Apply heat to the top of a plate, usually covered with cheese (although it can also be breadcrumbs, bechamelmashed potatoes…) to obtain as a result a delicious crispy crust which, in addition, isolates indoors of the recipe while maintaining all its juiciness. This is how we could define one of the most popular culinary techniques: gratin or gratin.
Its name comes from french term gratter (scratch, scratch, alluding to the gesture made with the cheese when grating it) and to put it into practice the oven is our great ally (microwaves also have a function grill which allows us decent results, but the oven is the most suitable appliance to achieve perfect gratin recipes).
One of the most popular dishes in this area, speaking precisely of France, are potatoes Gratin Dauphinois. But the variety of dishes that we can make with this technique is very wide (pasta, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs…). A little further down we will give you a good handful of examples, but first we will review some tips Generic basics related to this type of cooking:
TIPS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT WHEN GRATINATING
- Use grated cheese on top of the dish you want to gratin. Not all cheeses gratin or melt the same: due to their characteristics, the mozzarella and the cheese emmental They are the most advisable for gratin. The cheese Gruyère Also if it is grated evenly over the entire surface and of course, the cheese cheddarwhich we usually find in hamburgers, melts very well.
- To gratin dishes with bechamel of topping and for it to be perfect, it is best to add a little grated cheese so that it melts and acquires a golden color without burning.
- Sprinkle cheese between the layers of your dish or you can add a little cooking cream or even béchamel and it will be extra creamy.
- Serve hot. We recommend that to enjoy an excellent gratin, it is important to serve it as soon as you finish cooking, so you will enjoy the texture and explosion of flavors of the dish you have prepared much more.
- If you are going to reheat a dish again and gratinate itplace it in the oven at medium temperature, covered with aluminum foil for ten or fifteen minutes so that the interior heats up without burning the gratinated area and, then, increase the temperature and gratinate for between 4 and 5 minutes.
- In addition to using large dishes with which more homogeneous gratins are achieved, you can also choose individual molds for your gratins since they are very visually attractive.
SOME GRATAIN RECIPES
Let’s now hang up our apron to cook some recipes where the gratin technique is the protagonist. To access the preparation method for each recipe, it is as simple as clicking on the ‘Read more’ buttons.