20 years ago, in my hey days, I was a EP swimmer. I gave it all up in high school.

What I remember the most about those days,  is not spending weekends doing time trials, or school holidays crammed into a bus driving around the country for swimming meets, or the fact that I never actually went to a pool like a normal kid to play. Whenever I went to the local pool it was to swim, I also don’t miss the fact that everything I owned used to smell like chlorine.

What I miss the most about swimming is the carbs. In our day we used to call it carbo loading. You could eat as much pasta as you liked, potatoes, and rolls and anything that helped you in the long run of course luxuries was a big no no. No cakes and sweets or anything sugary. Just to give you an idea of what I would nibble on when I felt for sugary treats, a green squeeze bottle of sports corn syrup wasn’t that tasty.

But back to the food. Every Sunday my mother would load the table full of sports required foods, there would be pastas galore and this baked dish and that baked dish and fish and chicken and roast meats piled high, but what I miss the most is the dish that she never every made enough of. Potatoe bake.

In our day, you could by the ready made powder, whisk in milk and pour it over sliced potatoes. I am not even sure if that potatoe bake powder still exists.

I was reading Mary Berry’s Sunday lunch’s cookbook, when I came across a recipe for potatoes au gratin, which sounded extremely fancy, but in fact is just like a potatoe bake. I gave it a try hoping that I would proof myself wrong and it would in fact me a fancy dish.

Sorry to disappoint, it looks like a potatoe bake, it is made like a potatoe bake and it most definitely takes like a potate bake.

The verdict, everyone thought it was a potatoe bake when I tried making them use the gratin word they told me I am not French… so sad I tell you.

Ingredients:

• 1 x cup cream.
• 1 x clove garlic, crushed.
• 1kg x potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced.
• A generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.
• 125g x gruyere cheese, grated.
• 2/3 x cup milk.

Method:

• Grease and oven proof dish.
• Pour the milk into the dish and mix in the crushed garlic.
• Layer the potatoe slices in the dish.
• In a jug milk the cream and seasoning together.
• Pour this over the potatoes.
• Top with the grated cheese and pop into a preheated oven.
• Bake at 180 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown and bubbly and the potatoes are soft.