Who doesn’t love cheese ? Well I definitely know the six people around my dining table last night sure did.
It’s a bit of a throwback to the 70s, and every time I do a cheese fondue I wonder to myself why I don’t do it more often. Then I have think a bit more about exactly what we’re consuming, and then I think it’s time to stop thinking, and just enjoy the molten cheesy goodness.
Certainly not for the fainthearted (or those who are watching their weight), I was lucky enough to work with a Swiss who shared his own recipe with me – according to him, where in Australia the BBQ is the man’s domain, in Switzerland, because the weather is too cold to be outdoors, it is the fondue – it’s apparently all about the fire. Very caveman. Anyway, every Swiss man has his own recipe, and this is the one he shared with me.
I have a proper cheese fondue set and I would actually highly recommend it just because of the fact that it’s made of heavy cast-iron that is super easy to clean at the end of the night – the cheese simply wipes off (or if you’re lucky, the crust of cheese from the end of the night just comes off in one cheesy biscuit).
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic
1 glass dry white wine
1 tsp lemon juice
50/50 mix of gruyere and raclette/appenzeller cheese grated (250g per boy 200g per girl)
1/4 cup brandy
2 tbls cornflour
nutmeg, white pepper, paprika
Method:
- Smash the clove of garlic and rub on the inside of the fondue bowl. Discard.
- Place the bowl on a stove on medium. Add the wine and lemon juice. When the wine is bubbling around the edges, slowly incorporate the cheese, stirring constantly.
- Once all the cheese is melted, add the cornflour mixed with brandy and stir for 2 minutes. The mixture will thicken.
- Season with pepper, nutmeg and paprika.
- Serve with cubes of chewy bread (sourdough works well), cauliflower florets and boiled waxy potatoes.
- I also like serving it with parma ham and salami.
- To cut through all that cheese, I also serve with cornichons, pickled onions, fresh tomatoes and slices of red and yellow capsicum and also apple slices.
- An optional addition to cut through the heaviness is kirsch (if you can’t get that, we substitute with vodka or limoncello).
- At the end of the evening, the cheese that is left (if there is any) should be crispy and apparently should be shared amongst guests as a delicacy !
Thanks Reto !
May 23rd, 2011 at 10:43 pm
[…] last night’s decadent cheese fondue, we had leftover bread which I thought would be perfect for making panzanella – a Florentine salad […]