RCP: Tartiflette

Tartiflette

1 clove garlic
Potatoes to fill a small gratin pan, peeled, cut into thick slices
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons fat: butter or duck fat
6 oz of smoke/salt cured pork (any kind, just get the best available to you)
1/2 cup dry white Savoie type wine
1/3 cup crème fraiche or heavy whipping cream
1/2 of a Reblochon de Savoie

Prep:
- Preheat oven to 550*F.
- Grease the gratin pan with some extra duck fat, crush a garlic clove, and rub the garlic clove all over the inner surface of the pan.

1. Heat the duck fat in a heavy skillet and add the onions, bacon and ham, and sauté gently for 3-5 minutes.

2. Add the potatoes and continue to sauté for 5 more minutes.

3. Add the wine, give the potatoes a stir, season with salt and pepper as desired, cover and let simmer and steam in the wine for 10 minutes more.

4. Add the crème fraiche to the potato onion bacon mixure, and transfer it to the gratin pan.

5. Slice the Reblochon in half with a sharp knife flat wise, and place the two pieces on top of the potatoes, rind side up. Place into the very hot oven and bake for 10 minutes.

6. Turn the heat down to 400F and bake 10 more minutes

7. Turn off the oven, and leave the dish in the oven without opening it for another 10 minutes.

Serve hot with a salad, crusty bread, and the wine you cooked with.

Here's how I diverged from this recipe on Sunday:
- I used 3# of small yellow potatoes instead of sliced Idahos
- I cooked them 5 minutes longer in the wine than is written (my last outing with tartiflette resulted in some under-done potatoes and that is very unpleasant; I should probably update the recipe)
- I did not get Reblochon; I used Chaumes (a little under 2# slab)
- Of course, I did not use onion; I subbed several more garlic cloves
- I have goose fat handy, not duck fat
- My pork choice this time was pancetta, which I got good and crisp before proceeding

OMG there is nothing about that not to like, original or subs. Spuds, stinky cheese, pig. Swoon

Thanks for posting this, Jeff. Would you mind changing the "RC:" in the topic title to "RCP:"? Back on the old Board we used to use "TN:" to indicate tasting notes and "RC:" for recipes, in order to allow visitors to search for tasting notes and recipes. But this latest incarnation of the forum software won't let you search for two-letter and one-letter words. So we switched to RCP and WTN (wine-tasting note).

-Paul W.

Done.

And here are pix from the last time I made tartiflette (posted on WD but I'll link directly to the pix):
http://winedisorder.com/library/images/original/2017-02-26_tartiflette_1.jpg
http://winedisorder.com/library/images/original/2017-02-26_tartiflette_2.jpg
http://winedisorder.com/library/images/original/2017-02-26_tartiflette_3.jpg

[Jenise]

I did some research on it, Jeff, and really enjoying this article which rather studiously (for newspaper food writing) compares a number of different and esteemed sources on what makes a perfect Tartiflette.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/feb/27/how-to-cook-perfect-tartiflette

Saw a lot of pictures, too. Have to admit, in spite of tradition, I'm not sold on the looks of the cheese rind sitting up there (and taking the place of crusty potatoes which I relish above most things).

Thanks for that article. Indeed, quite a nice studious piece. I am somewhat gratified that my recipe is extremely close to the author's optimized one. (He's dead wrong about cubing the spuds, however. )

Re the cheese crust: I don't find it appealing either visually or gustatorially. I take it to be a bit like the flourish of the boar's head or the Thanksgiving turkey at the table... ooh, ahh!... then back into the kitchen with it. The rind comes off easily and it is crispy, if it's your thing.

Anyway, as there really isn't a heritage for the dish -- that was something I did not know about it! -- you'd be within your rights, I think, to sling it under a broiler before serving.

[Jenise]

Not he, but a she.

Like the boar's head...that's a funny comparison, but apt I'm sure. And it persuades me to skip the rind entirely, fie on tradition, I'd rather have crusty potatoes. Besides I don't have the proper cheese anyway--it's on the menu tonight with a combination of jarlsberg and havarti which maybe defeats the whole thing but a potato gratin with onions and bacon is not to be sneezed at under any circumstances.

Not he, but a she.

I knew I should have checked!

[Jenise]

So I made this--kind of--last night. No reblochon, but Havarti alone worked well. Used russet potatoes, so the pre-cook on the potatoes was less than your recipe called for in order to protect the slices as whole pieces, and the oven time longer to achieve the desired doneness.

The result was utterly fantastic. Adding the wine to steam the potatoes and infuse them with an elusive extra layer of sophistication prior to the oven bake is absolute genius. I will never go back to starting a gratin from raw potato again!!!!

Tried to buy an apremont from Savoie from a local wine bar to accompany the dish; they were out of it (said it's been very popular of late and I could only think REALLY? Here in dumb old Blaine? I should be the only person in this town who understands this wine!) and so I bought a Trousseau from Eyrie Vineyards in Oregon instead. (No, I don't need wine, but I wanted to give them some business so moot point.)

So total success--thank you so much for mentioning the dish and posting the recipe.

You're welcome! Sounds like a nice variant. Does havarti get more fragrant when it heats up? (It's pretty mild, though, come to think of it, the kind with caraway seeds could be ve-r-r-ry interesting here.)

Apremont is a big seller in Blaine! So urbane, so debonair. (Speaking of which, have you read Wink Lorch's new book?)

Trousseau? Pink wine???

[Jenise]

You're welcome! Sounds like a nice variant. Does havarti get more fragrant when it heats up? (It's pretty mild, though, come to think of it, the kind with caraway seeds could be ve-r-r-ry interesting here.)

Apremont is a big seller in Blaine! So urbane, so debonair. (Speaking of which, have you read Wink Lorch's new book?)

Trousseau? Pink wine???

The cheese: No, wouldn't say so, not like raclette say, but it melts elegantly and isn't overly stretchy. No re Wink's new book. And the Trousseau was red.

And the Trousseau was red.

Did it tint the potatoes?

[Jenise]

No, because it wasn't IN the potatoes. Note I said accompany--that means, what we drank with our dinner. I used an inexpensive pinot grigio in the potatoes.

Ah, thanks. Missed the word.

Made another tonight. No Chaume this time. I used a combination of fontina val d'aosta, brie (from Illinois), and camembert (from Normandy). I like the combo of fontina and camembert; not sure the brie is pulling its weight here. And, alas, I used a bit too much wine so it's a little runnier than I like... such problems in quarantine.