They look like fancy folk food too...

This is a ridiculously easy, and incredibly delicious take on potato au gratin that will have you making these tasty potato muffins all the time.

I made them every day for a week after adapting this recipe from one of my favorite food bloggers, Witty in the City.

I tried a number of different combinations, one of which I’ll share here using classic cheddar and bacon. Potato, bacon and cheddar, really can’t go wrong with that, and you probably have it laying around unlike something like Gruyère. Any favorite cheese here will do, my wife suggested a goat cheese version which is on the horizon.

potato-gratin-muffin baked in a muffin pan

You will need a regular sized muffin pan, and a mandolin for getting nice even slices of potato (optional).

I will go through some of the other combinations at the end of the post, but let’s get started and preheat the oven right away to 400 degrees because by the time it is up to temperature these awesome potato muffins will be ready to go in.

Ingredients

One decent sized potato
1/2 cup of cheddar cheese
3 slices of bacon
1 tablespoon of heavy cream per potato muffin
sour cream (optional but really compliments the finished product)
some scallion for garish (optional)
salt
pepper
knife,fork (optional)

Get Prepped

Cook the bacon ahead of time
Grate the cheese
Slice one potato into thin even slices
Spray some non-stick spray stuff into around each muffin cup

Get cooking!

Layer 2 slices of potato on the bottom of each muffin cup. Season them with a little salt and pepper and pinch a little cheese on the top, not too much or the cheese my overwhelm the potato. Also the bacon will add saltiness so one round I did not season and it tasted just fine.

Repeat this process until you have reached the top of the muffin pan. Finally spread some bacon bit awesomeness on the top of each one, and pour a tablespoon of the heavy cream into each cup. If you use too much bacon you might not ever eat a potato any other way.

Here is a picture of them after about 15 minutes cooking, this was my first attempt and I needed to add a little more cheese on top. Depending on your oven these should take between 25-35 minutes. You can see by the picture I HAD to test one which revealed some of the inner layers of potato needed more cooking.

One brave little potato muffin sacrificed for the others...

What do you use these awesome things with?

I can’t imagine there is anything these potato gratin things can’t go with and fail.

Here I marinated and grilled a steak and they complimented it perfectly.

The next day I had a few leftover (very difficult!) and they went great with some eggs benedict.

The End

Other combinations I am still working on:
A slice of cooked sausage in the middle of the stack
A slice of provolone in the middle
A big piece of pork belly in the middle
A slice of zucchini in the middle, or when my fresh zucchini from the garden is ready, add to that stuffed zucchini flowers which I will post a recipe when they come in this summer.
Also since I buy very local honey and maple syrup I was thinking of a drizzle in the middle for a pancake breakfast combination, it should glaze and might be interesting. I will post an update on this…

It is tried and true, and although the BBQ sauce fluctuates a bit, the crock-pot tends to meld things together in a way that the ingredients never seem to over power one another.

I will say this sauce has A LOT of ingredients and it has grown stable at this point and is seriously some of the best BBQ sauce I have tasted and much cheaper than store bought sauces, maybe 2 dollars of ingredients to make 4-5 bottles . And that’s verified by a number of people who love it as well. This also goes well on grilled chicken, or anything you like to pour some sauce on.

This sauce starts out sweet after slow cooked, but packs some heat on the after bite. Combined with my “white trash” cornbread that’s easy enough for me to make from start to finish in 40 minutes or less; I always say easy peasy, go off and do something else.

For the ribs, any baby back, or pork rib is fine. I also use country style boneless fake ribs (cheap!) which is just as good really, and makes a good pulled pork sandwich the next day, when the flavors interfuseiside. Depending on the size of your slow cooker a full rack can easily go inside a 4-6 quart.

