What haven’t I done before?

Made a gratin. I didn’t really know what was meant by ‘gratin’ so I looked it up and it is a technique where an ingredient is topped with a crust of breadcrumbs, cheese and butter. I had some mushrooms and leeks in the fridge and decided this would work nicely with my Sunday roast. It worked well.

Ingredients (serves 4 as part of a Sunday roast dinner):

1 x Large leek, diced
6 x Chestnut mushrooms, diced
75g x Butter, roughly cut into 3
2 x Pieces of gluten free bread (I used Newburn Bakehouse by Warburtons), blitzed into breadcrumbs
1 x Large garlic clove, crushed
Handful parsley, chopped finely
70g x Cheddar cheese, grated
70g x Parmesan cheese, grated
0.5 x Tsp oregano
2 x Tbsp gluten free flour (I used Dove’s)
350ml x Vegetable stock (I put a stock cube into 350ml water)
1 x Zest of lemon
0.5 x Tsp nutmeg
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Melt a piece of the butter in a pan and leave to cool.
3. Put the breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley, cheeses and oregano into the pan with the cool melted butter and combine – season well with salt and pepper.
4. In a new pan melt another piece of butter. Whisk in the flour 1 tablespoon at a time (you are making a roux – it’s flour and fat combined to thicken sauces) and then add in the stock – whisk for 30 seconds. Bring to the boil and add in the zest and nutmeg. Put to the side.
5. In another pan melt the final piece of butter and saute the leeks and mushrooms – season with salt and pepper. Cover after 3 minutes with greaseproof paper to help the vegetables cook in their own steam and juices – cook for 10 minutes.
6. In an ovenproof dish spread the mushrooms and leeks evenly, pour over the sauce and then cover with the deliciously cheesy crumb mix.
7. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.