Potato, Bacon & Onion Hotpot

I found this recipe on the internet a LONG time ago. I wish I’d had the foresight to save the address of the website. It was a personal website and I do not know if it was even their original recipe. I am letting you know it is not my original recipe. If it is yours and you can prove to me it is your original recipe, I would be more than happy to give you credit and provide a link back to your website listing the recipe.

 What you Need:

1. 8 oz of bacon pieces, sliced
2. 2 Large potatoes or 4-5 smaller ones, peeled and sliced thinly
3. a big onion, sliced
4. half a pint of milk
5. 1 TB of flour
6. 1 dab of butter

Slice the bacon, potatoes and onion thinly and set to one side for the moment. Make a straight-forward basic white sauce. Melt the butter in the pan- do not brown the butter. Add a good-sized handful of plain flour, and stir it in so that a greasy paste is formed. Throw in a bayleaf and some black pepper but do not add any salt. When the flour and butter are properly and evenly mixed and heated through, remove the pan from the heat and add a slosh of the milk. Stir the flour/ butter paste quickly into the milk- it is important to dissolve the paste as evenly as possible in the milk at this stage.

 As the initial sauce thickens from the heat of the pan, add some more milk- you can add quite a lot now- and stir the thickened sauce thoroughly into the cold milk. Return the pan to the heat and heat it gently, stirring thoroughly all round the pan so that the sauce does not stick to the bottom or sides. As it nears boiling point, the milky sauce mixture will start to thicken again. Adjust the sauce with more milk and re-heat it.

Take an oven-proof dish, a casserole, and grease the inside with a smear of butter. Spread a layer of about a quarter of the sliced potato over the bottom. Sprinkle on about a third of the sliced onion and then about a third of the bacon. Grate some black pepper over and add another layer of potato, onion and bacon, and then another layer of potato, onion and bacon. Finish it off with a covering layer of the last of the sliced potato. Pour the white sauce over, cover and casserole in a medium oven for 1 – 2 hours, removing the cover for the last half hour to brown the top a bit if it needs it. To serve, cut it across in quarters and see if you can get each serving out in a piece.