Ingredients First make the BBQ sauce

1 cup ketchup or less, add more water for a thinner sauce,
2-3 tablespoons of water
1/4 stick of butter
3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed. Less garlic no problem!
1-2 tablespoons hot sauce – this is a choice if you like the heat! I use dinosaur devil’s duel, add any favorite hot sauce.
1/4 cup honey or less – I put in maybe 3-4 tablespoons, my honey is local and very thick
1 tablespoon molasses
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon of crushed ginger
1 teaspoon of molasses
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch of Cajun type seasoning
1 pinch crushed red pepper
1 pinch ground white pepper
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 pinch of onion power

In a large saucepan over medium low heat, mix together all the ingredients and get them well incorporated, and bring to a slight boil and simmer. You can also turn it off, because in a few minutes you will be pouring it over the ribs and closing the lid on the crock pot and 4 hours later you will be loving this.

Ingredients Prep the slow cooker

I like to get the crock-pot on high as soon as I start. Sometimes it is just getting all your stuff to temperature as you move along to save some time in the long run and has no negative on the outcome.

1 onion sliced to lay on the bed of the cooker
2 cloves of garlic – optional and really you will never taste the garlic.
Put that right in the cooker

Important

Trim as much fat off the ribs as possible. Once in the slow cooker the fat will rise to the top and muddy the sauce quite a bit. I have forgotten this step in the past and it’s not that big of a deal, especially once it is refrigerated overnight.

Braise the Ribs

This is defiantly optional, but I like to salt and pepper the pork and sear them for a few minutes on each side. It adds a little extra flavor, and probably saves a little overall time.

Add a little olive oil to a pan and get some nice color on each side of your rib product.

Ok that’s pretty much it! Add one layer of ribs over the onions in the crock pot, and pour some of the BBQ sauce over it. Then if you have more ribs, pour and repeat.

Put the lid on and crank the cooker to high and in 4 hours, maybe a little less or more (always check the proper temperature for your cut of meat) they are done.

This is best when they are just done, or refrigerated overnight, in between that, ah not as good, but still good.

Final Notes:

You don’t have to make the BBQ sauce, you can use any favorite BBQ sauce and simply pour it over and done. Believe me making your own BBQ sauce is very easy. Please consider leaving a comment if you have any questions, or what kind of results you got using this recipe.

Thanks!

Ok I decided to release the recipe for tomato sauce that has been passed onto me via Ellis Island when my family got on a boat. I am still working out the original ingredients from a little yellow piece of paper that I have kept forever… Coming Soon.

The Stamford Rotary Club BBQ

The Greater Stamford Area Chamber of Commerce announced that Brooks BBQ will be cooking up some great Q at the Stamford Rotary Club.

Pick up some Brooks House of BBQ chicken or ribs straight off the grill! The Stamford Rotary Club is sponsoring a mid-winter BBQ – follow your nose! Want to reserve your BBQ? See any Rotarian for tickets.

No vacation area fills today’s need better than rural America… and tucked away in the Western Catskills is a priceless pocket of rural America called Colchester – with its historic hamlet of Downsville.

Colchester Chamber of Commerce

Here in the valley of the East Branch is America the way it used to be, beautiful in all seasons. Peaceful valleys and hidden hollows, rugged mountains, waving fields of corn-indeed a place for renewal. Wildlife is abundant, deer graze in meadows; wild turkeys are plentiful; beaver dam our streams, create fish ponds and challenge man with their skill and determination; quail flush from thickets; coyotes bark at dusk and the fox flaunts his plume as he darts across the road.Here nature is at its best in rural America, unspoiled and unpretentious, where people are friendly, life is simple and the warm hand of nature cups us in its embrace.

We are unashamedly rural-with all the charm, values, peace and serenity which frame the rural life. In the lush valleys and wooded mountains of the Western Catskills let nature work its own unique therapy.

All this for your enjoyment!

Catskills Events

The Delaware County Historical Association, in collaboration with the Cannon Free Library in Delhi, will show a series of local films focusing on our region’s rich history. Continuing through the spring of 2012 the two organizations will host audience members at the Cannon Library on Elm Street in Delhi.

The first film to be shown will be “The Destruction of Shavertown” by Bob and Alice Jacobson. The film offers a personal look at the destruction of Shavertown and other communities in the mid-1950s as the valley of the East Branch was readied to be inundated by the rising waters of the Pepacton Reservoir.