Fondues

[g.johnson]

Naked was savage but not, I thought, snobbish unlike Abigail's Party which left a nasty taste.

[g.johnson]

Life is Sweet also had Jane Horrocks (Bubble), naked and covered in chocolate. But no fondue.

[Priscilla]

Yes but "Naked" had David Thewlis.

[g.johnson]

So did Life is Sweet. Licking the chocolate off Jane Horrocks.

[Blondie]

Life is Sweet also had Jane Horrocks (Bubble), naked and covered in chocolate. But no fondue.

And Stephen Rea

[wgallois]

I am a big fan of fondues in general, and the following fondue in particular. A key to serving fondues, I think, is to have very simple side-dishes such as bowls of cherry tomatoes and chopped cucumbers. Oh, and lots of wine, as was alluded to by earlier posters.

This is a vague recipe for a pumpkin/squash fondue. The key thing about this dish is that some of the flesh needs to be reserved from the pumpkin, but not too much, as the fondue is later added to the baked pumpkin, and the best thing about the dish comes when one is scraping baked pumpkin flesh away at the end of the 'fondue'. The first time I made this I was following a recipe from BBC Vegetarian Magazine, but I then managed to misplace this and made the misremembered version below. Soon after I discovered that Hugh F-W's 'River Cottage Cookbook' has a similar recipe, though his has nutmeg and neither thyme, nor wine.

1. Scoop a good proportion of the flesh from the pumpkin/squash (making sure that you leave some still attached to the 'walls'), chop this and then place in a baking tray in a medium-heat oven, seasoning well before it goes in.

2. Season the whole pumpkin and rub a small amount of butter into the flesh, before placing it too in the oven.

3. Slowly cook some onions and garlic in butter with a little white wine.

4. Grate plenty of gruyere and emmenthal, and prepare some fresh thyme.

5. When the tray of pumpkin pieces has cooked, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool slightly. Reduce the heat of the oven, leaving the whole pumpkin inside.

4. Whiz up the pumpkin pieces with the onions and garlic, cheese, and thyme, and season, adding a little extra wine according to your tastes (one might also add some cream). Aim for a reasonaly thick consistency which is more cheesy than pumpkiny.

5. Add the mix to the whole pumpkin and cook for a few minutes, and serve with lots of baguette for dipping.

[Lyle]

***bump***

Naff, daft, or trash, I've some non-ironic nor post-modern-experiamental fondue in a pot and I have a question that's, believe it or not, related to cooking...sort of.

We made a too-large pot of beer based cheddar-emmental fondue which was so delicious it's now sitting in our fridge and is the consistency of grainy rubber. Now I've made this mistake of quantity before and have seldom been able to re-liquify the concoction without it separating into pink fat and nuclear orange paste.

My plan this time is to cube the "rubber" for ease of stirring and whisk it over very low heat. Will this work? How could I keep this from separating?

[Lyle]

Update.

No luck. Separation galore.

[ms. victoria]

It might not separate if you add more of the liquid, beer in this case.

[Cusina]

I love the swiss cheese variety, naff or no... but I'm a Midwestern oaf too.

Makes me think of Harry's store in my childhood. Harry was a serious character. Had was a Swiss ex-pat who had a store literally under a river embankment in my home town. It was full of European wine, cheese, sausages, tobacco blends, chocolate and old men. What this was doing in a small town in farmland Wisconsin I have no idea, but it sure fascinated me. His instructions to my mother were severe. Only THE BEST IMPORTED cheese was to go into her fondue or there would be certain death, or at the very least grainy yicky fondue goo. My mother, bless her, followed his instructions to the letter. I still make it, but have to hunt for the right cheese. Gruyère and imported swiss, the younger the better.

mmmmm... melty, winey goodness

[Marlene]

I am a fan of fondues and make them frequently, usually beef, done in either broth or oils. I'm going to experiment with a cheese fondue this weekend, never having attempted one before.

(Oh, I have three fondue pots as well )

[dankphishin]

Notwithstanding all the arguments of what's daft and what's naff, I'm of the persuasion that anything involving a pot of hot melted cheese is worth eating. But maybe I'm just daft.

[Boris_A]

Fondue ... has it transcended into retro kitsch?

How about a extremely simple recipe reported by Brillat-Savarin himself?

Must be from the year 1750 or so! Retro-kitsch?

"From the papers of Mr. Trolpet, bailif of Moudon, Canton of Berne.

- take one egg per person

- a piece of Emmetaler cheese, about on third of the weight of the eggs

- a piece of butter (one sixth of the weight)

then

- stir the eggs in a casserole (like for scrambled eggs)

- add butter and finely gratinated cheese.

- heat gently and stir until the mix is mellowed

- add salt (depending of the maturity of the cheese)

- add a lot of pepper (characteristical for this "old-father-style" (?) dish)

Serve on pre-heated plates and together with excellent wine and you are going to experience wonders"

[Boris_A]

Fondue ... has it transcended into retro kitsch?

How about an extremely simple recipe reported by Brillat-Savarin himself?

Must be from the year 1750 or so. Retro-kitsch?

"From the papers of Mr. Trolpet, bailif of Moudon, Canton of Bern.

- take one egg per person

- a piece of Emmetaler cheese, about on third of the weight of the eggs

- a piece of butter (one sixth of the weight)

then

- stir the eggs in a casserole (like for scrambled eggs)

- add butter and the finely grated cheese.

