Roesti Done Right – In America!

Roesti Done Right – In America!

So last winter in Switzerland, my daughter Lydia had just arrived and we went to Bern for the day. She had one thing on on her mind: roesti.

Roesti is not complicated: a mound of fried potatoes with cheese.

We were hungry, and there was no roesti served at the Bernese Christmas market (!!), so we stopped in a restaurant that so infuriated me that I left without noting their name. Here’s the roesti they served us:



I was speechless. They couldn’t even be bothered to melt the goddamn cheese on the potatoes. I would have said something, but our server was a monstrously solemn Helvetian, moving with Golem-like purpose, flatly refusing to bring even another spoon so that two of us could sample a soup (it was against “the rules”). I didn’t want to create an international incident, so we paid and left, vastly unsatisfied.

In New Glarus, Wisconsin, this afternoon, I had an excellent roesti at Glarner Stube:





This was the roesti of my dreams, with crispy outside and a center of melted cheese (The Wife speculated that what they probably did was lay down some spuds, sprinkle with cheese; then they put on a top layer of spuds; fry in pan; flip over to griddle to finish other side). The resulting slightly convex mound of pan-fried potato, glistening and steaming, was the most attractive food I’ve seen in a long time.

This is my favorite dish of the moment.

The cheese inside was local, and it could have been a “Swiss” type, providing just a little acidity to balance the richness.

And I like the way it exactly fits the inner ridge of the serving plate.

Could it be improved? Sure. I’d have liked to have seen some fresh parsley around the edges, for chromatic contrast and a touch of bitterness, but that’s a small adjustment. This is a nearly perfect dish to me: crisp, lush, with a range of textures, soft-to-near-hard, clean tasting, simple, spectacularly tasty. Eating, abstract ideas flooded my brain: honesty, lack of pretension, elemental, yum.

This is peasant fare, and I imagine that it’d be a great way to turn little pieces of old cheese into something wonderful.

At Glarner Stube, this roesti side was like five bucks, about one-third what it cost in that mountain country.

I’m not aware of any places in Chicago serving roesti, but I’ve got to suggest that they start serving it Marion Street Cheese Market.

Glarner Stube
518 1st St
New Glarus, WI 53574-8908
(608) 527-2216
http://www.glarnerstube.com/

Oh, man, that dish looks great! I really like to visit New Glarus; good food, good beer, pastoral setting. What's not to like? Willy Ruef runs a fine butcher shop in town, which provides meats and sausage for the restaurants in town.

OTH, I can understand your frustration with the Swiss restaurant. I would probably have been asked to leave, not so politely, after I commented on what had been passed off as roesti.

David Hammond wrote:Roesti Done Right – In America!


This was the roesti of my dreams, with crispy outside and a center of melted cheese (The Wife speculated that what they probably did was lay down some spuds, sprinkle with cheese; then they put on a top layer of spuds; fry in pan; flip over to griddle to finish other side). The resulting slightly convex mound of pan-fried potato, glistening and steaming, was the most attractive food I’ve seen in a long time.

Carolyn is correct. That is exactly how we made them @ Restaurant Purpur in Zurich. We used fresh goat cheese though and finished them in the oven.

Jazzfood, I didn't find that goat cheese was used in this preparation when I lived in Europe. It was usually Gruyere, Swiss, raclette or Comte. Of course, that was many years ago, and I confess goat cheese is not my favorite.

This dish goes well with most anything, but I really liked it with a couple of fried eggs and some bauernbrot.

Goat cheese is not a standard preparation, it was our take on it. With an American in the house, my staff was more into fucking w/tradition than they normally would have been. And we had this superb fresh goat cheese this farmer made for us.

They (the Swiss) generally aren't fond of the grill as well, something I insisted upon whenever we'd get langoustines in. Proved that wrong every time as they'd sell out in an instant. They loved guacamole as well, except referred to it as "that avocado puree" which I paired the langoustines with. Not a tortilla to be found though. I also introduced them to the joys of mojito's, which became the house drink (we'd sell 100 a nite). Something so incongruent about sipping mojito's in the dead of a Swiss winter.

Don't hurt me, but my favorite "rösti" preparation is a non-traditional one made with beets and rosemary. I know, I know, it's a bit like saying my favorite French fries are made from rutabaga, but just in case someone might find the idea interesting, I'm throwing it out there. It's probably the best non-borscht use for beets I've come across.

