Raclette.

Raclette is a type of cheese but it also the term used for serving the cheese molten with a variety of accompanying foods.  I believe it originates in Switzerland.  I am no expert, I'm afraid.  My in-laws were invited to a raclette evening during a trip to Germany last winter.  When they got home they invited us down to try it out and then gave us a raclette grill for our Christmas.

We have really enjoyed using it - makes a lovely informal way of eating with friends in a similar vein to fondue.  It really came into its own last winter, though, when we were snowed in for about 6 weeks.  We ran out of gas and there was no way we were going to get an LPG tanker to come  and fill us up for weeks.  That meant we had no heating and no cooker.  Ughhh.  We managed, though.  Luckily we have an open fire in the living room and had plenty of wood to burn and we had a few electric heaters.  We also managed to cook on the electric raclette grill so we were so glad of it!

Anyway, this is our first raclette of this winter (for me it seems ideal for colder weather).  My parents came back from Geneva and brought us a lump of raclette cheese with peppers in.

So, this is the way we serve it, but, as I say, I am no expert and this may be completely non-authentic.

Here is a link to raclette on wikipedia if you want to investigate further.

So, the idea is that you melt the cheese under the grill and scrape it onto whatever you like or you grill it on top of your ingredients.  These are what we like to serve with the cheese but obviously the possibilities are endless - 

• potatoes
• baguette
• onions
• cornichons
• peppers
• mushrooms
• fruit chutney
• salami
• olives

Okay, sorry about this photo - it looks so unappetising.  It's just the rubbish photography - it actually tastes great!

And, of course the kids love it - they get to pick whatever they like and make up little pans of food - we then grill it for them.  And, no, I don't have favourites but when I looked back at the photos, the ones of Rufie were awful as he has a cold and his face was covered in snotters.  I know I'm a bad Mummy putting lots of photos of them on the internet as it is without me being really bad and putting the disgusting snottery ones up aswell.  But, to be fair, Rufie is a very snottery child so chances are most photos of him will be like that!  Poor kid. 

Anyway, if anyone has more experience of raclette than me, let me know in the comments if there is anything else we should be trying/other ways of doing it.  Thanks.