We love Cheese, and of course so do the French. In the Haute-Savoie (a sking region on the French Swiss border) they have taken cheese that little bit further, can you remember Heidi and her grandfather toasting cheese in front of the fire.
Great wheels of raclette, pungent fondues, and, best of all, the humble tartiflette: a potato gratin that is a peerless way to refuel after a morning tumbling down mountains. Apparantly!
The first thing to do with a tartiflette is to ease your fork through the crust of cheese. That first cut will release a whiff of milky steam infused with a suggestion of onion and garlic.
Reblochon — cheese made from the milk of one of three breeds of French cows that march to Alps meadows in the spring and return to hay-filled barns in the winter.
Serves 6
INGREIENTS Serve 6
1.3kg waxy potatoes, skin left on
30 gr butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
200g smoked bacon lardons
150ml dry white wine
200ml whipping cream
1 reblochon
1 clove of garlic
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200C
Boil the potatoes in well-salted water until just tender to a fork, but not cooked right through. Drain well and leave to cool.
Meanwhile, melt half the butter in a frying pan and saute the onions and bacon until the onions are soft and both are beginning to brown. Tip in the wine, bring to a simmer, and reduce to nearly nothing. Stir in the cream off the heat.
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Cut the potatoes into smallish cubes (roughly 1cm). Heat the remaining butter in a frying pan and saute them until golden. Cut the cheese in half horizontally.
Rub an ovenproof dish with the cut clove of garlic, then cover the base with half the potatoes. Spoon over half the onion and bacon mixture and season well. Top with half the reblochon then repeat the layers, with the remaining reblochon half, rind uppermost, on top.
Bake for 15 minutes until browned and bubbling (stick it under the grill for five more minutes if you want it really crisp), then serve with a green salad and some cornichons
Original Recipe Felicity Cloake The Guardian
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