Vertical Potatoes

No posts. Woe is me! In case you didn't notice, I've been killing flies.

But here, I decided to experiment with my cheesy potatoes recipe.

I noticed some lunatic on a PBS cooking show doing something I'd never considered: making scalloped potatoes except with all the potatoes standing on end in the baking dish instead of being layered flat.

Cool! thought I, so I did my best to come up with the recipe, since I wrote nothing down while watching and have no idea what keyword to look for in a search ("vertical scalloped potatoes?")

They turned out fantastically, with an unexpected "domino" appearance after the potato slices wilted and collapsed onto each other.

But here are the basics:

Ingredients

Two large potatoes, preferably white (not Idaho or baking potatoes) scrubbed clean and mandolined into 1/8" slices
Six large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced on the bias extremely thinly
One large red onion, peeled and sliced very thinly
1 cup shredded Gruyère cheese
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano  cheese
1 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese
3/4 cup 35% cream
Italian parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Soak the potatoes in cold water after slicing unless assembling the dish immediately.

Preheat oven to 400˚. Butter a 6x6 baking dish. If soaked, dry potato slices on paper towels thoroughly. Starting at one corner of the baking dish, stand one potato slice on end; insert a few shards of onion and garlic. Place another potato slice on end to make a sandwich of the onion and garlic. Continue with the potato slices and onions and garlic until you've reached the other side of the baking dish.

Now repeat at right angles to the first row of potatoes. Continue until baking dish is filled with vertical potatoes, onions and garlic.

Drizzle cream all over potatoes until gone. Sprinkle gruyère and cheddar over potatoes. Sprinkle cracked black pepper and salt to taste. Finish with parmesan and romano cheeses.

Put in oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Check and increase oven to 400 degrees for 30 minutes, making sure every so often that potatoes are not scorching.

Reduce heat to 200 degrees, cover baking dish and leave to steam for about 15-20 minutes more. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley and serve immediately.