Gratin – This delicious delicacy of French origin is a widely baked and liked dish. Come October, Germany and Pumpkins go hand in hand. I thought, why not bring in a pumpkin twist to an otherwise popular gratin !!! Thus comes the Eggless Pumpkin Sweet Potato Gratin.
There isn’t a fest or a famous eatery not offering atleast one pumpkin delicacy in the entire Autumn or the ‘Herbst’ season here in Germany!!!
The super market shelves are filled with numerous varieties of pumpkin, inviting people to come, buy, taste and love this yummy vegetable, which otherwise is considered as the food of the poor.
Though not originally from Germany, it has been adapted so very well by Germans that the World’s largest pumpkin festival happens in Germany and that too, very much in Stuttgart – Ludwigsburg. It is like a pumpkin boom in this small township of Ludwigsburg, with over 450,000 pumpkins spread across 800 varieties.
Well, the orange wind has blown through the doors and windows inside our kitchen, resulting in a variety of pumpkin dishes this season. From traditional South Indian Sambar / Kodyel, Kootu, Palya, Halwa, Payasa / Pudding, Modaka (even Lord Ganesha obliged to the pumpkin wave that splashed orange color over all the dishes this season, including his favourite dish – Modaka), Soup and yes, Gratin !!!
Though the vegetable is repeated, the dishes varied and without any exception, all the preparations were liked by one and all at home.
Coming to Pumpkin Sweet Potato Gratin, I have layered the peeled and sliced pumpkin and sweet potato with rich, béchamel sauce in between the layers (making the gratin eggless) and thyme with of course our favourite Mozarella cheese to top with. Yummm… Nothing can be more welcoming than this freshly baked Gratin this autumn.
Béchamel sauce
Is one of the most important sauces in the French cuisine, and is usually made from butter, flour and milk. Its origin traces back to Tuscany, Italy and it was supposedly brought to France by the chefs from Italy during Louis XIV. Here in the béchamel sauce preparation, I have used corn flour, instead of the all purpose flour used otherwise. I have also used onion and garlic, to bring in a flavour to the sauce along with thyme.
Layer, put everything in a baking tray, and let it bake for 35 to 40 minutes… Tadaa, the easy to bake, yummilicious pumpkin sweet potato gratin for this fall / Autumn / Herbst is ready !!!
Let’s look into the recipe quickly :
Ingredients :
Sweet Potato: 1 (large) (Peeled and Sliced)
Pumpkin: About 300 g (Deskinned and sliced)
Olive oil: 1 tbsp.
Mozzarella cheese: 1 cup
For Béchamel Sauce:
Milk: 400 ml
Cream: 200 ml
Corn Flour: 1.5 tbsp.
Olive Oil : 3 tbsp.
Onion: 2 (Chopped finely)
Garlic: 2 (Deskinned and minced)
Thyme: Little
Pepper powder: ½ tsp.
Salt : As per taste
Quick Video :
Method:
- Wash, peel the skin and make thin slices and keep aside. I use the potato slicer which comes with the grater to do this. It helps me making thin slices in no time
- Wash, carefully remove the outer later of the pumpkin and once again make thin slices and keep aside. Here again, I use the potato slicer to get thin slices
- Heat a pan, add 1 tbsp. of oil and fry minced garlic. Once the garlic turns golden brown, add the chopped onion and fry until translucent. It took me about 3 to 5 minutes in medium flame
- To the above, add 2 tbsp. of corn flour and fry until the raw smell of the flour goes off. Add 2 tbsp. of olive oil, mix well and continue frying for another 1 minute
- Now add 400 ml of milk and 200 ml. of cream and mix well. Bring it to boil. To this add little thyme, salt, pepper powder and mix well. This takes about 5 minutes of time over medium heat
- Before getting started with the next step, preheat the oven at 200 °C
- Grease the baking tray with a little olive oil. Line it with the sliced sweet potatoes as the first layer. Now, top it with little béchamel sauce. Next, layer it with pumpkin slices. Top it with little more of the béchamel sauce. As the next layer, add the remaining slices of sweet potato and pumpkin. Top it with remaining béchamel sauce
- Above this, sprinkle the grated mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle some thyme. Now, the gratin tray is ready to be baked
- Transfer the tray to the preheated oven and bake it at 200 °C for 35 to 40 minutes
- You can see that the top layer is crisp and crusty. Take it out and let it cool for some time. ( I let it cool for about 30 minutes before cutting and serving them. It lets the béchamel sauce to be absorbed by the layered slices of sweet potato and pumpkin, making the dish more tastier)
Once cool, it’s time to cut, slice and serve !!! Well, no, not the knife, but the scissors. Yes, according to me, the best way to cut the gratin is with the scissors. Usually, to cut the gratin with a crispy top layer, we end up applying more pressure, which otherwise is not required, thus disturbing the inner layers resulting in a mess. So, carefully pass the scissors through the layers reachin up to the bottom most layer. Pumpkin-sweet Potato Gratin is ready to relish !!!
Note :
- You can simply slice the vegetables using the slicer in the grater
- Once baked, let it cool down until warm. This is when the vegetable slices absorb the rich and tasty béchamel sauce in between
- Once it is warm enough, cut the gratin using a scissor. This ensures that the gratin is not torn while slicing
Pumpkin sweet potato gratin stories :
I have always been passionate about baking. Initially it started with cakes, then I progressed with cookies, cupcakes, chips, pizzas, and the rest simply kept following. Gratin has always interested me. The yummy gratin with potato and béchamel is something which one would love to have. This autumn, with lot of pumpkins in my pantry, I wanted to bake Gratin with it. After preparing my daughter’s favourite sweet potato paratha, I was left with 1 large sweet potato. So, I thought of layering slices of sweet potato with slices of pumpkin and bake yummy gratin. The béchamel sauce prepared, makes all the difference. The days I prepare this for lunch, we usually skip dinner. It is so very yummy and filling that we end up eating more and skipping our last meal of the day.
Whenever I bake something, my daughter will be head over heels to help me. Yes, she helps me in layering the veggies, sprinkling the cheese and herbs on top and watching the gratin being baked, while singing the Autumn / Herbst song. The pumkin art and the pumpkins in various shapes and sizes in the Pumpkin festival drew her even more closer to this vegetable. Even in Bangalore, the days I prepared pumpkin curry, she would only pick the vegetables from the vessel and eat them, just because they would be soft, spongy and of course, sweet 🙂
Leave a Reply