Tartiflette: All the Cheese!

While I was away skiing like a crazy thing, we had to fend for ourselves, and that involved cooking. We went out for dinner one night for the cheesiest of pizzas and cheesiest of fondues, but we couldn't go without a Savoie speciality: Tartiflette. So I took the challenge upon myself to make one (from scratch with no recipe but now I can share my very easy recipe with you!)

Poor lighting in the studio = poor pictures that don't do it justice!

• 500g potatoes (or enough to feed four... and supposedly Charlotte potatoes are the best for tartiflette!)
• A little bit of butter
• 1 pack smoked bacon lardons
• 1 onion
• 1 glass white wine (preferable a Savoie Abymes or Aprémont but they're a bit harder to come across when you aren't in the French Alps, but the rest of the bottle goes very well with a plate of tartiflette!)
• 150ml crème fraiche (aka almost a whole 200ml tub)
• Salt & pepper
• 50ml milk
• 1 reblochon

- Finely slice potatoes and parboil potatoes for about 15 minutes.

- Melt butter in a frying pan and add the lardons, frying until they start to become crispy and you can reduce the fat down too.

- Add finely chopped onions to the pan and fry until clear.
- Stir in and heat up the wine (burning off the alcohol is optional!), and stir in the crème fraiche, then season with salt and pepper.
- Layer potatoes in a dish alternating with the onion and bacon mix until the dish is almost full.
- Add the milk to the frying pan to heat it up slightly and pour over the potatoes, lardons and onion - don't add too much if you don't need to, only if you think it needs a little extra liquid.
- Chop the reblochon in half (like you would a cake if you were going to sandwich it together with icing in the middle, so that one side is open and the other side is rind). Half theses pieces again, quarter etc. if needed and lay them on top of the potatoes so that they are rind up and the cheese will melt downwards.
- Bake in the oven for about half an hour at 180 degrees C. (We had a microwave oven so I just guessed at whatever crazy settings that ran with...)

Serve it up (or even better, make it in separate smaller dishes as this is far easier to serve!), with a side of salad and charcuterie and a glass of wine if you're going all out. Enjoy!