This is also one of the recipes that I took from my mother’s house. She makes it a bit different to us as we have made some adjustments to suit our own tastes.
In South Africa you can buy a “Potato Bake” mix which adds flavour to the potatoes. Many times we are able to receive this from friends that visit us but when we run out we have to make a different plan.
This potato dish is one of Abigail’s favourite dishes and she is always so excited when we prepare it for shabbat.
What you need
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Mushrooms (optional), we very rarely use mushrooms as Abigail prefers it without mushrooms
- Salt or spice of your choice
- Cream
- Potato Bake or Creamy Mushroom Soup Powder
- Shredded cheese for the top layer
What works best for us is if Jacques cuts the potatoes and onions and I pack the baking dishes. He cuts the potatoes and onions in thin slices. Jacques has such wonderful knife skills and has the ability to cut anything that it still looks good.
Pack a layer of potatoes at the bottom of your baking dish. Sprinkle the spice of your choice on the potatoes, be careful not to use too much, just enough to make sure that your potatoes do not taste bland.
Next pack a layer of onions, it does not need to be a perfect layer, I just make sure that most of the potatoes are covered with a thin layer of the onions.
If you are using mushrooms then this would be the time to make a thin layer of mushrooms.
After the first layers are packed, repeat the whole process again until you have reached the top of your baking dish.
I recommend that you stop about 1-2 cm before reaching the top of your baking dish otherwise you might find that you do not have enough space to pour over your cream and your shredded cheese
Mix your Potato Bake or Mushroom Soup powder with cream, making sure that the powder is mixed well with the cream. Unfortunately like so many other occasions I cannot tell you exactly how much of what as I always guess, but for those of you who wish to mix it more accurately you can safely follow the instructions on the Potato Bake packaging or at least double the amount of soup powder that is suggested to making soup in ratio to the fluid.
Once it is mixed pour it over all the potatoes making sure that you cover them well with the cream mixture. Cover your baking dish with foil and then place it into a hot oven, 150-180°C, for about an hour to 90 minutes. The time in the oven also depends on the thickness of your potatoes slices. This is also why we recommend cutting them into thinner slices, this allows them to need less cooking time.
Once the potatoes are soft, stick a sharp knife into the middle of the dish to test, you can remove the foil. At this point cover it with a nice amount of shredded cheese and then place it back into the oven. If you are in a rush you can put your oven on grill which will allow your cheese to brown faster. Most if the time we have something else in the oven as well and I prefer to give it a slower browning time. I keep the oven on its baking setting and with time the cheese browns.
When serving it is nice to add some green colour on top of the cheese. We basically use any greens that we have in the fridge, from fresh parsley to spring onion, they all get the job done.
What is great about this recipe is, you bake a few dishes easily put one or two in the freezer and reheat it for another occasion.
