Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi! I'm Louis Ortiz on behalf of Expert Village and today we are going to show you a basic
procedure for potatoes au gratin. The cooking procedure and definition of that usually means
that the dish that is being baked in the oven or under a broiler has bread crumbs and cheese
on the top of it which are caramelized and kind of a nice crusty crunchy golden brown
color. So today I am going to show you, we are just going to do a small amount of potatoes
au gratin and I've got a small little tin that we are going to use; just a little small
love tin. What I've got here is called the mandolin slicer. These can be a little dangerous
so you want to make sure that the foundation that you are cutting on is nice and stable
as well as the mandolin itself is nice and stable. This is a handle that you can use
to use smaller vegetables so that you can run it across. What happens is I've got a
blade here that is ready to cut obviously and you lower this ramp on which angle that
you need based on the thickness of potato or whatever it is that you are cutting. What
I am going for here and I've already done a few test cuts to know that this is the thickness
that I am going to want. It's a potato about this thick. What we are going to do is layer
these potatoes and between each layer we are going to place some good things like cream
and cheese and clarified butter and make them real nice and tasty. So any who, that's the
thickness that we are going for. I've got a Idaho Russet Potato here that I've already
peeled and again, I've already made a couple of test cuts and I made a foot on this so
that I will have a nice even pattern to use. All you do is just slide this potato down
keeping it level and I've got my left hand underneath here to catch the potato slices
as we go along. I'm going to cut these, just a nice smooth motion, not putting a whole
lot of pressure on there just because it doesn't need it. It is a very sharp blade that I am
cutting on. We've got a nice little pile of potatoes going here. I'll just keep going
down the length of the board and the length of the potato actually. Just be careful as
you get further down that your finger tips don't get close to the blade, the cutting
surface because it will leave a nasty mark. Kind of puts a damper on dinner when that
happens. All right, so we are about done with this potato Again this will work for all kinds
of vegetables this mandolin tool. It's a great thing and there are all kinds of replacement
blades that you can put in place of the one that I am using so you can get very decorative
cuts for party platters and things of that nature. So I've finished this and I will go
ahead and drop the potato slices into a bowl of water and we will move on the second part
of the procedure and I will tell you how to get this ready for the oven.