Cheesy potato & bacon bake

You’ve probably gathered that eating scrummy food in our household is extremely important.  We love food.  And none more so than cheese, potatoes and bacon.  I’ve been thinking about creating this recipe for awhile.  We love dauphinoise potato, we love cheese and we love bacon, so why not combine all three?  This can be served as a main course with a salad on the side, or as an accompaniment to a main dish.  It would work really well with a chicken dish and some lovely steamed veggies.  This is by no means a healthy dish; it’s completely indulgent and absolutely yummy!

Serves: 4 as a main course, or 6 as a side dish

Ingredients

• Knob of butter
• 1kg potatoes
• 300g unsmoked back bacon (approximately 8 rashers)
• 200ml full fat milk
• 100ml white wine
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 400g Gruyere cheese, grated

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170C.
2. Grease the dish you’re using with the knob of butter.
3. Slice the potatoes into slices about 2 to 3mm thick and put in a bowl of cold water until you’re ready to use them.
4. Grill or fry the bacon (cook it as crispy as you like it!).  When cooled enough to touch, cut into small pieces and set aside.
5. Pour the cream and the wine into a saucepan and add the crushed garlic.  Bring to just below boiling point.
6. Take the saucepan off the heat and sieve the creamy mixture into a jug.
7. Take your buttered dish and place a layer of overlapping potatoes on the bottom.  Then sprinkle some of the bacon pieces and finally a layer of the Gruyere cheese.  Repeat.
8. Once the dish is about half full (about two complete layers), pour half of the creamy mixture in and continue with the layers.  You want to end up with a layer of potatoes at the top and with enough cheese left over to sprinkle on top.
9. Pour the rest of the creamy mixture in and cover the top with cheese.
10. Put it in the oven for an hour to 1 hour 15 minutes.

Domestic Princess tips

1. Keep a close eye on the boiling cream & wine mixture as it goes from simmering to boiling over very quickly.
2. Gruyere cheese can be substituted for Cheddar cheese.
3. The milk can be swapped for single or double cream if you want to make this more indulgent!
4. Be sure to pat dry the potatoes before placing them in the dish.
5. This dish can be made in advanced and just warmed through before serving.
6. Don’t leave your sliced potatoes out, as they’ll go brown.  Pop a couple of drops of lemon juice and they definitely won’t go brown!

Enjoy lovely readers!

With much love
The Domestic Princess
xoxo