Fondue!

[Leanne]

I had a fondue party this weekend & loved it - we all did. So it made me think - does anyone else love fondue & if you do - what is your favorite recipe?
Thanks. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[Gina O]

Oh my yes!!!! I love fondue! My first real experience with it was about 11 years ago at The Melting Pot, a wonderful chain of fondue restaurants. Of course, my ideas for fondue have NO place on a Cooking Light board!

I love to entertain doing the fondue thing, first course is cheese, a pretty classic recipe with garlic, white wine, Gruyere, Emmentaler, corn starch, kirsch, nutmeg and pepper. If you want the exact recipe, I would be happy to post it. I serve it with french bread cubes, apples, and raw veggies. Second course is peanut oil served with raw shrimp, teriyaki marinated filet, fish (tilapia worked great last time), chicken breast, two kinds of batter, mushroom caps and green godess dressing. (fill caps with dressing, batter and cook in oil, incredible). I also serve this with several sauces including more teriyaki and a delicious Thai peanut sauce. Third course is chocolate, I have tried various recipes, served with cheese cake, angel food cake, pineapple chucks, any leftover apples, marshmellows, and strawberries, of course.

Fondue is truly a passion of mine... and it has been a while since I have had it, so I am really feeling the need!!! Gina

[Leanne]

Gina -
We had a cheese fondue to start & shrimp & beef for the main course. The shrimp was satay & we had a satay sauce. For dessert, we had chocolate fondue as well. mmm...

I would like to know about your fish recipe & your teryaki sauce. Also - does using peanut oil make a difference in flavor? Have you ever tried using a broth instead of oil? I'm also interested in the batter if you could post those recipes.
Thanks a ton.

[MrsReber]

Hi Leanne,

Yes, there actually was a dicussion about this not too long ago! I don't remember the name of the thread, but I'm sure if you do a search under fondue, it'll come up. I think there were some recipes on the thread as well.

[sal]

A different dessert fondue that I enjoy is mini marshmallows, thinned w/ a little heavy cream and a Tbsp or so of peach snaps. White grapes & strawberries, pound cake or angel food cake are esp. delicious dipped in this. sally

[Gina O]

Leanne- When I served the fish, I just cut it into cubes and cooked it in the hot oil, with or without batter. I have the cookbook "Fondue" by Rick Rodgers. He prefers vegetable shortening, which is what I used the last time. Peanut oil is good because it has a high smoking point and mild flavor. He also mentions olive oil as an option, although I have not tried it.

I use store bought teriyaki, but look for the thickest sauce I can find (I am out of it now, so do not have a brand name). The thin soy sauce style does not work. The Thai sauce is actually Jade Sichuan Peanut Sauce. I get it a Williams Sonoma, and it is absolutely delicious on a multitude of things.

As far as the batters go, I attempt to recreate the ones from The Melting Pot. One is a fairly thin, near tempura type batter... I usually just buy Golden Dipts Tempura batter. The other one is a seasoned batter with sesame seeds in it. To do this, I usually buy a fish batter (no cornmeal) and then add salt, pepper, cayenne, sesame seeds and any other spice I see lying nearby. I think something like Tony Cacheres would work perfect as the seasoning but I never have it around.

I have only tried the broth once at the restaurant, although I have bunches of recipes for "court bouillion". It is very good, and I know people who much prefer it to the oil. My problem is that to cook the mushrooms with the green godess you need the oil, and I love them so much, I do the oil! Gina

[Jodi]

Gina O, Please post your cheese recipe. It sounds delicious. My fiance and I registered for a fondue maker and it's gone from the registry, so I'm hoping it'll be under the Christmas tree!
Jodi

[Leanne]

Gina - thanks. It's all so easy being premade like that!

I found a premade cheese fondue that we love. I get it at the fancier grocery store in town - it's a red box with big yellow letters that say "Fondue". It is so good.

Sally - thanks for the marshmallow suggestion too - that's a new one that we'll have to try.

