Scallop Potato Recipe

This recipe idea came from Bon Appetit. I picked it because it was not overly complex and also because it did not look too expensive. The ingredients that I did not have cost about $7.50 and the time to prepare and cook ran to about 3 hours.

Ingredients: 6 garlic cloves peeled and smashed, 4 rosemary sprigs about 2" long, 2 1/4 cups heavy cream, 2 1/2 tsp coarse kosher salt, 3/4 tsp ground white pepper, 2 large fennel bulbs with fronds, 3 1/2 pounds medium russet potatoes, 1/2 stick of butter cut into 1/2" cubes.

Confessions: I used all the rosemary I bought, 2 cups of heavy cream, 1 fennel bulb, 3 lb. russet potatoes, 1/4 stick of butter. I used two 12x12x2 glass baking dishes, probably a negative impact.

Additional preparation: skin the potatoes as desired, slice the fennel bulbs and potatoes to about 1/16" thickness kind of like potato chips. The potato slices need to go into a bowl of water to protect their color. The fennel stalks are not used though the fine green leaves are.

Additional preparation: combine cream, white pepper and kosher salt into a large bowl. Stir to dissolve.

Final preparation: butter a 13x9x2 glass baking dish, place the garlic and rosemary across the bottom then overlay these with 1/2 of the fennel slices. Dredge the potato slices through the cream sauce and place a layer atop the fennel slices. Repeat with another layer of fennel slices and top this layer with another layer of dredged potato slices. Pour the remaining cream sauce over the top and dot with butter. Cover the baking dish with foil, peaked so as to avoid touching the food.

Cooking: place into a 350 degree oven for 1 1/4 hours. At that time, remove the foil and return to a 450 degree oven for an additional 20 minutes in order that the top might be browned. Remove and cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Comments: nice tasting though also rich. It would be nice to sub in a more healthful ingredient for the cream. I scoured the internet and found suggestions of evaporated milk or a paste of 8 oz. low-fat cottage cheese blended with three tablespoons of powdered milk.

Caveats: the final 20 minutes at 450 degrees for browning did not work too well for me and I'll have to figure some adjustments next time out. I'd like this recipe to go into my repertoire but there are kinks to work out first.