Gratin of Sweet Potatoes, Carmelized Onion and Garlic

Sweet Potato Gratin

Beautiful day

I like to recreate foods I find at restaurants that I enjoy. So, I had this sliced sweet potato dish layered with caramelized onions at a restaurant the other night with Saltimboca chicken.  This was by far the best  food on the plate, so I've recreated my own version.  It was a hit yesterday on  our day out sailing, was great at room temperature. 

Ethan, Emma and Granpa Jim

Our 23' Sailboat, Kipahulu...wonderful for summer fun with family & friends.

Ingredients:

About 6 medium size sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in half lengthwise

2 medium yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 Tbsp dried thyme

1 envelop of dried onion soup mix

1/2 stick of butter, unsalted

A few Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

12 slices of swiss or asiago cheese

Tools:

Food processor with thinnest slicing disc

9X13 Glass baking dish

Potato peeler

Place the thinly sliced onions in a cast iron skillet with EVOO, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.  Cook over medium heat until onions become translucent, then reduce heat to medium low and let cook down for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  

Add chopped garlic and dried thyme, cook stirring frequently for another 5 minutes.

While the onions are cooking, feed the sweet potatoes through the feeder tube to have about 8 C of thinly sliced sweet potatoes. 

Place a coating of olive oil in the glass dish and layer in 1/2 of the sliced sweet potatoes, top with dots of the butter and sprinkle on the dried soup mix.  When onions and garlic are done,

spread the layer over the sweet potatoes and top with the remaining sweet potatoes, cover with foil and bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Remove from oven top with cheese slice and place under the broiler, watch closely and remove when cheese is bubbly.

I meant to get mine a little more browned, but brown the cheese to  your liking.

Note: Don't go overboard on the salt in the onions, because the soup mix and cheese are salty too.

Camping/boating tip....

we also took kabobs on wooden skewers to cook.  After threading the meat and veggies on the skewers, I used shear and clipped the sharp point of of the skewer, then double bagged the kabobs in freezer bags and added Italian dressing to marinate until time to grill.

Ethan and Emma being ornery.