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March 29, 2004
Enjoying my "Rac"
Last night four of my good friends came over for what could soon become my favorite way to entertain. We enjoyed quite an ample sampling of my "rac" with boiled red potatoes, a wide assortment of fresh vegetables, salad (which we never actually ate), sausages and chorizo, and various bottles of white wine. My BIL was correct. He told me that most sources have you buy way too much cheese per person and I overdid it thoroughly. By the end of the party, approximately 2/3 of the cheese was leftover. I didn't even open one of the portions. I could be having Raclette parties quite a bit in the next few weeks.
And I love my little Raclette grill. It comes with 8 cheese shovels and a topside grill which is great for grilling the vegetables. I pre-cooked the sausage as I thought that would have been a huge hassle...but next time I may just cut them in pieces and have the guests grill them on the Raclette Grill as well.
I got many accolades for my potato boiling skills. This may not seem like much, but two of the guests were Irish (from Ireland). They said they could see my Irish roots in how well I boiled a potato. I was well-pleased by that.
I had forgotten how good that melted cheese could taste. Ooh. On those potatoes, with a little salt. Melted Raclette on fresh bread....scrumptious! The Gherkins and the pickled onions were also good but I'm not sure I get why those are served with the meal. It's a traditional part of the party. Some of my friends were intrigued by the pickled onions. They had never seen them before. And just so you know, the cheese does taste better when you can melt it yourself.
The coup detat of the evening was my Strawberry Shortcake by Emeril for dessert. Since everything about this party was prep, I had to make something to show off my culinary skills. This recipe is actually really simple...especially if you have a kitchenaid mixer. :-) It looks quite impressive and tastes really good. I highly recommend it to anybody who needs to throw together a quick dessert.
So in the end, everyone enjoyed my "rac" thoroughly. I look forward to serving it again soon.
Posted by mermu at March 29, 2004 11:54 AM
Comments
Is that an invitation?
Posted by: Cynthia at March 31, 2004 06:56 AM
I'm glad it was a success. 2/3s of the cheese LEFT OVER!! You must have bought a ton of cheese! We always buy a ton of cheese too, but I think we usually serve at least 8 when we do it.
The last time I served raclette, I found some pickled carrots that were also a big hit with the croud.
Congratulations on a successful party. I enjoy raclette much more that I do fondu.
Posted by: Jfer at March 29, 2004 05:52 PM
If you also have leftover potatos, you can put your raclette cheese over them and bake them in a toaster oven. That's an easy way to get rid of the leftover cheese.
The last time I tried to do meat on my raclette grill it got so smoky that the fire alarm went off and rudely interrupted the dinner (and my fire alarm cannot be turned off, se we ended up with half an hour of unbearable noise). Maybe you'll have better luck, seeing as you have such a fancy and expensive grill :-)
Posted by: stepan at March 29, 2004 03:36 PM
Did you serve the pickled garlic also? Next to the cheese and potatoes, that's always my favorite part. Glad to hear it was a success--I had no doubt.
Posted by: Cousin Elizabeth at March 29, 2004 01:37 PM
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