Dauphinoise potatoes

Gruyere cheese can be very expensive, so it is okay to substitute with something cheaper. My wife uses Dairylea triangles.

This is a lovely simple and easy recipe which would have got 5 stars but no seasoning is included in the ingredients which luckily I used my initiative and seasoned with salt and pepper independently! Without seasoning it's tasteless. The second time I made it I added grated nutmeg which was even better. Those saying that the potatoes were hard may have not used a mandolin. You really need to slice the potatoes thinly and this can't be done by hand and in uniform easily. Also 30 minutes stated was not long enough, it needed longer in my oven.

Not a good recipe. No effort to quantify what a "large potato" is. Used large king Edward's and there was no way to simmer them in the sauce and most of the were in mid air. Clearly their idea a of a large potato is my idea of a small one. No seasoning specified. After I realised the directions weren't great I read the comments so luckily I made sure the were actually cooked before I started cooking the rest.

It doesn't specify on the recipe so don't forget to season it! I have been busy preparing a feast for the last few hours and left this recipe for my husband to make. As I was washing up the saucepan I had a sneaky lick of the cream and bleugh! No seasoning. It doesn't specify on the recipe and my hubby didn't think to taste it before putting it in the oven dish, thinking that following the recipe to the letter would be sufficient. I poured it back out into the saucepan, seasoned it with salt and pepper and slapped it back in. Tastes good now :)

Made this for lunch on Mother's Day and it was gorgeous!!! Definite Do's: ☆ DEFINITELY Use Maris Piper or King Ed or similar variety potatoes (I used *approx.* 1.2kg as no large ones to be found in store) as it's the starch in this kind of potato that helps thicken the sauce!! ☆ Slice them as thinly as possible - I'd just got a hand mandolin (think its a good grips one?) so that helped. ☆ I put a whole half of onion (peeled but not sliced) in the milk and cream with the garlic cloves, oh and a few gratings of fresh nutmeg (just cos we like the flavour) ☆ Gently simmer potatoes about 5-6 mins I personally found 3 mins not quite long enough. ☆ Loosely layer the potatoes (don't just dump 'em in the dish) and season well between layers - salt and *white* pepper (i think I got about 3 ish layers?) ☆ I cooked on low shelf in oven while finishing cooking lamb, about an hour-ish, *didn't put cheese on until I knew dish well cooked* as didn't want it burning. Then cooked on middle shelf until cheese golden brown n bubbly. This change in cooking didn't harm it at all. Definite Donts: ☆ Forget to lightly butter dish before putting in potatoes... ☆ Rush it. Slow is good. ☆ Put cheese on until you know potatoes cooked through (saves horrid burnt fromage!!) ☆ Dont worry if potatoes break up a little or don't look pretty when slicing - who cares?!?!? Cant see 'em under all that gooey cheesy gorgeousness anyway! ☆ Don't use more than 500ml milk n 500ml double cream - it'll probably be way too runny otherwise. :-) I've made it since using Skimmed and Semi-Skimmed milk and it worked just as well.

Time and again I've baked these dauphinois with brilliant results. Just a subtle change by using low fat fromages frais instead of cream. Mmmmmmm ......

Awful. Cooked for an hour and the potatoes were still raw. And what about the seasoning??? Wish I'd read the comments as I would never have bothered even trying this recipe. How it's got five stars on average is beyond me.

So I followed the instructions. I even made sure I didn't add all of that milk/cream mix into the potato dish to bake. But it didn't turn out right and the potatoes are raw. My mum is currently yelling at me about how I'm useless and ruin everything. But she's right. I do literally ruin everything I touch so maybe I'm the problem and the recipe is all good. So don't listen to me.