Potato and Celery Root Gratin With Caper Brown Butter
- Total Time
- 2½ hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:4 to 6 servings
- 6tablespoons/80 grams unsalted butter
- 2tablespoons olive oil, plus more for foil
- 2medium yellow onions, peeled, halved and sliced into thin half-moons (about 12 ounces/360 grams)
- Salt and black pepper
- 5garlic cloves, minced
- 2tablespoons thyme leaves, plus 3 sprigs
- 1½tablespoons white miso
- ¾cup/180 milliliters dry white wine
- 1large celery root (celeriac) (about 1¾ pounds/800 grams), peeled and cut into scant ½-inch/roughly 1-centimeter-thick batons (about 1⅓ pounds/600 grams peeled)
- 1½pounds/680 grams Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into scant ½-inch/roughly 1-centimeter-thick batons
- 1tablespoon all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 1¼cups/300 milliliters chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
- 5½ounces/150 grams Gruyère, roughly grated (1½ packed cups)
- 2½tablespoons nonpareil capers, drained and patted dry
- 2lemons
- ¼lightly packed cup/10 grams finely chopped fresh chives
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
478 calories; 27 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 40 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 6 grams sugars; 17 grams protein; 932 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celsius.
- Step 2
Add 2 tablespoons/30 grams of butter and all the oil to a medium (10-inch/26-centimeter) ovenproof sauté pan over medium-high heat. Once melted, add the onions and ½ teaspoon salt, turn the heat down to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened and have taken on a light coloring, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme leaves, and cook for another 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until fragrant. Stir in the miso and wine, and cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 4 more minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Step 3
In a large bowl, very gently toss together celery root (celeriac), potatoes and flour with 1½ teaspoons salt and a generous grind of pepper. Stir in the onion mixture to coat, then transfer everything back into the skillet, piling the vegetables haphazardly, so that the batons are pointing in different directions. Pour in the stock. Lightly grease a piece of foil with a little oil, then tightly cover the pan (oiled side down) and bake for 1 hour, or until the vegetables have cooked through.
- Step 4
Remove the foil, and turn the oven temperature up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit/210 degrees Celsius. Sprinkle over the Gruyère and return the dish to the oven for 30 minutes, or until nicely browned on top, rotating the dish halfway. Leave to settle for at least 20 minutes while you make the brown butter (beurre noisette).
- Step 5
Add the remaining butter and the thyme sprigs to a small saucepan, and place it over medium heat. Once melted, cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until it starts to smell nutty (add more or less time if necessary). Add the capers (carefully, as they might spit) and cook for 4 more minutes, or until they darken and burst. Off the heat, stir 1 tablespoon lemon juice from 1 lemon, chives and another good grind of pepper.
- Step 6
Pour the caper brown butter all over the top of the gratin and serve warm, with the remaining lemon sliced into wedges to squeeze alongside.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Prakash Nadkarni
Nice recipe. I prefer mild heat - a sprinkle of paprika or Kashmiri chili powder- at Step 4 and, as a garlic fiend, add it at step 5 instead of 2. Miso or its far cheaper substitute, fermented Sichuan white/red bean paste, is critical to supply umami beyond the stock alone. Coastal India uses fishing bycatch (dried krill) to jazz up veg. dishes, such as a spicy eggplant-potato-onion-tomato braise/bake. Fermented SE Asian shrimp paste (belachan/trassi) or fish sauce works similarly.
howslo
I do not usually comment but This was delicious. Followed the recipe exactly. Another wonderful dinner. My husband, who is difficult also lived it
Maryanne
Yippee! - a new way to cook those celeriac in cold storage, that I grew last summer. I usually add to soup, or mash with potatoes. Thanks : -)
Perignon
Yes, miso is high in sodium, but in a dish that serves 4-6 that also only calls for 1/2 TSP salt plus the Gruyere, it really shouldn't be bad at all. (1 1/2 TBSP miso = 950mg sodium per the USDA) The two most common subs for miso (soy sauce or fish sauce) are liquids, not pastes, although you can come close in this case by mixing 1 TBSP of tahini (texture) with 1/2 TBSP of the soy or fish sauce (fermentation flavor).
Prakash Nadkarni
RE: Sodium Most umami sources are high sodium. This includes "chemical" soy sauce such as liquid aminos, and hydrolyzed yeast - vegetable proteins are broken down into amino acids with hydrochloric acid, which is then neutralized with sodium hydroxide. The few exceptions are concentrated tomato (paste or ketchup) and mushrooms. Solution - reduce or eliminate the salt in the recipe. (I prefer elimination - you can always add salt later, but you can't take it out.)
