Gluten free Scalloped potato casserole

In my last post I showed you how to make Cream of Mushroom soup for scratch, this post  uses that wonderful 'soup' and makes one of my favorite childhood dinners.

Above is the finished sauce, it's nicely thick and creamy with lots of flavor.

I started by slicing up some Yukon gold potatoes (I like to keep the skins on, so I washed them really well first).

Then I diced up some ham and shredded a few cups of cheddar cheese.

Then I began layering it. Sauce, potatoes, ham, cheese, repeat. Kind of like a lasagna.

I had a few slices of Havarti cheese that needed to get used up so it got thrown on top.

Even with the Mushroom soup, the casserole will look a little on the dry side, DO NOT add any liquid, the potatoes have enough in them to merry everything together nicely. If you add any liquid it could turn in to a soup like mess, it all depends on your 'soup', mine was nice and liquid-y so I knew I didn't need to add anything.

 I had so much extra that I took two pie tins and filled them the same way for freezer meals to use later.

                                       

These came in handy  when I was too busy to cook dinner. I just  thawed them and popped them in the over until cooked. I would recommend cooking them before storing them in the freezer. I did not and it left me with too much liquid, it was tastily, just not as good as the original. So assemble, cook, then freeze for later. You get to learn from my mistake.

I of course didn't take any pictures once it was done because we were so hungry and ate it all before I remembered :/  I gotta stop doing that...but trust me it was amazing and look good to boot.

Cream of mushroom soup from scratch

Last fall a good friend of mine went mushroom hunting for the first time. Her uncle taught her how to find and harvest Chanterelles. She came home with a huge haul and knowing she couldn't eat them all she offered some to me (ok it was a really big bag, close to 3lbs worth).

 My friend can be a picky eater, if I make gravy with dinner I have to call it a 'sauce' or she wont eat it, I also can't cook with beans while she's over, beans are a no no (and shes in denial that the rice cakes at uwajimaya have bean paste in them, even if the label plainly tells you).
It's funny to find out peoples eating habits. Not just the childish 'my food can't touch each other' but likes and dislikes that have stayed with them for years. I myself have a weird love/hate relationship with bananas. I don't like them in anything but banana bread or by themselves, I once put them in a warm quinoa  porridge and felt sick after the first bite, warm banana overload.

My friend was always picky about what she was eating, picking plain items on the menu so she knew exactly what she was eating,  mushrooms were included in her list of questionable things to eat. She just didn't like not knowing where they came from, and like a lot of people she was used to those button mushrooms that tend to get slimy. Learning to pick Chanterelles help her learn how tasty  and different mushrooms can be.

With my abundance of mushrooms I decided one thing I had to make was cream of mushroom soup from scratch.
As a kid our pantry had 3 types of Campbell's soups as staples. Tomato, Chicken noodle, and Cream of Mushroom.  The first two were for rainy days to warm us up and fill our bellies. The cream of mushroom however, was never used as and actual soup, it was made into a pasta sauce or topped pork chops before being thrown in the oven to bake. My favorite way we used it was to make scalloped potatoes (which is in an up coming post) but it consists of layers of sliced potatoes, ham, cheddar cheese and cream of mushroom soup.


To begin the 'soup' I cleaned and chopped the mushrooms into smaller pieces. I then cooked them in small batches, making sure there was enough room for them to brown nicely. An over crowded pan won't let them brown well (and browning is the key to unlocking that wonderful flavor for a soup or sauce) it could be even better id I didn't use a non-stick pan but the one I have is too small, I work with what I have.

 

Next was to saute the leeks (Mr.Beam can't have normal onions so we use leeks, green onions and dehydrated onion if needed) I let them get nice a wilted. if you were using a bulb onion you would cook it until it was translucent.

Then I added the mushrooms back in and seasoned with salt and pepper. I also added a little ground coriander to add depth and flavor.

I added some sour cream and heavy cream and let it bubble for a bit

Technically your soup could be done now but I went a step further and took the emulsion blender to it.

And there you have it! 

I used this right away to make some scalloped potatoes. If I had any left I would of put it in the freezer for later use.