Fondue Night
Sunday, February 24th, 2013Adam and I have started Saturday Movie Nights this year in an attempt to stay relevant with the world of pop culture. I can count on one hand the number of movies I’ve been to in a theatre in the past couple of years, and so we’ve been trying to do it at home.
We’re not always successful. Some weekends we’ve just been too exhausted to sit through anything more than an episode of Project Runway. And last night we had all the best intentions of finally watching Argo before the Oscars tonight. It would have been the only of the Best Picture nominees we would have seen. But for some reason our Amazon download took 1.5 hours to download 15 minutes. We finally gave up and watched the first episode of the BBC’s Sherlock, a series I watch religiously and Adam has never seen.
However, I did manage to pull off Fondue Night despite our movie problems. And it was pretty awesome. All the recipes are after the photos.
For dinner I made this Cheese Fondue recipe from Food Network Magazine. I halved the ingredients since it was just Adam and me, and we had this with a bottle of homemade cider that Meredith gave us for Christmas.
Cheese Fondue
6 ounces gruyere cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)
2 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 clove garlic, halved
1/2 cup dry white wine or vermouth
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
Assorted dippers, for serving–I used cubed pumpernickel bread, apples, and baby carrots
Toss the cheeses with the flour in a bowl. Rub the inside of a saucepan with the cut sides of the garlic; discard the garlic. Whisk the wine, lemon juice and mustard in the saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Add half of the cheese mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until melted. Add the remaining cheese mixture and stir until smooth. Continue to cook, stirring, 2 more minutes. Transfer to a fondue pot or slow cooker to keep warm. Serve with your choice of dippers.
Then for dessert I made a straightforward Chocolate Fondue, which I improvised after reading a bunch of different recipes that threw too much stuff in.
Chocolate Fondue
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp brandy
Treats for dipping–cubed pound cake, marshmallows, strawberries, bananas
Simmer the heavy cream in your fondue pot or saucepan, but don’t let it come to a boil. Slowly add in the chocolate a few handfuls at a time, whisking to make sure it’s completely melted. Stir in the brandy and cook for about 2 minutes. Serve warm in your fondue pot or slow cooker with goodies for dipping.
Adam also whipped up these S’Mores Martinis from an old issue of Food Network Magazine I saved. It was pretty good, but the scotch was just way too overpowering. I would use bourbon or just vodka next time, and we didn’t bother with cinnamon vodka–just straight, plain stuff. I’m not that wild about cinnamon anyway.
