RECIPE DOCTOR
Cheddar comfort with fewer calories

By Elaine Magee
Knight Ridder News Service

Q. I have been successfully trimming extra fat and calories from my diet ... I miss au gratin potatoes and would really appreciate it if you could lighten them for me.

A. To make this lighter, I switched to fat-free half-and-half, cut the butter down from a stick of butter to 1 1/2 tablespoons and increased the fat-free half-and-half to compensate for the lost moisture from the butter. Using reduced-fat sharp cheddar instead of regular (and using a little less) also helped.

Au Gratin Potatoes

• 3 large russet potatoes, cut into ¥-inch slices
• 1 onion, sliced into thin rings
• Pepper to taste (add salt to taste if desired)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free half-and-half (low-fat milk can be substituted)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese (i.e., Kraft 2 percent sharp cheddar)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat the inside of a 1-quart casserole dish with canola cooking spray.

Layer a third of the potatoes into the bottom of the prepared casserole dish. Top with half of the onion slices and add pepper to taste. Add half of the remaining potatoes on top of the onion slices. Then add the remaining onions and add pepper to taste. Layer the last of the potatoes on top of this.

In a medium-size saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and let the butter brown slightly; remove from the heat. In a small bowl, whisk the flour and salt with 4 tablespoons of the fat-free half-and-half. Whisk in 1/2 cup more of the half-and-half and add mixture to the butter in the saucepan. Continue to cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk for one minute. Stir in the remaining fat-free half-and-half (1 cup). Cook until mixture reaches your desired thickness (about 3 minutes). Stir in cheese all at once, and continue stirring until melted, about 30 to 60 seconds.

Pour cheese slowly over the potatoes, and cover the dish with aluminum foil (coat the side touching the potatoes with canola cooking spray so it doesn't stick to the cheese sauce).

Bake one hour in the preheated oven or until potatoes are tender.

Makes 6 servings.

Per serving: 289 calories, 16 g protein, 39 g carbohydrate, 8 g fat (5 g saturated fat, 2.3 g monounsaturated fat, 0.3 g polyunsaturated fat), 25 mg cholesterol, 3 g fiber, 438 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 25 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids .1 g. Omega-6 fatty acids 0.2 g. Weight Watchers 6 points.

The original recipe had 487 calories, 33 grams fat, 21 grams saturated fat, and 100 milligrams of cholesterol per serving.

Elaine Magee is author of "The Recipe Doctor Cookbook" and "The Flax Cookbook." Write to her at www.recipedoctor.com. Personal responses cannot be provided.