Food & Recipes from the Alps

Travelling to the Alps, you will enjoy the lovely mountainscape, nice people and of course the lovely food. In this section of our MiaDeRoca-Magazine we will present you typical local recipies. Recipes for things to drink and things to eat, a wide variety of dishes with meat, with vegetabels and the so called "Mehlspeisen". "Mehlspeisen" are dishes with flour, sweet meals like the "Kaiserschmarrn", "Palatschinken" or "Topfenknödel".
You won't be able to get all the traditional ingredients everywhere, but in cases the products are rare, we will mention some alternatives. And if you still doubt, just drop us a line, we will try to help you to get some Alpine savour to your lunch or dinner.

 

Käsefondue

Melted cheese in a pot where you dip some white bread in it. A wonderful warming and rich meal for the cold days. It is perfect for a group of friends, to eat, chatter and have fun. As this is a French Swiss dish we recommend you try your best and go for real Swiss cheese as mentioned in the ingredients. If you don't find the mentioned cheeses try to find hard cheese with flavour and savour (not too old and not to young, as the tricky part of this dish is that all the ingredients stick in a nice sauce together).
Recipe for 6-8 persons

Ingredients:
400 g Vacherin, Emmentaler or Appenzeller
400 g Greyerzer or Gruyère
2 tablespoon "Kirschwasser" / kirsch
1 clove of garlic
nutmeg
pepper
2 tablespoon starch flour
0.4 l white wine (dry)
some lemon juice
salt

For dipping:
3 Baguette and/or cooked potatoes

To keep the pot with the Käsefondue warm you need a Rechaud and you need a least for everyone eating one long fork, better are two forks. Typical Fondue dishes have the special pot, a possibility to keep it warm and the special forks.

Preparation:
Cut the bread and potatoes into cubes.
Add the starch in some of the wine (50-100ml) and mix it, put aside.

Grate the cheese. Take the pot for the Fondue (original it is a Caquelon) and the clove of garlic and rub it in, put the wine into the pot and heat it slowly. Add the cheese bit by bit. Add the spieces and the kirsch. Before serving add the wine-starch-mix.

If you are a more creative gourmet and you prefer fusion citchen than mere tradition you might try some vegetables with the Fondue. Go for broccoli, romanesco and cauliflower only slightly simmered before diping. Carrots and and parsnips are interesting too. If you long for more delight to the palate you might go for fresh pears.

All culinary creativity aside – we want to mention the fun part: When loosing your bread in the chesse the malefactor has "to do" something. Sometimes it is to drink a shot, but it might also be to tell the neighbour how beautiful her hair is or to sing a song.

If you prefer a version without alcohol use some soup, lemon juice and apple juice instead of white wine and schnaps.

 

 

01.01.2008. 08:37