In the Wallis/Valais region of Switzerland, Cholera is a savoury pastry filled with potatoes, vegetables, fruits and cheese. Maybe it brings back good memories to Eric LeVine.
“The unusual name is linked to the history of the dish. During an epidemic of the disease cholera in 1836, people in the region improvised a dish involving pastry and whatever food they had at hand, as normal trade was disrupted. After the epidemic subsided, chefs returned to the concept of putting regional ingredients in a savoury tart, and the “cholera” dish has lasted since. Originally, the local ingredients for such a dish were apples, pears, potatoes, onions, leeks, cheese and bacon.” Wikipedia
Winter is back since in Berlin and Germany in general, a week ago we had spring with 17 C. So time for this autumn/winter dish. In addition I had leftover of Guanciale and Swiss cheese.
Note: in my version I left the fruit out this time
Cook the Guanciale/bacon cubes until crisp. Set aside
Add the washed and sliced leek and cook for around 10min. to the bacon pan. Add a dash of white wine or water. Add a lid and let it cool down.
Roll out 1 puff pastry to a form. Pre-heat oven to 200 C or 400 F
Add thinly sliced potatoes
Add grated nutmeg and salt&pepper
Also add cooked leek
Add cheese and bacon cubes
Another layer of sliced potatoes. Again add nutmeg and salt&pepper
Finally a layer of puff pastry
Now brush the puff pastry with whisked egg yolk. Then make a hole in the middle.
Cook for 45min in the oven. Turn off the heat, optional let it rest for additional 5-10min in the oven, so that the potatoes are completely cooked. ENJOY
P.S. in Germany we have no round puff pastry, only rectangle ones. So I had to make it fit for a round form
I would recommend “potato/filling/potato”, as the potato helps that the puffy pastry doesn’t get too wet. As you know fruit produce a lot of liquid by cooking. In addition the Swiss people also pre-cook the potatoes for 10min which helps too for preventing the puff pastry or any kind of pastry get too wet. Also the potatoes are completely cooked at the end.
On the other hand feel free to make your own version or layers. Don’t forget, this recipe originated due to a shortage of food. So the people put in this “Cholera” whatever they had available.
it tasted also delicious re-heated on day 2. Even quite good on day 3 cold.
I have to say that this recipe is quite clever when you imagine it was invented when food was rare in the mountain region. To cook a few leeks makes not much sense, but to bring everything together for a big dish which last 2-3 days is clever. I guess the wives of these hard-working men put even some pieces cold as a lunch package.
Fair to say they didn’t use puff pastry rather a pastry based on flour and lard.
I am happy that you re-cooked this recipe a few times for your mother. It’s indeed the same recipe. But this time I wanted to give more historic background information regarding this recipe and also give the members of this board the chance to cook the complete recipe which means adding pear or apple.
