Spinach Bacon Potato Mille Feuille

So the Holidays were great, didn't feel much like Christmas in the heat, but my tan is looking great and I'm surrounded by the abundant fruits of summer so I shan't complain!

We spent a week with my sister Kate in a campervan in Tasmania. The culinary highlights from that trip decidedly deserved their own week of posting, but we were too busy living life on the road to bother to take pictures. But it was a ton of fun and I have a new favorite chocolate brand {House of Anvers}

New Years in Sydney Harbour was IN.CRED.I.BLE. Fireworks, millions of people, gorgeous summer weather, striking lights, jubilant sounds, total atmosphere. Unreal. Will never forget it.

It was the last hurrah, sending us off {yes, we took it as our own going-away party, thrown in our honor {narcissist much?}} on our way to our new home in Melbourne. Can't remember how much I've said on this blog, but we're in the middle of a move, a move that has taken the last 3 months of our lives!

At the moment we are down in Ben's small, rustic apartment, still in the search of a house. However, the light is at the end of the tunnel and we think we'll be out of here in a couple of short {long} weeks. I can't wait to get back to a real kitchen, with my real tools and days worth of ingredients.

However, necessity is always the mother of invention, and that has never been more true for me than now. Cooking with what I have on hand -ingredients and tools... it's been a challenge. Which can be fun.

It did produce this little gem afterall.

I bought these gorgeous potatoes -will get the official name tomorrow, at a local market and they were so perfect. Tender without being mushy, tons of flavor, gorgeous. Bacon was nice and smokey, spinach added something different and some nutrients to cook out, and the shallots are for sure my go-to flavor-of-the-month.

Made them tarte-like individual because a muffin dish was all I had on hand, since it is like one of 3 pans I have right now. It was tedious but I thought it would be nice for company and this definitely looked and tasted like something fancy you'd be served in a restaurant.

I am missing, so much, my mandolin which would have saved a lot of time. But I did prove you could cut these by hand no worries!

Spinach Bacon Potato Mille Feuille

Sauce:

1-2 shallots or 1/2 regular onion
1 clove garlic
2 T. butter
1 T. flour
1/4 c. cream
1 cup milk
sea salt to taste

additional ingredients:

3 Potatoes {checking on name}
shredded cheese of your choice {used mozzarella}
1-2 pieces cooked bacon
handful of spinach

Make sauce by melting butter. Add diced shallot or onion, and minced garlic. Season with sea salt, about 1/2 tsp. Saute until translucent.

Add flour, cook for one minute. Add milk and cream all at once, whisking briskly. Cook over medium heat until sauce boils. Boil to thicken, then remove from heat, adding additional milk if sauce is too thick {it will thicken much further when baked, you don't want it to be gluey}

To prepare and assemble:

Slice or mandolin potatoes as thin, and uniform as possible. Mince or tear spinach. Crumble bacon. Have shredded cheese ready.

Grease muffin tin. Add one spoonful of sauce to each cup. Layer small amount of potato slices and then top with small amount of cheese, bacon, and spinach

Top with more sauce, and then repeat again with potatoes, cheese, bacon, and spinach

Repeat until cups are full. Top with cheese and Parmiggiano if desired.

Bake at 350 / 190 degrees for about 1/2 hour or until cheese is browned, sauce is bubbly, and potatoes are tender.

*Makes 6 cups, serves 4-6

There are so many ways that you could change or adapt this, the most obvious being that you could make it in a small casserole instead of individually. You could also top it with crushed corn flakes or something else for a nice crunch... switch out the smokey bacon for any other desired flavor. So many options. I think it would be great with green onions or chives, and more green color always looks beautiful!

PS the cups look a little sunken because I asked Ben to move them from the bottom to the top in the oven and poor guy was unfamiliar with silicon baking dishes. {I don't let him into the kitchen except in emergencies} He spilled a lot of the bubbly out. He also then asked me why I put rubber in the oven. Isn't he cute?