As my Big Green Egg cools down, I like to take advantage of the residual heat. It is great for hot smoking things like tomatoes and garlic which you can store in the fridge for later uses. Chunky slices of tomatoes become jammy, and garlic with some butter and olive oil to encourage it, becomes a sticky nutty brown, not unlike Korean black garlic (which is essentially cooked slowly over a low heat for a long time). You can do a speedier version as your Big Green Egg heats up also, it will be more of a roasted version, but it is still very good.
Potato dauphinoise is wonderfully indulgent and a perfect Christmas side. I remember my first proper bite of dauphinoise in a French restaurant in Cork. I couldn’t believe how could it was. Crisp and caramel brown on top, gentle underneath, sliced potatoes shuffled into position, yielding to the fork, each forkful a perfect bite.
I like to beef up my dauphinoise and make a meal of it. This time, I have added some lovely seasonal cavolo nero and strips of gorgeous smoked bacon. A layer of potatoes and smoked garlic cream is topped with cavolo nero and smoked bacon, finished with more of the potato cream and a flourish of finely grated parmesan.
More fire? Why?! It is of course possible to make this in an oven, but I love cooking on my Egg.
Another perfect Christmas side, or supper in front of the fire one Christmas evening. Enjoy!
I use an 8 inch cast iron pan here. It fits this dauphinoise perfectly. You can make it in a bigger pan, and make it thinner (with more crust - win win!). Just make sure it has no plastic etc, and is BBQ ready. One bulb of garlic may seem a lot but when it is smoked slowly as your egg cools down, the garlic is less potent and gorgeously nutty.
You can do this in the oven too, although there won't be a smoky flavour. It will still taste great! Roast at 180 deg C for 45 - 55 minutes when the potatoes are tender and the top is golden brown. Check the potatoes by trying to put a fork in them.
Ingredients
- 750g potatoes
- 300ml single / heavy cream
- One small bulb of garlic, a tbsp of butter, extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
- 6 large cavolo nero leaves, the leaf removed from the stem
- 6 slices smoked streaky bacon, cut into segments and inch or so long
- 2 heaped tbsp finely grated parmesan
- salt and pepper for seasoning
Instructions
Looks messy but delicious! Thanks for sharing
You say messy like that is a bad thing?! ;)
Whoah, this looks incredible! Just out of curiosity, where did you get your pan? I’ve been looking for one to fit in my BGE without a huge amount of success.
Thanks! It is a Lodge cast iron that I bought in the US, but lots of cookery shops have them here now also. I love it. Use it a lot.
Brilliant, thanks very much!