Bärlauch Part II: Cheesy Gratin

Intro to Bear’s Garlic, ICYMI.

This morning, Agrar Heute reported on two more Bärlauch-related deaths, an Austrian couple who gathered the wrong plant for their tasty spring soup. After lunch, I went for a walk along the river and saw some plants that I am about 80% certain are the poisonous autumn crocus, but I see some single leaves…

I am cooking with cultivated Bärlauch, purchased at the Saturday open market. This week, I made a Gratin.

Leftover cream from last week’s Pilzrahmsoße, a chunk of Gouda, and of course, potatoes.

And it’s just that simple.

The trick to a good gratin, I am told, is heating the milk/cream mixture before pouring them over the sliced potatoes.

I’m not sure it worked. The finished Gratin–and the potatoes were done perfectly–was watery. Obviously I did something wrong–too much milk? wrong potatoes?–but I don’t know what.

But the taste–it was brilliant. Very garlic-y. The cheese was perfectly brown and crisp, just the way I like it.

Again, this would make a good vegetarian main dish for your Lenten table, or you could add some ham cubes for a little more ummph. We had cold smoked salmon and green salad as our sides.

The season runs through mid-May, so stay tuned!