A Communal Meal

While on my recent trip to Aspen, we greatly enjoyed a casual, yet memorable meal at the French Alpine Bistro - Crêperie du Village. We enjoyed Raclette, a dish that is served as a communal meal.

Sharing a bottle of Sancerre, we perched around a Raclette grill, three varieties of melting cheeses accompanied by a baguette and juicy meat and potato wedges.

The most popular cheeses are—Gruyere, Swiss and Emmenthal.   Cut and placed into small, wedge-shaped metal containers called coupelles, they are then inserted under the hot grill to melt into buttery, bubbly heaven, and topped the appliance with the meats to brown and gently crisp. Once melted, we poured our cheeses over and placed our chosen meats atop the potato wedges.

Today we will just be serving carrots, asparagus and cornichons with our cheeses.  Followed by beef wellington, boiled potatoes and a wedge salad served with crumbled blue cheese and bacon.

 

Raclette facts

Dec. 6, 2019

To Scrape

"In the old days (Raclette was mentioned in writings from Swiss and German convents dating back as far as 1291), a Raclette cheese round, the term derived from the French word racler, meaning “to scrape”, was heated in front of a fire to melt, then scraped onto dinner plates. It was accompanied by small, firm potatoes, gherkins, pickled onions and dried meats, including jambon (ham)."

What to drink!

No water (or no drinks besides wine, beer or hot tea while eating raclette –and for two hours afterwards!

Sharing is caring!

Beth & Allan

Comments

09.12.2019 20:57

Sara

Last week I found my fondue pot and after reading this I think I will try it out! After I have a practice run I’ll have you over!

09.12.2019 15:10

John Lawrence

Awesome!

09.12.2019 14:42

Bennet

Delicious! I was lucky enough to enjoy this sumptuous meal. The guava cheese cake was the best I have ever had.