cheese fondue

… way back in the 70’s we were all eating fondue.  This is a simple truth and quite frankly if you weren’t you probably weren’t middle class enough…  I remember my mum had a bright orange one that looked like a tomato but I could be mixing this up with a soup terrine.  My mum was the height of cool in the 70’s (still is, just in case she’s reading…) and the house was incredibly decorated in fashionable shades of brown with black and white giant paisley wallpaper and she had a fabulous collection of china and serviceware that she used during the myriad dinner parties that all fashionable middle class families threw all the time during the 70’s… but I digress… the fondue was a Swiss / French / Italian invention that became globally popular in the 1950’s as the happy housewives of the world relished in the community spirit of warm melted cheese and chunks of bread.  Of course they went dreadfully out of fashion for a long while but, like all good vintage ideas, they’re slowly making their way back into our lives and I for one am more than happy about it…

…the good people at CuckooLand have sent me the incredible Mr Big Party Fondue by Boska and as you can see it completely lives up to it’s name. It’s very aesthetically pleasing with its golden oak stand and ceramic stone bowl.  It has room for a whopping 6.5 litres of melted cheese, which is quite frankly a heart-attack inducing amount of cheese that even a self-confessed cheese-aholic like me would find perhaps a little too much to consume but with a little restraint and self-control it made a genius centre-piece for a gathering of friends and I can see that as the winter months approach we’ll be turning to Mr Big to host a party or two…

cheese fondue
you can of course use your fondue for a number of liquids such as chocolate where you could dip marshmallow or pieces of fruit or a broth fondue is also popular for dipping pieces of raw meats but I have gone for the original and classic swiss cheese fondue and a classic recipe with a little local twist… being the Mr. Big, this is enough cheese to feed my 7 party guests but the recipe would halve really easily… for dipping I am going traditional with chunks of baguette but i’ve also roasted some carrots and am also serving two types of homemade croutons as well as some raw cauliflower which is a gorgeous dip for cheese as well as some mini sweetcorn which I adore.

I did quite a bit of fondue research before I settled on this recipe and what I thought was just melted cheese is actually quite a complex process… the big tips are to try and stir continuously during the initial melting process and that the fondue will need a stir every few minutes to keep it looking glossy and lush…

1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon kirsch liquor
2 tsp cornflour
600g emmental cheese – grated
600g gruyere cheese – grated
200g Cote Hill Blue Cheese – crumbled
2 triangles of Laughing Cow cheese
2 large glasses of white wine – I used Sauvignon Blanc

cut the garlic clove in half and rub the inside of the fondue pot

place the kirsch and cornflour into a bowl and stir into a thick liquid

the Mr Big is oven-proof so you can cook the cheese in it on the stove before transporting to the beautiful wooden stand, so to start the process, place the fondue pot onto a gentle heat, add the white wine and let that heat through but not boil

combine all the cheeses and then add one third of the cheese to the warm wine and stir continuously until it melts into a smooth liquid, then add the kirsch and cornflour and stir well in, then add the rest of the cheeses and cheese triangles and stir until it has all melted together

it is now ready to transfer to the stand and for your guests to start dipping… I made my croutons by laying the cut bread onto a flat baking sheet and spritzing with my new favourite kitchen toy, the Lurpak Cooks Range Cooking Mist and then baking for 15 minutes until golden…

eat and of course, enjoy!