Dinner Party: Raclette

Our friends Ron and Fran came over last weekend bringing wine, cheese, meats and a table top grill. We were preparing a traditional French dish called raclette. For those of you who are unfamiliar with raclette, here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Raclette is a dish indigenous to parts of Switzerland, Wallonia and France. The Raclette cheese round is heated, either in front of a fire or by a special machine, then scraped onto diners' plates; the term raclette derives from the French racler, meaning "to scrape". Traditionally, it is accompanied by small firm potatoes(Bintje, Charlotte or Raclette varieties), gherkins, pickled onions, dried meat, such as prosciutto and viande des Grisons, sliced peppers, tomato, onion, mushrooms, pears, and dusted with paprika and fresh-ground black pepper...

A modern way of serving raclette involves an electric table-top grill with small pans, known as coupelles, to heat slices of raclette cheese in. Generally the grill is surmounted by a hot plate or griddle. The cheese is brought to the table sliced, accompanied by platters of boiled or steamed potatoes, other vegetables, charcuterie, and perhaps seafood. Diners create their own small packages of food by cooking small amounts of meat, vegetables and seafood on the griddle. These are then mixed with potatoes and topped with cheese in the small, wedge-shaped coupelles that are placed under the grill to melt and brown the cheese. Alternatively, slices of cheese may be melted and simply poured over food on the plate. The accent in raclette dining is on relaxed and sociable eating and drinking, the meal often running to several hours. French and other European supermarkets generally stock both the grill apparatus and ready-sliced cheese and charcuterie selections for use with it. Restaurants also provide raclette evenings for parties of diners.

Cheese, meat and potatoes. How can it not be delicious, right? Here are the ingredients we used:

Boiled small yellow potatoes

Gherkins (miniature pickles)

Assorted cured meats

Raclette cheese (they got theirs from Trader Joes)

White wine

Salad (accompaniment)

Put the cheese in the grill tray and place it in the grill to melt for about 2 minutes. Halve some potatoes and when cheese is melted, pour it over the potatoes. Add cured meat and gherkin and enjoy.

Since the dinner was so heavy, we had fresh fruit for dessert. It was such a delicious meal, and perfect for a cozy wintry evening!