This is my own take on a French classic potato dauphinoise to which I combined also celeriac, because it is now in season. Instead of just baking the vegetables in cream, I decided to make a béchamel sauce with mushrooms. That just elevates the dish (read: makes it more calorific!), and makes it less soggy than plain cream.
Ingredients:
250g mushrooms, chopped
1 onion, sliced
1 glove of garlic
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 potatoes, sliced
1 celeriac, sliced
4 dl cream
4 dl milk
120 g grated parmigiana
Fresh coriander leaves
3 tablespoons butter
2,5 tablespoons flour
1 dl breadcrumbs
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Method (see video here below):
Brown in a pan the mushrooms, onions and crushed garlic. For frying use extra virgin olive oil or butter. Set aside.
In a sauce pan prepare béchamel base by melting first the butter, and mixing in the flour. Mix until the base bubbles, but does not brown. Pour in gradually the cream and milk continuously whisking and bring to boil. Now add the fried mushroom-onion mix in to the sauce, and set aside.
Wash, peel and thinly slice the celeriac and the potatoes. I used a mandoline for slicing.
Take an oven dish, coat it with butter and breadcrumbs to prevent food from sticking.
Now make a first layer with celeriac and then with potatoes. Sprinkle over parmigiana, freshly ground black pepper, and with a ladle pour over some mushroom sauce. And repeat 2-3 times, depending on the dimensions of your oven dish.
Place the dish into convection oven (180 degree Celsius) for 17 minutes. Remove from oven and put on top the rest of the mushroom sauce, and sprinkle over breadcrumbs, parmigiano and coriander. Now put back in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.
