I went to work yesterday for the last time in the foreseeable future. And then I had a bit of a wallow. While I'm an introvert and actually good with my own company, the idea of a couple of months of isolation does freak me out. So when Melinda had the excellent idea of a food community in confinement, I went for it.
But I had food. And, for the moment, quality food.
Tartiflette is about the best comfort food I know. It's potatoes and onions and bacon and cream and cheese. I mean...
So, I started off by cutting the potatoes (500g). I have an OXO brand mandoline (please understand that this blog is at least going to start off massively middle-class); so I cut them the thickness of pound coins. Put a pan on the gas and boiled them for about 6 minutes.
At this point, heat the oven to Gas 6 (200C, 390F)
I used the mandoline to chop an onion (115g) a lot finer; and then fried it off with a half-pack of smoky bacon lardons (103g in this case) or chopped bacon.
Now we come to the cheese. The ideal cheese for this is Reblochon. Unfortunately even in good times, lots of supermarkets don't have it. Replacements - camembert, Pie d'Angloys (particularly good); really, anything you know will melt. It's much nicer with a rind, though.
Tip a layer of potatoes into a baking dish and add a layer of onions/lardons. Then do it again. Give it as much pepper as you're happy with.
If you have it, drizzle about 100ml of double cream over the whole thing. And then chop the cheese horizontally, and then each piece into quarters. Put the pieces into the baking dish rind-side up.
Bake! I went for about 30 mins last night, but I hadn't cooked the potatoes long enough (revised estimate above), so ended up with about 50 minutes...
Dollop out a quantity and enjoy, with the smug thought that you can reheat the leftovers.
In normal life, I'd have this with a salad and dressing. But I haven't been able to locate a bag of salad for a fortnight now; so enjoy without.
But I had food. And, for the moment, quality food.
Tartiflette is about the best comfort food I know. It's potatoes and onions and bacon and cream and cheese. I mean...
So, I started off by cutting the potatoes (500g). I have an OXO brand mandoline (please understand that this blog is at least going to start off massively middle-class); so I cut them the thickness of pound coins. Put a pan on the gas and boiled them for about 6 minutes.
At this point, heat the oven to Gas 6 (200C, 390F)
I used the mandoline to chop an onion (115g) a lot finer; and then fried it off with a half-pack of smoky bacon lardons (103g in this case) or chopped bacon.
Now we come to the cheese. The ideal cheese for this is Reblochon. Unfortunately even in good times, lots of supermarkets don't have it. Replacements - camembert, Pie d'Angloys (particularly good); really, anything you know will melt. It's much nicer with a rind, though.
Tip a layer of potatoes into a baking dish and add a layer of onions/lardons. Then do it again. Give it as much pepper as you're happy with.
If you have it, drizzle about 100ml of double cream over the whole thing. And then chop the cheese horizontally, and then each piece into quarters. Put the pieces into the baking dish rind-side up.
Bake! I went for about 30 mins last night, but I hadn't cooked the potatoes long enough (revised estimate above), so ended up with about 50 minutes...
Dollop out a quantity and enjoy, with the smug thought that you can reheat the leftovers.
In normal life, I'd have this with a salad and dressing. But I haven't been able to locate a bag of salad for a fortnight now; so enjoy without.
I've just eaten an adequate curry and this post still makes my mouth water. Hurrah for extravagantly comforting food.
ReplyDeleteOh... oh my. I'm having slightly the same reaction to this as when a colleague brought in "gruyére soup" for lunch. Turned out, he had leftover fondue, so he'd just... tipped in a lot of wine until it was liquid enough. He was just spooning up pure wine and cheese. I didn't know whether to be shocked or HUGELY impressed.
ReplyDelete#goals
DeleteThat's possibly the most Swiss thing I've ever heard.
DeleteOMG I want this very badly. The last time I had tartiflette was really disappointing; restaurant misplaced our orders so I got a badly microwaved, cold in the middle one which I just had to live with because we had to get to the theatre afterwards. This looks sooooooooo much better. Thank you for the recipe!
ReplyDeleteYum yum yum.
ReplyDeleteThis looks amazing - will definitely be giving this a go
ReplyDeleteThat looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteIt is. You need suitably melty cheese...
DeleteOh goodness I want this now! It reminds me of a similar dish I ate years ago at the Bordeaux wine festival that used Brebis cheese instead . It was great for soaking up a surfeit of wine imbibed at far too early an hour!
ReplyDeleteIn theory, this year's holiday (mid-September) is Bordeaux and La Rochelle. May be back to you for some tips...
Delete