Potato and Fennel Gratin
I’ve been in a potato rut! Steamed or baked, steamed or baked, boring!
Special fish like fresh Tasmanian Salmon needs a special accompaniment. The subtle aniseed flavour of fennel marries perfectly with fish, but then, so does potato. I teamed them up in this tasty gratin to serve with pan seared crispy skinned salmon.
Dinner was delicious!
2 medium sized bulbs of fennel
4 medium sized Nicola potatoes
200mls cream
Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper
Pre heat the oven to 180C. Butter 4 individual ramekins of 1 cup capacity.
Trim the top and bottom off the fennel bulbs then cut into quarters lengthwise.
Bring a pot of water to the boil, add the fennel, return the water to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. The fennel should be pliable. Remove the fennel from the pot and drain in a colander. Boil the remaining water until reduced to 200mls.
Add the cream to the water and season generously.
Peel the potatoes, then slice thinly. I used a mandolin.
Arrange a single layer of potato in the base of each ramekin, spoon over a little liquid, then top with a layer of fennel and more liquid. Continue with alternate layers of potato and fennel until the dishes are almost full or the ingredients finished. Finish with a potato layer. Top the dishes up with the liquid, then cover with a circle of baking paper. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature to 160C, then remove the foil and baking paper. Bake for a further 30 minutes.
Turn each gratin onto a dinner plate to serve.
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13 comments on “Potato and Fennel Gratin”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
I grew up eating raw fennel and only just discovered cooked fennel in the last couple of years. Love it! This gratin of fennel with potatoes, oh my!! A definite must try!
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I have little experience with cooked fennel. We only ate it raw and in salads back home. Even so, this does sound like a great way to get to know cooked fennel a little better. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
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It’s always a pleasure to share John. I really enjoy the exchange of ideas with fellow bloggers, yourself included. This is a simple and delicious recipe to try out cooked fennel. Keep your baby fennel for salad and cook with the larger bulbs.
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ooooo. Being a huge fennel fan I’ll have to use your ramekin technique next time I make a fennel gratin! And, I’ll add potatoes to it too! Thank you for the idea!
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Glad you liked the recipe Seana, I was really happy with my experiment.
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Beautiful potato stack!
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Thanks so much!
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I bet the dinner was delicious! Not only the ingredients go together, but you displayed it so beautifully too. Yum! 😛
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Thanks Fae, it was beautiful to look at AND eat😃
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Really like this, especially how you create something nice with only a few ingredients and how you use the fennel cooking water. It’s well presented to boot. Well done!
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Thanks Stefan, I really like just enhancing the natural flavour of the ingredients. As for the presentation of the dish, portion control was my motivation. I love potatoes and cream, too much….😉
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This sounds absolutely wonderful! Beautiful presentation also (definitely worthy of consumption with that gorgeous salmon!). I’ve made a potato gratin many times before, and braised fennel separately, but I’m definitely going to try them together now. Thanks lovely!
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Thank you, it’s always a pleasure to share with fellow food loving bloggers! The flavour of the fennel seems to develop the longer you cook it, and as is often true, we thought the leftovers were even better the next day!
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