Celebrate Saturday: Cheese Fondue

Welcome to my annual recipe crush. Each February I choose a theme, and provide one or two recipes each day for the whole month. This year the theme is Weekly Menu Planning. What are the categories, you ask? We have Sunday Special, Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Worldly Wednesday, Thrifty Thursday, Fishy Friday, and Celebrate Saturday.

When you want to celebrate casually, but with something other than pizza, you might try this cheese fondue recipe from Andrew Zimmern that was featured in the January 28, 2018 Sunday paper Parade Magazine.

Fondue, like the Mongolian Hot Pot that I started this month with, is communal dining, so it is casual and fun. Everybody sits around the fondue pot and dips (once only!) into the cheese sauce.

Back in the day, I made parties from having Mongolian Hot Pot, cheese fondue, and finished up with dessert of chocolate fondue. Good times! I always made my cheese fondue with beer, but I decided to give this one a try. I’m glad I did!

The secret to a fondue is low and slow. Cook the cheeses at a low temperature and stir, stir, stir until all the shredded cheeses are melted and you have a smooth mixture.

This is also a perfect recipe to practice mise en place (everything prepared in advance so you just add ingredients when needed). I made a few selective changes to his recipe, but the ingredients and quantities are all him.

Cheese Fondue ala Andrew Zimmern (Serves 4-6)

1 garlic clove, cut in half

1 cup dry white wine

1 tablespoon lemon juice

8 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated

8 ounces Emmental cheese, grated

4 ounces fontina cheese, grated (or Appenzeller or raclette)

4 tablespoons corn starch

3 tablespoons kirsch (cherry brandy)

2 pinches ground nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Rub inside of heavy pot with cut sides of garlic. Add wine and lemon juice. Heat to simmer over medium heat.

Working in batches, add cheeses and cornstarch. Do NOT bring to boil. Add the next batch of cheeses when the previous batch is fully melted.

When the cheeses are all added and melted, stir in the kirsch, nutmeg, and salt and pepper.

Pour mixture into a fondue pot set to low.

Serve with kielbasa or other cooked sausage, cubed day-old bread, roasted or blanched cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, (and other veggies), and cubed boiled potatoes. This will be a really filling dinner.

If you have any leftover cheese fondue, thin it with a wee bit of milk, cook up some pasta, and toss them together. The best mac and cheese ever!

DH’s Rating: 4 ½ Tongues Up

DH: “This  is really salty.”  Me: “Yeah, it’s all the cheeses. Do you not like it?” DH: “Oh, no it’s really good, it’s just that we don’t eat much salty food anymore so it’s noticeable.”