Roast socks - delicious...

So, the older son has been in Paris this week, and he returned home clutching a whole Reblochon cheese, which the wrapper says is the cheese for Tartiflette.

This is something I've heard of but have never tried, so I did a bit of research on the interwebs and every recipe I found for it was different. There were the common threads of Reblochon, potatoes, onion and bacon, but otherwise just about every aspect of the recipe varied profoundly.

Garlic, or not garlic? (Duh - it's French, so it really ought to.)
Mushrooms?
Cream, or not? And if yes - single, double or creme fraiche? And how much? 6tbsp up to 300ml...
Boil old potatoes and then peel and slice them, or boil new potatoes in their skins and then slice them, or slice them and boil them? And do you fry the potatoes before putting them in the dish? Or not?
Butter the cooking dish, or not?
Lardons or regular bacon? Smoked or not?
White wine? If yes - do you pour a glass over the whole thing before it goes in the oven, or deglaze the pan with it? Or just drink it?

Apache potatoes

Oval Pyrex dish

In the end I stopped reading the recipes, as it was all getting too confusing, added new potatoes and cream to the shopping list (I had bacon and onions in stock already) and then older son and I set to this evening to assemble it. We found some rather lovely Apache potatoes (left) in Tesco today so they were an obvious choice, and decided to make it in a large oval Pyrex dish (below).

This is what we did.

Take 1.2kg Apache potatoes, wash them, then slice (5mm slices) into a pan of cold water. Add salt and bring to the boil. Simmer for 7 mins (according to one recipe, the potatoes should be "tender when pocked with a knife"). We gave them a quick pocking and determined that they were sufficiently done, so drained them and kept them warm.
While the potatoes are cooking, chop a pack of sliced smoked bacon into 1cm slices and fry gently in 15g butter and 15ml olive oil. (I used a 6-rasher pack of back bacon as I had one lurking in the fridge.)  Put the oven on - 200degC.
Peel and slice 2 med/large onions and add to the frying pan. Peel and chop 3 cloves of garlic and add those to the pan as well. Cook gently until the onion and garlic are soft but not coloured. Add a bit of pepper and salt.
Put 15g butter into the dish and microwave it until it melts, then cover the inside of the dish with butter using a pastry brush.
Put half of the potatoes in the bottom of the dish in an even layer, then half of the onion and bacon mixture, then 75ml cream (we used a mixture of single and double). Repeat the layers, then unwrap the Reblochon cheese, and, cursing freely, attempt to cut it into two rounds. Give up on that idea, and cut it in half first into two semicircles, then attempt to cut each half into two thinner semicircles. (It's evil stuff, Reblochon - as the knife passes through it it has a magical self-healing property, so it sticks itself back together again. Son and I both tried  with a semicircle, with varying degrees of success.)
Use the somewhat ragged semicircles, rind-side up, to thatch the top of the Tartiflette, then pour a glass of wine over the top (using a pastry brush to make sure the cheese rind is thoroughly wine-y).

Put in the oven, and listen to the howls of horror from younger son as the house fills with the delicious aroma of roasting socks. Once the top starts going crisp and brown, and it's bubbling vigorously, it's done.

Serve with a green salad.