Scallop potatoes

This was what's left of it after dinner, when Mum forgot to take the photo beforehand.

Several weeks ago, dad went into a hysterical market spree and brought home a 10k bag of potatoes! Yes and we’ve had them for quite a time now, maybe a month and a half. We haven’t really exhausted all potato recipes, but this is one of our favourites. Scallop potatoes are also know as Potato Gratin in French cuisine. and Gratin is actually not the dish but the technique used in the preparation of the dish - where the topping is of browned ingredient: cheese or breadcrumbs or eggs. You guys love to help layer the potatoes and sprinkle the ingredients all together.

This is Ate’s and Daddy’s favourite. The rest of you are not yet fans of this dish but I’m sure this will be a sure hit as you grow older. This is a usual accompaniment to our home made chicken schnitzels. But I know its welcomed by a grilled steak, pork chops or even good ol' fried chicken.

Ingredients and method:

8-10 pcs potatoes, thinly sliced (Mum uses the knife, but there are handy inexpensive slices out in the market these days. I still prefer feeling the produce and controlling who thin the slices should be)

1 - 300ml cooking cream

4 pcs bacon, diced

3 cloves garlic, chopped finely

1 cup tasty cheese

Grease the tray and set aside. We used a shallow rectangular glass dish. (Mum likes to use a small piece of butter and rub it around the insides of the baking tray.)

Layer the potatoes first. What we usually do is put the potatoes in and layer the next piece half way covering the first, and so on. It looks like layers of fish scales.

Sprinkle half of the garlic and the bacon pieces, and the cheese next, making sure its evenly scattered.

Pour half of the cream onto the layers.

Sprinkle some of the cheese to cover the layers.

Continue next layer starting with the potatoes again, then garlic, bacon, cheese and cream.

Add the final layer of potatoes, bacon, cream and cheese for topping.

Bake in a 180 degree C preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the cheese topping has turned brown.