It seems that I've skipped a few summaries here. Well, it's certainly not because the food or the gatherings weren't worth talking about! And I wanted to put down my memories of our fondue evening while they were still fresh in my mind.
I brought my camera to dinner, but I didn't use it which is a shame because a friend come over and helped decorate the table which turned out charming and really lovely. There were candles and all the right dishes for serving fondue. It was definitely the nicest fondue dinner I've ever attended.
So, we didn't stick absolutely to the "fondue" theme and started the evening with a salad. Not just a plain old green salad, but something really bright and crunchy to give us a break from Winter's influx of long, slow cooked, rich foods. This salad was bright with orange slices, red wine vinegar and coriander, crunchy with fresh fennel and refreshing with fresh mint. I would love to try it with some of those elusive blood oranges, if I ever find some.
We progressed to our first fondue course - cheese. This cheese fondue was great. It didn't clump at all - the texture was perfect. Some of the many dippers we enjoyed were broccoli, bread and grape tomatoes. I found the tomatoes particularly wonderful with the sharp (Jarlsburg and Guyere) cheese.
Next we cooked up chicken, steak, mushrooms and peppers in oil. Dipping sauces included sweet and sour, some type of spicy (hunan?) sauce and at least two more. Apparently all that cooking has blurred my memory. I think everyone enjoyed cooking their meat exactly to their taste and picking combinations!
Finally we concluded with chocolate fondue. The chocolate tasted really lovely, but unfortunately it seized up on us. It doesn't seem like we introduced any water to it, so it is hard to know the root cause. It was made with a very high percentage chocolate - maybe that contributed? I couldn't be sure of how to reverse a seizure like that (introduce warm cream, at little at a time? I'm just not sure). In any case, it tasted so good we ate it anyway with the strawberries, (home-made!) pound cake and mini-donuts (which we fried up fresh in a fondue pot of oil).
An evening which was more interactive then most, but lovely as usual! And I'm looking forward to the Greek food coming up next!
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