How To Cook Scalloped Potatoes with Fish Without a Recipe

Recently a friend mentioned that you can make boxed scalloped potatoes using a rice cooker. In case you find yourself in an emergency that requires such a thing, there you go. Under any other normal circumstance, why not make them fresh? I haven’t used a box in 20 years because they’re not hard to make and wouldn’t you prefer to be in control of the ingredients? There is so much more freedom in cooking without a recipe.

To decide how much I could make, I first measured my milk. Pouring two cups, I then assessed the potatoes. I decided 8 russets of varying sizes would work well for that amount using this casserole dish.

Preheating my oven, I realized I had a butternut squash that I could cook at the same time. Why not save myself some time and energy later? So I cut the squash in half and placed the oiled, cut side down on a cookie sheet.

I had planned to serve dover sole because that’s what I had defrosted in the refrigerator. While it would have been fine to serve the squash with this dinner, I didn’t think the colors and textures would be very interesting together, so that’s why I served the mushrooms and green beans instead.

Making Scalloped Potatoes

You will need to grate some cheese and slice some potatoes. I do that while my sauce is simmering. I couldn’t find the thinnest slicing disk for my food processor, so I used the 4 mm. Actually I think I prefer the thicker slices. They just require a little longer to cook.

Also choose some seasonings. Yes, you are in charge of the ingredients! In this case, I decided on some Herbs de Provence, garlic powder, salt and smoked paprika. You can flavor it with just about anything you like. Some years ago, a friend gave me a seasoning blend that contained vanilla and lavender. It was delicious in scalloped potatoes. So, experiment and develop your intuition in the kitchen. Cooking without a recipe is easy.

The Sauce

In a saucepan I melted about a tablespoon of butter and then added roughly twice that much of flour. I just wanted to start cooking a paste to thicken the milk that I would add after a couple minutes of whisking the flour/butter mixture. I added a small amount of milk at first to make sure it incorporated smoothly with the flour. Make sure you don’t leave any clumps of flour around the edge of the pan. Then you can add the rest of the milk and let it come to a simmer while whisking every minute or two. Cook it until it reaches the consistency of a thick gravy: 5-10 minutes. Then take it off the heat and stir in a couple handfuls of grated cheese.

Putting It Together

As I pulled ingredients together, I realized that I had some unused broccoli stems, so I peeled and sliced those too. Yes, broccoli stems are tender and delicious once you peel them. They’re great on their own raw, but I decided to bake them with the potatoes. Zero waste cooking!

So, here’s how I do the potatoes: Grease the bottom and sides of the casserole dish. Scatter about half of the potato slices and then the broccoli slices. Sprinkle a little salt on them and pour about half of the sauce over the potatoes. Sprinkle a handful of cheese on top. Scatter the rest of the potatoes in another layer and pour the rest of the sauce on top. Top with another handful of cheese. In all, I used about four handfuls of grated cheese. I have small hands. 6 ounces? You can use more or less. You are in charge when cooking without a recipe!

I baked both the squash and the potatoes for an hour. I covered the potatoes for the first 40 minutes. You know both vegetables are ready once the middle is tender when pierced with a fork. If your potatoes are thinner or your layers shallower, it will cook faster. If your layers are deeper, it takes longer.

After removing the vegetables from the oven, I put the fish into the oven on a cookie sheet. Dover sole takes under ten minutes to cook as it is so thin and delicate. It will be opaque and flake with a fork when it’s ready. That’s how to prepare fish without overcooking it.

The potatoes need to rest before serving, so it works well to put the fish in at this point. Anything with cheese and sauce needs to set up a bit before plating. During that time, I scooped a bit of the butternut squash into a small food processor and pureed. Then I added some lemon juice and pureed again. I thought it would be a nice foil for the fish. You could serve it on top of the fish, but I decided to put a dollop on the side for dipping instead. A little pop of flavor to accompany fish is always welcome.

Want more ideas on how to prepare fish and cooking without a recipe? Read Fearless About Fish next.