Individual Potato Chard Terrines: comfort in a ramekin
Deep winter has arrived, and with it, the need for comfort food, like Individual Potato Chard Terrines. Yesterday Boston tied its record for most snow in a single day, just shy of two feet (.61 meters), had the storm started just a little bit later Friday night, we would have broken it.
My native New Hampshire may scoff, but we did go from no snow on the ground to full-blown winter in a day. And, given the cold temperatures, it’s unlikely to go anywhere early this week. We have hope for things warming up next week.
Until then, we go to our ovens for comfort.
A recipe I’ve tweaked over the years
I used to make something like this as a vegetarian main course back in the day. However, the recipe I had called for entirely too much butter, cheese, and cream, and the recipe as written always wound up a bit messy.
I’ve made adjustments over the years and got the dairy amounts right (we’re still definitely in comfort food territory), but I still would wind up with too much of it to have it in regular rotation. So, this winter, I’ve experimented with making them individual sized. Behold, they are good.
Individual terrines—just enough, and all the good bits
Making these Potato Chard Terrines individual sized means that each serving has edges and nice centers, meaning that every serving has the best of the worlds. They also bake more quickly, making this dish doable on a weeknight (the full-sized terrine takes over an hour to bake).
Easy assembly
If you have a mandoline, your prep work won’t take but a minute (but be super careful!). Use it to get even, thin slices, which will layer better and cook evenly. Otherwise, just remove the center stem from the chard leaves and cut it into ribbons.
Assemble in layers, with salt and pepper, butter, and grated Gruyere (you can substitute cheddar or Swiss). Pour a bit of cream over the ramekins, grate some nutmeg, and add a final dot of butter. Cover with foil and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a knife passes easily through the potatoes. Then remove the foil and bake for another five minutes.
Recipe and video below. Subscribe today and get access to every recipe, all in one place, with the Wonder & Sundry Recipe Box.
Individual Potato Chard Terrines
Equipment
- 1 Mandoline This makes short work of slicing the potatoes, but do take extreme care in using
- 2 ramekins
Ingredients
- 1 small russet potato, sliced thinly using a mandoline or a very sharp knife see note
- 2 medium chard leaves, center rib removed, and sliced into ribbons
- ⅕ cup Gruyere cheese, shredded substitute cheddar or swiss
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
- 2 tsp unsalted butter, cut into little cubes, plus a little more to grease the ramekins this is approximate. See instructions
- kosher salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- freshly grated nutmeg, optional to taste
- cut clove of garlic to rub the ramekin
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two ramekins with butter and then rub with the cut clove of garlic
- In one of the ramekins, begin by making a layer of potato. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dot with one or two of the little butter cubes, breaking them in half as you do so. Next, add a layer of chard (it will be bulky, but it will cook down). Sprinkle with cheese. Repeat two more times, pressing down on the chard to make a little more room. Repeat the whole process with the second ramekin
- Place ramekins on a baking sheet. Pour one tablespoon of cream over the ramekin and grate a little nutmeg on top
- Cover the ramekins with foil (be careful not to have the foil too close to the cheese, as it will stick a bit) and then bake about 25-30 minutes, or you can insert a knife through the potatoes easily. Remove the foil, and then bake for another 5 minutes or until the cheese and chard have browned a bit (optional)
- Serve in the ramekins
Video
Notes
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