Finally! The weather has been cold enough to eat my favorite meal of the winter season....
RACLETTE!
On the menu tonight:
Raclette Cheese
Prosciutto di Parma
Potatoes
French cornichons (gerkins)
A "Raclette" is a simple way to savor the goodness of melted roasted cheese over potatoes accompanied by cured salted ham and tangy pickles. Yum.
This meal is mainly eaten in the winter because of the heat the raclette maker emanates.
The contraption is like a mini table oven with a broiler and 8 separate mini skillets with scrapers.
The word raclette comes from the french word racler which means scrape
The home version below can either come with a grill at the top (like mine), a stone or even have a round shape ( 6 skillets instead of 8) with a crepe griddle at the top.
The European restaurant version looks more like the one below
or it can be served a more rustic way. The cheese is kept by the fire and then scrapped onto your plate
The emphasis in raclette dinning is on relaxed and sociable eating and drinking, the meal running often for several hours. You can be creative and have several different vegetables grilling on top or keep the meal simple like the original recipe with just 3 to 4 ingredients and lots of white wine to help it down of course!
Tonight it's just me and the hubby
so I set the table for two and kept it simple
Personal wooden boards with ham and cheese
separate bowls of cornichons
delicious
prosciutto
and cheese
I could not even wait for the cheese to roast! melting was just enough for me to get my first bite
Now I really wish I could have waited a bit longer so I could have taken better pictures.
Oh well...maybe next year :-)
It's time to digest now.
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