French Potato Gratin: Gratin Dauphinois

"Gratin Dauphinois" is a classic French potato side dish from the area of the French Alps. You can use a baking dish, a casserole dish or a pie dish or pan (or a cake pan, for that matter). You can slice the potatoes with a knife, although if you have the adapter for a food processor, or another type of slicer, it will make the potato slices uniform. Just my own opinion here (hey, this isn't called "Pontificating" for nuthin' ... ah, nothing), but "gratin" in not a very common word in American English, and many Americans might associate it more with upscale restaurants or cooking. When I was a kid potatoes fixed similar to this dish were almost always called "scalloped potatoes" (regardless of the ingredients), but then one or more of the processed food companies had boxed versions of "scalloped potatoes," and another similar boxed version with cheese to be sprinkled on top, and for which they used the term "au gratin potatoes" (this was pronounced by the average American as if, "oh graw-tin potatoes," but this led some nameless smart-ass guy to called it, "old rotten potatoes."  

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds starchy potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced (about 1/4 inch slices)
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 to 2 tablespoons butter (for the baking dish/pan)
1/3 cup shredded Gruyère (you can substitute Swiss cheese/Emmentaler cheese)*

Heat oven to 300 F. Grease the bottom and sides of the baking dish or pan with butter. Slice the potatoes to a thickness of about two coins, like U.S. quarters. Pour a couple of tablespoons of cream into the dish and then swirl it around a little. It need not cover the bottom of the dish completely. Put about half of the potato slices into the dish, add a couple of tablespoons of cream around the tops of the potatoes, then sprinkle on half of the salt, half of the pepper, half of the nutmeg and half of the minced garlic. Add the rest of the potato slices and the remainder of the cream, then repeat the seasoning process. Add the shredded cheese over the top and bake the potatoes for about 100 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and the top of the gratin is nice and browned. Let the potatoes sit for about 15 to 20 minutes before cutting and serving.

* "Gruyère" is a type of firm whitish to light yellowish cheese produced in Switzerland, more so in the French-speaking areas (about 20 to 23% of Switzerland is French speaking), but is not uncommon in France, especially in regions adjacent to Switzerland. 
 
Unbaked Gratin Dauphinois ...

Serving...

Whole baked Gratin Dauphinois ... 

WORD HISTORY:
Revenge-This is really a three part word, with "re-," a common prefix, often meaning, "again, back, go back," and at times with the extended meaning, "to do over" ("redo, retry"), but the meaning of this prefix is not always tied to these meanings, but "seemingly" is more of an intensifier in some Latin-derived words. The second part is from Indo European "weieh," with the notion, "force, power, energy." This gave Latin "vis," with those same general meanings, and the accusative form is "vim," with "vin" being a variant form. It is related to both "vim" (energy, vitality) and "virility" (manly power, manhood), and both are Latin-derived words borrowed by English. Lastly, there is Indo European "deik," which had the notion, "to point, to show," and it is the ancestor of quite a number of English words, both native and borrowed; for instance, "toe," "token" and "teach," all from the Germanic roots of English, and "digit," "dictate" and "dictum" all borrowed from Latin. The Indo European form gave Latin "dicere/dicare," meaning, "to state, to declare, to give affirmation." Latin combined "vin" and "dicere/dicare" into "vindicare," meaning, "to assert, to make a claim to, to protect;" thus also, "to punish to give affirmation to a claim or to defend a claim contested by another." This was taken by Latin-based Old French as "revenchier," which then became "revengier," meaning, "to take revenge." English borrowed the word circa 1400 (perhaps just a little before that?). The noun form was borrowed from the French noun form "revenge" in the mid 1500s and meaning, "an infliction of defeat or punishment as retaliation for some previous act by another." The French noun had developed from the verb.