I got excited that I had invented a recipe, and a search for “smoked potato dauphinoise” is a GoogleWhack. However I cannot stake my claim as a genuine food inventor, as there are hits for “smoked dauphinoise“. Damn.
Anyway, smoked dauphinoise – it came to me as I considered a partner for a brace of roast grouse. We know that smoked potatoes are nice, as is smoked mash. And indeed smoked ice-cream is very nice too. So why not smoked dauphinoise?
Listen carefully for I will impart two useful secrets now. One is for the best potato dauphinoise recipe – courtesy of Simon Hopkinson’s “Week In, Week Out” and the second is for the smoking modification. Naturally I did this on the Bradley Smoker.
Smoked dauphinoise
300ml double cream
150ml semi-skimmed milk
600g potatoes (I used Desiree, Maris Piper also work great)
One clove of garlic, bashed
Salt to taste
Ground white pepper
Ground nutmeg
Small knob of butter
Simon Hopkinson has a very canny way with this dish which takes all the pain out of it. Instead of waiting for it to cook from raw in the oven and ending up with uncooked bits of potato you start it off on the hob.
Firstly, peel and slice your potatoes about £1 thickness. Wash the slices under a cold tap to remove some of the starch. Dry thoroughly in a tea towel (this is important so the cream mixture sticks to the potato surface rather than being repelled by the water).
Mix the other ingredients except for butter (salt, to taste) together and add sliced potatoes in a flat dish. Make sure that the potatoes are all separated and coated in some cream mixture. Allow to infuse for a bit.
For smoked potatoes:
Put the dish of cream and potatoes into the pre-heated Bradley smoker, and hot-smoke on maximum temperature over oak for about an hour. Allow to sit around for an hour or two for the smoke to penetrate completely. Quite honestly the mixture won’t taste great at this stage.
For both types:
Then, add the mixture to a large frying pan or casserole and put over the heat until the cream has thickened significantly and the potatoes are nearly tender. If your hot smoker is very hot then you may be able to skip or foreshorten this stage.
Add back to a buttered baking dish and cook for 30-40 minutes in an 180C oven until golden on top and nice and wobbly.
Smoked or unsmoked, this is very good!