MIX VEGETABLE AU GRATIN

Au gratin is one of many fancy-sounding French culinary terms to enter English during the 19th century. When you cook something au gratin, you are not in reality, doing anything fancy at all. In fact, the verb "to gratinée," as used today, means simply to give a dish a golden brown top.

Gratin is a dish with a lightly browned crust of breadcrumbs or melted cheese. Gratin is a French baking culinary technique in which ingredients are layered in a shallow dish with a browned crust on top, often using breadcrumbs, grated cheese and/or butter.  A gratin is baked or cooked under an overhead grill to form a golden crust on top and is traditionally served in its baking dish.

This wonderful recipe for Mix Vegetable Au Gratin is all about using variety of veggies and layering them with heavy cream and grated cheese and then baking until the cream reduces and forms a blanket for the veggies on top.  It’s an absolute comfort and yummy food, but don’t look at the nutritional facts for Adults – one spoon and you will soak in the cream and cheese.  For kids definitely it is healthy food, mixed veggies with cream and cheese.  It’s worth for any special occasions.   This dish is easy to prepare ahead and can be baked just before serving. 

My touch: We as busy mum's always looks for short cut recipes but no compromise on the taste and look.  I followed the recipe with just a few little changes. Here I have made this gratin dish in Microwave, so saved my baking time from 60+ minutes to 14 minutes instead.   Used more Garlic and I have used some spices to suite the Asian palate. 

Servings: 5 

Cuisine :  French

Total Time: 22 - 25 Minutes

Ingredients:

2 nos. Large potatoes, long shaped

1 cup Carrot, diced

1 cup Capsicum, diced

1 cup Cauliflower, diced

1 cup Beans, diced

½ cup Marrow, diced

3 cloves Garlic, minced

2 tbsp Garam masala (optional)

250 ml Cooking heavy cream

½ cup Cheddar cheese shredded

¾ cup Mozzarella cheese shredded

1 tsp Oregano

3 tbsp Flour

2 cup Milk

1 tbsp Oil or butter

black Pepper as required

Salt as required

Procedure:

Cook the large potatoes in the microwave for 5 minutes. When the microwaved potatoes cools down, slice them as thinly and uniform as possible.

Heat a pan, add oil and saute garlic. Add one by one veggies based on the cooking time required.  Start with carrot, marrow, cauliflower, beans, capsicum and salt to taste. Add in the Spice powder, chilly powder and cook for another 4 minutes. Add 2 tbsp flour and give a good mix to coat the veggies. Add 2 cups of milk and let it cook until the sauce becomes thick.

White Sauce: Whisk together the heavy cream, salt, pepper and 1 tbsp flour, bring it to boil with continuously stirring.  Reduce the cream to ¾ quantity.

Assembling:

At the bottom of the baking dish, layer half of the potato slices in a single layer with edges overlapping. Sprinkle ¼ of both the cheeses over the potatoes. 

Toss in the whole veggies on top of the potato slices, gently press down the mixture and add in half of the white sauce. 

Again layer the remaining half of the potatoes overlapping, in a single layer. Pour over the remaining white sauce, spread mozzarella cheese, top it with cheddar cheese and finally sprinkle some oregano.

Place it in the Microwave oven on grill mode and bake, uncovered, for 14 minutes or until you see a nice golden crust on top.  Allow the dish to cool and its ready to be served.

Great for a brunch or a lazy dinner. This is a complete meal by itself and can be accompanied by breads.

Tip for microwave user:  If the weights of the food to be cooked much differ from those of the recipe then the cooking time prescribed will be wrong.  If you double a recipe quantity, you should not necessarily double the cooking time; it is more likely to be closer to a multiple of 1.5 times the original recipe time; not twice.

If the power level of your microwave is lower e.g. 350 W or 750 W, you would again require more time to cook.  It is possible to adjust the cooking times to take account of these changes.  Make gradual changes minute by minute when near the approximate time, and check the cooking each time to get it right.  My microwave is 1450W.

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