The mix of fresh vegetables and thyme adds a lot of flavor to an ordinary au gratin! If you can, try to get all the mushrooms fresh or get a mix of your favorite mushrooms. I wasn’t able to find fresh morel mushrooms, so I reconstituted the dried kind. The ingredient amounts for this recipe will feed a crowd or you will have lots of leftovers if serving a small family. For a different take try Fingerling Potato and Wild Mushroom Au Gratin.
Ingredients
1 cup of boiling water
1 – ½ oz. package of morel mushrooms reconstituted and cleaned well
to remove grit
¼ cup of olive oil
½ of a yellow onion minced
2 cups of shitake mushrooms cleaned and sliced, stems removed
1 – 8 oz. package of baby bella mushrooms, stems removed
6 cubes of Dorat brand garlic or 6 cloves of garlic crushed through a garlic press or more depending on your taste
2 tablespoons of fresh thyme stems removed
6 cups of half and half
2 – 10 oz. cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup
4 cups of Jarlsberg cheese grated or mozzarella cheese if you can’t find Jarlsberg
8 cups of Yukon gold potatoes thinly sliced
1 tablespoon of Kosher salt
Pepper to taste
Technique
Boil 1 cup of water and add dried porcini mushrooms to reconstitute. This will take about 20 minutes. Strain mushrooms, discarding liquid and rinse mushrooms well to remove any grit that has gotten stuck in the crevices. In a large deep skillet or Dutch oven add olive oil and saut̩ onions until translucent. Add fresh mushrooms and saut̩ until they begin to release their liquid. Add the garlic and thyme and saut̩ until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the reconstituted mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup and half and half and stir to incorporate. In a large casserole dish about 9 inches by 13 inches and 3 inches deep ladle a small amount of the liquid on the bottom, evenly layer half of the potatoes, half of the cheese and half of the mushroom mixture. Repeat. Make sure the potatoes, are fully immersed in the liquid mixture. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 1 hour or until potatoes are tender. Cooking times will vary depending on how thick the potatoes were sliced, the depth of your casserole dish or if you are using two casserole dishes as opposed to one large one. Let rest for 15 Р20 minutes before serving.
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