We were on vacation for a couple of weeks (thus the gap in posts).
The condo had a full kitchen, which was great. But inevitably we ended the two-week period with bits and pieces of this and that. We had a friend over for dinner that last night, and I needed to do something that was company-worthy, but also used up stuff.
The main was easy. I made a tri-tip roast and had the Kosher Salt, Garlic Powder and pepper for the rub. All I had to do was buy the roast.
Next up was a starch/side. I had milk, butter, sour cream, flour, garlic powder, minced onions and some cheese. So I bought some potatoes for $1.96.
I went to yummly.com, which is a great site where you can plug in ingredients and it will bring back recipes that use those ingredients. The one I ended up with was from Daisy brand sour cream. Coincidence?
I read a few other recipes and methods, though, and didn't have the right kind of cheese, not really. But the kitchen smelled wonderful as it baked, and it tasted really good.
First, I peeled the potatoes and sliced them relatively thinly. This is when I missed my own kitchen and my mandoline or food processor.
I decided to parboil the slices for 10 minutes. I've had too many potato dishes go awry when the potatoes weren't quite done.
I didn't have any onion, but I did have dehydrated minced onions from making the crab balls earlier that week. I rehydrated some and sautéed the onions in the melted butter.
Next came a bit of flour and salt. Garlic powder sounded like a good idea right about here, so I sprinkled in some garlic as well.
Whisked in the milk (and was happy I had the whisk I had purchased to make gravy for Thanksgiving at the condo.
And then the sour cream. If I had grated cheese, probably gruyere, I would have whisked it in over low until melted at this point.
Earlier I had buttered the only casserole dish in the condo. Now I put a layer of the cooked and drained potato slices.
Spooned over some of the sauce then spread it into a layer to cover all the potatoes.
And then a layer of provolone slices. This would not be my first choice for cheese, but again, it was what I had left in the vacation condo!
I continued layering, ending with a layer of sliced provoline on the top.
Into the oven it went. Coming out looking like this:
And this was our dinner table:
This is the recipe I followed:
http://www.daisybrand.com/recipes/creamy-scalloped-potatoes-330
In this case I was working with what I had, but I would make this again with a few notes.
1. Although I used dried minced onions only because I had them, I would use them again because they were minced more finely than I could probably do, and I think actually worked better than fresh onions in this case.
2. The recipe doesn't say to use garlic. But just a little bit really tasted good.
3. I used provolone only because that is what I had handy. I would use gruyere, and melt it into the sauce, topping with some grated cheese.
4. I would definitely parboil again.
Labels: Side Dish
