Every holiday season, my mother would start writing menus on white notebook paper and stuff them into cookbooks. My parents entertained from Thanksgiving to New Years, mostly our loud, fun-, and appetizer-loving family.
{It’s likely that I never arrived to the dinner table with anything resembling hunger, what with all the shrimp cocktail and tiny meatballs.}
Mom treated every holiday meal like it was a state dinner complete with silver service and china tea cups. And she relished it, because feeding people with love is one of the things that makes her who she is.
I did not inherit her penchant for a well-set table or holiday decorations. But I love shared meals and daydreaming about holiday menus.
Mostly what I think of are the side dishes.
Take the turkey. Stuffing, brussels sprouts, butternut squash. green beans, butternut squash… these are the holiday foods that make me swoon. {Okay, I’d like a little bit of turkey, please. Here are my tips for buying a healthier holiday turkey.}
Take sweet potatoes. I never went for that popular perennial marshmallow-topped dish. Even as a kid, my sweet tooth had limits. But that is no reason to forsake sweet potatoes any longer.
Pairing their natural sweetness with spices, herbs and other savory items {like these appetizer sweet potato wedges with peanut sauce} makes them irresistible in my book.
A Holiday Potato Gratin
Creating a flavor contrast is the key, like in this deep-dish sweet potato gratin. For this gratin, I layered them with Yukon Gold potatoes along with savory thyme and parmesan cheese.
A baked gratin is a terrific holiday side dish. Not only does it go with any type of main, from turkey to ham to lamb, but this side dish knows how to behave in a busy kitchen.
Behave? Yup, it can be prepped well in advance and baked in advance and will hold for hours in a warm spot in the kitchen. It travels well, too, so this sweet potato gratin is a terrific option if you’re traveling or unsure of what to bring to a group dinner.
For another thing, you can adapt a gratin to be dairy free simply by switching out the half and half {or cream} for chicken stock and skipping the cheese.
So, wherever you are this holiday, I hope you enjoy loads of vegetable side dishes. #eatyourveggies And more importantly, the good {and maybe even loud} people you share it with.
Deep-Dish Sweet Potato Gratin
This gratin combines sweet potatoes and gold potatoes to make a simple and rich side dish or a vegetarian main course. For a dairy-free version, substitute stock for the cream and omit the parmesan cheese. It can be baked in advance and kept warm or reheated before serving.
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, thinly sliced
- 4 large gold potatoes, such as Yukon Gold, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups half and half ( or chicken stock)
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
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Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly oil an 8-inch cast iron skillet with the olive oil. Combine the thyme, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
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Place the sweet potato slices and the gold potato slices in separate bowls. Toss each with half of the seasoning mixture.
- Overlap half of the gold potato slices to make a solid layer in the skillet. Top them with a layer using half of the sweet potatoes. Repeat the layering with the gold potatoes and end with a layer of sweet potatoes.
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Pour the half and half over the potatoes. Cover with foil and put the skillet on a baking sheet to catch any drips. Bake for 40 minutes, then remove the foil and top with the cheese.
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Continue baking until the liquid is completely absorbed and the cheese is nicely browned, 15-20 minutes more. Remove the gratin from the oven and allow to set for 20 minutes before serving in wedges.
The post A Side Dish Fetish & a Deep-dish Sweet Potato Gratin appeared first on Lynne Curry.