Cheesy Potato Bake Recipe

Today, hubby and I cooked BBQ and cheesy potato baked for dinner. So hubby being the man that he is, he did the BBQ and I went on cooking the cheesy potato bake. I've cooked this dish before but it did take me a while to perfect the bechamel sauce or some people might call it white sauce but I just love saying bechamel! Now I know bechamel sauce is usually used for lasagne or sformati but I thought why not use it with a potato bake. Plus it would have been a good compliment to the meat and lamb hubby was cooking up. So here is the recipe for the meat marinate, lamb marinate and the cheesy potato bake.

Beef marinate :

• Garlic salt
• Pepper

Yes I know. It's as simple as that! Make sure that you coat the meat and marinate for about 2 hours before you cook it. Its better if you marinate it the night before so that the flavors will be infused with the meat.


Lamb marinate :

• Honey
• Rosemary

Again, its that simple! And again, marinate for about 2 hours or marinate the night before.


Cheesy Potato Bake :
Ingredients :

• 60g butter
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 2 1/3 cups milk
• 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
• 2 cups parmesan cheese
• 1.2kg Sebago potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced

1. Preheat the oven to 180"C. Grease 6cm deep, 24 cm square baking dish.
2. Cook sliced potatoes in boiling water for 2 minutes or until potatoes are a little soft. Drain potatoes.
3. Meanwhile, melt butter in medium saucepan. Add extra flour; cook, stirring, until mixture thickens and bubbles. ( To be safe, do this on low heat first ) Gradually stir in milk; stir until mixture boils and thickens. ( Increase heat to medium while stirring mixture ) Remove sauce from heat; stir in one-third of the Parmesan. ( Sauce should be creamy and thick. If your sauce is still water-like, before stirring in Parmesan, put back on heat and keep stirring until thick )
4. Arrange one-third of potatoes, overlapping slightly, over base of baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spoon one-third of the cheese sauce over potatoes. Repeat twice. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese on top. Put in oven at bottom grill. Bake for 30 minutes to an hour, or until top is golden. If top begins to brown too much, cover with foil.

Just follow these tips in making this dish and making the béchamel sauce/white sauce and you will NOT fail in impressing your guests, family or your loved ones. It has taken me a while to perfect this sauce and not to toot my own horn, but I am quite proud of this sauce. Once you have gotten the method down to pat, you will be able to use this sauce for your lasagne, potato bake, sformati or to compliment your meat dish. I hope you enjoy this dish and good luck! Don't forget, have fun, enjoy cooking, enjoy food and spread the love! I hope to hear from you soon!

xoxo