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I saw a fantastic cooking demonstration on Saturday led by Sean Baker, the sous chef at Millennium. Sean tackled a creamy, rich, hearty winter gratin with ease and grace - no small feat considering he didn't have an oven, or any dairy products. Now, now....I know for some of you the definition of a gratin is a bubbling casserole dish brimming with thinly sliced potatoes slopping around in a generous puddle of heavy cream. Sean's gratin is just as hearty and rich - but he uses a cashew nut cream in place of traditional heavy cream. Have you every tried a non-dairy cream like this? If you haven't, you will be surprised - the texture is fantastic and you can play around with different kinds of nuts and infusions and flavorings - similar to regular heavy cream. I use nut milks and nut creams all the time now.

Millennium uses all sorts of creative techniques like this in their cooking - and one of the things I love about the their two cookbooks is that they don't seem to dumb down their techniques or recipes for the home cook. You get a sense that the recipes in those cookbooks are really how they are cooking in the restaurant. This philosophy makes for some intensive prep work and significant time commitment on the part of the home cook, so while these might not be 'everyday' type cookbooks the trade-off is that you are getting a real study in how a restaurant like Millennium starts with outstanding ingredients and then uses flavors on flavors, textures on top of textures, and one technique on top of another to create some of the most delicious food around.

Back to the demo. You could see Sean bristle when it became apparent that he was going to have to wear the Madonna-style head-gear microphone - which I thought was funny. He promptly fired up the propane powered burners and settled back into his comfort-zone in front of a pan of sizzling chopped leeks. The great thing about the recipe Sean demonstrated is that it was totally doable for any home cook. And the end result was a delicious gratin, perfect for the frostier days ahead of us.

Truffled Chanterelle, Celery Root and Potato Gratin Recipe

Here is a version of the recipe that Sean demonstrated with some of my sidenotes worked in.

2 cups peeled, sliced celery root (sliced roughly two/three credit cards thick)
2 cups sliced Yukon Gold potatoes (sliced roughly two/three credit cards thick)
A couple big glugs of extra virgin olive oil to coat the pan
2 cups sliced leeks, white section only
1/2 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, picked and minced

1 cup gold chanterelle mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (heidi note: I love mushrooms so I added more, chanterelles are $18.99/lb. here, so sometimes I supplement them w/ other kinds of mushrooms)

2 cups light stock
1 1/2 cup cashew or almond cream (See below - I used cashew)
1 cup homemade bread crumbs (see below)
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon truffle oil (Sean likes black)

Blanch the celery root and potatoes in a large pot of salted water until al dente, about 3 to 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat until hot. Add the leeks and garlic and swat until soft. Stir in the nutmeg and theme; cook for 1 minute.

Add the blanced celery root and potatoes along with the mushrooms. Stir gently. Add the stock and cream. Bring to a simmer and cook until the stock and cream reduce a bit, about 10 minutes.

Transfer the vegetables and cream mixture to a gratin pan or casserole dish. Bake in a 375F oven until the celery root and potatoes are creamy soft, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove the gratin from the oven. Sprinkle evenly with the bread crumbs, parsley, and truffle oil just before serving.

Serves 4-6.

Cashew or Almond Cream

I think there was a typo in the handout for the cream portion of the recipe. Here's the ratio of liquid to nuts that I used.

1 cup raw cashews of blanched almonds
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 cups of hot water
Salt to taste

Let the nuts soak in the hot water a bit if you have the time (while you are prepping the other ingredients). Add the nutritional yeast and blend until smooth -it might take a minute or two. The mixture should be the consistency of heavy cream, if you need to thin it out a bit add water a little at a time.

Seasoned Breadcrumbs

Stale bread, crusts removed, sliced and toasted
Garlic, minced and crushed to a paste
Extra-virgin olive oil

Crush bread in a food processor or with a rolling pin. Sift off the finer bread dust, reserving the larger crumbs.

Fry the garlic in olive oil until golden. Add the crumbs and stir to coat evenly with the oil. Fry until the crumbs are lightly golden. Transfer to a plate and let cool.

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