Potato and Apple Tian with Smoked Gruyere

Forget what you think you know about holiday potatoes. Mashed potatoes, Hasselback potatoes, baked potatoes, smashed potatoes. They. All. Suck… compared to this. THIS is how you should be serving potatoes for big get togethers or for “fancy” friends. First, the depth of flavors is impressive. It is creamy and delicious, but the apples add something more. It definitely satisfies the need for comfort food, but will have your taste buds singing. Not to mention the beautiful concentric circles just look gorgeous. (And I don’t mean gorgeous like the way my daughter says it as she is destroying my freshly made bed. She literally throws pillows across the room and twists my sheets, quilt and duvet saying “Mommy, I am making your bed look gorgeous.”) I won’t lie, it is a little time consuming. But it is not difficult. Everyone called it beautiful, but I enjoy just looking at it. Either way, you’re sure to impress with this scrumptious side dish!

Ingredients:

3 russet potatoes

3 sweet potatoes

4 granny smith apples

4 slices of bacon

6 cloves of garlic

4 sprigs rosemary

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 block of smoked gruyere (12-16 oz)

salt and pepper to taste, and a little more

Instructions:

Mince your bacon, garlic and rosemary, add the, to cast iron skillet and set aside until your potatoes and apples are sliced.
Peel and wash both your russet potatoes and your sweet potatoes. (I left my peels on my apples. But of course I cut around the core, lol.)
Carefully cut each of them ¼”- ½” thick. I also cut my sweet potatoes and russet potatoes in half (after slicing them) so that the resembled the same shape/size of my apple slices (half moon).
Cook your bacon/garlic and rosemary in the cast iron skillet until a good deal of fat has been rendered from the bacon.
Arrange your apples and potatoes into circles in a cast iron skillet. Rotate the slices so that they are evenly dispersed (Ex: apple, sweet potato, russet potato, apple sweet potato, russet potato), you do not need to be exact. Use extra apples/potatoes to fill in blank spaces.
Evenly as possible, pour the bacon fat over the apples/potatoes. Use a spoon to add the bacon/garlic/rosemary over the top of the dish as well.
Generously sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Cover the dish with tin foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.
While the dish is baking, grate your cheese and set it aside.
I also added roughly ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper to my heavy whipping cream.
After your apples/potatoes have cooked for 35 minutes covered, remove the tin foil.
Pour the heavy whipping cream evenly over the potatoes.
Sprinkle the grated cheese evenly over the top as well.
Cook, uncovered, for an additional 30 minutes as the same temperature.