La Tartiflette

One of the more marvellous things about French cuisine is the sheer variety. Every region (sometimes every village) not only has its own cheese, but its own specialities or variations on local dishes. In the middle of winter, don’t bother opening the Provençal cook book, look rather to regions like Alsace or Savoie. The closer we get to our Germanic neighbours, the more French regional cuisine tends to largely and happily focus on meat, potatoes and cream.

And there is nothing better on a snowy Sunday than gathering some basic ingredients and cooking up a tartiflette for supper. The word comes from the Savoyard (i.e. from the Savoie region) term for potatoes (tartifles). It’s a dish which seemingly first appeared in a Royal cook book in 1705 but has since come to be associated with mountain living and ski stations. My husband gets so excited at the thought of this meal that he even insists on partaking in the cooking (a very rare event in our household), probably just to bask in the steamy sizzle of the lardons for as long as possible.

So here, in the spirit of neighbourly sharing, is my advice on preparing that most German of French meals.

Ingredients for 4 people (or 2 post-skiing):

• 1kg potatoes
• 2 mid-sized onions
• About 300g of lardons (cubed bacon bits)
• 1 reblochon cheese
• 1 slice of garlic
• 1 glass of dry white wine (or other liquid)
• A little bit of cream (optional)
• Salt, pepper, parsley

The cheese: Reblochon is synonymous with the tartiflette. It’s a round, flat, creamy cheese with a rough exterior crust, and the best thing you can do with it is melt it. The outer crust then becomes all chewy and delicious.

The potatoes: There are various recipes suggesting that you slice the potatoes in thin circles, then create layers between the lardons-onion mixture. I am of the opinion that it’s best to chop them up in little squares and cook them in a pan with the lardons and onions so that they soak up those delicious flavours from the start. Since they’re not flat, it also allows the cheese to melt right through to the bottom and better integrate into the whole dish.

The wine: Authentic recipes call for a dry, white wine from Savoie such as an Apremont. Essentially, you just need a little liquid so that your onions and lardons don’t dry out whilst cooking, and the white wine probably adds a little extra flavour, although the strong cheese and bacon aromas dominate this dish. So if you don’t have wine, fear not, just add a little hot water or cream (but not a whole glass-full) or cider as I did last time…

The recipe:

• Prepare a large baking dish (oval if possible) by rubbing the inside surface with garlic, then discard the rest of the garlic and set the dish aside.
• Heat the oven to 220°C.
• Peel and cut the potatoes into smallish cubes and let them cook in boiling water for about 10 minutes, or until they start to get soft but are not completely done.
• In the meantime, start the lardons sizzling on low heat, then when the fat has started to melt, add the chopped-up onions to the pan.
• Once the potatoes are done, drain and add to the pan, with some liquid (wine or other) and a bit of cream if desired, as well as pepper and a little salt if needed (check first as the lardons can be salty).
• Leave to cook on low heat for about 15 minutes so that the flavours intermingle. You can cover it, but check frequently to make sure it’s not getting dry and sticking to the pan.
• After 15 minutes, transfer into the baking dish and sprinkle with some parsley.
• Cut the reblochon in half, then cut each half through the middle so that the cheese is separated into four thin semi-circles with the crust on one side and the creaminess on the other.
• Set the cheese on top of the potato dish with the crust-side up and creamy side down.
• Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until the cheese is golden brown and all melted.
• Serve with salad or cornichons.

If all goes well, it should look like this, before and after:

Yum.