French,  Hugo blogs,  Savoury

New potato oven raclette and a dog at the end of his tether

racelette hugotypewriter1by
My patience has reached its limits, especially when it comes to pests with wings. I thought we’d seen the back of the tweeting squatter after I had explained (with my teeth showing) that she had delighted us long enough with her presence. I think that my natural assertiveness must be very intimidating because she flew off that very evening. I thought that was that; alas I was mistaken. She comes back at least once or twice every single day for a bellyful of couscous and special dove grains and a snooze. How can she possibly be so hungry and so tired? It’s not as if she has a proper job like me. What annoys me most is how pleased they always are to see her. She fascinates them so much (why?) that they sometimes forget to give me my camembert after lunch, which makes me feel unloved. And as if all this isn’t irritating and hurtful enough, a large bird with a long neck has also turned up. It’s called a heron apparently and thank goodness it doesn’t come into the house because it’s very big indeed. All in all, I’ve had it up to the back of my impressive canines with anything that flaps or chirps. This raclette dish isn’t my favourite, although they seemed to love it for some reason. The upside, however, is that it contains cheese, which is not at all good for birds, so that can only be a good thing.
Ingredients (serves 4)
225g new potatoes, cooked
1 tablespoon olive oil
100g raclette cheese, grated (although any hard cheese will work)
1 medium-sized onion, finely sliced
4 slices Bayonne ham, roughly cut into strips (or Parma ham)
Sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
4 or 5 leaves of fresh basil to garnish
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare a medium-sized oven-proof dish by greasing with olive oil. Slice the potatoes into pieces roughly 3mm thick and create a layer on the bottom of the dish, sprinkle with cheese, add a few strips of ham and onion and continue layering until everything is used up. Make sure to save a bit of cheese to sprinkle on top along with the seasoning. Cook for 40 minutes, garnish with the basil leaves and serve with crisp green salad. And don’t listen to Hugo – it’s divine!
leotweety heron

16 Comments

  • apuginthekitchen

    I was waiting for you (Hugo) to weigh in on the bird saga. I do understand how you feel, don’t worry Hugo, the birds are like a new toy soon they will become part of the normal routine and will not be so exciting for your family. Don’t let them forget about the camembert, it’s an important part of your daily ritual. I had a feeling TD would come back for more of that cous cous.
    The raclette sounds delicious, try it Hugo I think you would love it, I know Izzy and Nando are very fond of potatoes and love them with their meat.

    • The Healthy Epicurean

      Thank you Mrs Pug – I can always rely on you for some moral support and understanding. I think that Izzy and Nando are very lucky indeed to live with you – perhaps I could save up and buy myself a plane ticket and come to live with you too. I’m very well behaved. 🙂 Please give my love to the pugs. Hugo.

  • Stacey Bender

    Hugo, don’t go forgetting that you aren’t a cat; I am starting to picture an episode of sylvester and Tweety bird in my head. Surely you are loved more than Tweets; Bossy knows you are able to get the camembert yourself and has momentarily misjudged your need for coddling. Hang in there.

    • The Healthy Epicurean

      Well thank you for your kind words Mrs Bendy, but Bossy goes ape if I help myself to camembert. I can’t win at the moment – I’m in a very bad place. Please give my love to Ginger and Buddy. Hugo.

  • Butter, Basil and Breadcrumbs

    Oh my gosh. Well, I know what I’m doing this weekend…. I need to get caught up on your posts, Hugo… I feel terrible that I’ve missed all of these! I need to get better organized. On a different note… the potatoes raclette sounds terrible, I can see why it didn’t impress you….although I’d probably print this recipe, prepare it…. it and make yum sounds just to please your humans… I’d probably finish the whole dishful to be honest. <3 Awesome post. I seriously need to get caught up. Printing the recipe now. <3

    • The Healthy Epicurean

      Thank you for understand Mrs BB – the racelette is NOT the best. I just don’t understand the point of meals that don’t contain lots of meat or at least something you can really sink your canines into. I think it’s very altruistic of you to eat the whole dish just to be polite to Bossy, especially as she doesn’t really deserve it at the moment. Hugo.

  • Sally

    I saw a heron flying while I was driving into a housing development with lakes, this weekend. Elegant wildlife in the city. Ham and cheese baked – what’s not to like Hugo.

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