Winter Rainbow Gratin

Yield: 3 servings

Comforting creamy vegetables without the heaviness of a lot of butter and cream.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablesp. butter
• 1 tablesp. rapeseed oil
• 2 small blue potatoes; Blauer Schwede *, peeled, cut into wedges
• 2 red, red-fleshed potatoes, Heiderot, cut into wedges
• 4 small shallots, sliced
• 4 yellow and/or orange carrots, about 300 grams, cut in half lengthwise if thicker than your thumb
• 1 small Hokkaido pumpkin, peeled, cored and cubed
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 1 apple, unpeeled, cored and cut into 6 wedges
• about 50 grams whole grain bread crumbs, Ulrike: omitted
• 70 grams Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, Ulrike: mountain cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190 °C/375 °F and position a rack in the middle of the oven.
2. Heat butter and oil in your largest ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. In a single layer, add the potatoes, shallots, squash, carrots, and green onions and toss to coat. Try not to overcrowd the pan, or the vegetables will steam and not brown. If you don’t have a big enough pan, split the ingredients between two skillets. Saute over medium-high heat for about 15 minutes, shaking the pan a couple of times along the way. The vegetables should start to brown a bit and be tender but not mushy.
3. Remove from the heat and sprinkle with a generous dose of salt and pepper. Stir in the apple wedges. If you don’t have an ovenproof skillet, transfer the ingredients to an ovenproof baking dish or casserole. Sprinkle with all the bread crumbs and half of the Parmesan cheese. (Note: Because Kim said, this produces a fairly dry gratin, I omitted the breadcrumbs and used just grated mountain cheese). You don’t want to stir at this point; rather, let the crumbs and cheese perch right on top of the vegetables so they’ll get nice and crunchy.
4. Place the uncovered skillet in the oven. Bake for about 40 minutes, tossing the vegetables with a metal spatula about halfway through. The potatoes and carrots should be golden, crispy, and caramelized where they touch the pan and soft and tender inside. When everything is caramelized and fragrant, remove from the oven and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan. Serve right from the skillet.

total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
preparation time: 15 minutes
cooking/baking time: 1 hour