Fondue Night ... An Annual Event? by Martha

Fondue has always seemed like a real cold weather holiday treat, so this year's December meeting was a total fondue night, starting with a great cheese fondue, followed by a broth-based Chinoise fondue and ending with (what else?) a chocolate fondue.

We started the evening with a series of toasts .... one to my birthday followed by another to Vicki and Paul's engagement. I'm happy to have a birthday. Vicki's happy with Paul, so it's all good!

Monica arrived and quickly heated up a warm German wine, gluhewein. She's got the best recipe and we all hope she will share it with the blog.

Vickie brought along a cheese fondue which we devoured with bread and a beautiful plate of vegetables. Here's her recipe:

CHEESE FONDUE

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash white pepper
Dash nutmeg
2 1/2, cups milk (scalded, if in a hurry)
1 pound process swiss cheese, shredded
7 teaspoon Worcesteshire sauce
Dash of' Tobasco sauce
1/3 cup dry white wine (or milk if preferred)
2 tablespoons kirsch (or milk if preferred)
Frcnch bread, cut in 1-inch cubes

Melt butter in ceramic fondue pot over a moderate direct flame. Stir in next 5 ingredients. Stir in milk; cook, stir constantly until sauce is smooth and thickened slightly. Lower flame, add cheese, a small amount at a time and stir until cheese is melted after each addition. Stir in remaining ingredients except bread. We also had a plate of fresh vegetables, including cherry tomatoes, asparagus, baby ears of corn, and boiled small butter potatoes.

CHINOISE FONDUE

The Chinoise Fondue is something like a hot pot. We had a fabulous broth that I prepared earlier in the day and let sit stove top to enable the flavors to interact. Here are the ingredients:

2 quarts chicken broth
1 can coconut milk
2 thai red peppers (leave the whole to float in the broth)
2 Tbsp. curry powder
4 Tbsp. fresh ginger
Fresh lemongrass from 2 - 3 stalks
4 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
8 tsp. satay powder (can be found easily at an asian market)
1 tsp. salt

Bring broth to a boil and remove from heat. Let it sit 3 - 4 hours, or at least 30 minutes. Reheat before pouring into fondue pot.

For dipping we used:

baby pickled corn
broccoli
asparagus
bean sprouts
shrimp, 3/4 lb.
scallops, 3/4 lb.
thinly sliced tuna, 3/4 lb.
beef, 3/4 lb.

The sprouts that Janet brought along a were very fine alphalfa sprouts that were absolutely wonderful. We just added them to the broth and as our food cooked, they would cling to it and add just another taste and texture.

I personally love the Chinoise fondue because it's not just dip and eat, dip and eat. I tend to be someone who just can't get food to my mouth fast enough, so the fact that we had to wait a minute or two to cook the food led to more relaxed conversation and eating.

Eliza brought along three dipping sauces, a green onion/cilantro sauce that worked well with many of the seafoods; a soy sauce/ginger dip that was magical with the shrimp and a peanut satay sauce that of course really worked well with the beef.

CHOCOLATE FONDUE

So finally, full as we could possibly be, we got to dessert. The chocolate fondue was a basic toblerone fondue. Rather than using a log of one flavor toblerone, I bought a package that contained bite-sized pieces of milk, dark, and white toblerone. To deepen the chocolate layers, I also added a couple of bars of intense orange dark chocolate. Add heavy cream and a good shake from a big bottle of Grand Marnier. We had traditional items to dip including strawberries, bananas and clementine sections. I made some homemade marshmallows (see Ina Garten's recipe at www.homecooking.about.com/od/candyrecipes/r/blcandy4.htm.) The star, in my opinion, were the amaretti cookies that Janet baked from "Julia Child's Baking", page 320. Chewy, flavorful ... really yummy.