4.343 Raclette

4.343

14 (Sat) December 2013

Raclette

3.0

by me

at the cabin

-Changchon, Seowon, Hoengseong, Republic of Korea-

with the Family, additional families of DJ’s daycare friends

5th Retreat (Day 2 of 3)

While Oak Valley Ski Resort is a short 12.4 km away, we opted for the closer/easier/cheaper venue of the front yard.  I really believe that they had a better time here, no worries about driving/parking/lines/tickets/crowds.

As an appetizer/anju at dinnertime, I prepared a raclette spread.  Emphasizing variety in the cheeses: 8 total, including Wensleydale with fig & honey, emmental, smoked gouda, muenster, pepper jack, monterey jack, colby jack, mozzarella. Keeping the secondary ingredients to a bare minimum: just mini paprika in three colors, shallots, Spanish salami.  An astounding success, everyone oohing and aahing and declaring their desire to purchase a raclette device for themselves.  A great way to end a day of playing in the snow and kick-off an evening/night of drinking, how very Swiss.

The beef was purchased locally – as mentioned yesterday, visitors to Gangwon can’t get enough of local hanwoo – normally would’ve been cooked on a grill designed for meat, but turned out just fine on the raclette.

With the kids in mind, I experimented with mini pizzas: baguette slices + bruschetta/pizza sauce + mozzarella.  Not too bad overall, great potential for improvement with better ingredients.

The sauce turned out to be somewhat hot/spicy, despite any indication on the bottle – unusual for an Italian product – so the first batch went to the adults; fortunately, I found a bottle of standard pizza sauce in the fridge.
Broiled under the coil for a few minutes.
Unfortunately, the cheese was dry, gummy, typical of block mozzarella.

(See also FOODS.)

(See also PLACES.)

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