Anyone have a favorite gratin recipe?

[blaze]

I'm open to using a variety of root vegetables.

I tried this recipe over the weekend. The taste of the cream sauce with honey and soy sauce was surprisingly delicious, but the whole thing curdled. Badly.

In hind sight, I'm thinking the soy sauce was to add a bit of savory... could I get similar results using mushrooms? Or even anchovies?

Any and all tips (and recipes!!!) would be very welcomed.

[Galileo126]

1. I use dried mushrooms - ground up

If I'm looking for umami jacked up, I grind up dried mushrooms (in a coffee grinder) and add that powder to the recipe at hand. I usually use shiitake, but any dried mushroom will work. I've tried in a cream sauce with good results.

Sorry, but I have no gratin recipe that comes to mind. (The last time I made a gratin, it curdled, too. I'll be watching here for comments/suggestions too!)

[dem in texas]

2. Recipe sounds like too much work for just a side dish

Have made gratin potatoes many times, never used butternut squash with the recipe, but that sounds good. Also, I love to a bake chicken with honey and soy sauce baste, but never used that combination on anything else. The heat of the oven, combo of eggs and cream plus the time baking sounds like will almost guarantee that the mixture is going to curdle.

My recipe for gratin potatoes came from my late sister in law, who was a well-known cook. I have made this dish too many times to count, I am sure I once had a more precise measurements, but I have made it for so many years, that I just eyeball everything. It is so easy and almost fail proof.

Peel and slice thin, as many potatoes as you need. Slice some onions, very thin. Maybe one medium onion for every two large potatoes. Butter or Pam a baking dish, layer some potatoes and onions, sprinkle on some flour, plus salt and pepper. Maybe three tablespoons flour per layer. Layer again with potatoes and onions, then more flour and seasoning. When finished, pour milk almost to top, don't cover potatoes with the milk. Cover dish with aluminum foil, bake in 350 degree oven, until potatoes are baked through and milk mixture in bubbling, about 1 hour to 1 1/2 depending on how big the batch is. Check the mixture while baking, if seems to dry add a little more milk.

Remove to add gratin topping: grated cheese, crumbled bacon or bread crumbs. Bake in 425 oven until cheese is melted or bread crumbs brown, usually about 15 minutes.

[irisblue]

3. Honey & Soy works well a pork chop marinade.

Slash the chop a few spaces, marinade 6 / 10hrs, flipping occasionally. Excellent on a grill.

[blaze]

5. One of the tips I read

said that fat will help avoid the curdling... thus the cream, instead of milk... I used the same heat (350)... so maybe the eggs?

Some faulted cheese for curdling... but I only used parm for the topping, so that wasn't the issue.

Googling is making my head spin.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Well, this is the only gratin I've ever made, so I guess that's my favorite ... :)

http://blogs.kqed.org/essentialpepin/2011/09/10/episode-113-vegetable-bounty/

Slightly modified recipe here: http://numnums.com/recipes/208/jacques-pepin-s-leek-gratin

I'm such a lazy cook that if I can make this, anybody can. I needed leek for a soup, but the store sold them in bunches, so I used the rest for this.