Potato Gratin

Ok guys this is for 4 people or 3 greedy ones!

Preheat your oven to 200 or Gas mark 6.

Peel about 5 or 6 nice size Maris Piper potatoes. Slice them nice and thin with a good sharp knife. I use my MAC knives which are razor sharp. Arange them in a good size ovenproof (Le Creuset are the best).

Then get 2 nice size cloves of garlic and finely chop. Add this to the dish.

Pick a good bunch of thyme or lemon thyme from your garden, wash and remove the woody bits. Add this to the dish. (Be generous with the thyme it's tasty stuff!)

Now season with lots of freshly ground black pepper and a good healthy pinch of Maldon Sea salt. It's important you season it well.

Now add about 300ml of double cream (you could add single if you want).

Finally add a good big handful of freashly grated parmesan reggiano (the good stuff).

Now mix these all together with your hands and make sure you coat the potatoes with all those lovely ingredients. Try and spread the potatoes out evenly in the dish so the cook nicely. Finally I like to add another grating of Parmesan.

Cover the dish with silver kitchen foil and cook for about an hour. After an hour, take it out of the oven and check to see if the potatoes are cooked by inserting a small knife. The knife should go through easily. Remove the foil and allow to get a nice crispy top.

Then serve. Great with white fish, any meat and a nice glass of Red Wine...I'm in heaven!

To speed up the prep work on these lovely gratins (and how I make mine) use The Chef'n Sleek Slice Mandolin. This Compact folding mandolin slicer from the innovative cookware company Chef N is perfect for slicing potatoes. It has a stainless steel micro serrated blade for efficient operation and it's handle folds and locks into 3 positions. Folds completely flat for storage.

I love this recipe the fresh sage works a treat:

Ok preheat your oven to 190 Gas mark 5.

Add a good lug of olive oil to a non-stick pan on a medium heat. Add about 100g of thinly sliced good Pancetta (if you can get the proper stuff then even better). Fry until it starts to colour. Then add 4 finely chopped garlic cloves and 20 beautiful green sage leaves. Cook for a further 1 minute then remove from the heat.

You will need just under a kg of nice waxy potatoes. Roseval preferably but Charlotte potatoes work fine. Peel and thinly slice with a good sharp knife (MAC knives rule!) Slice about half a cm think. Throw these into a large bowl and add 225ml of double cream, Pancetta and oil mixture from the frying pan. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and mix everything up so each slice of potato is coated in the lovely cream and oil.

Transfer this to a baking dish and spread out evenly. Cover with tinfoil and cook in the oven for a good 45 minutes. Test the potatoes to see if they are cooked then pull off the foil and allow to cook for a further 10 minutes or until nice and coloured. You can add a nice handful of freshly grated Parmasan 5 minutes before the end if you wish.

Goes excellent with all meat and a nice light green salad of Rocket or watercress.