This recipe is taken from Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course and Delia Smith's Complete Illustrated Cookery Course.

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb (450 g) good-quality potatoes (King Edward or Desirée)
  • 1 small clove garlic, crushed
  • 5 fl oz (150 ml) double cream
  • 5 fl oz (150 ml) milk
  • freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 oz (25 g) butter
  • salt and freshly milled black pepper.
  • You will also need an 8½ inch (21 cm) oval, shallow gratin dish, well buttered.

Method:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 2, 300°F (150°C).
  2. First, peel the potatoes and slice them very, very thinly (a wooden mandolin is excellent for this operation, if you have one), then plunge the potato slices into a bowl of cold water and swill them round and round to get rid of some of the starch.
  3. Now dry them very thoroughly in a clean tea cloth. Then in the gratin dish arrange a layer of potato slices, a sprinkling of crushed garlic, pepper and salt and then another layer of potatoes and seasoning.
  4. Now mix the cream and milk together, pour it over the potatoes, sprinkle with a little freshly grated nutmeg, then add the butter in flecks over the surface and bake on the highest shelf in the oven for 1½ hours.