A new fondue

This was the appetizer course for the Valentine’s Day meal that Tyler made for us.  We love fondue and are always excited to find new recipes.  Tyler looked at a bunch of different recipes and then put this one together, it is fab!  This one is definitely a keeper!

Gruyere and Fontina Cheese Fondue

Ingredients:

1 garlic clove

1/2 cup Riesling

3/4 cup shredded gruyere cheese

3/4 cup shredded fontina cheese

1 T flour

1/4 t ground cinnamon

dash of pepper

Directions:

Toss flour with shredded cheese (this prevents clumping).  Rub fondue pot with a garlic clove, then pour in wine and heat until bubbles rise, add cheese mixture a handful at a time, stirring constantly.  Once cheese is fully melted, stir in cinnamon and pepper. Enjoy!  We eat ours with bread and granny smith apples!

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Fondue night

We are always looking for reasons to celebrate and bust out our fondue pot. Birthdays, valentine’s day, anniversaries…but this week we wanted fondue and decided to use the series finale of Gilmore Girls as our reason. Not that we are happy it has been canceled, but celebrating 7 great years of my favorite show (though the last year was a little less than stellar!) Obviously this was my idea, not Tyler’s We whipped up fondue and it was good but not as good as last time. I skimped on cheese and bought Kraft shredded sharp cheddar, I should have gone for extra sharp and bought a block of the good stuff to grate myself. One should not skimp on cheese. I found the original recipe by googling “the melting pot’s cheddar fondue” and we’ve tweaked it a bit to our liking.

Melting Pot Cheddar Fondue (made by Julia and Tyler)

3 to 3 1/2 oz beer (our chef at The Melting Pot said they use Miller High Life so that’s what we use)
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
1-2 Tablespoons worcestshire sauce, however much you prefer, it can be strong.
2 cups extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup swiss cheese

Grate cheese and mix in some flour to very lightly coat the cheese and keep it from clumping.

Mix beer, mustard powder and garlic in the fondue pot, bring to a simmer.
Add in cheese in small batches, and stir until the consistency is right. Add in worcestshire sauce and continue stirring until thickened.

Serve with whatever dippers you prefer. We use Italian or French Bread, Pumpernickel & Rye, and granny smith apples.

For dessert we had chocolate covered strawberries, very yummy. I was not impressed with the microwaveable tub of bakers dipping chocolate. It worked and tasted fine but it clumped up terribly so I wasn’t able to use all the chocolate. Next time I will melt the chocolate in a double boiler on the stove so I can better control the temperature.

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