A Raclette evening

When I heard the word Raclette, I immediately thought of the cheese, that strong smelling Swiss cheese that's good for grilling and fondue. So, when some friends invited us around to their place for a 'Raclette evening', we were a little confused. Would we just be eating the cheese? OK with me, I love fondue. They commented that someone had bought them a 'Raclette' which turned out to be a type of table top grill on which to cook different foods. Some research, namely Wikipedia, shone some light on this conundrum. A Raclette is both the name of the cheese and of the dish, originally centred around the cheese but now including a whole host of other ingredients.

This was my misunderstanding: At the German Christmas market, a whole raclette being scraped onto bread once grilled until molten on a custom revolving grill.

As you can see from the picture at the top, we had lots of ingredients. Chicken, beef, shrimp, scallions, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, bread, three different dipping sauces and accompaniments for the actual cheese part. An absolute feast, beautiful in colour, tastes and variety.

Our friends are very well situated and set up, so the evening began with drinks in the basement 'lounge bar', sadly now flooded and awaiting repair.

When we were called up to dinner, this scene greeted us. With constantly full glasses in hand, we were soon salivating at the endless tasty possibilities available.

The three sauces. I'm a little sketchy on the details, but recall that one was barbecue, one soy based and one slightly sweeter. What I also loved was the beautiful antique bowls they were presented in.

The Raclette cheese itself was grilled underneath in special drawers and each diner chose their own combinations from the accompaniments available. Here we have tartar sauce for the shrimp, pickled onions and gherkins.

The meats, shrimp and vegetables were grilled on the top. This meant everyone was able to grill the steak to their own liking and control the cooking of the other parts.

As each piece of meat, shrimp or vegetable was ready, it was removed to the plate and dipped into the sauces. You can see the cheese in the drawers underneath the grill.

Alcohol always has a big part to play whenever we are invited around to Dave, Mary and Ellen's house, Dave being a somewhat adventurous drink maker, bordering on ambitious and we are usually treated to several 'special drinks' throughout the night. Here we have a jug of Sangria.

The grill at maximum. The whole evening was a lot of fun and we actually spent 2 hours together sitting around the table, eating, drinking and chatting. Perfect. 

The cheese, once grilled and melted, was used to blanket some baby potatoes.

Or, like Neil's combination here, used as a base for pickles, steak and barbecue sauce before being grilled in the drawer.

A fine example of Dave's superb 'special drinks'. I know that it contained Absinthe, but what else, I couldn't tell you.

And so, a perfect way to end a perfect evening. Pear slices, brushed with butter and grilled until soft and caramelized with brown sugar dusted on top, served with Cherry Garcia Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Thank you so much to Dave and Mary, especially Mary who went to so much effort for this.