Potato, Sprout and Pancetta Dauphinoise

Ingredients (serves 6)

• 2 onions 
• 200g brussels sprouts 
• 30g butter 
• 200g smoked pancetta 
• 1 garlic clove 
• 3 sprigs of thyme  
• 5-7 Maris Piper potatoes (Desirees would also work) 
• 300ml double cream 
• 100ml crème fraiche  
• 300ml milk 
• Pinch freshly grated nutmeg 
• Salt and ground white pepper 

Method

1. Heat the oven to 170°C. 
2. Halve, peel and thinly slice the onion. Thinly slice the brussels sprouts. 
   Pick the thyme leaves and finely chop. 
3. Cut the pancetta into lardons. Pour a little oil in a large frying pan and place on a low-medium heat.  
4. Add the lardons to the pan and slowly render out the fat until they are golden and crisp. Remove from the pan, keeping the rendered fat to use later. 
5. Melt the butter in a medium pan with the rendered pancetta fat and sweat the onion using a cartouche until starting to soften. Once soft, add the sliced sprouts and cook for 2 minutes until starting to wilt a little. Add in the garlic and chopped thyme and cook for 2 minutes. 
6. Wash and peel the potatoes, then slice thinly, about 2mm thickness. 
7. Add both creams, milk and nutmeg to the pan and bring to a simmer. Add the sliced potatoes, salt, pepper and the rendered pancetta lardons and simmer for 10 minutes until the potatoes soften slightly. 
8. Transfer to a lightly buttered straight sided roasting tin. Spread the potatoes into an even layer and make sure the top layer is neat. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes – 1 hour approximately until the potatoes are tender. You can check this with a skewer and there should be no resistance.