Potatoes Dauphinoise

Grease a 6 cup capacity ovenproof dish generously with the butter or margarine then smear the garlic around the bottom and sides of the dish. (I use a round glass pyrex dish.)

Peel potatoes and slice thinly into rounds. Line the bottom of the dish with a single layer of overlapping potato slices. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Repeat this layering and sprinkling process until you have used all of the potato slices.

In a large jug, combine cream and milk and stir well. Pour this mixture over the potato slices, gently easing the potato away from the sides of the dish to allow the liquid to penetrate evenly.

Place the dish onto a microwave safe plate and cook, uncovered, in a microwave on MEDIUM HIGH for 15-20 minutes. Check occasionally. If the liquid in the potatoes boils over, simply pour it from the plate back into the dish and continue cooking.

Microwave just until you can push the blade of a sharp knife through the potato layers without feeling any crunchy resistance. Having reached this stage you can go on to cook the dish in the oven or cover with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator for several hours or more before cooking.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Sprinkle the top of the potatoes with the grated cheese and place the dish on an upper shelf in the oven for 20 minutes or until the top turns golden brown. (This may take slightly longer if taking the dish straight from the refrigerator.)

To serve, cut into wedges and remove each wedge carefully with a spatula.

Variation: This recipe also works well with orange sweet potato (kumera). If using sweet potato, try substituting the nutmeg with a generous sprinkling of caraway seeds over each layer.