Easy Breezy Raclette Party
Raclette is a traditional Swiss dish, as well as the name of the cheese often used in the meal. For He and She, it is a fun party where our guests have the opportunity to quickly cook up their own unique and creative concoctions from an assortment of meats, seafood, cheeses, vegetables, and fruits.
One can find many Raclette restaurant options in Switzerland. But if you are not there at the moment, and love melty cheesy foods as much as we do, this is the thing to get.
A Raclette is an ingenious tabletop grill with "coupelles" tucked underneath for broiling. We got ours here. The versatile cooktop is a griddle on one side (for warming, preparing fondue and breakfast foods) and a grill on the other (for grilling meats and veggies). It comes with eight nonstick coupelle pans (for broiling cheese and toasting bread) and eight wooden cheese scrapers.
The semi-hard Raclette cheese is typically made from cow's or sheep's milk and is intended to be grilled or melted then scraped off the wheel. In French, "racler" means to scrape, so that's where the term originated. We got our Raclette cheese here and our cheese melter here.
We also love using a variety of Dill Havarti, Smoked Gouda, Gruyere, Butterkäse, Pepper Jack, and aged Swiss Cheeses which our deli guy slices thickly for us.
Just shop and chop
With a little prep work, you don't need to spend the whole night slaving in the kitchen! It's super easy and entertaining for all.
We were expecting a group of 20+ guests, so we gave these veggies a quick roast ahead of time to speed up the cooking process at dinnertime - but it also works as a whole evening of entertainment if you choose to skip that step. We LOVE our versatile Wilton Serving Tray!
We took our Raclette to our beach pavilion for an impromptu dinner party. Just plugged into an electric outlet and the party was good to go. The cooktop grilled the meats and veggies nicely, while the little trays melted cheeses beneath. We then scraped the gooey cheese off onto our cooked food....and YUM!!
For wine pairings, we offered Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, off-dry Riesling, Oregon Pinot Noir, and a French Beaujolais - because there were so many flavor combinations available for each guest to tailor their meal.
Here is a full dinner we made over the Raclette grill top with thinly sliced chicken and filet mignon, mushrooms, zucchini, asparagus, peppers, deli meats, apples, bread, and cheeses. Even our vegetarian friends had more than enough options!
A traditional Swiss Raclette meal includes Raclette cheese, charcuterie, veggies such as pre-cut zucchini, mushrooms, peppers, red onions, par-boiled new potatoes, gherkins, pickled onions, and crusty bread, served with a fruity dry white wine such as a Swiss Chasselas or a Savoie Roussette.
We've made dessert on our Raclette. It expertly toasted up the marshmallows and melted our chocolate for some scrumptious s'mores using the little coupelle pans. And nobody got a stick in the eye.
As you can see we've Americanized Raclette to our likes and tastes!
For breakfast, we cooked ham, bacon, and veggies on the griddle top, removed them, then cooked shredded potatoes in the grease. Below, we cooked eggs and melted cheese. We made the BEST hash browns. Waffle House ain't got nothing on our Scattered, Smothered, Covered, Chunked, Topped and Diced Hash Browns!!
Basic How-To Raclette
Set raclette in middle of the table with sliced and chopped ingredients placed around the grill.
Preheat grill on high about 10 minutes then spray with olive oil.
Using plastic tongs place desired meats and veggies on the grill, turn to cook evenly.
Place cheese (and/or onions or anything you wish to broil) on a coupelle tray and tuck under the cooktop.
Move cooked food to your plate and scrape coupelle on top and enjoy!
There is no right or wrong way to Raclette so just have fun experimenting! We have found so many uses for ours. Add your favorite uses in our comments.
Are you thirsty for more? Subscribe to our blog below, and follow us on social media by clicking the icons at the top of our page. Cheers!
— He and She on Wine