Anne Saxelby, cheesemonger goddess at the Essex Street Market, posted a delicious fondue recipe on her blog this week. Let's give it a try over the holidays:Fondue Savoyarde as interpreted by Saxelby Cheesemongers and Anne Beuh:
For one bottle of white wine, you'll need about three pounds of cheese. You will also need the following:
1 clove of garlic, minced till quite tiny
Nutmeg and ground black pepper to taste
3 tbsp corn flour diluted in whiskey, bourbon, or eau de vie
For the cheese we chose:
Rupert (raw cows' milk. Consider Bardwell Farm, VT)
Pawlet (raw cows' milk. Consider Bardwell Farm, VT)
Grafton Classic 2 Year Cheddar (raw cows' milk. Grafton Cheese, VT)
However, there are innumerable other delectable combinations! Experiment and see what frightfully delicious concoction you can dream up!
1. Heat 1/3 bottle of white wine over medium-low heat.
2. Add 1/3 of your total cheese (about 1 lb if you're following this recipe exactly, but you can always make less! Three pounds is a lot of cheese... but we firmly believe in your cheese consumption capabilities.) Incorporate by stirring. Stir often and consistently, or else the cheese begins to stick to the pan!
3. Add a touch of garlic, nutmeg and black pepper to taste and continue to stir.
4. After a few minutes, add 1 tbsp of corn flour diluted in some kind of strong alcohol of your choosing.
5. Keep simmering and stirring for about 20 minutes total, then dig (or dip) in!
You can dip pretty much anything into this mixture and it'll be ridiculously tasty, but we picked boiled potatoes, steamed cauliflower, apples, and bread. Oh yeah, and just to guild the lily, we had some smoked ham from Jeffrey's on the side. When you've gobbled through the first round, just start it all over again till there's no more cheese in sight.
