It seems these last recipes in the curriculum are strictly a review of techniques already learned. They don't contain much history or interest but are good practice for the impending exam. Grenadins de veau are thick veal fillet steaks laced with pork fat. After sprinkling the meat with salt and pepper and searing them on the stove in a bit of butter, I placed (I should have larded!) the pork fat on top of the veal and set it aside while I worked on the vegetables.

This week's class about browning has us making another of my all-time favorite food: scalloped potatoes. But it's not just any scalloped potatoes. It's Gratin Dauphinois prepared with love using the delicate Le Cordon Bleu method. Layers of flavor are built, and not just by layering the potatoes. Oh no. That would be too easy.

Steep the milk
The first step is to heat the milk and then steep it with a Bouquet Garni, salt and nutmeg. Sounds easy enough. Par-cook the potatoes
After the [third batch of] milk has steeped, then you add [the second batch of] thinly sliced potatoes [since I didn't notice the milk had burnt during steeping until after adding the potatoes for the first batch]. The potatoes steep and get partially cooked in this milky [unburnt] goodness. Next, you drain the milk. DRAIN. I couldn't believe it. Such waste [that's 9 cups of milk in my case, and I was making a half recipe, thank God!]. It was a shock after saving and using so many parts of vegetables and chickens (namely, feet) in previous classes to make stock. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking that next time I should save that milk [not the burnt milk!] and make another, less wasteful batch of scalloped potatoes with it.

Prepare the gratin dishes
The garlic is even wasted. You must cut a clove of garlic in half and rub the gratin dish with it. What do you do with the rest of the clove of garlic that doesn't get rubbed into the dish? You throw it away. After smearing some butter in the gratin dish too, it was ready for the delicate layering of potato slices and sprinkling of salt and pepper in-between.

Heat the cream and finish with cheese
Instead of the flavorful milk that you just drained, you must scald some fresh, unflavored cream [next time I'll mince the leftover garlic and throw it in with the cream] and pour this over the potato slices. Finally, you top it with sprinkled cheese and it's ready for a hot oven. I used old cheddar, but you could use Gruyère cheese, which is traditional but not appreciated at our house.

Recipe: Gratin Dauphinois (Potato Gratin with Garlic and Cream)

The ingredients shown in the photo are for a half recipe (serves 3).

Ingredients:

Unsalted butter, for gratin dish