Cheesy Layered Rosemary Potatoes

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375°F and prepare an 8 inch cast iron skillet.
• In a small saucepan, melt the clarified butter on low heat. Once melted, pour into a medium bowl.
• Peel the potato. Slice the potato very thin – this is best done using a mandoline (not to be confused with the musical instrument, mandolin!) If you do not have a mandoline, slice the potato very thinly – 1/8 of an inch is maximum, but thinner is better, yet thicker than 1/16 of an inch. When using a mandoline, it doesn’t have to be on the thinnest setting possible…slightly thicker than a potato chip would suffice. Once sliced you can (if you want to be elegant) use a round cutter to make every piece of potato the same diameter – otherwise you don’t have to do anything else. As you slice the potatoes, put them into the bowl with the melted clarified butter. You just need enough butter to coat the potato. This will prevent oxidation and keep the potatoes from turning into a strange brownish color.
• Take some of the butter from the potatoes and brush the bottom of your cast iron to coat. Starting from the middle of the skillet, layer a piece of potato and spiral layer the potatoes until you make one layer (layering each potato about ¾ on top of the previous slice).
• Season the first layer with rosemary, salt, and pepper, then add a thin layer of cheese. Continue layering and following the same process – adding rosemary, salt, and pepper as you wish. You can certainly add more (or less) often, depending on how much you want to season/cheese your dish. But adding after each layer works well. Continue adding until the potatoes reach close to the top of the pan, or when you run out of potatoes. Add a layer of seasoning and cheese on the top as well. No matter what size pan you use, just layer as high as you wish!
• Once completed, place your pan on the stovetop on medium heat. Cook, uncovered, for about 5 minutes. As you “pan fry” the potatoes, use a thin metal spatula (or butter knife) to slide around the edge of the potatoes to make sure they don’t stick to the side of the pan. After about 5 minutes you can lift them enough to look and see if there is some coloration on the bottom. Once they are light brown on the bottom, remove from the stovetop and place the pan in the oven. Continue cooking for a few more minutes and up to 5 minutes if you do not see any color after the first 5 minutes.
• Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes and then test the doneness with a wooden skewer, fork, toothpick or whatever to make sure the potatoes are soft and done. After 15 minutes, the potatoes should be soft, but have some slight resistance. They are “done,” but this is dependent on your taste. You can go to the next step and serve at this point if you prefer some texture to the potatoes or continue cooking in the oven until they become softer. Once the desired texture is achieved, you can proceed to the next step if desired.
• At this point, if you desire a slightly browned top, you can turn your oven to broil and make sure the pan is close enough to the top to achieve some browning. This should only take a minute or two to get some light caramelization on the top of the dish. Once achieved – and keep a close eye during this process – remove the pan from the oven.
• Let the pan sit for just a couple of minutes and you have two options to serve: 1) Serve in the cast iron skillet on the table, or 2) place a plate on top of the skillet then turn the skillet over, flipping the potatoes out of the pan upside down onto the plate carefully. You may have a bit of excessive clarified butter that comes out that you can mop up with a paper towel for presentation. You can see both ways of serving in the photos throughout this post.
• Garnish with fresh chopped rosemary and serve. Serve sliced like a pie.