Au Gratin Medley

I totally made this up and it was totally perfect, love it when that happens!  I have been eating veggies straight from the garden lately because I have random root veggies and winter greens scattered around that are very mature and are only going down hill from here.  Out with the old and in with the new.  I organized my garden this year so that a couple rows can be turned off completely in the summer to save on water during the desperately hot month when nothing really grows, just barely survives.

I love good au gratin potatoes.  Chef Brad had a café for a short time where he served the most awesome sweet potato/potato mix of potatoes au gratin.  He wouldn?t give me the recipe and I searched and tried to figure it out.  It has been too long now that I can?t remember the flavors.

It was like 90 degrees today, so I didn?t want to do the oven.  I knew it was important, because with the direct heat, to have the potatoes on the bottom of the pan.  With the higher sugar in beets and sweet potatoes, they would burn.  The potatoes formed a nice crispy crust, yum.  I used my mandolin to slice all the veggies nice and it all came together quickly. 

4 tablespoons butter

2 medium gold (or other baking) potatoes

1 sweet potato

1 medium beet with greens

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

½ cup cream

1 cup sharp cheese, shredded

Peel and slice all vegetables in rounds of uniform thickness (1/8) inch. Remove the stems from the beet greens, roughly chop and set aside.  Heat butter in large fry pan on low.  Arrange 2 layers of potatoes in the bottom of the pan, sprinkle ¼ teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper.  Follow with a random assortment of the rest of the roots, including any extra potatoes.  Sprinkle salt and pepper every 2 layers.  Pour cream over the top and cover for 15 minutes.  Place beet greens on top and sprinkle with cheese.  Cover once more for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, let cool 5-10 minutes and serve.
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