Recipe for a (Way Too Early) Snow Day: Root Vegetable Gratin

Hi, everyone! If you live in the northeast, I hope you’re having the kind of day I’m having, which is to say that I hope you’ve spent most of the day in pajama-type clothing and have cooked something delicious and comforting and warm. For me that thing was a root vegetable gratin! Join me after the jump for a look at the magic of how it all happened.

First off, credit where credit’s due: I adapted my recipe from this one at The Daily Green. The only real difference is they say to use low fat cheese, and I say that’s bullshit. Save low fat cheese for something other than a gratin, okay? So to get the full recipe, go to The Daily Green. Let’s consider this more of a photo essay than me sharing the whole recipe with every measurement since you can just click the link and get the stupid recipe. Also it’s a way for me to rave about my new Swissmar Borner V-1001 V-Slicer, which I love very much and am researching the possibility of marriage with.

So first you drop two dried ancho chiles into a cup and a half of vegetable broth and let that simmer for ten minutes before taking it off the heat.

While the broth and chiles are getting acquainted, peel your damn vegetables (potatoes, yams, turnips, and parsnips).

Don’t forget about the broth though! Make sure you take it off the heat after ten minutes. Then you have to slice all those veggies up with a mandoline. You’re looking for a thickness of about 1/8″. I was recently gifted my V-Slicer, and I was looking for a delicious autumny recipe to test it with, so this was perfect! This is what I wound up with when I was all done:

Sexy, right?! And it took me maybe five minutes to slice all that up! Probably a bunch of you already have some type of mandoline tool and are not wowed, but I am new to this so it’s exciting to me, okay? Deal with it!

Now you have to do layers of each vegetable, which you will season with salt and sprinkle with cheese. I used a good quality sharp New York cheddar. Your layers will look something like this:

Then you are going to pour the broth over evenly, cover that bitch and pop her into a 375 degree oven for fifty minutes. At that point take the cover off, sprinkle some reserved cheese on top (I actually used a different cheese for this–I used a smoked cheddar to complement the smokiness of the chiles) and git er back in the oven for at least fifteen minutes or until the top is slightly browned. Et voila, you done made a gratin to enjoy while the wind be blowing and the snow be snowing!