Tartiflette

Oozy Cheesy Goodness

Picture this. The French Alps, a big glass of French red wine and a bubbling skillet of Tartiflette. I don’t think a day can get much better than that, do you? Unless you want to smother me in butter and dunk me into the cheesy sauce like a hunk of bread.

There is surprisingly limited ingredients for this recipe, so it’s nice and simple to make! Ideally you need to use Charlotte potatoes, but in the UK these can be hard to find throughout the year so new or baby potatoes are the next best thing.  Waxy potatoes hold their shape better when cooked, so you don’t just have mashed potato. You’ll also need an onion, soft cheese like Brie, double cream, a LOT of garlic, bacon lardons and some chicken stock and white wine. The full recipe is here if you want to give it a go!

 

Ingredients

  • 300g Charlotte potatoes
  • 1 onion
  • 1 bulb of garlic
  • 90g bacon lardons
  • 200ml double cream
  • 200g Reblochon cheese or something similar to camembert or Brie
  • Water
  • Salt and pepper

Get Chopping

Chop your potatoes into a large dice, then cut your onion to around the same size chunks and set aside. Finely slice or mince the garlic, then you’re ready to start cooking! In a medium oven safe frying pan over a medium-high heat, fry off the bacon lardons until golden brown and crispy. Remove them from the pan (leave as much fat in the pan as you can!)and set aside on a plate with the chopped garlic for later. Into the hot pan with the bacon fat, add a drizzle of oil and throw in the onions and potatoes. Give them a stir so they’re all coated in the fat, then leave them alone to lightly caramelise.

After a few minutes, stir the pan of onions and potatoes then leave for a few more minutes. Tip in the garlic and bacon lardons and give the pan a toss and cook for 3-4 minutes until the garlic is fragrant. Season the pan well with salt and pepper and pour in the wine. Leave to reduce until almost gone, then pour in enough stock to just cover the potatoes. Leave the tops of the spuds just peeking out the top.

Bubble away

Leave the pan to bubble away on the stove for around 15 minutes until the potatoes are soft and delicious. Pour in double cream and give everything a good stir together. Season to taste with salt and pepper then reduce the cream for a couple of minutes while you get your cheese ready.

Now the traditional cheese for this dish is called Reblouchon, but here in the UK it is so hard to get hold of. If you can use it, definitely do because it makes it even better but brie or camembert works if you get stuck. Slice the cheese into long strips (or if it’s a round, cut it in half along the side to end up with two rounds) and lay over the top of your potato mix.

Gratinate your Tartiflette

Preheat your oven to 180ºc/350ºf and pop in your cheesy topped tartiflette. Cook for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and golden on top of the potatoes. Then, that’s it! Serve up with big hunks of crusty bread, plenty of salty butter and a bottle of red wine. Phwoar, it’s delicious. Check out my Youtube channel for more spud recipes.