Okay. This is my official statement on achieving the perfect potato dish: bacon, garlic and potato are the ménage à trois that is out here changing lives. It’s the modern-day throuple that’s right every time. Unless you’re veggie, that is – in which case, this dish is still a stand-out with just the garlic.
Adapted from 'Poppy Cooks: The Food You Need', published by Bloomsbury.
Prep
30 min
Cook
45 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Medium
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Ingredients
whole milk 500 ml
mild cheddar cheese 300 g (grated)
butter 50 g
plain flour 70 g
ground nutmeg ½ tsp
potato 4 (sliced)
smoked bacon lardons 200 g
garlic cloves 3 (crushed)
fresh rosemary 10 g
white pepper to taste
Method
Make the cheese sauce
Heat a medium saucepan over a medium heat and add milk, heat the milk for 7 minutes.
While the milk is heating, grate the cheddar cheese.
Place another saucepan over a low-medium heat. Add the butter and allow it to melt. Gradually beat in the flour using a spatula or a wooden spoon, until you have a thick paste.
Continue stirring and cooking until the mixture has a dough-like consistency and comes away from the sides of the pan.
Start adding the milk bit by bit, incorporating each bit and whisking away the lumps.
Once you have a smooth sauce, season with salt, add the white pepper and nutmeg.
Add 2/3 of the cheddar cheese and stir to melt in and combine. Set aside.
Preheat the oven
Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan.
Cook the potatoes
Peel and slice the potatoes into approx. 5mm-thick rounds.
Place the potatoes in a large saucepan, season with salt and boil over a high heat for 7 minutes.
Once cooked, drain the potatoes in a colander, then leave cover with a clean tea towel and leave to steam in the colander for 5 minutes.
Cook the bacon
While the potatoes are cooking, add the bacon lardons to a cold frying pan and place over a medium heat. Fry for about 6 minutes until cooked through and golden.
Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.
Assemble the dish
Peel and crush the garlic. Pick the rosemary leaves.
To assemble the dish: Put ⅓ of the potato into a medium ovenproof dish, spreading out in an even layer. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle ⅓ of the garlic, 1/3 of the rosemary, 1/3 of thebacon lardons and 1/3 of the cheddar. Top with a ladleful of cheese sauce. Then repeat this two more times.
