Au Gratin Potatoes

It has been awhile! The past few weeks have been busy and stressful and I really haven't had much time to cook, let alone blog about cooking. I finally got some time this weekend to make something new. It was my AMAZING dad's 50th Birthday this past week and we all got together as a family yesterday to celebrate. I always offer to bring something to dinner and usually my mom gives me something easy... this time she asked me to bring Au Gratin Potatoes... WHAT? Never have I made any kind of potato that wasn't baked or mashed... and honestly the mashed potatoes are usually instant.... and the baked are usually sweet potatoes in the form of fries.

So I did a little digging and here is the recipe I found/tweaked.

What you'll need:
4 medium russet potatoes (or about 8 red potatoes)
1 small onion (I used a white onion and only about 1/2 of a medium)
3 tbs butter
3 tbs flour
2 c milk
1 1/2 c cheese (1/2 and 1/2 sharp cheddar and Parmesan)
1/2 tsp salt
1 quart baking dish
wire wisk
medium sauce pan
foil

Slice your potatoes in about 1/4 inch slices OR (and I recommend this option) use a mandolin. My mandolin did NOT cooperate with slicing the onions, but you can either slice or dice your onions, depending on how large you want the onion pieces.
Butter your casserole dish and either layer your potato and onion slices, or make sure you mix in the diced onion pretty well. Salt and pepper to taste.
The sauce is a basic white roux with cheese... if you've tried out my enchilada sauce, its the same concept. Put a medium sauce pan over medium heat and melt your butter JUST until it starts to bubble, you DO NOT want to burn in. Add the flour and wisk well. At this point I added a little diced garlic, but that's completely optional. Add the salt and keep stirring. This makes a tanish paste in your pan. Slowly pour in the milk WHILE WISKING, and continue to stir and watch until the mixture starts to thicken. You don't want to boil your sauce, but you may see it start to bubble around the edges once it starts to thicken. That's the point you'll add your cheese. You can use whatever type you want... I bet a little munster would be amazing, but I used about 3/4 C SHARP cheddar and 3/4 C Parmesan. I like to add the cheese a little at a time so that it doesn't clump up too much. You'll continue adding cheese and whisking until the cheese is completely melted. Pull your sauce off the heat and pour over your potatoes and onions.
I topped mine with a little extra cheese and then covered with foil to bake for 1 1/2 hours at 400*.

If you don't have a casserole dish, you can use whatever you feel fits. I actually doubled this recipe and ended up with a 9x13 AND a 9x9 pan (obviously I underestimated how much this recipe makes). Just a fair warning: my 9x13 was pretty full, and I was VERY glad I put a sheet of foil under it in the oven because once that cheese sauce begins to boil it WILL overflow.

That's it. Pretty simple and I was very pleased with how these turned out. There are A LOT of different versions out there but this tweak came from All Recipes.

ENJOY