Today we’re going to be talking about Swiss comfort food. Swiss comfort food is like no other, and Switzerland is so well known for its cheese and its chocolate. In a book by Weston Price, that famous dentist who toured the world, he talks about Swiss people many generations ago who lived on healthy, thick bread and cheese in the mountains, and how healthy their teeth were.
There’s so much about Swiss cheese and European cheese that’s so good for us, and they have amazing comfort foods made from cheese, like Swiss fondue, etc. We’re going to talk about some of those. Then chocolate, of course, is a wonderful snack, especially Swiss chocolate. It just tastes the best – it’s so good! I love the cute little chocolates that they decorate with Swiss chalets and Swiss snowy mountain scenes. You don’t have to cook chocolate, and it’s definitely a Swiss comfort food.
So, let’s start by talking about cheese fondue. It’s an amazing comfort food. Usually you’ll use a combination of two cheeses – Gruyer and Emmental. Before we talk about how to make it, though, let me say that a lot of grocery stores carry ready-made fondue in a box. You simply heat it, and that’s definitely easier to use. So, look out for that in the cheese section.
To make it yourself, you need a cup of Gruyer, a cup of Emmental, some garlic, some wine, and sometimes you can add a bit of Kirsch if you like. Let me explain in more detail how to make the fondue. Grate your cheese, and then heat about a cup of wine in a fondue pot. That’s the best way to heat the cheese evenly and keep it melted. Once the wine is almost boiling, you add the cheese by handfuls and stir in a figure eight. At this point, you should also add a tablespoon of either lemon juice or Kirsch.
Once you’ve added all the cheese, then add your seasoning – a little bit of nutmeg and a little bit of salt. It’s very simple, really. Also, it’s important at the beginning to rub your pot with garlic. That gives it a great flavor. So, you would add a cup of Gruyer and a cup of Emmental to the pot, mix it in figure eight until it’s melted, season it, and then you can dip your bread chunks in it. It’s great to have slightly hardened bread with a soft center, so get bread with a hard crust, or you can toast it in thick slices, and then break them up. We love to have cheese fondue for date nights.
Then there’s rosti. Everybody loves rosti! It’s very similar to hash browns, with a crispy outside and a soft, buttery inside. To make it, you need either chopped or grated potato. Squeeze out the moisture and season it well with salt and pepper. Heat the butter, and then press them into flat cakes and cook them until they’re golden and crispy on both sides. These work great for breakfasts and as a side for other meals. You can add a bit of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese for extra flavor. They’re almost like potato fritters.
Then there’s an amazing dish called Älplermagronen , which is like Swiss Alpine macaroni cheese. It includes potatoes and onions. To make it, start by cooking up your potatoes. Dice them small, and then cook them with your onion until they’re tender. Cook the potatoes by themselves for a bit first, and then add the onion. You want that potato onion mix to be nice and tender.
Then you need to cook up your pasta in some pasta water, as usual. Then layer the pasta and the potato onion mix, and some grated cheese. Pour in cream and milk, and then bake it until it’s melty and bubbling. Surprisingly, you can serve it with apple sauce on the side, which is traditional, and actually goes really well. So, Google recipe for Älplermagronen.
Papet Vaudois is an amazing dish – it’s a leek and potato stew. It contains creamy leeks, potatoes, and smoky sausage. First you saute some leeks and onions in butter. Then add some diced potatoes, cover all that with chicken broth, and simmer it until it’s soft. Then you have to mash it very lightly, making a rustic result. Top it with some cooked sausage pieces. It’s great comfort food!
There’s Zürcher Geschnetzeltes, which is a Zürich style creamy veal or chicken meal – Zürich is a city in Switzerland. For this one, saute some strips of chicken or veal in butter. Then set it aside while you cook some onions and mushrooms, and then deglaze the pan with a bit of white wine. Then you’re going to add a little cream and a little Dijon mustard, and simmer. After that, return your meat to the pan. This is similar to beef stroganoff, although it has slightly different flavors. You can serve it over rice, mashed potato, or vegetables.
