Cheese is your Christmas Helper in the Kitchen

Much like the elves helping Father Christmas achieve impossible feats on Christmas Eve, cheese can be the unsung hero of your kitchen over the festive period.

We encourage you not only to see it as a cheeseboard on Christmas Day itself, when often you’re already full from that roast with all the trimmings, but as a meal in its own right.

Obviously there’s the Boxing Day leftovers or, if your main Christmas meal is at midday, the end of day sandwiches. Try turkey or ham, mustard and a delicate slice of Raclette or Bergkase with Maison Marc Cornichons or Cultjar Bread and Butter Pickles and thank us later.  Especially if you have to hand some bitter salad leaves to alleviate the richness.

However, if you’re gearing up to Christmas Day but want something to make Christmas Eve an event without too much cooking and effort, melted cheese is the way forward.  Or if you’re thinking further ahead and looking towards the ‘Twixtmas time when you’re exhausted from cooking the main meal but still fancy something indulgent, melted cheese hits the bill again.

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Here are some of our recommendations:

RACLETTE

Like its melty mountain cousin fondue, Raclette is a meal that brings a family or group of people together.  It’s a very communal way of eating.  Whether your grill has the little individual pans or you have the theatre of grilling a quarter or half cheese and then scraping the bubbling cheese from the cut surface onto your pickles, potatoes and charcuterie, people have to get involved.  See here for our selection to get your Raclette evening going.

FONDUE

Another family get together meal.  You don’t have to have the full fondue set. although it’s fun if you do.  Just use a cast iron pot that holds the heat and return it to melt again when you feel the cheese mixture stiffen. 

Rub a clove of garlic over the pan, warm through a 250ml glass of white wine and then add your cheese mixture.  We would recommend (for flavour and ease) our own Fondue mix from the maturers of our Swiss cheeses, Huguenin.  It’s a mixture of Tilsit, Vacherin Fribourgeois, Gruyere and Raclette with cornflour already added to prevent the misture splitting.  It has gentle milky notes but also a savoury depth and distinct animal funk that is cut through perfectly with pickled silverskin onions and cornichons.  See here for our selection combining the three.

BAKED CHEESE

Earlier in the year we extolled the virtues of melting cheese at Bonfire Night but it’s as much at home again in the run up to Christmas and New Year.  Our favourites are baked Camembert for the smaller appetite or of course a glorious Vacherin, either small or medium depending on your appetites or size of group.  We even have a selection of Vacherin and pickles to make choosing easier.

SOUPE DE FROMAGE AVEYRONNAIS

Now this is a less well-known idea but so comforting and delicious.  Hailing from the Aveyron region, this is a glorious mixture of cheese, onions, stock and gutsy sourdough bread.  While you can make it into something more liquid, the consistency of an actual soup, the traditional recipe bakes a layered mixture, akin to a savoury bread and butter pudding, in the oven, to brown the cheese on top. 

We think it could even replace a bread sauce or stuffing on Christmas Day itself if you were so minded. 

Here’s the recipe:

Serves 4–6

Ingredients: 

1 stale country loaf or sourdough, sliced thin, approximately 300g.

500g of grated Cantal (traditionally), although if you wanted to go for a British twist, Lancashire would work beautifully as well.  Hafod Cheddar would be tasty as well although a little more stringy as it melts.

2 litres of beef or chicken stock but a well flavoured vegetable stock would work for a meat free version.

6 large onions, thinly sliced.

Duck fat, goose fat or unsalted butter for sautéing.

Optional: 1/2 head of green cabbage (blanched and shredded), 1 clove of garlic, or a splash of white wine. 

Instructions

Prepare the Broth: 

Sauté the onions (and garlic/cabbage if using) in your chosen fat until soft and golden. Add the broth (including the wine if using) and simmer for 20–30 minutes.

Layer the Dish: 

In a deep, ovenproof dish or individual tureen, create alternating layers starting with stale bread, then a generous layer of cheese. Repeat until the dish is full, finishing with a thick layer of cheese on top.

Soak: 

Pour the hot broth over the layers until the bread is fully soaked. The liquid should just reach the top layer.

Bake: 

Place in a preheated oven at 180°C (350°F) for about 30–45 minutes. The soup is ready when the cheese has melted into a golden-brown, gratinée crust.

Serve: 

Traditionally served thick enough that a spoon can stand up in it and, of course, piping hot.  

It is delicious on its own of course and as a meal in its own right, but you can see why we think it would work beautifully with roasted turkey or goose.

When you’ve run out of inspiration after cooking your hearts out, remember that cheese is a friend to the busy cook and allow yourself some easy meals over the holiday period.