Recipe: potato gratin Steingarten style

Plus the $3 answer to taming the bloodthirsty mandoline

Wintertime staples like root vegetables get us through the dark days before green sprouts of hope prove we made it through another ice age.

From humble fuel to celebration centerpiece, the potato gets it done. Here’s one of my children’s favorite festive side dishes: potato gratin.

Before reading Jeffrey Steingarten’s recipe in “The Man Who Ate Everything,” potato gratin was firmly established in my mental menu as a cheese dish with potatoes. After making the slightly finicky recipe, I was convinced the work was worthwhile. 

This gratin tastes like potatoes, first and foremost. Elevated on a dairy throne, with shades of nutmeg and garlic, luxuriating in glossy cream. But first, the pomme de terre, apple of the earth, speaks.