Make My Day Camp: Starch Madness: Scalloped Potato Recipe Update

Monday, March 6, 2023

Starch Madness: Scalloped Potato Recipe Update

I posted this amazing recipe for scalloped potatoes in 12/2020, except I did not write it in an amazing way hahah. When making them for dinner last week I tried to follow my recipe and kept saying to myself "what the...why would I do that...and what's a pinch of nutmeg" hahaha. So I decided to update the recipe in a fresh post in case you tried to make these following my old post and gave up on them! This way it's brand new and hopefully you'll forget my previous attempt.

dang it! I forgot to take a picture of the potatoes in the baking dish
before we scooped them out. They looked way better than the last
time I made them! Not stirring as much helped the presentation

This really is a great way to make scalloped potatoes, everyone loves them! You're basically making a cream sauce, adding the potatoes to the sauce and cooking for a couple minutes before finishing them in the oven. Yum. Don't be afraid to use the spices, taste as you go and adjust accordingly. If you add ham pieces like I did this time watch the level of salt you add tho, the ham will up the saltiness factor.

For a 13 x 9" pan (halve the amounts to make a smaller pan):

3 lbs. Russet potatoes, very thinly sliced (about 1/8"). I leave the peels on, you can peel if desired.
4 T. butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup finely minced onion
1 t. minced garlic
1 T. Wondra flour (or all-purpose)
4 cups half and half (plus additional if needed as they bake)
1 t. nutmeg
1 1/2 t. salt
1 t. pepper
ham pieces, optional (see note after recipe)

1. Slice the potatoes into thin 1/8" slices (I use a mandoline/v-slicer to make this a quicker job, you can use a knife but try to keep the slices uniform. I haven't done it but you can probably use the slicing disk on a food processor).

2. Preheat oven to 350'. Rub butter all over a 13 x 9" baking dish. An easy way to do this is to keep the paper wrapper around the 1/2 stick of butter, peel back some of the paper edge and rub the butter on the pan keeping your hands clean by holding the butter with the paper.

3. Melt the rest of the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and cook for 2 or 3 minutes until softened. Whisk in the flour, cook and stir for 2 minutes to get rid of the flour taste.

4. Slowly add the half and half; I add a small amount and stir until it gets incorporated into the butter mixture, add a little more and stir until it's incorporated - this will keep lumps from forming (just like with gravy). Keep adding a little at a time until the butter mixture is soupy and thinner, then you can add more half and half at once. I'd say about 1 cup is added just a bit at a time before the butter/flour mixture is thin enough to add the remainder. Bring to a boil, stirring so it doesn't stick, then reduce the heat.

5. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Taste to see if it needs more of anything.

6. Carefully add the potato slices to the cream sauce. The slices want to stick together so I separate them as I lower into the sauce. The more sauce you can get between the slices the less they'll stick together. You want the slices as individually coated as possible. Stir the bottom a couple times while you're doing this so the potatoes don't stick and the bottom doesn't burn. The mixture will probably still be slowly simmering, if not turn the heat up just a little bit - I kept the temp at low and it was still slightly bubbling.

7. Taste the seasoning, add more if needed.

7. Let the potato/cream mixture cook on the stovetop for 3-5 minutes. Pour into prepared pan and shake to evenly spread the potatoes. Bake for about 1 hour until lightly browned and bubbly. Watch that they don't get too brown on the top, press down on the potatoes every 20 minutes or so to bring the cream up over the top. You can stir the potatoes but it makes the finished product not look as pretty.

8. Let potatoes rest for 10 minutes before serving.

notes:

3 lbs. is about 8 cups of potato slices.
if the potatoes look dry while they are baking you can add some half and half.
If you want to add ham pieces, I put half of the potatoes in the baking dish, topped with a layer of ham, then the rest of the potatoes and sauce. I added about 1 pound of leftover ham I had in the freezer from Christmas, cut up into bite-sized pieces.
You can make this ahead of time - I made it in the morning but only baked about 40 minutes. When ready to serve put back in a 350' oven for approx 30 minutes or until hot.

Makes 10-12 servings