Cheese and potato bake
Sliced potato, baked slowly under a cheese sauce
Halves into one small dish for one person, or doubles into a larger dish for four. A deeper dish needs another 10 to 15 minutes in the oven.
This is the dish to make when mash feels like too much of one texture and chips feel like too much effort. Peeled potato, sliced thin enough to go translucent against the light, layered with a plain cheese sauce and baked slowly until a knife slides through with no resistance at all. The top turns a deep gold in patches while the middle stays soft enough to eat with a spoon. It keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days and freezes in portions just as happily, so a slow afternoon buys you several easy lunches later in the week.
Ingredients
Contains: Gluten, Milk
- 500 gpotato, peeled and sliced about 3 mm thick
- 30 gunsalted butter, plus a little extra for greasing the dish
- 30 gplain flour
- 400 mlwhole milk
- 120 gCheddar, grated
- salt
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C fan (200°C). Sort through the potato slices and even up any thick ones, since slices of different thicknesses will not be soft at the same moment.
Rub a shallow baking dish about 20 cm across all over with a little of the butter.
Melt the rest of the butter in a small pan, stir in the flour and cook for a minute, stirring, to a sandy paste.
Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the milk a splash at a time until smooth, then return to a low heat and simmer, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes, until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Stir in most of the Cheddar until melted, and taste for salt.
Layer the potato slices in the buttered dish, pouring a little of the hot sauce between each layer and finishing with a layer of sauce on top. Scatter over the reserved Cheddar.
Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for a further 15 to 20 minutes, until a knife slides into the centre with no resistance at all and the top is golden in patches.
If the top browns before the potato is soft, put the foil back over loosely and give it a few more minutes.
Leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving. It holds its layers better once it has settled.
Cooled quickly and covered, it keeps two days in the fridge and reheats until piping hot right through. If you are having chemotherapy, eat it the day you make it.
Watch-points
- Peel the potato and slice it thin, then bake it until a knife meets no resistance anywhere in the dish.
Stoma note: Potato cooked this soft thickens stoma output too, alongside the cheese sauce.
Make it more nourishing
- Use 150 g of Cheddar instead of 120, stirred through the sauce.
- Swap 100 ml of the milk for double cream for a richer sauce.
- Beat 2 tablespoons of milk powder into the milk before it goes into the pan.
Swaps
- Instead of Cheddar, use a mix of Cheddar and Gruyère
- a deeper flavour that melts just as smoothly
- Instead of plain flour, use 20 g of cornflour slaked in a little of the cold milk
- makes the sauce gluten-free and just as smooth