— Rocio Sorrell

I love scalloped potatoes. Uh, mostly, I gotta say mostly because of the heavy cream, because it's so tasty. Uh, that's one of those dishes that I do like, you know, layered with Parmesan, heavy cream, potatoes, repeat. Uh, so you can certainly use any replacement. So in our family, we really don't eat a lot of dairy. Uh, I use butter. My wife is, uh, does not eat dairy, but butter is okay for her. Uh, it's really the milk, uh, salads, the proteins that bother her. So we don't use milk, we use almond milk in our house, and I've made scallop potatoes with almond milk, not the sweetened kind. So it's the original unsweetened, uh, to good effect. So really any liquid is going to do just fine because it's the potato starch that's thickening the liquid, uh, not the other way around. Heavy cream starts off thick, so it has, you know, it has, it has a, a shorter distance to go in terms of getting to that thickness, that binding thickness there. So water works just fine. Scalloped potatoes, what do you get? You get a very potatoey scalloped potato dish. Cool, right? So mix in whatever flavors you want throughout that dish, whether it's, uh, you know, between some of those layers, you're mixing in a little bit of lemon zest. You're mixing in a little bit of ground fennel seeds or whole fennel seeds, some chili flakes. I'm looking over here at my spice rack. Uh, throw on, you know, a dusting of mace on one layer. Uh, oregano. I'm thinking of just onion powder. There's lots of different spices in there that use judiciously are gonna add such depth and, and richness and nuance to it, uh, that you're not gonna miss that cream I would use, I would pick your potatoes wisely. Uh, I think an Idaho potato ru is fine. Uh, I think there's some other varieties that you might find, maybe a red skin, uh, especially a more starchier red skin if you can instead of the, like, the, the waxy ones, uh, but a star to your red potato that you could find. Keep the skin on so you've got some real visual appeal to this. You know, put in some sage leaves, something like that. That's gonna add also sort of a layered visual, uh, to this while also adding flavor. Uh, one thing that I have done in my potato scallop potatoes before is, uh, in the cream. And I actually tend to use half and half, uh, which works just fine, but cuts down some of the fat, uh, and my wife just doesn't eat them and that's fine. 'cause she doesn't really like potato dishes anyway, even though I'm also a potato farmer. So my boys and I, we eat a lot of potatoes around the house. Imagine that. Anyway, uh, I take cans of, I take a can of smoked anchovies and any of you who have joined me before know, whoa, hi there. Wow, the camera is following me. Sorry about that. You've just got a, a vision of my dish pit over here in my window. So that's, that was the sink that I had to fix today. And re-plumb, which I did successfully. Anyway, any of you have joined me before, know that I am a huge fan of anchovies. They add incredible depth and richness of flavor to things without necessarily, they don't make them fishy. They anchovies, like salt and lemon juice, make things taste more like they are. They add depth and richness. Umami, they fill in the background of, of flavor for things. Uh, so I've actually made a cream out of the anchovies in half and half, just sort of mashed it all together. Woo, man, those are the best galled potatoes I've ever had. Maybe not to your dietary needs or preferences, but hey, try that out if you're curious about it.