Nancy's Fiery Fare         Funky, Fiery Fondues          by Nancy Gerlach

Recipes   Fiesta Chile Cheese Fondue Fondue Bourguignonne Balsamic-Dijon Sauce Flamed Cognac and Green Chile Peppercorn Sauce Atomic Horseradish Sauce Mongolian Hot-Pot Sichuan Chile Sauce Kahlua, Ancho, and Chocolate Fondue

A while back I was invited to a dinner party and was astonished at what was served: a seafood fondue in a vintage avocado green fondue pot! Was I having a flashback to the '70s? Then I noticed a restaurant in town, part of a nationwide chain, that only serves fondues. These reminded me of the great times I've shared with friends around a fondue pot, drinking wine, talking and laughing for hours while cooking and enjoying the food. Those were fun times and it's great to see fondues are making a comeback.

The Swiss are credited with creating the traditional fondue of cheese and bread in the eighteenth century. At that time, all their cheese was made in the summer, and by the middle of winter it was very hard and didn't get any better as the months progressed. The sheep and goat herders would carry this hard cheese and bread, which would become very stale, on their travels. Since the provisions they could carry were meager, they had to make due with what they had. So they would melt the hard cheese with a little wine over a fire and dip in chunks of bread to soften, thus creating a hot meal. It became popular with the peasant or farm families, and its popularity with the Swiss has lasted over the years.

The word "fondue" comes from the French and means "to blend" or "to melt." Quite simply a fondue refers to a dish that's cooked in a communal pot over a heat source at the table. The pot can contain a sauce, oil, or broth that can be kept hot enough to cook the food, and the food to be cooked in the fondue can be just about anything. The most common are bread cubes, meat, shellfish, vegetables, and fruits. Whatever is to be cooked is speared using a long fork, dipped in the pot, and when done, eaten.

There are pots specifically made for fondues but any set-up, such as a chafing dish, that utilizes a pot on the top with a heat source underneath will work. In the 60s and 70s, fondues used canned sterno to heat, but many of today's fondue pots are electric and provide consistent and constant heat. The fondue pots themselves, however, have not changed much over the years. Fondues that use oil or broth need to be prepared in metal pots as they can keep the liquid hot enough for items like meats and fish to cook. The more traditional heavy earthenware pots are used for the sauce fondues like the cheese and chocolate ones that only need to be kept warm. These sauces are first cooked on the stove and then transferred to the pot for serving. The only other pieces of equipment required are forks. They need to have long, heat-resistant handles, and it helps if they are color coded so that each guest knows which fork is theirs. But if you don't have fondue forks, long bamboo skewers can be substituted.

Optional pieces of equipment are the fondue plates. These plates have small compartments on the top of the plate to hold the sauces for dipping. If you don't have plates like this, divide the condiments in individual bowls in front of each guest. Again this is more sanitary, and makes it easier for guests to "dunk" their food into the sauce.

Because fondues are a communal meal, there are rules of etiquette that should be followed. When eating a cheese or chocolate fondue, spear the piece of food using a fondue fork, dip it into the pot, and twirl the food gently in sauce to coat, letting any excess drip back into the pot. Allow it to cool some before eating. When you put the fondue in your mouth, do not touch the fork with your lips or tongue because the fork does go back in the pot. Or, use another fork to remove the food and eat with that one. To eat a fondue that is cooked in hot oil, always slip the food off the fondue fork with a dinner fork and eat using that one. In addition to being more sanitary, eating off the dinner fork saves you from burning your lips on the hot metal of the fondue fork.

Recipes

This fondue is based on the classic, south-of-the-border type fondue, Mexican Queso Fundido. The addition of alcohol to fondues lowers the boiling point so that cheese proteins will not curdle, but take care not to let the cheese boil. I've also added a little lemon juice which also helps. A few tablespoons of flour or, as in this case, cornstarch with the cheese helps make for a creamy consistency and also keeps the cheese from separating. This fondue sauce, like any of the cheese fondues, should never be made far in advance of service. Note that any crust, called la croute, that is left in the bottom of the pot is considered a delicacy and should be scraped off and served.

Broccoli florets, blanched

Miniature carrots

Flour tortilla wedges

1 1/2 cups (about 6 ounces) shredded jalapeno Pepper Jack cheese or substitute Monterey Jack cheese

1 1/2 cups (about 6 ounces) shredded queso asadero, or substitute mozzarella cheese

2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 1/2 cups beer or substitute chicken broth

4 green New Mexico chiles, roasted, peeled, stems and seeds removed, cut in thin strips

3 tablespoons minced onions

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled

1/2 pound cooked and crumbled chorizo

In a bowl, toss the cheese with the cornstarch and set aside.

In a medium-size heavy saucepan, heat the beer, chiles, onion, lemon juice, garlic, and oregano until barely simmering. Add the cheese, a handful at a time, and stirring in a figure-8 or zig zag motion, until the cheese is melted before adding more. When all the cheese has been added, stir in the chorizo.

Transfer the fondue to an enamel or ceramic fondue pot and keep warm over a burner. Serve immediately with fresh vegetables for dipping.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Heat Scale: Medium 

 Fondue Bourguignonne

Fondue Bourguignonne refers to a fondue of meats or vegetables cooked in oil. It was created in the vineyards in Burgundy sometime during the middle ages. Here, when these grapes are ready to harvest, they have to be quickly picked, and the workers couldn't take time to leave the fields for a hot lunch. Some hungry soul (many credit a monk named Johann du Putzxe) came up with the idea of quickly cooking pieces of meat in pots of hot oil that were set-up in the vineyards. That way, workers could dunk and cook pieces of meat in spare moments without losing valuable harvesting time. This fondue is most often made with beef, but pork, game, poultry, seafood as well as vegetables can be cooked in this manner. I've fired up the traditional French side sauces with ones based on those found in the Spicy Food Lover's Bible by Dave DeWitt and me.

Balsamic-Dijon Sauce

Flamed Cognac and Green Chile Peppercorn Sauce

Atomic Horseradish Sauce

Mongolian Hot-Pot

A Mongolian Hot-Pot is a meal in itself. And after cooking and enjoying the meal, the rich broth is then served as a soup with the noodles. This type of cooking was introduced to China by the invading Mongolians and now it's considered a classic Peking dish. A traditional fire-pot has a central funnel which is filled with burning charcoal and around the funnel is a channel that is filled with a hot liquid, most often broth, and cooking is done in this channel. Since most of us don't own a fire-pot, a large fondue or electric pot will work just fine. A traditional Mongolian Hot-Pot is prepared with lamb or rather mutton, but this lighter version is made with shrimp.

Sichuan Chile Sauce

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