Tuesday 3 April 2007

Tartiflette

I think I may have mentioned this before: - Tartiflette is a French dish from the Savoie region. It originated in the valley of Aravis, home of Reblochon cheese. It is not, however, a traditional dish and was, in fact, invented and launched only in the 1980s by the Reblochon trade union in an attempt to increase sales of the cheese. Different valleys in the region have different methods of producing tartiflette and there is probably more than one recipe per village.

The word tartiflette is perhaps derived from the Piedmontese word for potato, tartiflâ, although a number of European languages have words for potato that are similar.

Well anyway, I discovered that our local supermarket is selling reblochon so of course I had to buy a piece and have a go at making the said tartiflette (with great success I must add).

This is a recipe I found on Sofeminine.co.uk

Ingredients :
1 reblochon (or similar cheese of choice)
500g potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 medium onions, halved and finely sliced
250g bacon, chopped
Oil for frying
Recipe :
Preheat the oven to 200°C
Fry the onions until soft, add the bacon and cook for a further 10 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.
Fry the potatoes in a little oil until browned.
Arrange the potatoes, onions and bacon in an oven-proof dish.
Slice/grate the cheese and layer over the potatoes.
Bake for 25 minutes

and combined with one I found on cuisine-french.com which lists the ingredients as:

1.2 kg potatoes, 200 g diced bacon, 1 onion, 1 reblochon cheese, 2 tablespoons crème fraiche, 1 bottle Apremont (Savoy white wine)
and adjusted the weights and measures (almost) accordingly. It is fairly simple to cook so don't be afraid to have a go. There are numerous versions of the recipe on the internet but my preference is for the simple version without herbs. I also used smoked bacon, which gives it an extra kick.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any Apremont but did find a decent substitute (though I may have been a bit too free with the amount of wine) and the end result was absolutely delicious - complemented perfectly by a St Emilion red (courtesy of my daughter).