Packet Meals - Creamy Herb & Garlic Potato Bake

Side dish time, and one of my favourites is a good potato bake. It's potato. It's creamy. It's cheesy. And it's often got some other nice things in it. They really can be an all in one side dish, or possibly even an entire meal if you like.

^{This is what we're making today}

This packet mix contains all the flavouring parts of the sauce that provides the creaminess to the dish.

Ingredients

^{All ingredients in one photo again! I'm getting good at this thing (famous last words)}

Masterfoods Oven Easy Creamy Herb & Garlic Potato Bake Recipe Base (the packet mix)
1 kg Potatoes, thinly sliced
1 cup thickened Cream (it suggests light...)
1 Onion, diced
120 grams Bacon, diced (about 4 shortcut slices)
1 cup Grated Cheese

I also added:

6 Button Mushrooms, halved and sliced
Parmesan Cheese

^{That's about the size I decided to go with for my dice of the bacon and onion}

^{Most of the potato is around 3 mm thick slices, but some are probably closer to 5 mm and a couple are thinner. Need to work on that accuracy}

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 220 C.
• Layer half the Potatoes in a medium baking dish.

^{An Idea of the size of baking dish I used.}

^{3 layers of potato was half of my slices by my guess}

• Top with Half the Onion, Bacon, and Mushrooms.

^{It doesn't look like enough of the bacon and mushroom. Probably enough Onion though}

• Layer the remaining Potatoes.
• Top with the remaining Onion, Bacon, and Mushrooms.

^{I got almost 3 complete layers of potato in the second half. Was out by about 2 slices. And so close to filling the dish already}

• Mix the Cream and Recipe Base in a jug until well combined.
• Pour the mixture over the prepared dish to evenly cover all the surface.

^{So close to being full and there's still cheese to go onto the top, but first it bakes}

• Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
• Remove from the Oven and remove the foil.

^{Oh thankfully it's shrunk quite a bit while baking. Time to fill that space up with Cheese!}

• Top with the Grated Cheese
• Grate over as much Parmesan Cheese as you want.

^{Well, I could have fit more cheese in there, but I think this is enough}

• Return to the oven for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft and the cheese is golden.

^{So nicely golden. I did need to turn the dish around and bake for another 5 minutes to get the colour nice and even.}

I chose to serve this with one of the stuffed Chicken.

^{A slice of the Potato Bake never really stays in a nice neat stack}

Thoughts

I really needed to slice my potato thinner. Or Bake at a hotter temperature to start with. I'm actually fairly convinced that my portable oven isn't really as hot as the temperature dial reports. I really need to get an oven thermometer again. I think this because even after the 45 minutes, then 15 minutes, then another 5 minutes, and another 10 minutes later on, There was still quite a few bits of potato that were still cooked but firm, where they should be soft.

I didn't think there was a lot of garlic flavour to it, and no noticeable herbs, so I'd be adding some fresh of both if I were to make it again. I was also glad that I seasoned with salt and pepper after finishing the layering, as it got all through the dish.

The cheese was perfect. A crisp outer and nice and stringy. As was the bacon.
The Onion I'd dice smaller in future, and the mushroom mostly disappeared, so maybe more of it would be a good plan.

Previous Packet Meals

Chicken Korma
Steak, Veggies and Diane Sauce
Farmhouse Chicken Casserole
Pasta Carbonara
Roast Chicken, Veggies and Gravy
Chicken and Mushroom Risotto
Spanish Chicken and Chorizo Paella