Delmonico Potatoes

Boil the potatoes in salted water until they are cooked firm, about 20 or 30 minutes. Let them cool, then dice them into ½-inch cubes.

Cook the rice in 1 C of water with ¼ t of salt. Cook until soft, about 20 minutes. Drain.

Make 3 cups of medium white sauce: heat the milk in a saucepan; in another saucepan, melt butter and brown flour in it. When flour is brown, dump hot milk all at once into flour/butter mixture. Add salt and pepper, simmer for 10 minutes or more, stirring frequently. Into the white sauce, stir ½ pound of grated cheddar and the rice. Mix well.

Mix the sauce with the cold potatoes, then pour into a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle generously with 1½ pounds of cheddar. Bake 1 hour at 325 F.

Let it cool and put it in the refrigerator. Wait at least a day. Then reheat and serve.

NOTES:

* A casserole of potatoes, rice and cheese — This recipe has been in my family for 100 years. The family legend was that it came from the Delmonico Hotel in New York, whose chef, Charles Ranhofer, had given it to my great-great grandfather under some circumstance in the 1880's. I and alas, it contains no recipe that even remotely resembles this one.

Who knows? Maybe my great-grandmother got it from a newspaper. I guess it doesn't matter much. I've watched 4 generations in my family grow fatter and happier eating these potatoes, so who cares where it came from `way back then.

* My grandmother always peeled the potatoes when she made this recipe; I economics teachers that unpeeled potatoes were a sign of moral decay.

* The most maddening thing about this recipe is how much better it tastes the second day. There is no reason why you can't eat it fresh out of the oven, but if you can muster the will power to put it aside after it has cooked and to let it wait a day, the flavor will improve dramatically.

: Difficulty: easy. : Time: 1 hour to prepare, 1 hour to cook, 1 day to wait. : Precision: Approximate measurement OK.

: Brian Reid : DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto CA

Your Delmonico Potatoes is ready. Happy cooking!