[display_podcast]
About three years ago I was browsing the aisles of my local Urban Outfitters and spotted a wonderful treasure: a bright orange fondue pot on sale for only $10!
I knew right away that I had to have it, and that some chilly winter evening years hence I would melt some stinky cheese down and dip hunks of French bread into it, to the delight of adoring dinner guests. And this past weekend, all my dreams were fulfilled. Having just moved into my first apartment and unearthed said fondue pot while unpacking boxes, I knew that the time had come for both my first dinner gathering and my first attempt at leaving an open flame on my new tablecloth.
I cracked open the copy of The Joy of Cooking that my mother had given me for the occasion and found the recipe a great deal less terrifying than I would have expected. I mean, come on, fondue is FANCY! The recipe must be pages and pages long! But no, it was surprisingly simple, and not surprisingly, delicious. Here’s how I did it:
Peel and halve a clove of garlic. Rub half of it all over the inside of a medium sauce pot (no, do not start cooking in the fondue pot! You’ll put it in there later). The recipe says to toss the remaining garlic, but I braved my fear of getting smelly things on my hands and cut up the other half of the clove very finely. Good call, Jessy!
Throw about 1 1/2 cups of dry white whine in the pot and bring to a simmer on medium heat. Two things I learned from this exercise: “simmer” means to heat until tiny bubbles start to float to the surface of the liquid but don’t break. Also, a dry white wine can be something like a Sauvignon Blanc or a Chardonnay (according to the charts I found on the labels of the cheap-o wines I bought – don’t get the fancy stuff, it’s just to melt cheese in after all!
Cube up a pound of Gruyere or Emantaller Swiss cheese, then add to the simmering wine. Make sure to add it slow and steady, by the handful. The recipe calls for one or the other, but I’m a daredevil and used half a pound of each. Depth of flavor, people! And Trader Joes sells both kinds in roughly half-pound blocks, which eliminates pesky measuring cups. Make sure to cube up the cheese into pretty small blocks so you aren’t waiting for hours until it melts.
All the recipes I found told me to use a wooden spoon. I’m still not sure why but they were pretty insistent upon it. I, alas, have no wooden spoon and was forced to use the handle of a spatula to do the stirring. What a pain in the ass. I recommend that you splurge and get yourself a complete spoon with more than just a handle. Another handy hint: stir the melting cheese in a zigzag motion. If you go in circle, it will all turn into a giant cheese ball. Tasty, yes, but not conducive to dipping bread in.
Once the cheese is almost melted, toss in a pinch of nutmeg (I think it’s supposed to add “zest”) and a tablespoon of cornstarch. Very important, that cornstarch! It binds the cheese to the wine and prevents you from ending up with wine and cheese soup.
Before you very CAREFULLY pour your enticing cheese mixture into the fondue pot, make sure that you’ve got your heat source going. There’s this handy canned heat product (and yes, that is where the band got its name from, thank you Wikipedia) called Sterno that I had a hell of a time tracking down, but you can find it at Smart & Final. Even some grocery stores carry it, but I’d go with the safe bet. Light that sucker on fire, dump your cheese into the fondue pot and set it over the flame.
Cut up some granny smith apples, maybe bake a potato and chop that up, and absolutely tear at least one whole baguette into chunks. Two might be more of a safe bet. I wouldn’t want you stabbing your friends’ eye out with those cute little fondue forks over who gets the last hunk of French bread.
Final tip: you will burn your tongue. It’s just too hard to wait for the cheese to cool off before shoving it into you mouth. Don’t worry. It’s worth it.
Photos by Jessy for Cityzine and Gwen Culbertson via Flickr
Subscribe to our RSS Feed And checkout our coffee competition to win a $30 gift voucher to your favourite coffee shop : click here
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
0 responses so far ↓
Subscribe to our RSS Feed and leave a comment to enter the commentator of the week competition and win a $20 Amazon.com gift voucher.
Leave a Comment