Then there’s hot chocolate. Swiss hot chocolate is amazing as a comfort food. It’s rich, and it’s very chocolatey and velvety. Heat your milk and cream in a two to one ratio – two parts milk to one part cream. Then slowly whisk in some chopped dark chocolate – it melts as you whisk it. Whisk until it’s smooth, and then add a pinch of salt or vanilla powder, and there you have it. You can add some shaved chocolate on the top. It’s so delicious!
I’m sure you’ve heard of Raclette. It’s a different kind of melted cheese to a fondue. You use melted Alpine cheese, and then pour it over warm potatoes or vegetables. Boil or steam the potatoes and veg, or you can bake them in the oven. Make them taste good! Then arrange the potatoes or vegetables, maybe pickled onions or gherkins, some cured meats, and et cetera.
Then you need to use a Raclette grill or a non-stick to melt your cheese, and pour it over the potatoes and vegetables. You can eat it with the other things. If you don’t have Raclette cheese, you can even use aged cheddar or Gruyere – they work well. The trick is being able to melt the cheese without it cooking or becoming crisp, so it works well in a fondue pot or a ceramic pot, or just over a low heat. Then, once it’s melted, pour it and slide it over the potatoes and vegetables. Amazing!
Then let’s talk about Swiss cheese platters. It’s hard to have Swiss comfort food without including cheese. A bread and cheese platter or a charcuterie platter with Swiss cheeses is an amazing meal. Emmental is a medium hard yellow cheese, and it’s often called Swiss cheese. It’s got big holes in it. Gruyere is one of Switzerland’s most famous cheeses. It has a very strong flavor, and it’s also great in fondue. Appenzeller is a flavorful cheese. A special herbal brine gives it that strong smell. There’s Raclette cheese, which is great for melting over potatoes. There are many other delicious Swiss cheeses.
Add a few different kinds of sliced bread and some butter, and that’s all you need on the platter. You could add some other elements if you want, like some fruit, et cetera, to go with the board, but the cheese and bread is the best part. Then everybody grabs some and helps themselves.
Then, of course, there’s chocolate fondue. Use some good quality 70% chocolate or dark chocolate melted with a tiny bit of cream. Then you need some dipping items – cherries, slices of banana, slices of apple, marshmallows – those all work well. Everybody can have a little bowl of chocolate, or you can have a container of chocolate in the center, although that’s messy. Dip and twirl, and have your chocolate fondue. That’s an amazing end to a meal. It’s somehow exciting and interesting because it’s so unusual and different.
I asked my husband if he could think of any other Swiss comfort foods, and he said Swiss roll. Of course, if you can find that, it’s amazing. You can get small Swiss rolls or a big one. It’s like a cake rolled up with amazing filling, but I’ve never made one from scratch.
Then there’s Swiss muesli. This is different to granola in that it’s not baked. It’s an unbaked breakfast cereal which you make by combining rolled oats, wheat and barley flakes, and then adding dried fruit and nuts. It’s very easy to make. Serve it with milk or yogurt, and you can even cook it on the stove top like oats porridge, although the idea is to have raw muesli.
Schnitzel is a German food that’s also eaten in Switzerland – crispy crumbed meat, often with a cheesy alpine twist. Take veal or chicken, and season it, dip it in flour and egg, and coat it in bread crumbs. Then pan fry it or bake it in the oven until it’s golden and crisp. You can top it with a slice of Gruyere, some mushroom cream sauce, or some cheese sauce.
Then lastly, one of my favorite Swiss-focused desserts is a Nusstorte. It’s a Swiss walnut tart. First, you need to make a pie crust, and then mix chopped walnuts with cream, sugar, honey, and butter. Simmer until it’s thickened – it’s almost like a pecan pie filling. Then fill the crust, top it with another layer of dough, and bake it. That’s an amazing dessert!
Those are some slightly unusual foods that we aren’t used to, but you should google them. I’m sure you’ll enjoy making them if you find a good recipe. It’s great to try something new and different. So, if any of those appeal to you, I encourage you to try them, but you should definitely try the cheese fondue and the chocolate fondue. Those are the absolute best!
