Friday, January 15, 2016

OK, I'll try that

I read the recipe and there were steps I was just uncomfortable trying without ever having had the opportunity to witness them being done by someone with experience.

I certainly remember having the potatoes but during the time when they regularly appeared on our table I was never sufficiently far advanced up the food preparation chain to actually participate in preparation.

So I went to the internet and found a pretty detailed recipe on the Food Network.  The issue for me was the butter, milk, flour mixture.  The Food Network refers to that as preparation of the white sauce.

Yeah, right.  White sauce.

But I guess a white sauce is what it is and the rest of preparation went pretty much as described.
We had ours with green beans as the "serve with something green" green.

Tasty.

5 comments:

TOPWLH said...

Very tasty again tonight! What's not to like about cheesy potatoes with onions and ham. Yum. I look forward to the next iteration of this recipe.

Santini said...

That looks really good. Mine didn't last long, either. I saw that same recipe on the Food Network site, and rejected it because I didn't want to bother with a white sauce. (Which is really no big deal, but it dirties a pan.) The recipe that I modified for my dish was from Pioneer Woman's website. Modified is a key word -- I scaled everything down, only about 2 rounded Tablespoons of flour, for example. I didn't use heavy cream, etc.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/scalloped-potatoes-and-ham/

The old family recipe was different, slices of ham lined the bowl, potatoes went in the middle, flour was tossed in there somewhere, and milk was poured in to cover it all. No cheese, not even Velveeta. At least, that's how I remember it. Since no one else is likely to weigh in with an opinion on that, that's all the information available on that old dish.

It's a hearty dish, not summer fare. The only change I'd make is that I might add even more ham next time I make it.

Green beans look like a nice side. Good color contrast.



Santini said...

I wonder how it would work if I substituted cauliflower for some of the potatoes, to cut the carbs a bit?

Gino said...

Just aimlessly speculating here but it seems to me like you could mostly do the whole thing with cauliflower completely replacing potatoes. The ham onion cheese white sauce business will lend itself to lots of different combinations, most of which I think I would probably like. For example, a cauliflower broccoli mix instead of potatoes would likely be pretty tasty, recognizing that baking times would need to be shorter to keep the vegetables from being overcooked.

The joy of this recipe for me though is that it is potatoes, and personally, I like potatoes, even while recognizing that too many potatoes is too many potatoes. The version that we had was so good that I am going to try another version either tomorrow or Tuesday with red potatoes (unpeeled preserving the red skins) and red peppers thrown in as well. Color and contrast. And lots of good foods that we know we like cooked together in a combination we have not previously attempted.

Emily M said...

I have successfully made a cauliflower gratin in the past, so I am certain you could sub them in for the potatoes with delicious results.

I'm going to have to try this. It looks like perfect winter comfort food.