tartiflette
for me, the standard tartiflette is layers of the following baked in a casserole dish:

bacon fried with onions
boiled, sliced potatoes
crème fraîche

after the last layer you pour in enough dry white wine to fill the interstices and then lay over the top a reblochon cut through the thickness like a sandwich roll. it's then baked for 30-45 minutes, until the cheese is melted and a bit browned on top, and the liquid has stiffened somewhat. a more standard recipe is here

i chose this dish for a potluck in buffalo, NY, this weekend, since buffalo is cold and showy. i made the following improvisations:

i used waxy white potatoes, peeled them, boiled them whole, then cut them into thick slices. this is standard.

i couldn't find suitable bacon, so i got a hunk of salt pork and fried it until it was crispy. it gave crackly bits of flesh that was almost purely fat. this is a welcome effect, i say, since the overall texture of the dish was made smoother and these pieces soaked up some of the liquid.

i forgot to fry onions in the pork fat.

there was no crème fraîche, so I used sour cream. about a pint and a half went into the casserole with three pounds of potatoes.

most importantly, there was no reblochon, so i experimented with Le pié d'Angloys, another washed-rind cow cheese that has a powerful fragrance when ripe. this cheese lived up to its expectation, and its flavor completely overtook the dish.

from this, i recommend further innovation in the area of cheeses. i would try époisse or pont l'evêque next time.
- posted by Jesse @ 1:47 PM