Gratin de pommes de terre au brie

Until yesterday, I hadn't tasted the petit brie cheese I bought at SuperU last Saturday. I had cut into it and smelled it, and it seemed pretty mild and looked good. When I tasted it, before cooking most of it in a gratin modeled on the Alpine dish called une tartiflette, I thought it was flavorful — clean-tasting, and not at all stinky. I liked the texture. It seemed like a good cheese to serve and eat melted, just as the cheese called Reblochon that goes into the true tartiflette is.

The first step in making a gratin de pommes de terre — scalloped potatoes, or potatoes au gratin — is to peel and slice the amount of potatoes you want to cook. I had just over a kilogram — 2.2 lbs. — of waxy red potatoes left in a bag down in the cellier (cold pantry). I steamed the slices until they were pretty tender. These are potatoes that don't disintegrate into a purée when you cook them. Put a layer of them in the bottom of a baking dish.

Separately, cook some bacon and diced onions — I used a mixture of one onion, one shallot, and one big clove of garlic — in a frying pan. I added some leftover chicken that I diced up, and I seasoned the mixture with black pepper, powdered allspice, and dried thyme. A splash of white wine helps tenderize the onion. Spoon half of that cooked mixture over the layer of cooked potatoes in the baking dish.

This photo just shows the bottom layer of cooked potato slices, topped with the bacon and onion mixture, and a second layer of potatoes being put into the dish. Spoon the rest of the bacon and onion mixture over the second layer of potatoes, and save enough potatoes to make a third, top layer before adding any liquid to the dish.

The liquid I used was about three-fourths of a cup (6 fl. oz.) of French crème fraîche, which is fairly thick, diluted with half a cup (4 fl. oz.) of — you guessed it — dry white wine. Mix those together well and drizzle the creamy mixture over the top layer of potatoes. Sprinkle on some black pepper and a pinch or quick grating of nutmeg. The liquid will of course sink to the bottom and moisten all the potatoes. Steam from the liquid boiling in the bottom of the dish will help the cheese melt smoothly.

Finally, slice the Brie cheese — I left the top and bottom crusts on the cheese, but cut off the thicker crust around the edge of the round. (I ate those as I finished putting the dish together.) I had a little more cheese (about three-quarters of a pound, or 14 oz. / 400 grams) than I needed to make a single layer over the top of the potatoes, so I just put the rest on top too.

Then I baked the fausse tartiflette — it's tempting to call it a brie-tiflette —  in the oven at between 325 and 350ºF (160 to 180ºC) for about 30 minutes until the cheese had melted and turned a golden brown color, and the creamy liquid I had poured into the dish was bubbling around the edges. That meant it was hot all the way through.

Below is the list of ingredients and amounts.

Une « tartiflette » au fromage de Brie

(ou « brie-tiflette »)

1 kg (2 to 2½ lbs.) waxy boiling potatoes
200 g (½ lb. or less) diced bacon (or smoked pork lardons)
2 onions (or a combination of onions and garlic)
1 tsp. dried thyme
200 ml (10 fl. oz.) cream
100 ml (5 fl. oz.) dry white wine
400 g (14 oz.) Brie cheese