- heat gently and stir until the mix is mellowed

- add salt (depending of the maturity of the cheese)

- add a lot of pepper (characteristical for this "old-father-style" (?) dish)

Serve on pre-heated plates and together with excellent wine and you are going to experience wonders"

I have to admit, I never tried this one. But now, I'll do it this evening.

[ed.f.typos]

Edited April 3, 2004 by Boris_A (log)

[thursdaynext]

Boris_A,

I'm anxious to know how your re-creation of the good bailiff's recipe turned out??

I also am a fan of traditional Swiss fondue, but most often I prepare what has been called "Fondue Bourgignonne." I not only use beef, but often add shrimp, scallops, and mushrooms. A light coating of cornflour is good, too. It absorbs any liquid that might snap, crackle, pop in the oil- and makes a thin, crispy crust. Not to mention the excuse this gives me to pull out a number of the interesting condiments I seem to acquire!

This type of entertaining is good when you have mix of ages, too... it keeps teens and tweens at the dinner table!

[Susan G]

I'm going to experiment with a cheese fondue this weekend, never having attempted one before.

And so? What were your results? What did you use in your cheese fondue, and did you like it as much as you thought you might?

[Anna N]

Boris_A,

I'm anxious to know how your re-creation of the good bailiff's recipe turned out??

I also am a fan of traditional Swiss fondue, but most often I prepare what has been called "Fondue Bourgignonne." I not only use beef, but often add shrimp, scallops, and mushrooms. A light coating of cornflour is good, too. It absorbs any liquid that might snap, crackle, pop in the oil- and makes a thin, crispy crust. Not to mention the excuse this gives me to pull out a number of the interesting condiments I seem to acquire!

This type of entertaining is good when you have mix of ages, too... it keeps teens and tweens at the dinner table!

We do something similar - beef, chicken, sometimes pork, lots of shrimp and a few veggies. There are only two of us but we enjoy a long leisurely meal with nobody stuck in the kitchen.

[Boris_A]

how your re-creation of the good bailiff's recipe turned out??

In my first attempt, the eggs had been too raw. I was afraid of heating them too much. With the second attempt I had a concistency of soft scrambled eggs.

The right amount of coagulating seems to be the trick. The cheese flavour was very explosive and fortyfied by the warm eggs. (There are some truffles aficionados who like it most with scrambled eggs. Seems to work as a flavour amplifier) Next I'm going to try a Gruyère variant.

This kind of fondue should made very nice warm starter.

This type of entertaining is good when you have mix of ages, too... it keeps teens and tweens at the dinner table!

When I was a boy, Fondue was always great fun. The one who lost a piece of bread in the cheese pot ("caquelon") had to perform something. Among Swiss adults, the traditional "punishment" for loosing a bread cube is to pay for the next bottle of wine.

"Fondue Bourgignonne."

I like very much the Chinese/Mongolian variant with stock instead of oil. They call it "Shuan Yang Rou" and is very popular in Northern China during winter time.

[thursdaynext]

Me too, on the Mongolian hot pot! I like it better than sukiyaki, but either way, the broth at the end is usually the best part!

I also found, at least for most of the broth/oil variations, that more than four diners to a pot should be avoided! We use two or three units for larger dinners.

Edited April 6, 2004 by thursdaynext (log)

[docsconz]

We recently had an apres-ski fondue dinner with visiting relatives that was a lot of fun and quite delicious. We had a cheese fondue with aged emmenthaler and several other cheeses (a good way to use up some cheeses hanging around) of good quality but otherwise uncertain further utility and a bourgognone with beef tenderloin i in hot oil. These were then served with various sauces including garlic aoli and Hoboken Eddies's Cilantro-lime hot barnecue sauce. The combination of the two sauces was particularly good. We will be doing this again. I would think shrimp and or scallops would be excellent as well.

Actually, fondue holds a special place in my heart as I got my first kiss from my wife as a result of having a fondue. We were in NYC in Feb. of 1983 and were having our second date at La Fondue in midtown. I dropped a piece of bread in the pot so according to the menu I was obliged to pay for dinner. She dropped a piece and was obliged to give me a kiss

[Beebs]

Dredging up an ancient thread....

So I'm having a cheese fondue party next week, for about a dozen people. Not really the right season for sitting in front of a bowl of piping hot melted cheese - but melted cheese is good anytime, right?

Anyway, I'm looking for ideas on what to serve as appetizers/hors d'oeurves/sides. So far I've got a citrus fennel salad and mushroom caps. Preferably lighter nibbles, nothing with cheese or too much cheese, nothing too labour intensive because I won't have a lot of prep time. Retro appies would be fun. Any thoughts on what else I can serve? Another salad? Tomatoes on a skewer? Riblets??

Oh, and there will be a couple pregnant ladies, so some things they won't be able to eat (raw seafood, some cured meats). I'll have all the usual dippers for the fondue - bread, blanched veg, sausages, etc.

Thanks, eG'ers!

[janeer]

I have to disagree with all you naysayers. I love a good, well-made cheese fondue. My son and I have it every Christmas Day (we have our big, elaborate dinner Christmas Eve) sitting in the living room. We love it. Simple perfection of bread, cheese, and wine.

[Beebs]

Yup, cheese fondue is one of life's simple pleasures! Our family has it on a fairly regular basis, and last year instead of the usual Christmas roast or turkey, we had cheese fondue. It was a nice change to simplicity after a couple weeks of Christmas feasting.

We also do hot pot regularly - broth fondue. I've not had a chance to have the hot oil fondue yet. Something about dealing with splattering hot oil & the smell of deep frying in my not very large condo is a turn off.

Edited June 4, 2012 by Beebs (log)