Vegetable Au Gratin

This recipe is a throwback to my childhood - vegetable Au Gratin or baked vegetables is one of the few 'Continental' dishes Indian restaurants featured in the 80s. I used to love it and, along with Sizzler, used to be my favourite restaurant food.

I think it is still a lovely recipe and, nostalgia aside, tastes great. After all, combine cheese and milk, crunchy crust and velvety interior, and you will have a winner every time.

(Speaking of velvety, the picture is a bit misleading, being of left-overs the next morning. I had some lovely pictures of the crust and the gooey interior the day I cooked it, but in a momentary lapse of reason, deleted them. The sauce tightened a bit the next morning, but the flavour remained and made me a great lunch. )

The British hung around in India for a full 300 years or so. Surprisingly little of the famed British Raj has remained in India, English being the exception. Food-wise the only real contribution has been in terms of baking, something alien to Indian food. Cakes, bread, curry-puffs and Vegetable Au Gratin are the only dishes that I ate on a regular basis in which I can discern a British presence. The influence of Indian food on British cuisine, however, is wide-spread and well-known. A historic commentary on the seductions of Indian food, perhaps?

Whenever I am recreating a dish from memory, I try to visualise what I loved best about the dish and try to focus on these aspects. If you get these right, you are home-free. The Au Gratin of my dreams has lots of cheesy, crunchy crust, and a cheesy, gooey sauce. I am happy to say I managed both.

The sauce is a regular White Sauce/Bechamel flavoured with onions, garlic and nutmeg. (The link leads to an interesting history of this sauce.) The nutmeg idea is from my go-to Italian cook-book 'the Silver Spoon'. I think a hint of warm spice really lifts a Bechamel
out of the ordinary. In the past, I played around with absurd things like heating the milk with an onion that had been stuck with cloves. But I find freshly grated nutmeg really hits the spot.

The sauce is made cheesy with a generous quantity of Parmesan. I would say dont even think about substituting any other cheese. Parmesan has a depth of flavour that is unparalleled.

The crust is a soft,melty cheese topped with bread crumbs. Any mild melty cheese will work here - mozzarella, swiss, fontina.

Ingredients

potatoes

peas

assorted vegs - pretty much anything else that goes with potatoes and peas

for the sauce

half an onion

2 cloves of garlic

3/4 stick butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

nutmeg

parmesan cheese

for the crust

bread crumbs (unflavoured,please)

melty cheese - mozzarella,swiss,fontina

Method

Chop all the vegs to approximately uniform size of an inch cube. Cook them with salt and pepper until cooked through. We are not talking mushed veggies here. What I do is, start with the hardier veggies (potatoes, peas) and add the softer veggies ( carrots, cauliflower) in about 10 minutes or so. Reserve.

Butter a baking dish and pre-heat the oven to 350F. Choose a flattish baking dish - more crust.

Mince the onions and garlic. Heat a tablespoon of the butter,onions and garlic in a saucepan. Cook gently till softened, but do not let them brown. Add in the rest of the butter and the flour. Using a whisk, stir it around on medium-low heat. The butter will foam and give off a nutty aroma. Add the (cold) milk in all at once. Whisk everything till there appear to be no lumps. Leave it on medium-low heat, stirring the corners and sides of the pan. When the sauce comes to boil, taste it to ensure that there is no floury taste and turn off the heat. Add milk to get it to a pouring consistency, remembering that it will thicken as it cools.

Season the sauce with salt, pepper, nutmeg and parmesan. Be very careful with the salt to begin with, the butter may have had salt and the cheese adds salt too. You will know you have the seasoning right when you cant stop dipping your finger in for a taste.

Spread the cooked veggies out in the baking dish and cover evenly with sauce. You can do this is in two layers if you like. Cover with foil and put in the over for 15 minutes.

Retrieve the baking dish from the oven. Cover the top with an even and generous layer of mozz/swiss. Sprinkle a layer of breadcrumbs on the cheese. Return to the oven till the crust get golden and irresistible, about 20 minutes.

Serve hot with bread.

This is my submission for the "Think Nutmeg" event hosted by MyDiverseKitchen, a part of "Think Spice" hosted by Sunita's World.

It is also a response to a recipe request by lovely Aunt - Enjoy.