Baked Brioche, Raclette, Red Currant Jam
This dish is wonderful dish on a cold evening. It’s warming and perfect to enjoy with friends after you hit the slopes come winter time. It’s the simplest dish to make yet incredibly satisfying.
Raclette is the cheese of legend, based on the story of a man from Valais by the name of Leon. One cold day, with food scarce in the open pastures, Leon heated up a piece of cheese on the open fire to ease his hunger and keep warm. He found the melted cheese had a transcendent flavor. It not only complemented other foods – it made a great, satisfying meal for his family. Popular since the Middle Ages, Raclette is still produced with milk from cows that are fed fresh grass in the summer and meadow hay in the winter. Raclette is a semi-hard cheese made on both sides of the French and Swiss Alps. Valais Raclette or Fromage a Raclette, as they are traditionally called, are made using ancestral methods with unpasteurised milk of cows grazing on the alpine meadows.
Raclette is aromatic and can be mild or piquant, depending on the age of the wheel.
It’s flavors are milky, nutty and sweet. Raclette is the quintessential cheese for sharing. Whatever type of grill is used to heat the cheese, the principle is the same: melt Raclette and pour on top of your favorite foods.
The baked brioche and Raclette pairs nicely with a Riesling, dry or sweet, fruity American ales and Lambic or Belgian style ales.
Brioche slices
1 thinly sliced Raclette wheel
Fresh black pepper
1 jar red currant jam
cream
Trim the brioche slices so that they are roughly the same shape and size as the cocottes or ramekins.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Place a slice of the brioche in the bottom of each cocotte or ramekin. Add some Raclette and a little black pepper. Continue until the cocottes are half filled. Press down firmly and finish with 1 or 2 slices of Raclette. Pour a little cream overtop and bake for 15 minutes.