comfort food

Oh my giddy aunt! It's blowing a gale and the crane is spinning round like a weathervane, which makes me slightly nervous, but BB assures me there's only a 10% chance of it falling over! I had to light the wood burner this morning, it was so chilly. Comfort food was in order. I've still got three sacks of last year's potatoes and what better CF combination than potatoes and cheese - gratin dauphinois it was then - again.

We're trying to decide on the heating system for the mill at the moment and geothermal is looking like the best option. A representative from France Géothermie came to the house today to explain how it works and what it involves (drilling a 120 m bore hole and parting with a large capital sum). The alternative is wood, which we use in our present house, but it's very labour intensive. We have to cut down the tree, split it into 1.08 m lengths and leave to dry out for at least a year. Then it has to be chopped into smaller lengths and stacked and collected from the wood shed twice a day in winter. With geothermal we can have cosy under-floor heating at the flick of a switch - and be eco friendly. Tough decision.

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Gratin dauphinois

Ingredients

Serves 4

8 waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into ¼ inch/6 mm slices

16 fl oz/450 ml cream

5 garlic cloves

Sprig each of rosemary and thyme

4 oz/112 g Gruyère cheese

Salt and pepper

Put the potatoes, cream, 4 lightly crushed garlic cloves and herbs in a pot, season, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer into a gratin dish (after discarding the garlic and herbs - but I like to keep them in) that has been rubbed with the remaining garlic clove, sprinkle with grated cheese and cook in the oven until brown - about 40 minutes at 350°F/180°C.