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Side · In Afrikaans: Aartappelbak

Potato bake

Thinly sliced potatoes layered with onion, cream and brown onion soup powder, an hour and a half in the oven. The side that is finished at any braai before the fire is even lit.

The potato bake is South Africa's answer to a gratin, and the difference is printed on a packet: brown onion soup powder. It is not a shortcut, it is the ingredient that identifies the version.

Prep
25 min
On the fire
1 hr 15 min
Serves
8
Effort
easy
Potato bake in its dish, browned on top
pelican from Tokyo · CC BY-SA 2.0

When it goes on

Done beforehand

Made in the kitchen. On the table before you light up.

Equipment: Oven

This line

British period1806 to 1961Made at the Capelate 20th century to today

Chutneys, marinades, side salads — and the word chop.

Method

  1. Oven and dish

    Heat the oven to 180 °C. Butter a deep dish generously.

  2. Mix the cream

    Whisk the cream and soup powder smooth in a jug. The powder has to dissolve completely or you get lumps in the bake.

  3. Layer

    Lay down a layer of potato slices, scatter over some garlic, onion rings and mushrooms. Pour over a quarter of the cream mixture and season with thyme, salt and pepper. Repeat until everything is used — four layers is usual, finishing with potato.

  4. Bake covered

    Cover with foil and bake for an hour. The foil holds the steam, and the steam cooks the potatoes through without the top burning.

  5. Uncover and brown

    Take the foil off, scatter over cheese and breadcrumbs and bake for another 15 to 25 minutes, until golden and the potatoes give no resistance to a knife.

  6. Rest

    Ten minutes standing. Straight from the oven the cream runs out; after ten minutes it stays between the layers.

Tips

  • The potato bake is the side you make in the morning and only reheat in the evening. It does not suffer for it.
  • Without an oven it works in a cast-iron pot over low coals with coals on the lid — nearer an hour and a half, and check regularly.
  • Do not rinse the potatoes after slicing. The starch is what holds the bake together.

The potato bake is as much a given at South African braais as the wors, for a very practical reason: it occupies the oven, not the grid, and it is finished before the fire even has coals.

The ingredient Europeans trip over is brown onion soup powder. It supplies salt, roasted notes and thickening in one, and without it the dish tastes of cream and potato rather than of potato bake. Stock powder and onion granules get you close.

The rest is patience: an hour covered so the potatoes cook through, and only then uncovered for the crust.

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