Raclette

As you know, I live from one meal to the next and am, generally, always thinking about food! The book I'm currently reading is, also, based around the nutritious stuff: Julie and Julia; My Year of Cooking Dangerously, by Julie Powell. It documents her year trying to cook her way through an old classic - Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Childs. I must admit, I'm a little disappointed: The food and adventures sound great, such as the first time she flips a pancake successfully (can you believe that someone can reach the age of 30 without flipping a pancake? No, neither could I!) and are very interesting. A couple of times I've laughed out loud, but on the whole, it's really not that well written. For a start, I didn't expect her to be American, (don't ask me why but I presumed the author was British) and therefore, because cooking is quite a specialised subject, the vocabulary is also quite unusual. It's still recognisable, but I think American cooking is, on the whole, very different from British cooking - not for the worse, or better, but just...different. Only a few chapters left to go so I'll keep you updated!

Talking of foods from around the world...last night was Raclette. For those of you who haven't heard of this, Raclette is actually a hard Swiss cheese, but also a 'dish'! The idea is you chop up mountains of vegetables into thin strips, add any bacon / prosciutto / pre-cooked cubes of potatoes / herbs / creme fraiche - really whatever you'd like, and grated Raclette. If you can't find Raclette, a Mature Cheddar, Gruyere or Emmental will do the trick.

Now comes the fun part - the cooking! It's sort of a DIY 'at the table' barbeque! There's a little portable electric grill with a hot plate - sometimes a hot stone - on the top. The idea is that you choose your mix of ingredients, cook it lightly on top, then put into the little pans, sprinkle with cheese and pop under the grill part of the machine. You can be as inventive as you'd like with the ingredients and even use it to cook kebabs, but I'd suggest the cubes of meat weren't too chunky.

A demain,
Merlotti x