WTF Were Those Potatoes?
 

My lady :icare: brought some kinda crazy potato dish over to my house a few months ago. I had two pieces of it like, five months ago- now she wants to know how to make it.
The only thing is we have no idea what was in it. Maybe eggs, maybe cream. There might coulda been some onion in it? All I remember is there was some kinda creamy seeming substance on it. It mighta been yellow?
Either way, it was diced potatoes and it was baked. I figure with this mega-awesome description someone out there should know what it is.

C'mon?!

Since you are saying diced potatoes -- I'd try

Delmonico Taters

2 cups diced cooked potatoes
2 cups white sauce, below
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1 cup buttered bread crumbs


Combine potatoes, white sauce, salt, and pepper. Pour into a greased shallow baking dish. Sprinkle shredded cheese over potatoes the top with buttered bread crumbs. Cook at 425° for about 20 minutes, or until nicely browned.

White Sauce
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk (half andhalf if you want really rich)
salt
white or black pepper

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat; stir in flour. Cook for 3 minutes, but do not brown. Stir in milk and continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly, until sauce begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.

Mal you can cook too?! How are you still single!?

I made a similar dish to the one above, but the potatoes aren't diced (you could certainly dice them if that was your preference).

Ingredients:
4 or so large Russet baking potatoes
1 recipe of white sauce
2 cups shredded Sharp cheddar cheese (as sharp as you can get it)

Take a rectangular glass baking dish/casserole and lightly grease it with a bit of butter(this makes clean-up much easier later...you can of course skip this step). Take the cleaned Russets and slice them thinly. Layer the potatoes on top of one another like you would if laying out lines of cards. Make the white sauce (you can use Mal's recipe above, that's fine, I like to make mine with a bit of garlic [add this into the butter at the beginning, I usually either mince it very finely or use a garlic press]), and as it's coming up to a simmer, stir in 1.5 cups of the sharp cheddar; reserve the other half. You want the sauce to be fairly thick. Pour it over the potatoes, sprinkle a little pepper over the top of the sauce-covered potatoes, and then cover the baking dish with aluminum foil. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 35 minutes, or until you can piece the potatoes easily with a fork. Remove the potatoes from the oven and sprinkle the reserved cheese on top. Turn the oven on to broil and finish the dish under the broiler until the cheese is as melty or brown as you want it.

I'll also let you in on a little secret: add a little cayenne pepper to your sauce. Ground cayenne gives it a nice little kick.

Mal, your recipe was nowhere near what we wanted but we made it. Then we ate it. God damn those are some fine potates!

Oops, double post.

This sounds like what we Utahns call "Funeral Potatoes". Here is a recipe I found online for them...and if this is what you are thinking of, then yes, they are delicious.

Ingredients:


6 cups diced potatoes*

1 can (10 ¾ oz.) cond. cream chicken soup

1/2 soup can milk

1 cup sour cream

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1/4 cup grated onion (optional) **

salt and pepper to taste

3 tablespoons butter, melted

3/4 cup corn flake crumbs

Method:
Cook fresh potatoes or thaw frozen potatoes (see *note below). Place potatoes in a 2-3 quart casserole dish or a 9x13 cake pan.

Combine soup, milk, sour cream, cheese, and onion (see **note below) and salt and pepper to taste. If a saucier dish is desired, add 2-3 tablespoons additional milk. Mix well. Spread sauce over potatoes.

Melt butter and combine with corn flake crumbs. Sprinkle crumbs over casserole. Bake uncovered at 350 F for 30-45 minutes or until hot and bubbly throughout.

Notes:

* Use approximately 6-8 peeled, diced, and cooked fresh potatoes; or approximately 2 pounds frozen, southern style, diced hash browns (not shredded). ** Use 1 tablespoon dried onion or sauté 1/4 cup fresh chopped onion in 1 tablespoon butter until transparent.

If you google "funeral potatoes" you'll find a few variations on this. Hope this helps!

Hmmm... I'll have to track down my mother-in-law's recipe for potatoes. It's frikkin' incredible, and sounds like it fits nicely in this topic of "heart-attack-waiting-to-happen" potatoes. Sorry I do not have it committed to memory.

You say your girlfriend brought it over to your house ...

Now she wants to make it ...

Where did she get the dish in the first place?

Thanks for posting what we all were thinking. ;)

lol

If it's a traditional dish, it sounds like potatoes dauphinois - except that potatoes dauphinois are thinly sliced and not cubed, but I imagine you could do a similar thing with them cubed.

Boil some potatoes in milk with bay leaves and some salt till they are tender but not falling apart. Slice them thinly into rounds.

Layer them into a medium gratin dish, with little bits of butter, grated cheese of your choice (mix of parmesan and swiss gruyére is nice), salt and pepper, nutmeg, and some sliced onion and garlic cloves. Keep layering until you've run out of potatoes. Then cover in some heavy cream mixed with a splash of milk so that when you put the dish in the oven to gratin, it doesn't get too dry. Sprinkle the top with some parmesan chees and breadcrumbs.

Place in a hot oven until the top is golden. Serve!

Friend of the family we're not particularily close with.

/"the lady"