I like rösti with a fried egg or mit sausage

A couple of months ago I had a satisfying rösti at Julius Meinl on Lincoln. It very crisp on the outside, with some good, gooey emmanthaler cheese inside. They gilded the lily with a thankfully judicious drizzle of truffle oil and served it with shirred eggs, which have turned out perfectly every time I've had them at Meinl. Though quite good, this rösti could not hold a candle to the best version I've had, which was at The Hopkins Inn in Connecticut - the charming, Austrian-inspired site of my wedding, and a fine restaurant that also makes fantastic sweetbreads to boot.

Thanks for the heads-up, David. I've never been to New Glarus, but we have a family multi-car caravan heading to Minnesota this summer for a wedding, so I'm saving all the road trip tips (including Da Beef's "The Burgers of Wisconsin") that I can find.

Anyone have favorite roesti recipes to recommend?

This has nothing to do with Rösti recipes, but the revival of this thread reminded me of an anecdote relating to Glarner Stube and Rösti.

When I was working in Zürich years ago, I became totally addicted to Rösti. While there, a co-worker invited me to visit his parents who lived in a small mountain village outside of Glarus Switzerland. My hosts treated me to a meal at a restaurant owned by a friend of theirs in another nearby village. The specialties of the house were Raclette and Geschnetzels (veal in a cream sauce) with Rösti. The owner of the inn was amused by the fervor with which I devoured his Geschnetzels with Rösti (the best I have ever tasted). He was surprised that Rösti was not common in this country. I told him that I wished it was. He said that members of his family owned a Swiss restaurant in the US, and grabbed a postcard off the wall from behind the cash register. I was surprised to see a postcard from the Glarner Stube in New Glarus. I told him that I was familiar with the restaurant. What was odd was that he did not seem surprised. I found that in Switzerland most people didn't really comprehend the immense size of this country. When I told people around Glarus that I was from the US, they would invariably ask if I had ever been to Wisconsin. When I explained that I lived about an hour and a half from Wisconsin, they would ask me if I had ever met their cousin Johann (or Peter or whatever). At any rate, shortly after returning to the US, I made a trek to the Glarner Stube for Rösti and Geschnetzels, and have returned several times since then. I agree that it is the best example of the dish I have had in this country and is very similar to the version I enjoyed at that little Stube in the mountains above Glarus.

edit: Actually I have made Rösti, and highly recommend lightly parboiling the potatoes before grating. If you parboil the potatoes, slice the potatoes in half and boil them with the skin on until they are al Dente. Do not overcook them or they will not grate and you will end up with mashed potatoes. Take the potatoes from the boiling water and rinse them under cold water. Rub them while rinsing and the skins should slide right off, saving you from having to peel them. After they are cooled, coarsely grate them by hand (rather than using a food processor)

A really nice smokey dry-cured bacon is a nice addition to the potatoes. Fry the bacon first, but not until crunchy. Reserve a few tablespoons of bacon fat and mix it with the butter to brown the potatoes. Onion also works well. Lightly sauté the onion before adding it to the grated potato. Add Salt, Pepper and optionally nutmeg and/or parsley to taste. Adding lightly sautéed mushrooms to the cheese layer is also a possibility.

To make the Rösti itself, put half the potatoes into a non-stick or well seasoned pan with a generous portion of melted butter then put a generous layer of grated cheese (preferably gruyere), then the rest of the potato mixture. Fry for a few minutes then cover. When the bottom is brown and the potatoes have softened (less time is required if the potatoes are parboiled). Place a plate face down on top of the pan (preferably a plate without a sharp lip), then flip the pan and plate over (so the Rösti is on the plate). If you adequately lubricated the pan, nothing should stick to it.

Melt some more butter in the empty pan (add some more bacon grease if desired), then carefully slide the Rösti back into the pan. Cook until the bottom(formerly the top) is browned (if the potatoes aren't parboiled, cover the pan again, but finish it off uncovered so the potatoes are nice and crispy). Alternatively, you can brown the bottom, then add a few pats of butter and place the pan into a hot oven (425) and bake until the top is browned. Flip the Rösti back onto the plate and serve hot.

I am sorry I don't have exact measurements or timings to share. I tend to cook by ear.