Organizing the December Fondue Meeting by Martha

For those of you who don't have a food club and would like some guidance on how ours works, here's the information that was sent out to our members about our next meeting:

The consensus is to meet on either the 15th or 16th and the 15th works much better for me. So can we plan on 6 PM at my house on the 15th of December? We had decided to have a fondue party and will be featuring three different types of fondues: cheese, Chinoise and chocolate.

I’ve chatted with a couple of people about how we can organize this. How about if we have three different courses? We’ll probably have seven people at the table, so two fondue pots per course. I have three pots, so if we can have three more, that will be great. I’ll have the fuel for my pots, and if you’re bringing a pot, would you please remember to bring your fuel. That way I don’t have to worry about whether you need the gel or liquid.

Here’s what I’d suggest:

CHINOISE FONDUE

For those who are unfamiliar with the Chinoise fondue, this is a broth based fondue into which you dip very thinly sliced meat (usually beef, but sometimes pork), shrimp, bay scallops, vegetables. Here’s a link to a recipe for this type of fondue: http://www.sofeminine.co.uk/w/recipe/r464/chinese-fondue.html. I’ve never made the broth with coconut milk, but this sounds really enticing with the chilies, and the ginger and the satay powder. Wonder what satay powder is? Anyway, the best parts of Chinoise fondue are the sauces. I’d suggest two or three, a curry sauce which is basically curry and mayonnaise. Here are a couple of links for ginger sauce and a peanut sauce:

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/saucesmarinades/r/soygingerdress.htm
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/saucesdipping/r/peanutsauce.htm


CHEESE FONDUE

I don’t have a favorite cheese fondue recipe, but this is the top rated recipe from http://www.foodnetwork.com/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-rays-tasty-travels/swiss-fondue-recipe2/index.html

I’d suggest bread cubes and veggies for dippers.

CHOCOLATE FONDUE

Once again, I went to http://www.foodnetwork.com/ and found one of their highest rated recipes:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chocolate-orange-fondue-recipe/index.html

Remember, the three recipes above are only my suggestions. If anyone has any other recipes that are favorites, just let us know.

Here’s the list of items that we’d need to produce the above:

Broth for Chinoise fondue -- Martha
Sauces for the chinoise fondue --Eliza
¾ lb beef sliced very thin
¾ lb shrimp -- Ingrid
sliced tuna -- Eliza
¾ lb scallops -- Ingrid
Vegetables for both chinoise and cheese fondue -- Janet
Swiss cheese fondue -- Vicki
Greyere and emmenthal -- Nancy
Kirsch for the cheese fondue -- Janet
2 baguettes for cheese fondue -- Ingrid
1 cup heavy cream for chocolate fondue --Martha
Chocolate for fondue -- Martha
Fruit for dipping -- Martha
Amaretti for dipping -- Janet

I’ll have the rest of the incidentals in the kitchen, like the cinnamon, Grand Marnier, white wine, white pepper, etc.

Please let me know what you’d like to bring …. It would be very helpful for me not to have to send out reminders. So, please don’t say you’ll bring what no one else is going to bring … I’d love to have this knocked out this week so that I don’t have to think about who’s bringing what.

Also, don’t forget to bring you Christmas gift for the present exchange … something that’s food oriented and around $10.00.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Love you all!