This was an invention, based partly on Julia's recipe from Mastering the Art and based partly on a Rutabaga Gratin recipe we found elsewhere on the internet.
Julia's recipe sounds odd to the modern American ear because she basically mixes canned salmon with bechamel and bakes it. I guess you'd have to have been there.
As Julia describes it, a gratin is more or less a quiche without the crust, but none of her gratin recipes call for egg, so I suspect that this is more her way of thinking about it than an actual rule. Typically, a gratin is a layered dish of bechamel, filling, and cheese, which is then baked. OKAY FINE SO IT'S A CASSEROLE. WHAT. WE'RE FROM THE MIDWEST.
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs of rutabagas, peeled and sliced thin (we used a mandolin attachment to our Cuisinart)
- .25 lbs frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess moisture
- 8oz salmon (we used fresh, with directions to follow, but smoked would be better!)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- other vegetables you want to add, chopped - we added the chopped stalks of puntarella we obtained - the leaves of a variety of chicory - which added a subtle bitter flavor that worked well here.
- ~1c whole milk
- 3tbsp butter
- 3tbsp flour
- 1.5c gruyere cheese or similar
- thyme, oregano, other herbs you want, salt to taste
To start out with, the fish. If you're using fresh, place the fish in an oven-safe container of some sort that can be covered - we used a stainless steel pan that has a (partly) oven safe lid, but you can use foil if you don't have this. Sprinkle thyme, oregano, pepper, and any other herbs you want on the fish and pat down to make an herb crust. Place in a 250 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, until it's cooked through enough that you can flake the salmon into pieces.
When that's ready, preheat the oven to 350.
Make the bechamel by cooking the onions (and other vegetables, if using) in butter. Add any herbs you want. When they're softened, add flour and stir to cook for a minute. Then add the milk and bring to a boil. It should thicken considerably. You want a "medium consistency" so you may have to thin the bechamel at this point.
At the same time as you're doing that, set some water to boil. When it boils, add the rutabagas and let boil for 4ish minutes (3-5, depending on how thinly you sliced them). Drain.
In a 9x9 baking dish, add some of the bechamel/vegetable mixture and spread over the bottom. Add a layer of half the rutabagas, then a layer of half the salmon, more bechamel, half the cheese, ALL the spinach, the other half of the rutabagas, the other half of the salmon, the remainder of the sauce, and the remainder of the cheese (in that order, bottom to top). Pack down lightly as you go to make sure everything is settled.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 30-40 minutes, until bubbling on the sides and golden brown on top. We went 40 minutes then broiled the sucker to get browning, but it worked. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before you try to eat it.
Thoughts: This turned out well, particularly considering it was at least partly invented by us. I would say that a bit more salt would have been nice - the rutabagas really absorbed the salt we added. Also, smoked salmon would have worked slightly better, although this was good. This was sort of an unusual dish for us. I will say that it was better the second day, when everything had a bit more time to adequately congeal. Also, this allowed us to use a ton of the items from our farm share, so that's always a plus.
Disaster Index: 1/10
