Potato and mushroom goat cheese gratin en croute
Even professional chefs get the Thanksgiving Day jitters. Just ask Quinn and Karen Hatfield, the couple who own Hatfield’s restaurant (he’s the chef, she’s the pastry chef) and the recently opened Sycamore Kitchen.
“I feel like I forget how to cook a turkey every year,” says Quinn, who’s inclined to prepare it differently each time: roasted; grilled; the legs removed, deboned and rolled into a roulade stuffed with foie gras or chorizo; butterflied; deep-fried.
This year it’s smoked turkeys (a couple of Willie Birds ordered from Harvey’s Guss), prepared on his Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, a Father’s Day gift from Karen, their 2-year-old son, Bennett, and 5-year-old daughter, Paige.
Also on the holiday menu: a potato and mushroom gratin layered with bechamel and goat cheese and topped with a flaky pastry crust, cherry-pear mostarda for the turkey, roasted squash and Karen’s pumpkin pie with browned-butter-pecan-and-pepita streusel.
Smoking the turkey is a preemptive maneuver on Quinn’s part. “Cooking out of the house frees up kitchen space,” he says. “I’m a big proponent of not fighting over the oven.”
No matter how he cooks the turkey, it is always brined, Quinn says, with a mixture of water, salt, brown sugar, garlic, peppercorns, rosemary and thyme. “Brine is critical,” Quinn says. “It helps get that beautiful color and absorb the smoke flavor.”
His brining tip: Place the turkey in a bucket filled with brine, then top it with ice so it doesn’t have to go into the refrigerator. “Trying to find room for a bucket in the refrigerator is impossible, and we have a big fridge.” (The same brine, by the way, is used before roasting the turkey breasts at the Sycamore Kitchen for Karen’s excellent turkey sandwiches.)
The gratin, warm and rich and cheesy, is a throwback to the Hatfields’ early Thanksgivings, back when they used portobellos instead of maitake mushrooms. “One of our best Thanksgiving Days was in a tiny New York apartment after getting off of work at Jean-Georges, crammed with people, with no ventilation, so we’d have to open the windows but it’d be freezing outside,” says Karen.
Since then they’ve moved into a house in the lush hills of Laurel Canyon, and this Thanksgiving it’s a tossup between hosting dinner on their patio or, as is tradition, heading to the Pacific Palisades home of Karen’s parents. “It’s great, two chefs doing the cooking,” says Karen’s dad, Larry Friedman. “But I’m the one dishwasher.”
On the Hatfields’ kitchen counter is a recent farmers market score: a pile of confection and kabocha squashes from Weiser Farms for roasting with honey, sherry vinegar, a little chile de arbol, rosemary and black pepper until the cut edges are browned and slightly curled.
“Kabocha is my favorite,” says Quinn. “You can make it savory; you can use it in dessert. It has a deeper flavor. And you can eat the skin.”
Karen always makes extra desserts. Being chefs, “we don’t know how to cook for just six,” she says. “And we don’t hold back.”
The same dough that tops the gratin can be used for an apple galette. Cut the dough into a desired shape, top it with thinly sliced apples and brush them with jam, then bake.
Her piece de resistance might be the pumpkin pie. “I never make the same pumpkin pie recipe twice. But this one we’ve been doing on weekends at the Sycamore Kitchen, so I’m kind of fond of it.” Her crust is among the flakiest. She says it all comes down to technique. All of her pie dough is mixed by hand (no food processor), folding and rolling the butter in, almost like a rough puff pastry dough. “It can make a mess, but once you’re in the habit of doing it, it yields a more flaky, delicate crust. Doing it by hand is the only way you can get a feel for what you’re doing.
“I’m always looking for the perfect pumpkin pie recipe,” not too sweet with a dark crust (“brown is good”), “not too much spice but a little is nice, the right texture -- not too firm, not too soft.”
She cuts into her pumpkin pie, revealing a custardy interior and layers of flaky, golden-brown crust. This one might be it.
Galette dough
Cut the butter into thick pieces (about 2 tablespoons each) and place in the freezer for 10 minutes to harden slightly. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the salt and water until the salt is dissolved. Place the mixture in the freezer for 10 minutes to chill.
Meanwhile, on a large, flat surface, spread the flour into a fairly large rectangle about one-fourth inch thick. Place the cold butter pieces on top, and sprinkle a little of the flour on top of each piece.
Use a rolling pin to press down on the pieces of butter, flattening them and rolling over them, to create sheets of fat. Use a bench scraper to gather the flour and butter sheets together and repeat to continue flattening the butter. Eventually, the butter and flour will begin to look like dried-out flakes of paint.
Gather the mixture again into a pile, and form a well in the center. Pour the cold salt water in the center of the well, along with the sugar. Slowly incorporate the flour and butter sheets into the well, working from the outside of the flour pile with the bench scraper and watching that the water does not escape from the well. Continue working just until the mixture comes together to form a dough. The dough will look a little dry at first but, once chilled, will come together.
Form the dough into a disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill the dough for at least 2 hours.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. To cook the potatoes, fill a large stockpot halfway with water and bring to a boil, and lightly salt the water.
Meanwhile, heat a saute pan over medium-high heat until hot. Melt 2 tablespoons butter, then add the mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms in the butter until softened and lightly colored, about 6 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt and remove from heat, placing the mushrooms in a bowl.
In a large saucepan, melt the remaining three-fourths cup butter over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk to create a roux; continue to cook gently for a few minutes until it begins to turn a blond color. While whisking, gradually add the milk to form the bechamel, careful to beat smooth any lumps. Continue whisking until the bechamel sauce comes to a gentle simmer and begins to thicken. Simmer very gently, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, add the goat cheese and sage, and whisk until smooth. Season with a generous one-fourth teaspoon salt and one-fourth teaspoon pepper, or to taste. Keep the sauce in a warm place; if it gets too thick, add some milk to achieve a pourable consistency.
Slice the potatoes into disks about one-third-inch thick using a mandolin or knife. Add the potatoes to the pot of boiling water and allow it to return to a simmer. Lower the heat and gently simmer until the potatoes are still a bit firm in the center, about 5 minutes; drain in a large colander.
Place a layer of potatoes in the bottom of a 3 1/2- to 4-quart pan or rondeau, and spoon some bechamel over just to cover. Place the sauteed maitake mushrooms over the layer of bechamel. Add another layer of potatoes, topping that with enough bechamel to cover completely.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the galette dough to a disk wide enough to cover the gratin in the pan, about one-half-inch thick. Place the galette dough over the bechamel sauce, and brush with the egg wash. Slice a few vent holes in the dough.
Place the pan in the oven and bake until the filling is bubbly and the top is a nice golden-brown, about 1 hour. Set the gratin on a rack to cool 10 minutes before serving.
Get our Cooking newsletter.
Your roundup of inspiring recipes and kitchen tricks.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
