Quick Scalloped Potatoes

There are few dishes more familiar and comforting than scalloped potatoes. In many ways, it's the quintessential middle American recipe. Today's recipe is a simple yet delicious stovetop version of scalloped potatoes that takes a lot less time to cook.

This easy recipe will make a tasty side dish for six, and if you have a mandoline or a food processor to handle the otherwise interminable prep job of slicing up the potatoes, you can make it in as little as 25 minutes.

*****************************
Quick Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients:
2-3 Tablespoons butter or olive oil
4-6 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
2 medium onions, cut into thin slivers
3-4 Tablespoons flour
2 to 2 1/2 cups milk
Salt and pepper to taste
A few pinches of cayenne pepper, optional
Dried or fresh parsley for garnish, optional

Directions:
1) Heat oil or melt butter in a large, deep non-stick pot or saucepan. Spread half of the potato slices, then half of the onion slices, then sprinkle with half of the flour. Then, season with a few shakes of salt and pepper.

2) Repeat step 1 with the remaing potatoes, onions and flour. Season again with a bit of salt and pepper, and then pour the milk over all the ingredients. Add a bit more flour if the sauce is too thin, add a bit more milk if the sauce is too thick.

3) Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to medium low and cook, stirring every few minutes, until potatoes are tender (about 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of your potato slices). Garnish with optional dried or fresh parsley.

Serves 6 as a side dish.
**********************************
Recipe notes:
1) Obviously the cooking time for this dish is a function of how thinly you slice your potatoes, so treat this recipe's suggested cook time with due suspicion. You'll have to taste-test a few potatoes for doneness. When the potatoes are al dente, they're ready.

2) The milk, flour and potatoes are essentially offsetting ingredients. If it works out that you have way too much sauce, just add another potato into the mix. Likewise, if you don't have enough sauce, just throw in some more milk and flour. Just be sure to add enough milk to almost, but not quite, cover the potatoes in the saucepan.

3) Take seriously my instructions to stir the potatoes every few minutes. You'll want to have the potatoes brown a little bit here and there on the bottom of the pan, but don't let them brown too much. Enjoy!

Related Posts:
11 Really Easy Rice Side Dishes
The Muffin Blogroll: 12 Great Muffin Recipes You'll Love to Bake
The Crockpot: How I Admitted I Was Wrong in a Cooking Debate
Six Cookbooks That Should Be the Foundation of Your Cookbook Collection

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!