Radio Kitchen #924 - Fondue 1-11-11

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local-wypr-949371.mp3

A few weeks ago Al attended a lovely holiday party where each couple was asked to contribute to the dinner table.  Since our format was an informal buffet, and since we all wanted to have little plates to go with our little glasses of wine, he thought a couple pots of bubbling fondue would be just the thing.  After many decades in the culinary wilderness, fondue has made some kind of a comeback!  Jerry whips it up at his restaurants and it is constant demand.

There are three basic styles:  cheese, savory, and dessert.  In some cases little has changed over the years, but there are some new things to report. Our preference is for a cheese fondue:  first, flavor the inside of the pot with a garlic clove.  Second choose a dry, acidic white wine without a lot of fruit; sauvignon blanc is great... you don't have to spend a lot of money.  There are two essential cheeses:  gruyere and emmenthal.  Some recommend a little cheddar as well, and we don't argue.  The proportion is 20 ounces cheese to one cup of wine.  Once you grate your cheese, collect it in a mixing bowl and sprinkle in some corn starch.  This coats the cheese, keeping it from clumping together and it adds to the creaminess of the melted mixture.  Heat gently and serve immediately.   For meat fondues, canola, peanut or safflower oil have been the cooking media of choice.  One of the newest ideas in meat fondues is to substitute a savory broth for the oil.  It will take a bit longer to cook your food, but it is healthier and the broth itself adds flavor.  While meats such as beef, lamb, pork and chicken are common, you can also try seafood.  Salmon, swordfish, shrimp and scallops are great choices here.  The dipping sauce is the raison d'etre for the meat fondue.  One of my personal favorites is a blend of blackberry jam, beef broth, and a touch of horseradish.  Creamy mustard sauces are wonderful with pork, and lamb is happy with minty, herbal blends.  Peanut satay sauce is excellent with chicken.  And for seafood, any barbecue sauce you would use for grilled seafood would be perfect.   The default cooking sauce for dessert fondues is chocolate.  You can jazz up the idea with white chocolate, or little dollops of dessert liqueurs added in. But a new idea is to take sweet heavy cream, and add ice cream sauces to it, and bring the whole thing to a gentle simmer.  Fruit, pound cake, coconut chunks or bite-sized cookies are great dippers.