Many years ago, I saw a recipe for scalloped potatoes. As we were having a few friends over, I made the recipe which used thinly sliced potatoes baked in cream. It went down well but over the years, we have substituted stock as the liquid or sometimes milk. Not only was the ‘all cream’ a very rich dish, it is not great for modern low cholesterol diets. It is fun to do it for dinner parties though. The original also was just potatoes but I tend to add sliced onion at the bottom or midway through the dish.

The other weekend, we went to see one of our children and his wife made scalloped potatoes in individual ramekin dishes which worked very well.So the dish is great in a variety of ways and is perfect for when you have something else in the oven too – my grandmother always said you should never cook just one thing in the oven!

So my scalloped potatoes recipe:

About 3 potatoes,

I large onion

Enough stock/milk to come halfway up your dish

Salt/pepper (optional)

Butter for greasing the dish and to crisp the top

To make scalloped potatoes

1: Using a mandolin slicer or your food processor, or a sharp knife, thinly slice the potatoes;

2: Thinly slice the onion;

3: Grease a dish well – I use regular Pyrex type dishes or larger ramekin type dishes;

4: Put a layer of onion slices on the bottom of the dish;

5: Add a layer of potatoes then season with salt/pepper if required;

6: Add a second layer of onion slices;

7: Continue to add sliced potatoes to the dish until full – seasoning as required;

8: Add stock or milk to the reach about halfway up the dish;

9: Dot the top with small pieces of butter;

10: Cover and put into a 350 – 375 oven, depending on what your other meat or dish is using;

11: After about 45 minutes to an hour, when the potatoes are cooked, remove the cover and add more dots of butter;

12 Continue to cook in the over, uncovered until brown and crisp on top.