Andrew James 8 Person Luxury Stone Raclette Grill & Fondue Set
from Andrew James
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Customer Rating: 
Index: Kitchen & Housewares
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Kitchen Shopper Price: £99.95
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Product Description The new Andrew James 8 Person Luxury Rustic Stone & Fondue Raclette has all the characteristics of our existing Rustic Stone & Fondue Models. However, this new model now boasts several new features as well as a larger cooking surface.
As you can see from the pictures. This is a circular stone raclette and a circular fondue raclette
What you get is in effect ,2 raclette models for the price of 1. You receive one base and two packages that allow you to either have a stone raclette or a fondue-combined raclette.
With this improved model you receive extra attachments for the healthier dining experience. These include a stone package that includes, a stone cooking surface, scraper and also an oil collection pan.
You can also see from picture2 that the centre has a small hole in the middle for fat/oil drainage. This also has a groove/moat so this can be used to segregate vegetables from meats. The griddled area is also healthier for cooking meats.
You also receive a fondue package. This includes a raclette grilling surface, fondue pot,lid and also reversible fondue forks. The fondue set is suitable for all fondues including cheese & chocolate.
This raclette also has a discreet holding ledge; this enables you to place the grilling pans away from direct heat when not needed. This will make the pans easier to clean. The model also has a thermostat heat control.
cheese eating surrender monkey heaven Sent: 05 November 2008
So what's a raclette grill? First principles: there's a type of Swiss cheese - not really very much to taste when cold. However when thinly sliced and melted it really changes character- it's extremely delicious. We've been using it as a topping on veggie burgers off the barbecue for years. The Swiss used to prop a half round of cheese in front of the fire and scrape off the melted bit onto the rest of their dinner. ("Racler" means to scrape in French). So the raclette grill is a more sophisticated way of grilling the cheese and preparing all the accompaniments.
You can buy Raclette cheese in prepacked slices from Sainsburys or off the deli counter in Waitrose. I've also seen it for sale in sporadic continental markets (in Sheffield's regular shindig for instance!). I have seen two online suppliers in the UK too. You should use it up within two weeks- but supposedly it will freeze. However you can melt other cheeses- the book I have suggests butterkase, camembert, cheddar, emmenthal, gruyere, manchego, mozzarella, scamorza, parmesan, pecorino, feta, fontina, gorgonzola, gouda, roquefort and tilsit.
Well I always buy myself a nice birthday present and this is the 2008 effort. What turned up was very, very big! It looked like something from the X-Files- you know the bit where the saucer abducts Moulder's latest key witness- it is huge- 40cm /15.5" diameter with a generous 2m/78.5" power lead. There's a steel base- then a second saucer with the rests for the little raclette pans, then the double loop of the heating element. A non stick detachable cooking grill surface tops off the arrangement. The pans and grill surface are not dishwasher safe and need prewashing and seasoning with a little oil before you start. However they took no trouble to wash with a non abrasive pan scrubber (frankly I've never seen melted cheese slide off a surface before- magic!).
So I thought I'd give it a whirl. I cut thin strips of courgette and yellow pepper and popped them on the grill top, which I'd preseasoned with oil. The excess oil obligingly ran into the circular groove on the edge of the grill plate. I then scraped the bits into a raclette pan, added a cheese slice and shoved the mix under the grill. As I'd sussed that you could prepared Mexican dishes with this gizmo, I'd also bought some flour tortillas which I heated on the clean grill surface. It all worked splendidly- although you have to make sure you cut your veg to fit in the grill pan! I also boiled some new potatoes and grilled some cheese on its own in the raclette pans- yummy. (That one's a traditional combination). I was just eating on my own and I had two of the grill pans in action - it kept the flow of food going. You can use your own large non scrape spatula to move the food around or the little wooden spatulas supplied with the grill- they are only just over 4 cm/1.5" wide and they fit into the tapered end of the raclette pan too.
Now it is true that you could technically slave over a frying pan and grill and get the same result. However it was a nice experience to cook on the table- you can prechop everything and just let everyone go. Washing up the next day when everything had cooled was a doddle. I'm not quite sure where I'm going to store the thing- but it will get used.
I ummed and ahhd over which version to go for. In the end I plumped for the round version without the stone top here which creates a "pierrade". The recipes seemed to be oriented towards meat and fish cooking (although apparently you can grill fruit to add to your cheese). I need a replacement fondue but I'm a klutz near heating elements I was worried about burning myself on the grill pan while leaning over with my bread- the entire plate is hot remember. The supplier did helpfully advise me " the dimensions of both of our fondues are 20cm. The cast iron fondue is also very easy to clean.
The advantages of using the raclette and fondue together are that you can cook on the teflon surface then dip it into the fondue sauce.
When I use this model I use the fondue attachment for starters and desserts and use the stone cooking attachment for cooking all of the meats for the raclette meal."
So if you aren't a dedicated fondue user (YET!)you may wish to get the all in one set- it would certainly be a bargain.
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Associated kitchen categories: Electric Fondue Sets |
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