On Thursday when we went to Prangins, the bus stopped at a "Roadside Oasis" for a coffee break. At least, that's what we always called those roadside stops with a few restaurants, some small shops, a restroom and a gas station. Haven't a clue what they are called here. But since it had a McDonald's with a children's Playland, I'm going to go with the American name.
Regardless, it was in an area known for its cheese fondue. So when my landlady bought a package of fondue cheese, I quickly followed suit.
On Saturday morning GLH and I bought a fondue pot.
And this evening we made it for the first time.
It was not without some difficulty...
1. The instructions in the fondue pot box stated that it should be soaked in cold water for two hours before being used the first time. Since we opened the box roughly 10 minutes before we started cooking, that just wasn't going to happen. Have no idea if we will end up poisoned or something. But I suspect not.
2. I am still not accustomed to using metric instead of cups and tablespoons. Therefore, I have no idea what a deciliter is. Or how it compares to a centiliter or a liter or anything else. As a result, I didn't notice that I was measuring the white wine with the wrong measuring cup. Fortunately I thought it read 1/4 dl wine when it actually read 1.4 dl. So it was not as disastrous as it could have been. But I did inadvertently put in twice as much alcohol as I should have done. Since I am such a light-weight, I may be the first person in history to get slightly tipsy solely from cheese fondue.
By the way, we fixed the too-much-alcohol-thing by adding some flour to thicken up the soupy-texture.
But in the end it tasted pretty good, if highly alcoholic. And it can only get better with more practice! Right?
Anyone want to come over and be a guinea pig?
9 comments:
Did you remember to dip the bread cubes into a shot glass full of kirsch before they went into the fondue?
How drunk did you want me to get?!!!
The instructions I received said to give the fondue a shot glass full of kirsch and stir it in just before serving.
You're only supposed to lightly dip the bread cubes into the kirsch. Also, if you cook the wine for a bit before adding the cheese, you can reduce the amount of alcohol in the fondue. An additional benefit of heating the wine first is that the cheese will melt smoother.
LOL. Don't worry about getting tipsy from fondue. Most of the alcohol evaporates during the cooking process.
for future reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix#List_of_SI_prefixes
deci means tenth, centi means hundredth, so there are 10 centiliter in a deciliter, 100 centiliters in a liter, and 10 deciliters in a liter.
or if you get really confused google will always tell you the answer, for example, try googling "1.4 deciliters in centiliters"
LOL - yes go with CS's advise. It's true the alcohol evaporates. And Sara also has great advise. Google it when you don't know! You'll start finding the internet is your best friend for figuring out stuff like that...
Just don't do the blunder of having fondue during the summer. It's meant for winter time and should be kept that way, unless you want to entertain any japanese tourists...
Quick Correction!
I do know the mechanics of the liter system. My issue happened because I picked up the deciliter measuring cup and mistook it for a centiliter measuring cup.
I don't yet have a good eye for whether something is a centiliter or deciliter or what. Like I do with cups and quarts and gallons.
I'm not THAT hopeless in the kitchen. Really, I'm not!
You may have been near Gruyeres. It's worth finding out if there are any cheese shops near you with good fondue mixes--someone told us about the Hausmischung at a Milchhusli in a neighboring town and it's always been great. Plus it's not pre-packaged; they take hunks of cheese and shred it right there.
Also, the recipe we use involves lots of garlic at the bottom of the pot, which makes the crusted cheese at the end a special treat for aficionados (of which I am not one).
The other key piece of advice we got was to not drink water with fondue or raclette--let's just say the combination of water and cheese in your stomach can have rather uncomfortable effects...
Not sure exactly where it was. But it was in the Canton of Freiburg/Fribourg (depending upon whether you speak German or French). Which I believe is the area Gruyère cheese comes from...
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