[Gina O]

This is modified from the Fondue by Rick Rodgers cookbook:

Classic Swiss Cheese Fondue

1 garlic clove, peeled
1 c. dry white wine
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
10 oz. Gruyere cheese, shredded
10 oz. Emmentaler cheese, shredded
4 tea. cornstarch
2 tbsp. kirsch
a pinch of nutmeg
fresh ground pepper to taste

1. Rub the inside of a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan with teh garlic; discard garlic. Add the wine and lemon juice and bring to a bare simmer over medium heat.

2. In a medium bowl, toss the cheeses with the cornstarch. A handful at a time, stir the cheese mixture into the wine, stirring the first batch until it is almost completely melted before adding another. The fondue can bubble gently, but do not boil. Stir in the kirsch and season with the nutmeg and pepper.

3. Transfer to a cheese fondue pot and keep warm over a fondue burner. Serve immediately with dipping ingredients of your choice.

Okay, so I was going to wait and have a little xmas fondue party on December 22nd, but I really don't think I can wait that long!! So... who wants to come over for fondue next weekend???? My boyfriend and I just got new jobs, that sounds like the perfect reason to celebrate! Gina http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[emilycat]

The fondue recipe I use is exactly like Gina's and I love it, but my mom used to make a cheddar cheese fondue that had crumbled bacon in it that I adored when I was younger. She got it from a woman she knew when my parents lived in Kaiserslautern, Germany (yes, I know, cheddar's not very traditional cheese fondue, but I think the woman was Amercian, also)
We used to use french bread chunks, cubes of ham, cauliflower, broccoli and steamed mushrooms (my favorite) for dipping.

I also much prefer broth to oil for the main course; I actually have The Fondue Cookbook with some incredible sounding recipes in it that I am quite ashamed to say I haven't used yet...my apartment is so teeny that it would be a joke to have a fondue party there...it would have to be, literally, on the floor. I'm reading through this cookbook now, though, yum, and thinking that a floor party might not be so bad after all...it could be fun http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

Oh, by the way, I've been looking forever for a fondue pot as wonderful as my moms; it's a relatively shallow cheese-only pot, with a kind of bulbous (isn't that a funny word http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/tongue.gif say it, bul-bous) handle and it's handpainted. Anyway, she bought it in Germany, as well, so I don't know if I'll ever be able to find something like that until I take a trip there again, but I was hoping some of you might have some ideas. I guess my boring blue Le Creuset will have to do for now...


[This message has been edited by emilycat (edited 11-21-2000).]

[Gina O]

Em- The pot your mom has sounds wonderful! It would be so great if you could find one like it. I do love mine, it is copper with a porcelain insert (from Williams Sonoma). The porcelain insert is used over water in the copper part for the cheese and chocolate. The copper pot is used alone for oil or broth. It works wonderfully when used with Chantal burner paste (also from WS). It does not work well with other fuels. I received it as a gift last year for xmas, and have since bought a house and decorated my kitchen, dining and living room around it. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif (French country, blue and copper)

My idea for the perfect number for a fondue party is 6... that seems to be just about the amount of cheese my pot will hold well. And, I think the living room floor would be a perfect place. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

btw, Em, I have heard you mention Raliegh/Chapel Hill several times. My sister lives there.... I go to Logan's and A Southern Season everytime I am in town. Gina

[Leanne]

Ham is a good idea for the cheese dip (& I also like the idea of adding bacon!). My husband will love that - he thinks I don't feed him enough meat. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

As far as pots go - I have 3 different ones. I have a fancy new stainless one (Crate & Barrel) that we got as a wedding present. I have an electric one that I bought (Amazon.com) for the party to make sure the oil would stay the right temperature for the meats, & I have an old red one of my mom's - it's aluminum I think & takes sterno.

They all worked well, except the old on of my mom's - it kept getting too hot for the chocolate - & there was no sort of temperature control. We decided that any of the 3 pots probably would have kept the oil hot enough.

I saw this as a question on a previous fondue thread - the stainless pot has a container with holes that has a mesh thing in the bottom - it takes denatured alcohol that you can get at an local hardware store. As soon as we asked for it, they knew we were doing fondue.