Raclette Served with Baked Potatoes, Bundnerfleish, Gherkins, Pickled Onions, Apple and Tomatoes

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Raclette, a delicious alpine cheese heated, melted and scraped onto cooked potatoes, is synonymous with the Alps and specifically the Valais area of Switzerland, which is where we come to. You can get it everywhere: in the best restaurants, piste side or even at a stall in our local market in Sion. Be like a local and start the day with cheesy potatoes, some gherkins and a glass of fondant! (Local white wine.) I can’t think of anything better!

Unfortunately my husband is allergic to cheese. I tell him that it is a figment of his imagination but I have to admit he does turn a strange colour of green when we are near fondue and/or raclette or he gets a whiff of parmesan. As such I only ever cook fondue when he is not around and I have never cooked raclette – indeed I don’t even have a raclette maker or grill. (I draw the line at parmesan and pecorino though – he just has to suffer!) But last night I really wanted raclette and I am in Switzerland on my own at the moment – just the dog and cat for company! So I set about making a raclette dinner for one melting the cheese in the oven rather than a grill. I took inspiration from the recipe and pictures in Meredith Erickson’s fabulous book, Alpine Cooking. This book is a celebration of the Alps – a cookery book, a travel guide and a history lesson to nourish your appetite and your mind and feed your inner wanderlust. Have a look at my post about her book here.

It turned out to be easy, delicious and a definite ‘do again’ whether cooking just for one or two people or even a crowd – as long as Andrew isn’t here that is! Luckily the supermarket sells the cheese in slices now so I didn’t have to buy a whole wheel – you can even get it in Waitrose in the UK! You can buy special potatoes for raclette over here. They are a waxy potato and Charlotte or new potatoes would be an ideal replacement.

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To cook the cheese, I lay each slice on a small piece of lightly oiled foil. As I was plating up the rest of the food, I put the cheese in a preheated oven and cooked it for 3 minutes. I then scraped the cheese directly onto the sliced potato.

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I served my raclette with boiled raclette potatoes (traditional), baked raclette potatoes (which I prefer), La viande séchée du Valais/Bündnerfleisch, lean beef cured with salt, alpine herbs and mixed spices, (sub with your choice of dried meats or salami), gherkins, pickled onions, sliced apple and tomatoes. Apples are regularly served with fondue so I thought this would work well and I also fancied some sweet cherry tomatoes to add some balance to my supper. Add some freshly ground black pepper and you’re good to go. Delicious!!

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