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Grateful For Gratins
Two Simple Gratins to Up Your Winter Vegetable Game
Sometimes you rediscover an old childhood favorite completely by accident. Recently, I was sitting in my office, surrounded by hundreds of old French cookbooks, thinking about what I was going to cook when one book beckoned me over.
It had been a while since I last read Anne Willan’s ‘The Country Cooking of France’. As I flipped through the pages, it felt like I was looking through a cherished family album of childhood dishes. I stopped on one, her version of the French family classic, endive and ham gratin. It evoked vivid memories of my own mother making this dish for me as a small child.
Endive and ham gratin is the macaroni and cheese of France. I found myself licking my lips and instantly decided to make this creamy gratin for my son just like my mom did, with just a bit too much sauce and crispy cheese crusted on the sides. At first, Beau was skeptical and only tried one tiny courtesy bite. I left the table and returned to watch him trying to sneak more bites out of the gratin dish, especially the crispy, melted cheese parts that I used to love. Life has gone full circle.
Click here to see a video of the Belgian Endive and Ham Gratin being made.
Swiss Chard Gratin
A Swiss chard gratin based heavily on the one Richard Olney documented at Lulu’s winery so many years ago.
Ingredients
- 1 bunch Swiss chard
- 1 bunch spinach
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 head garlic peeled and rough chopped
- 1 sweet onion diced
- sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup panko
- 1 teaspoon fruity finishing olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a rapid boil. Remove the stems from the Swiss chard and boil for 10 minutes, or until very soft. Trim and wash the spinach leaves and chard leaves together. Drop into boiling…
