Fallon - Great Party Fondue

Copyright 2012 by King Hill Productions. All rights reserved

Photography copyright 2008 Alexandra Grablewski

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Book design by Elizabeth Van Itallie

Food styling by Brian Preston-Campbell

Prop styling by Barb Fritz

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Fallon, Peggy.

Great party fondues / Peggy Fallon ; photography by Alexandra Grablewski.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-23979-7 (cloth : alk. paper); 978-1-118-06524-2 (eBook); 978-1-118-06525-9 (eBook); 978-1-118-06526-6 (eBook);

1. Fondue. I. Title.

TX825.F22 2008

641.81--dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

FOR ADAM, JON, AND DAVID

THE NEXT BEST THING.

In a country where people eat fondue, there can be no wars.

Anonymous

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks to Justin Schwartz, senior editor at John Wiley & Sons, who believed in this project from the very beginning.

My sincere gratitude to Linda Gollober and Ann Tonai for their wonderful palates, flawless attention to detail, and tireless good humorboth in and out of the kitchen.

Thanks also to Judy Bart Kancigor and Beth Hensperger for letting me bounce ideas off their very knowledgeable heads.

And especially to Susan Wyler, who always knows how to cook up a good thing.

INTRODUCTION

For your guests, a fondue party promises more than the traditional sit-down dinner. Its a communal experience that delivers action, high spirits, and fun as well as good eating. With fondue on the menu, everyone knows the evening will be relaxed. You and your guests will have time to savor each morsel and indulge in the lively conversation and amusement that helping oneself engenders. Best of all, a fondue party is the ultimate do-ahead dinner. As host, youll get to spend plenty of time with your friends; instead of being tied to the stove, youll be hovering right over the fondue pot with them.

With fondue, guests not only get to prepare their own food; in some measure they also get to choose what to eat, selecting which tidbits to dip and swirl and which sauces to enjoy as embellishment. Given the wide range of dietary programs around today, this makes it easier to please everyone. And it provides a tremendous variety of possible taste combinations in just one dish.

The word fondue derives from the French verb fondre , which means to melt, and the first fondues were probably made of melted cheese. Some believe fondue originated around five hundred years ago, during the Protestant Reformation. In Switzerland, battling religious factions combined whatever provisions they had to stave off hunger: last summers cheese (Swiss Gruyre, of course), homemade wine, and crusts of stale bread. Needless to say, fondue has come a long way since then.

The two most traditional hot dipping dishes are cheese fondue, in which the fondue itself is the focal point, and beef fondue, in which the item dipped is of prime interest. These days, the culinary world is more sophisticated and open to experimentation, so fondues, along with all other edibles, are limited only by the cooks imagination. All you need is molten cheese, a sauce, or another medium thick enough to cling to chunks of bread, vegetables, meats, or seafoodor in the case of dessert fondues, to fruits, cookies, and bits of cake.

Some of these fondues are best eaten in small bites, as a hot appetizer or as a dessert. Others, with or without accompaniment, serve as a meal in a pot. A number can go either way. Each recipe in this book indicates not only the number of servings, but how best to serve it.

While most people are familiar with traditional Swiss cheese fondue, Great Party Fondues explores a variety of high-quality artisanal cheeses like Spanish Manchego, French Brie, and goat and blue cheeses from California. In addition to the classic beef cooked in hot oil, this fondue collection puts tabletop sizzle into fresh seafood, chicken brochettes, tortelloni, and lamb spiedini. Some recipeslike Mushroom Stroganoff Fondue, Cauliflower Fondue with Asiago and Smoked Paprika, and Emerald Spinach Fondueput the emphasis on fresh vegetables.

Half the fun of fondue is in the ritual; the other half, of course, is in the eating. Over the years the Swiss have developed a number of customs centered around the fondue pot. They say that if a piece of bread falls off a womans fork into the fondue, she must kiss the man on her left. If a man drops his bread, some say he has to buy a round of drinks for the table; others insist he chugalug a full glass of wine or down a straight shot of liquor. (If this chauvinism bothers you, keep in mind this is the country that only gave all women the vote in 1971.) Depending on the house rules you establish, fondue can end up a warm, communal meal or a playful, fun-filled party. Maybe a bit of both is a good idea.

In general, the simpler the ingredients you are dipping, the more important the sauces become. Its thoughtful to offer a selection of sauces that appeal to a wide range of tastes. To make that all the more exciting, Great Party Fondues includes an entire chapter of zesty international sauces and condiments, like Scandinavian Mustard Sauce, Puttanesca Sauce, Sesame Peanut Sauce, and Chipotle Mayonnaise.