I confess, I have had trouble cooking decent scalloped potatoes for years until I figured this out.
Peel and slice at least a half a dozen very large potatoes. Find a large casserole dish and spray with non-stick spray or grease it very well. Toss in all the sliced potatoes. Pour over all a can of evaporated milk. (I use “light” so I feel less guilty) Rinse out the can with a little water and pour that in too. The potatoes will not be covered in milk.
COVER the casserole dish. Use foil if it doesn’t have a lid. I have a very deep (four inches?) glass souffle dish I use. Line the oven floor with foil, too.
Bake at 350-375 for at least an hour, probably and hour and a half. Partway through, check on them and move the top layer of potatoes downwards. My family knows supper is almost ready when they smell burnt milk from the spillover.
Variations:
- add a sliced onion to the potatoes
- top with breadcrumbs and/or cheddar cheese
Another variation is to use cream of mushroom (chicken,celery) soup and substitute milk for the water.It does make a really creamy and flavourful scallop.You can also add sliced onions and top it with five or six slices of bacon if your not too concerned with the calories.
I parboil the potatoes first (cuts cooking time to 30 mins in oven at 375). Then sauté thinly sliced onions. When I remove the onions from the pan then I make a thin rue from some flour and milk. Put it all in a casserole dish add bacon on top if you like. Yum Yum.
So, scalloped potatoes doesn’t usually have cheese in it? I always thought it did. I would probably throw in a couple of handfuls of shredded cheese with the milk, just b/c I believe you can never have too much cheese!!!
I just saw a recipe for cheesey scalloped potatoes in The Barefoot Contessa that I desperately want to try, even though the high glycemic index of potatoes usually puts me into a sugar coma.
So what is the trick do you think? Using evaporated milk? Covering the dish? Cooking for hours?
I never had consistant success with any other recipe. (mmm… bacon…) I think it works partly due to the evaporated milk and the covering.
By all means, Jem, toss in some cheese! The more the better! We go through more than a pound of cheese a week here.