Winter Gatherings by Rick Rodgers Page A

center of the oven and preheat to 375°F. Lightly butter a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.
2. Slowly bring the cream and garlic to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, taking care that the cream doesn’t boil over. Remove from the heat.
3. Mix the salt and pepper together. Layer half of the potato rounds, overlapping as needed, in the baking dish. Using a slotted spoon, remove the garlic from the cream and scatter the garlic over the potatoes. Season with half of the salt and pepper mixture. Layer the remaining potatoes in the dish and season with the remaining salt and pepper mixture. Pour the hot cream evenly over the potatoes. Cover the dish with aluminum foil.
4. Place the baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil. Bake until the potatoes are tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife and the top of the gratin is golden brown, about 45 minutes longer. Let stand for 5 minutes, then serve hot.
Note
An inexpensive V-shaped slicer (which I find so much easier to use than the classic metal mandoline) will cut the potatoes into uniformly thin rounds, and is a good addition to your kitchen if you don’t already own one. Or buy narrow potatoes that will fit into the feed tube of a food processor, and cut them with the slicing blade. Of course the potatoes can be sliced by hand with a large knife, but be sure to cut them thinly, or they will take forever to cook to tenderness.

 
     
    Root Vegetables Anna
    Makes 6 servings
    This is an elegant presentation for humble root vegetables—a crisp outer shell of thinly sliced potatoes enclosing a tender filling of sweet celery root and earthy turnips. A mandoline or food processor will make short work of the slicing.
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3 baking potatoes, such as russet or Burbank (1¼ pounds)
½ medium celery root (also known as celeriac)
1 medium turnip
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
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1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Peel the potatoes, celery root, and turnip. Using a V-shaped slicer or food processor, cut the potatoes into 1/8-inch-thick rounds. Place in a bowl, but do not rinse or cover with water. Repeat with the celery root and turnip; you should have about 2 cups combined celery root and turnip.
3. Immediately melt the butter in a 9-inch-diameter nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pour out all but 2 tablespoons of the butter into a heatproof bowl. Arrange half of the potatoes in concentric circles in the skillet. Season with half of the salt and pepper. Arrange the celery root and turnip over the potatoes and sprinkle with the rosemary. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the remaining butter and half of the remaining salt and pepper. Top with the remaining potatoes and salt and pepper. Press the vegetables with your hands to make an even thickness. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cover tightly, preferably with a flat, and not domed, lid. Cook until the bottom layer of the potatoes is golden brown, about 20 minutes.
4. Holding the lid and skillet together, invert to unmold the root vegetable “cake” onto the lid. (If your skillet lid is domed, substitute a large, flat plate when inverting the vegetables.) Pour the remaining butter into the skillet and swirl the skillet to coat the inside with butter. Slide the cake off the lid and back into the skillet, browned side up. If the skillet handle is not heatproof, wrap in aluminum foil.
5. Place the cake in the oven and bake until the vegetables are tender when pierced with a sharp knife, about 30 minutes. Slide onto a platter, cut into wedges, and serve.

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Root Vegetables
Nature works in very mysterious ways. Just when the delicate fruits and vegetables of summer are depleted, another source of food appears to give us sustenance. These are the root vegetables, which feed humans throughout the cold, barren winter until spring’s bounty emerges.
Not all of a plant is edible. Sometimes we eat only