Tartiflette: your version

[mint]

Yes, I know the temperature is in the 20s and it's entirely the wrong season to eat it but, having recently returned from the Haute Savoie, I just HAD to cook this for the OH.

Anyway, at the risk of alienating my fellow passengers on the plane, I brought back a Reblouchon and I couldn't let it go to waste, can I?

Looked up "tartiflette" on the internet and there are so many different versions that I got a bit puzzled and, eventually, did what I thought would work out OK.

Did have to leave out the lardons as OH is a non-meat eater and I didn't use white wine because I hardly drink nowadays and I didn't want the temptation of a partially used up bottle of white wine.

Anyway, what I most want to ask about is whether you pre-cook the potatoes?  Some recipes specify this but some don't.

Then, do you layer the cheese with the onions and potatoes or do you just stick the whole cheese on top, as I have read in one particular recipe?

All views would be greatly appreciated because, after all, I'd like to cook a proper French "classic" instead of "Tartiflette Sweetaise"! 

[Clair]

Tartiflette discussion here: http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1465991/ShowPost.aspx

[mint]

Thanks, Clair.  Mine turned out very tasty if a bit over-rich.

I will pre-cook the potatoes next time as I found I had to wait ages for the potatoes to cook.

Also, I used a big tub of creme fraiche (which I see from the recipe you posted was not necessary).

No mention of white wine either.

And I agree about putting the cheese in the middle and then on top.

Thanks for all that.  BTW, I didn't burn my fingers as I knew it was going to be piping hot and I was extra careful!

PS, the tartiflette I ate on holiday was quite "watery" with a lot of sauce whereas the readymade ones I see in the supermarket are flat and are almost like a thick pizza!

[Frenchie]

I pre cook the potatoes and put the cheese cut in two halves on top, but your idea of putting in in between and on top must be good too. No real difference methinks .. [;-)] 

[mint]

Bonjour, Frenchie.  I think of you as the Tartiflette Queen as the other thread about tartiflette started with you burning your fingers!

Frenchie, do you put crème fraiche in the dish and/or white wine?

If you don't use either, does that mean you use more potatoes to make the tartiflette nice and deep?

[Frenchie]

Bonjour Sweet

In winter tartiflette is always greeted with " Ahhhhh  Super ! " when put on the table..

And it s so easy to make !

I add fried onion ( in my case with bacon bits) , and about two spoons of crème fraiche .

The cheese on top must be a bit  grilled.

Miam Miam ( = Yummmy ) [;-)]

[kiss]

[mint]

Thanks, Frenchie.

As an aside, when I said "miam, miam" instead of "yum", "yum", my OH said I sounded like a cat![:D]

[mint]

Thanks, Frenchie.

As an aside, when I said "miam, miam" instead of "yum", "yum", my OH said I sounded like a cat![:D]

[Frenchie]

Ah lala ces anglais !! LOL  [:D][:D][:D]

[odile]

toctoc, dirait Obelix - y sont fous  (mais on les adore!)

[Frenchie]

Exactement ! [;-)]

[Fay]

The version I make is as close as I can get to replicating the one served at Le Bachais, at the top of my favourite ski run. They cube the potatoes rather than slicing (and do parboil them I reckon) and it all seems to work better in terms of mixing it all up. Creme fraiche, no wine, cheese as per Frenchie, cut horizontally and laid skin-side up. Miam miam indeed!

Mine is still never as good, but then it is not being eaten in crisp mountain sunshine, or by a log fire, with a 180-degree view of Mont Blanc, and a hunger that only comes from a good morning's skiing and the thought of more to come.

My goodness, this post has actually made me look forward to the winter!

[mint]

Yes, Fay, they cubed it in the hotel where I was staying (ah, I meant the potatoes, of course); I get over excited at times, LOL.

[NormanH]

Wasn't Tartiflette invented by a company to market Robluchon a bit in the same way as the 'Ploughman's lunch' was invented by the Milk Marketing board?

[Fay]

Hm, well, so it says on Wikipedia.

Also rightly says that Pela is a traditional (and almost identical as far as I can see) version. But if the plan was to market Reblochon (love your version of the name, it seems to have been crossed with Joel Robuchon, no bad thing!) why would they not have called it, say, Reblochonette?

I kind of hope it's not true, but once it's on Wiki it proliferates like a modern myth. But tant pis, it still tastes out of this world!

[Fay]

Just found this on a French forum, where someone had asked the difference between Pela and Tartiflette, which makes it sound like Tartiflette is a traditional dish, if not quite as old as Pela:

De mémoire d'après mes cours de cuisine à Grenoble, la Tartiflette est un derivé de la Pella qui elle est tres ancienne. La Pella était une grande poêle à long manche (comme une pelle). Les anciens faisaient cuire leur "tartiflette" dans la Pella dans la cheminée, les jours où le four à pain communal était éteint.

De mémoire hein?

Mais sinon la recette, il me semble est la même!!

[Clair]

You may well have a point here Fay.

A quick search for pella on google.fr brings up several recipes, some with lardons, some without. All call for diced potatoes.

[NormanH]

There is also some difference about cream or not.

This video

gives a version very different from the ones I have eaten, which tend to be quite creamy and with softer potatoes as opposed to the fried sort here.

But then I live in the Languedoc so the versions I have eaten could hardly claim to be authentic.[:)]

On the subject of Wikipedia : it isn't necessarily wrong...

I reckon the Roblochon (thanks for the correction) people took the old dish of "Pella" and gave it a makeover and a new more French name, but of course I have no evidence.

[Fay]

Oh absolutely no disrespect to Wiki at all, it's just that it's only as accurate as the volunteers that write it, and, once 'out there' it does get repeated and repeated ad infin.

Gosh, this video looks nothing like what I eat in Haute-Savoie and how I cook it when trying to replicate. Gotta have some cream, imho! That was a very anaemic Reblochon too! But thanks, that was very interesting.

[Clair]

Norman, can you clarify who you mean by "the Reblochon people"?

As far as I know, Reblochon is an AOC cheese, just like Roquefort, Rocamadour or Salers.

Do you mean the recipe was re-invented by some marketing men to sell the cheese?

[NormanH]

Sorry yes..that the marketing people for roblochon took the old recipe and 'tarted' it up..[:)]

[mint]

I liked the video, Norman and, by pre-frying the ingredients, it did cut down on the cooking time in the oven.

But, as Fay has pointed out, it does look very different from the tartiflette I had (also in the Haute Savoie).  It looks more like the supermarket ready-made version that I have seen.

In the hotel where I stayed (and, yes, it's quite a good hotel), the dish was served in a deep vessel and there was a lot of liquid in it.

Someone said there was white wine and crème fraiche.  I did use crème fraiche but no white wine.  The dish tasted very nice but it WAS very rich and I could only eat a small portion.

When I do it again, I think I will use less cream and will perhaps add a glass of wine.  I will also parboil the potatoes (Frenchie says she cooks the potatoes first and I reckon she's a pretty nifty cook, so she'd know).