Wednesday Night: Potato-Ham Gratin

Given that it's "winter", and we have that lovely country ham, it was pretty much mandatory that we have a nice potato-ham gratin. I'm not one to argue with mandatory gratins, so that's what I made last night.

yukon gold potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (I used 4-5 cups of potato sliced with my ceramic slicer)
1/2 large red onion, thinly sliced (again, with the ceramic slicer)
1/2 cup country ham, sliced thin and then chopped
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup milk
2 Tbs butter + extra for greasing the pan
1 Tbs sweet paprika
white pepper
cheese
breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 375 and butter a 9" square baking dish.
Heat the cream, milk, butter, paprika, and a couple good grinds of white pepper until they are just starting to boil (watch that it doesn't boil over).
Start building layers of potatoes in the dish, spooning small amounts of cream mixture over each layer.
After you've built a couple of layers, add the ham in one layer with some onions, spoon cream over it.
When the potatoes are finished, add another layer of onions and the rest of the cream mixture. If the liquid doesn't come to just below the top layer of potatoes, add more milk until it does.
Top the dish with half the cheese and mix the other half with some breadcrumbs. Top the cheese layer with that mixture.
Put the dish on a baking sheet (in case it bubbles over) and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top is brown and the potatoes are cooked (you can check with a fork). If the top starts to get too brown, cover it loosely with foil.


We ate this fantastic beast with the leftover fennel from the other night and a green salad.