The custom of sharing a meal with friends and family out of one communal dish is a common one amongst a vast variety of cultures. It seems to me that there is no more intimate way to share food. For this reason I felt it was the perfect way to welcome friends into our new home.
It had *nothing* to do with the fact that it's dead easy to prepare.
OUCH!
Pardon me. My nose appears to have grown rapidly and struck the monitor quite hard.
As long as I am being honest, I must admit the interactive nature of the fondue supper also helped to distract my guests from the lack of a kitchen and the building supplies and tools stacked in the corner of the dining room - everybody's eyes were, thankfully, on the fondue pot rather than on the chaos.
Normally, I would have waited to have guests over until the place was more presentable, but my sister happened to be in town and some mutual friends that she doesn't get to see too often (and who are only a month or two off disappearing from the face of the earth for a while as they adjust to life as new parents) were available for supper.
Although I am sure there are plenty of people out there who religiously follow fondue recipes, I am not one of them. I generally go to the deli and select a few cheeses and cart them home. I grate the cheeses up (about 100 grams per person), toss the grated cheese in a tablespoon of so flour, and blend the cheese, handful by handful to a potful of heated white wine with a few crushed cloves of garlic floating in it. That's it. See how easy?
The one time I did try to stick to a specific recipe is the one and only time my fondue came out badly: crystally and rubbery and clumpy and no good at all! Fondue is clearly one of those foods which seems to turn out better when I cook based on my intuition (and a lubricating glass or two of wine) as opposed to planning and measuring and fretting. The fondue, it would seem, suffers from the fretting at least as much as I do.
I am so relaxed about the preparing of the cheese fondue, I can't even pretend to know how much of each thing I used. The best I can do is to estimate that I used somewhere between 400 and 700 grams of cheese, made up roughly of 1/2 Emmenthal to 1/4 each of Tilsit and Gruyere and somewhere between 3/4 and 1 3/4 cups of wine.
I served it with a selection of breads for dunking accompanied only by a simple salad with a lemon and olive oil dressing. Heaven!
I made a shocking and exciting discovery on that fondue night. I discovered, much to the bathroom scale's dismay, the BEST caramel fondue ever created. You must promise, after reading this recipe, to make it once, and then never again. I cannot be responsible for the consequences if you cannot control yourself. It. Is. Just. That. Good.
Should I make you wait longer? Perhaps draw out your anticipation over what is surely the best bloody desert fondue ever?
I cannot bring myself to be so cruel.
Ingredients:
- one 500 ml jar of dulce del leche
1. remove lid from jar of dulce de leche.
2. microwave jar of dulce de leche for 3 -5 minutes, or until quite warm and melted through.
3. pour melted dulce de leche into chocolate fondue pot and place lighted tea light in receptacle.
4. serve dulce de leche turned caramel fondue with cubed cake, apple wedges and other fruits.
5. lament the fact that you can't un-know how easy this is.
6. make an oath never to buy another jar of dulce de leche.
7. hope you can keep your oath.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Woohoo...fondue!
Would you believe we have *three* fondue pots? I'm not kidding; we bought a nice, inexpensive one. Then, we got a better one (upgrade!) as a Christmas gift. Finally, we were given an Emile Henry fondue pot as a wedding gift. Each one was better!
And we're planning a big dessert fondue for a party next month; chocolate, caramel (thanks for the tip), and butterscotch.
Dang; I shouldn't have thought about it so late at night...
Posted by: Stephanie | May 16, 2005 at 10:24 PM
pot of dulce de leche=heaven. i only did it once and i promised i would never do it again. but oh how im tempted!
Posted by: tanvi | May 24, 2005 at 02:02 PM