Christmas dinner: The best raclette ideas for Christmas Eve

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In most families, roast goose, dumplings and red cabbage are simply part of the Christmas holidays. As delicious as the holiday meal is, it also takes a lot of work, not to mention the costs that a good roast chicken simply incurs today. And the children are rarely fans of poultry or the vegetables that go with it.

Easier, faster, less complicated and, if you ask most children, 1000 times tastier is raclette. The biggest advantage: Everyone can take what they like, bake it with cheese or not, eat whatever sauce they like or just sit at the table and watch the others. Because if there's one thing a shared raclette can do, it's keep generations together at the table and entertained.

Children often sit at the table as if they were preparing their little pans and then waiting for the perfect cheese consistency and don't want to get up from the festively set table after 5 minutes due to sheer boredom (and lack of appetite). And the adults not only have time to eat in peace, but also have the opportunity to have lively conversations with the family.

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What does a raclette always have to have?

Ingredients that you always need for a raclette are, of course, the raclette cheese. You should definitely buy it as soon as possible. On the one hand, experience shows that it is sold out around Christmas and New Year's Eve. It's also easy to freeze, which is why it has a long shelf life.

In addition to the cheese, you also need meat and vegetables of your choice, potatoes, mushrooms and pieces of fruit. Silver onions, mini corn cobs and gherkins are also highly recommended. Christmas extras such as herb butter, truffle butter or oil or spices such as cinnamon, star anise and cardamom round off your raclette table.

You can create a special extra with pizza or tarte flambée dough that you cut to the size of the pan. Pancake dough is also delicious for the sweet finish to the raclette evening.

Okay, these are the basics that make every raclette meal delicious and leave no guest wanting. If you want to make the most of your Christmas raclette, then you should also take a look at these pan recipes:

Rösti pans

To make the Christmas raclette special for the occasion, you only need a few special ingredients, for example prepared rösti dough. If you have it, you can make pure potato rosti or pimp it up with vegetables, meat or scampi. A pan-fried rösti becomes particularly special if you fry it in truffle butter.

Ingredients for the basic recipe (4 people)

  • Potatoes, waxy (approx. 750 grams)
  • Butter or optionally truffle or herb butter for baking
  • 1 Price Nutmeg
  • Salt and pepper
  • Herbs to taste

Preparation:

  1. The first step is to cook the potatoes with their skins on and then let them cool. You can do this the day before. Pre-cooking is recommended here so that they are fried more quickly.
  2. Peel and grate the potatoes and season the mixture to your taste with salt, pepper, nutmeg and optional herbs. Now you can put them well covered in the fridge overnight or use them straight away.

Preparation at the table:

There are two ways to prepare the Raclette Rösti. Everyone can fill their pan with it and put it under the heating elements, of course topped with other ingredients and cheese if you like.

The Rösti can also be easily prepared on the hot raclette stone or grill. Apply a tablespoon of butter or a little oil, pour the mixture (1-2 tablespoons) on top, press it a little wide, turn it once in a while and you can enjoy it.

Pear and goat cheese pans
(optionally as tarte flambée)

Ingredients for 4 pans:

  • Pears (2 pieces)
  • Goat cheese (1 roll)
  • Pine nuts (50 grams)
  • optionally honey
  • Addition: tarte flambée dough (1 pack)

Preparation:

You don't need much preparation time for the pear and goat cheese pans. All you need to do is cut a little bit.

  1. You can cut the pears whole into slices about 3-5 mm thick. This looks particularly beautiful. Or you can cut them into smaller pieces, but you should make sure that these are no thicker than 3-5 mm.
  2. Now cut your goat cheese into slices. Depending on the intensity of the cheese, you should adjust the thickness of the slices. If the cheese has a mild and creamy taste, you can use the pear slices as a guide. If it is more intense, you should definitely cut thinner pieces than the pear slices.
  3. If you want to make the mini tarte flambée, you should also cut the ready-made dough into pieces. To prevent the individual pieces from sticking to each other, it is best to place baking paper between them when stacking them.

Preparation at the table:

Now you can first fill your pan with the pear slice. Then add as much goat cheese as you like. You can now refine your pan with a few pine nuts and or a little honey.

You can make your pan even more special if you get a miniwith goat cheese and pear. To do this, simply put a thin layer of tarte flambée dough into your pan and then top it as described above. Once the dough is done, you can enjoy your mini raclette tarte flambée.

Onion roast roast pan

If you don't want to go without meat at Christmas, you will find your culinary heaven in this onion roast roast pan.

Ingredients for 4 people:

  • Beef (approx. 400 grams) – as a vegetarian alternative with smoked tofu slices
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 pack of fried onions or fresh onions (4 pieces)
  • Raclette cheese

Preparation:

  1. Cut the meat into slices, ideally only 5mm thick. The same applies to the vegetarian smoked tofu version.
  2. You shouldn't season the slices in advance.
  3. If you want to turn fresh onions into fried onions, peel them, cut them into thin slices or strips, cover them generously all over with flour and then slowly fry them in plenty of butter. You have to be a little patient here, because if you fry the onions too hot, they will just turn black. So, medium temperature and only turn carefully every now and then. Season with salt.

Preparation at the table:

Before you can enjoy the onion roast pan, the first step is to fry the meat or smoked tofu on the raclette stone or grill plate. Meanwhile, season it to your taste.

Once the meat or tofu is done, put it in the pan, add a large portion of fried onions on top and cover the whole thing with the cheese. Place under the heating elements and enjoy as soon as the cheese has melted sufficiently.

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Apple crumble pans

After plenty of hearty pancakes, dessert is a must. You get little preparation but great taste with apple crumble pans.

Ingredients for 4 people

  • 500 g sour apple
  • 175 g Flour
  • 100 g kalte Butter
  • 100g sugar
  • Cinnamon to taste
  • 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
  • optionally vanilla sauce or ice cream

Preparation:

  1. If you want to eat apple crumble pans, you first have to cut the apples into narrow slices or, more suitable for the pans, small pieces (approx. 1 cm). Then mix the apples with the lemon juice to prevent them from browning.
  2. To make the streusel, flour, butter, sugar and cinnamon must be mixed and kneaded until streusel is formed. This can be done with your hands, but it is better with the dough hook on the mixer.

Preparation at the table:

Now all you have to do is add a handful of apples to the pan and cover everything with 1-2 tablespoons of streusel.

The whole thing goes under the heating rods for a few minutes until the sprinkles start to get color. And then you can enjoy the whole thing on its own or with a little vanilla sauce or ice cream.

We hope you like our recipe and wish you a lot of fun cooking, baking and trying it! Feel free to write to us tooInstagramor onFacebook: We are always happy to receive suggestions and recipe requests!