Should you not be able to get hold of Comté, a semi-firm cheese such as Fontina or Emmentaler will work just as well.
INGREDIENTS
Serves 6 * smoked garlic 7 cloves * double cream 500ml * bay leaf 1 * cloves 2 * full-fat milk 200ml * Comté 150g * potatoes 4 medium, waxy fleshed (yellow) * butter 30g
Peel the smoked garlic and cut it into paper-thin slices then put it into a medium-sized saucepan with the cream, bayleaf, cloves and milk. Bring the cream and milk mixture to the boil, turn off the heat, cover with a lid and set aside to infuse. Set the oven at 160C/gas mark 2-3.
Coarsely grate the cheese. Peel the potatoes and slice them as thinly as you can, using a mandolin cutter if you have one.
Butter a large, shallow baking dish or roasting tin. Place a single layer of potato slices over the base then add a handful of the grated cheese, scattered evenly over the surface. Add salt and black pepper and a little of the sliced garlic from the infusion, too.
Continue with more potatoes and the remaining cheese until you have used them all up, seasoning each layer as you go.
Pour the infused cream over the surface, then bake for 1 hour and 50 minutes to 2 hours, until the top is appetisingly brown and the potatoes are meltingly tender.