Potato and Fennel Gratin
This lovely gratin is my idea of absolute comfort food, cook low and slow in the oven until the vegetables are soft and almost melting away. The recipe uses stock to cook the vegetables which makes the recipe quite light in comparison to a dairy rich Potato Dauphinoise. This is the perfect accompniment to a roast lunch on the weekend. You can easily scale the quantities for a bigger crowd.
Fennel in my opinion is very under rated by my family, but I love to cook with it or even just slice it thinly into everyday salads. When cooked the texture completely softens and the flavour mellows.
ingredients
serves 3-4 people
1 whole fennel bulb, washed and trimmed
1 lemon, juice only
2 tablespoons good quality olive oil
450g potatoes, washed and peeled
8g-10g fresh thyme, leaves only
ground black pepper
150ml homemade vegetable stock, or no salt added stock
20g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
method
Preheat the oven to 170C fan oven. Quarter the fennel, removing the woody core, then thinly slice the remaining bulb and add the fennel slices to a bowl. Dress with the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and black pepper; then set aside Next peel the potatoes and thinly slice. Take an oven proof dish that is a good size for the gratin. You want to be able to pack the vegetables in tightly and create several layers (so the dish needs to be deep enough). Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the bottom, and spread over the bottom of the dish, to prevent the vegetables sticking. Next add a layer of the dressed fennel, then an even layer of the thinly sliced potatoes, so that they overlap one another and there are no visible gaps. Sprinkle with thyme leaves and a grind of fresh black pepper. Continue this process until all the vegetables have been layered in the dish. Once the dish is full, pour over warm stock and dot the top layer with butter. Wrap the gratin tightly in tin foil and place in the middle rack of the oven, for 1 hours cooking time.
If you are prepping ahead you can now set aside the dish to cool and finish later. If not, remove the foil and return to the oven for a final 30 minutes. Still on the middle shelf of the oven. Test with a sharp knife, the fennel and potatoes should be completely soft and tender. Cool a little and serve.
