Mushroom & Potato Gratin

Wow, amazing how fast a week can fly by!  Sorry for not posting quite as frequently recently--my job is keeping me a bit busier these days, which means I don't get to cook as often (nor blog).  Anyhow, I'm still determined to post and cook most days (*fingers crossed*) and was delighted to make this a few nights ago.  It is really awesome and not a terrible amount of work, despite being two recipes in one.  The first part is that you have to make a mushroom sauté, which is basically cooking the mushrooms and seasoning them.  After that, you assemble the gratin and pop it in the oven.  It's not a quick recipe, but I still managed to get it in on a weeknight (because I'm crazy like that lol).  I chose it as a side to go with ham steak slices; it was quite good with them, but I think it would go even better with other meats.
Here is the link to the original (which contains a link to the mushroom part):
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/mushroom-potato-gratin.aspx?nterms=52830,53248

Ingredients:

--mushroom sauté--
1 T. olive oil
1 T. unsalted butter
1 lb. white/button mushrooms (or mixture of others), sliced
1 tsp. bottled minced garlic
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
herbes de provence

--gratin--

1 T. unsalted butter, softened
1 c. chicken broth
1 c. heavy cream
2 1/2 lb. russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
1 T. fresh thyme leaves, chopped
2 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
2 oz. Gruyère, finely grated

Instructions:

1. To make the mushroom sauté: Heat the oil and butter in a 12" sauté pan over medium heat until butter foams.

2. Add mushrooms and garlic to pan, and sprinkle with salt.  Cook mushrooms for around 2 minutes, until they begin to release their moisture.

3. Increase the heat to medium-high.  Once the mushrooms begin to sizzle, cook for 5 minutes, but only stir every one minute.

4. Cook additional 2 minutes with little to no stirring, or until mushrooms have started to brown nicely at the edges.

5. Remove from heat and add pepper and herbes de Provence to taste.  Reserve mushrooms for use in gratin.

6. To make gratin: heat oven to 375°F.  Use the softened butter to generously coat 9"x13" baking dish (I used glass).

7. Place sautéed mushrooms in a bowl.  Return sauté pan to stove and heat to medium-high.  Add chicken broth and cook just long enough to release the browned bits from the sauté.  (Since I used a non-stick pan, I just swirled the pan with the broth and did not bother heating.)

8. Pour broth into a glass measuring cup with a pour spout.  Add cream and sitr to combine.

9.  In a large bowl, toss the potatoes with the thyme, salt, and several grinds of pepper.

10. Use half of potatoes to line bottom of the baking dish, overlapping (makes potatoes about 2 layers).

11. Top the half of potatoes with the sautéed mushrooms, spreading as evenly as possible.

12. Use remaining potatoes to make another double, overlapped layer.

13. Pour broth/cream mixture over potatoes.

14. Top with Gruyère.

15. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

16. Remove foil, use spatula to press down potatoes (mine didn't press much, so I'm not sure this was needed), then bake for additional 30 minutes.

17. After removing from oven, let gratin rest for 15 minutes before serving.  Enjoy!