I see what you did there!

I think my was deeper but not by a huge amount.



I had about 5-6 layers, but remember the potatoes are thinner. I did use a relatively deep, narrow dish but the supermarket didn't have a "gratin" dish.

150*C is Gas Mark 2, which is a lot lower than the recipes I looked at advised. They all recommended Gas Mark 4-5.

Gas 4 is 160C in a fan oven, so it's not that much lower. Some people do it in a Bain-Marie like a custard, which would make it even cooler still.

This "Good Food" recipewas the number one Google result, and it says cook for 2 hours at 160C.

I'd be inclined to microwave the spuds first, which starts the cooking without making them wet. Not my favourite dish to be honest, but maybe I've never had a good one.

Wow, the mustard mushrooms were delicious. Punnet of mushrooms fried in butter with 1 very generous tsp. colmans english. I put them in the beef stew just before serving up so they wouldn't lose any flavour to the sauce, well not quite all of them, I had to do a little QC for edibility.

For the record, Toulouse Sausage and green lentils together is just unbelievably nice as a dish.

Okay so today I bought Asda's own brand Dauphinoise potatoes in order to try them out. The main differences between them and my attempt were:

- potatoes were a tad more cooked despite being thicker slices
- there was a lot less sauce which was also thicker and creamier than my own

It wasn't a fantastic dish and perhaps I expected more from it but it was delicious. I think I will have another try later when I get a chance. Thicker cuts, and no milk should help.

Okay so this Xmas, I'm gonna reattempt my Dauphinoise potatoes.

The recipe I plan to follow is as below. Please feel free to comment.

Ingredients:
- 1 kilo of potatoes -3mm slices
- 200mls milk
- 200mls double cream
- cheese (gruyere or cheddar)
- fine-grated garlic, ground nutmeg

Method:
- preheat empty dish
- slice potatoes 3-5mm thick, parboil for 5mins
- rinse and dry potatoes, coat in cream/milk and layer
- between each layer, add garlic, salt and pepper, nutmeg, flecks of butter
- top up with cream mixture as required
- finish off with a layer of cheese
- cook at 150*C until cooked (90-120 mins)

Previously, my original mixture of 284mls milk, 284mls cream meant too much liquid.

I'll double check the liquid amounts, but that seems pretty bang on to me. I personally wouldn't have the cheese and I'd crush the garlic rather than chop it.

The best recipe i've ever used was delia's from her complete cookery course.

If the potatoes are par boiled with salt then you probably wouldn't need to add more when layering.

Despite knowing what I should do, I still failed.

The potatoes were sliced nice and thin, parboiled, coated in cream, layered with spices, topped with gruyere cheese and baked for 60 mins, they still came out too firm. Another thirty mins would have been perfect. Also, still far too much cream IMO (I didn't use any milk!). I think coating the slices in cream was more than enough.

Well I'm now on the hunt for a decent mandolin. I will not be defeated a third time!

Just cook the spuds more before you bake them. Do not rinse them; strain them very gently and let them steam dry.

I'll try it myself soon and let you know how it goes. I expect the "new mrs woo9" will have some ideas too because she always does about food; they usually involve adding sour cream and paprika.

I don't want to over "par boil" or "boil" them as they'll fall apart when handling. However, you're right in that I should do them for longer next time, as well as baking them for longer.

I went downstairs and microwaved some leftovers - tasted a lot better (the cream was thicker and soaked into the potatoes more, which were softer).

LOL, I find that whenever I cook a proper meal up for people, the leftovers the next day always taste better. One of these days I'm going to feed my guests leftovers and they'll love it

I've done that with family once - fed them spicy curry and even I felt it tasted better than the night before.

Not all leftovers taste good - depends on the ingredients in the recipe. Perosnally have found anything with a sauce eg pasta, curry etc tends to work best for this.