Use a biscuit cutter or a cookie cutter at least. Do not use a glass as the edge is not sharp enough and will press the dough together too much so it will not rise as high or propperly flake apart. If you really don't have anything to cut them with, well, use a very sharp knife and cut them imto sguares for this time!
This biscuit is best eaten with a fine berry jam; sweet apple habanero is very good too as well as crab apple.