Monday, July 28, 2008

Fondue!



My niece and nephew were visiting this past weekend so we decided to do something fun for our Saturday night dinner - Fondue party! My niece and nephew had never tried fondue and it had been awhile since we have made fondue with our kids. My husband and his family love fondue and made it for all birthdays when he was growing up. So we have made it a tradition in our house as well. It sounds cheesy (no pun intended) but kids love fondue! You get to stab things with a fork and dip it into yummy cheese - how can you go wrong? We always do cheese and chocolate. Getting the right consistency is always key with fondue, but with kids, it's even more important to have the right foods to dip. This weekend we had:
• 1 loaf whole wheat french bread – strategically cut so that each piece has at least one side of crust
• broccoli (not in season right now so store bought bag of florets to save time), blanched
• small pickles
• mushrooms
• baby potatoes, boiled until just starting to soften and cut in half

You can dip just about anything that is firm enough - try cauliflower, carrots, olives, cucumber, peppers, and garlic cloves. The kids loved it! They had a great time dipping and trying different things, figuring out which was their favorite.

We used a basic fondue recipe:

Ingredients:

• ½ clove garlic
• 1 lb. Gruyere cheese
• 8 oz. Emmentaler cheese
• 1 ½ cups dry white wine
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• pepper
• pinch of nutmeg

1. Grate the cheese and toss with the cornstarch.
2. Rub the inside of the fondue pot with the cut surface of the garlic.
3. Mix together lemon juice and wine and heat in the pot over medium heat.
4. Once hot enough to melt the cheese but not boiling, begin adding the cheese one handful at a time, stirring until melted.
5. Stir constantly and continue adding the cheese until the fondue is a smooth and creamy texture. Add nutmeg and a few dashes of pepper.
6. Remove from the stove and place over a flame.

This makes enough for 4-6 adults. It could easily serve 6-8 adults if you started with a salad.


Then, of course, we did some chocolate fondue (see pictures above). Just heat about 1/4 cup of milk in a pan on the stove and add about 1/2 bag of chocolate chips, stirring constantly and removing when smooth and creamy. Chocolate fondue is easy to experiment with - we often do peanut butter and chocolate. This time, we added a handful of chopped chocolate mint from our garden (yes, there really are chocolate mint plants). We have a very small ceramic fondue pot that sits over a tea candle that is perfect for chocolate. This time, we just dipped strawberries, blueberries (from the Farmer's Market) and pound cake (keep pound cake refrigerated until serving to help it stay together). It was divine! I have to admit, the chocolate was a bit messy for the four-year-old but well worth it!

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