Yma
Very tasty! I adjusted the recipe based on what I had on hand: Parsnips and a bit of celery instead of celery root; mostly parmesean cheese because I only had a teensy bit of gruyere; no chives. I used a bit less salt and added about 1/4 t of cayenne in Step 3, per another reviewer's suggestion. I don't even like parsnips (and no, my substitution was not part of the original recipe), but they were delicious in this dish. You could make this with just about anything. A+
Chrisdat
Made this last night. Absolutely delicious! Had a shallot laying around that was going to go bad, so I added some crispy shallots to the Gruyère topping. This recipe took a longtime. I chopped and prepped everything but the potatoes at noon. But still took almost 2 hours to execute the recipe. Worth it, yes - but only for a special dinner. At least we have plenty of leftovers for a second meal.
marie-claude garneau
To me, gratins are better if made the day before and reheated.
Suggestions:
Sprinkle of paprika or Kashmiri chili powder- at Step 4 and, as a garlic fiend, add it at step 5 instead of 2. Miso or its far cheaper substitute, fermented Sichuan white/red bean paste, is critical to supply umami beyond the stock alone. Coastal India uses fishing bycatch (dried krill) to jazz up veg. dishes, such as a spicy eggplant-potato-onion-tomato braise/bake. Fermented SE Asian shrimp paste (belachan/trassi) or fish sauce works similarly.
Prakash Nadkarni
RE: Celeriac substitute - As Sean Dell notes, celeriac can sub for celery, and therefore celery (which is more widely available) can sub for celeriac. Celery (Apium graveolens) lends its name to the plant family Apiaceae (formerly Umbelliferae), which includes many spices/herbs: cumin, coriander, oregano, fennel, anise, dill, carraway, carrot. Celeriac (Apium graveolens var. rapaceum) is a celery sub-species grown for its edible root, though the above-ground parts are also edible.
Bicka
Always looking for a new way to cook celery root and this one wonderful. I subbed in dry cooking sherry for the wine, red miso and dry thyme, because its what I had on hand. Used homemade chicken broth and omitted the brown butter sauce. The taste was amazing. A cross between french onion soup and a gratin. My high schooler asked for left overs for lunch today which is high praise.
Sean Dell
@marianne Another use for celeriac is to substitute it wherever the recipe calls for celery, especially in braises.
DNH
Fresh thyme is not specifically indicated. But when you get to that step and look at 2.5 TBS of dried thyme— it looks really wrong. I put 1/2 TBS of dried thyme and it was delicious. This recipe is a marathon, but worth it.
pielover
Five stars! This is delicious! Only modifications: a sprinkle of red pepper flakes and , to make it vegan, plant based butter, and nutritional yeast to sub for the Gruyere. Oh, and I tossed in a tablespoon of capers before baking and didn't bother with the browned butter. Really flavorful and great comfort food. I will definitely make this again.
Florence
As others have said, this is a big time commitment, but it’s delicious. Has anyone frozen the leftovers?
dimmerswitch
Scrumptious. Made per recipe except for using 425 degree oven not 450 in Step 4. We used this as main dish and it was easily 5 main dish portions.
Laura
The best celery root recipe I’ve made to date! Will be making again for sure. Followed the recipe exactly other than halving everything because there were only 2.5 of us.
Julie
Excellent recipe inspiration on which to riff- have made it twice now - but only up to the baking part, no cheese, no brown butter caper action either. Better than Bullion no Chicken once and a miso soup concentrate once. Family and guests love celery root prepared this way.
nba
Made three times, all with parsnips rather than celeriac. It’s a lot of work. It’s also incredible
Jeremy
Delicious. We have made it several times and it is always a hit.
Alex Noble
Does this freeze well?
T
This is absolutely delicious, but as others have commented, it takes a long time. From the time I started chopping to when we ate it was 4.5 hours. I didn’t have an oven safe sauté pan so made the whole thing in my Dutch oven. Some changes I made based on what I had: added fennel bulb and carrot because my celeriac and potato’s were a bit small. Also had the discarded onion from Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce so threw that in. Used Comté instead of Gruyère and used about 2 cups.
jess
This was yummy. But I would almost call it some sort of baked poutine versus a gratin since there isn’t any cream and the cheese baked in
Rahel
Wow, this recipe is a testament to how much depth of flavor you can achieve in a vegetarian context. I never liked celery very much, but it tastes great in this gratin. Ate it with a puy lentil and arugula salad. To those anhedonic counters of tablespoons of fat I say, unclench and revel in the luxuriously silky sauce and tender root vegetables.
Brocklehurst
I did put a teensy bit more stock in it than the recipe called for but why was it so soupy at the bottom? (Meaning more liquid than could be accounted for by the extra liquid.) Was it because I did not cover it with foil but instead used a lid? (I used a large stockpot and then transferred to a baking dish because I didn't think all the vegetables would fit in my skillet.) Why do recipe writers always want you to use foil when there are these really useful things called lids?
Alexis
loved the miso addition- smelled so good going in (used too much stock bc I didnt measure well so i'll have to watch for that next time)
DNH
Fresh thyme is not specifically indicated. But when you get to that step and look at 2.5 TBS of dried thyme— it looks really wrong. I put 1/2 TBS of dried thyme and it was delicious. This recipe is a marathon, but worth it.
Cynthia Hodosh
Fabulous! Perfect with a simple vinaigrette dressed salad on a cold winter night. I added medallions of grouper to the bottom of the pan.
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