Golden Potato Surprise
Taste of Home I've had this recipe forever and have tinkered with it over the years to perfect it. Now I serve it a lot during the holidays. 4-6 Servings Prep: 30 min. Bake: 30 min.
Taste of Home I've had this recipe forever and have tinkered with it over the years to perfect it. Now I serve it a lot during the holidays. 4-6 Servings Prep: 30 min. Bake: 30 min.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- sauce
- 1 cup half-and-half cream
- 2 medium red onions chopped
- 4 medium white potatoes more if wanted, peeled and diced
- 4 bacon strips cooked and crumbled
- Carbohydrate 14.0512484812853 g
- Cholesterol 44.6610416894556 mg
- Fat 23.5768615495683 g
- Fiber 1.15948314823904 g
- Protein 4.94251065828131 g
- Saturated Fat 9.09889869020669 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (200g)
- Sodium 542.432949960802 mg
- Sugar 12.8917653330462 g
- Trans Fat 7.11262154349817 g
- Calories 285 calories
Step-by-step
- Place potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.
- In large saucepan, melt butter. Saute onions until tender; stir in the flour, thyme, salt and pepper until blended. Gradually add cream. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; let cool slightly. Stir in the mayonnaise and mustard.
- Pour sauce over potatoes; transfer to a 1-1/2-qt. baking dish.
- Bake, uncovered, at 350? for 30 minutes. Just before serving, sprinkle with crumbled bacon. Yield: 4-6 servings.
A rich layer of browned bacon crowns a bubbling matrix of tender potatoes and thickened cream. Baking uncovered at 350 degrees Fahrenheit allows moisture to evaporate from the surface while heat conducts through the ceramic dish. Starch molecules from the boiled potatoes leach into the surrounding sauce, working in tandem with the all-purpose flour roux to increase viscosity.
The Emulsion and Starch Dynamics
Building the sauce requires deliberate temperature control. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat before introducing the chopped red onions. Sweat the onions until translucent. Raw flour must cook in the rendered butter fat for at least one minute to eliminate the starchy raw taste of cereal grains. Whisking half-and-half cream into the dry roux creates a suspension of fat droplets within liquid. Bring this mixture to a rolling boil for exactly two minutes. Boiling activates the wheat starches fully, thickening the liquid before the dairy proteins can scorch. Remove the saucepan from the heat source before incorporating mayonnaise and Dijon mustard. High heat breaks mayonnaise emulsions by causing the egg proteins to coagulate and release oil. Mustard contains natural mucilage gums that help stabilize the cold-mixed emulsion once the dish enters the oven.
- Sauce breaks into an oily separation: The saucepan was too hot when the mayonnaise was added, causing the egg yolk emulsifiers to curdle.
- Potatoes remain firm in the center: Boiling time was under 10 minutes, preventing gelatinization of internal starches prior to baking.
- Flour lumps persist in the cream: Liquid was added all at once instead of gradually whisked into the hot fat-and-flour paste.
