Cheese fondue with mushrooms

Serves 4-6

Mark Hi
Saturday 24 February 2007 01:00 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Fondues are very Seventies - and the time always seems to be ripe for a fondue revival. It might be my imagination, but aren't fondue sets more prominent in the cookware departments these days? Fondue is a bloody good fun dish at dinner parties, especially when you have the courage to be a bit adventurous - as I did when I experimented with things like lobster thermidor fondue (which some readers might remember from a few years back), when I put the thermidor sauce in the fondue and cooked little chunks of lobsters on skewers.

You can vary the cheeses slightly according to what's available, but try if you can to keep them of the alpine variety.

A good knob of butter
10g dried ceps, soaked overnight
120g button mushrooms, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled
200ml dry white wine
100ml double cream
120g Gruyère, grated
120g Emmental, grated
60g Beaufort or Vacherin, grated or cut into small pieces
A loaf of crusty bread or French bread, cut into rough 2cm chunks and left out overnight

Rinse the ceps and chop them finely. Melt the butter in a pan and gently cook the button mushrooms, ceps and garlic clove for 3-4 minutes with a lid on, stirring every so often. Remove the garlic clove. Add the white wine and cream, bring to the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes. Whisk or stir in the cheeses until they are melted. If the cheese doesn't completely melt and the mixture is still a bit stringy, don't worry, as the wine and juices will eventually evaporate and prevent the cheese from burning while you are eating. Then transfer to a lit fondue bowl or keep warm in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

The pieces of bread are then dipped into the fondue on skewers or with fondue forks - just in case you've never done it before.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in