FOOD

I Learned About Raclette From My Favourite Childhood Book: Heidi

My version isn’t quite the dish Heidi ate in the Swiss mountains

Raclette https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

One of my favourite childhood books was Heidi, written in 1880 by the Swiss author Johanna Spryri — who wrote it in four weeks. The story of an orphaned girl who is sent to live with her grumpy grandfather in the Swiss Alps, it carries messages about health, kindness and the power of nature. All I remember is Heidi and Grandfather eating raclette.

Growing up in a seaside town in southeast England where the sole Chinese restaurant was considered mysterious and exotic — I’d never eaten Chinese, and neither had anyone I knew — I’d never heard of raclette.

It sounded delicious though: a big hunk of Swiss cheese heated next to the roaring fire, Grandfather wielding a sharp knife, known as a raclette, and sending gooey melted cheese onto boiled potatoes. All washed down with a glass of milk still warm from the cow.

Raclette and wine tasting, Pezenas, France (author’s photo)

Many years later, the first meal I ate on a visit to Switzerland was . . . a McDonald’s cheeseburger. Just kidding. But the raclette served up in a touristy restaurant somewhere along the autoroute wasn’t quite the stuff of my Heidi fantasies. Years later still, I moved to France where raclette is just one of the many cheesy staples — including Aligot, Tartiflette, Fondue and Flammekueche— at summer fetes and holiday markets.

Last year, we ate raclette at a local wine tasting. No roaring fire, just a round of cheese, a heating element and a guy scraping the melted cheese onto boiled potatoes. Washed down with a glass or two of Gewürztraminer, which, in my opinion, probably goes better with raclette (or almost anything) than milk warm from the cow. I don’t remember what Grandfather served Heidi alongside the raclette, probably hunks of fresh bread. In France, ham and saucisson (dried sausage) and cornichons are the usual accompaniments.

Preparing to inflict my version of raclette upon unsuspecting guests

Around the holiday season in France, supermarket dairy cases are full of sliced raclette cheese — raclette in French means ‘to scrape’ and also refers to the type of cheese and the traditional Swiss dish. Every year, I’ve been tempted to buy a raclette pan, but feared it would go the way of the ice cream maker and bread maker — used once and now gathering dust. Although, to pre-empt my breadmaking partner’s protest when he reads this, I’ll add that he’s made bread more often than I’ve made ice cream.

Anyway, we were having friends over Christmas Eve and I decided to serve raclette which meant buying the pan. Then I decided we needed a few rehearsals before I could demonstrate my raclette-making skills. And because I can never follow a simple recipe — potatoes with melted cheese and some cornichons and maybe ham served alongside — I came up with a few variations.

Sausages on the grill, potatoes and cheese in the coupelles

The grilled sausages were fine, but cracking an egg over the potatoes in the coupelles (the little pans under the grill) and then placing a slice of raclette cheese on top was overly ambitious. The egg yolks cooked into golf ball-like lumps while the whites remained translucent until they hit the heating element and gave off noxious smoke. The Mexican version with crushed-up tortilla chips — we’ve come a long way from Heidi’s version — salsa and the cheese was better, but not much.

By Xmas Eve I was out of ideas, which was probably my very best idea. I sliced potatoes into the little pans, slapped the cheese on top and grilled some chicken. Still not exactly Heidi and Grandfather fare and we didn’t have any milk warm from the cow. My partner opened a bottle of red instead.

https://www.aglugofoil.com/2013/08/raclette-dinner-party-recipe-ideas.html

If you want to try raclette, aglugofoil.com has some variations on the basic recipe and ideas for what to serve along with it. Remember fondue parties? No, you’re not that old — well, for those who do, a raclette get-together is kind of like that. You don’t have to use raclette cheese, almost any cheese that melts will work, but it won’t get Heidi’s stamp of approval.

Skip the egg version though.

(author’s photo)

Joyeuses Fêtes and Bon Appetit!

And if anyone knows how to get burned on food from a supposedly non-stick surface, please let me know.

Tartiflette, fondue and Flammekueche at this year’s holiday market in Beziers. (Photos by author)