Buttermilk–Blue Cheese Potatoes au Gratin
This recipe for buttermilk–blue cheese potato au gratin combines the rich flavors of blue cheese, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.
Buttermilk–Blue Cheese Potato au Gratin
Photo Credit : Heath RobbinsMary Lou Carlson of Bothell, Washington, was one of 17 winners of our October 1988 “Great New England Cook-Off” for her fresh take on potato casserole. Like many “gourmet” recipes of the era, this buttermilk–blue cheese potato au gratin had a laundry list of ingredients, so we cut it back while preserving the rich flavors of the blue cheese, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.
Yield:
10 to 12 servingsIngredients
6 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled sliced ¼-inch-thick
3 tablespoons salted butter, plus more for the pan
3 shallots, minced
2 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups whole or 2% milk
1 cup buttermilk
2 ½ ounces blue cheese, crumbled, divided
2 teaspoons mustard (Dijon or brown)
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ teaspoons table salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Arrange half of the potato slices in 3 overlapping rows in the bottom of the prepared dish and set aside.
In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Add shallots and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the flour, stir or whisk to blend, and cook for 3 minutes. Add the milk and buttermilk. Cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens and bubbles. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the blue cheese, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper; stir to incorporate.
Spread half of the sauce over the potatoes, then sprinkle with half the Parmesan cheese. Layer the remaining potatoes over the cheese and cover with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan.
Bake until the potatoes are tender and the cheese on top is golden brown, 65 to 75 minutes (you can run the dish briefly under a broiler for extra browning, if you like).
Amy Traverso
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee magazine and co-host of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with WGBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
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