WEIR Fonduing

Well now I can tell you our big secret: we spent the New Year in Arizona! It was a surprise for my FIL - I'll get into it more later. Because we were in Arizona, we weren't able to practice our tradition of Fondue and wine so we decided to do it a bit early with one of my very best gal pals and her fiance. 

They, sadly, moved back to the East Coast on the first for the year, so this was the last time we were all going to be together while they still lived nearby. We decided to celebrate 2013 and cheers to 2014 with fondue, beer and The Grinch. It was a perfect night with the best company!  

Here is my fondue recipe - a combination of a few recipes!

1-2 tblsp flour
3 c dry white wine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 -2 tsp whole grain mustard
1 lb Emmentaler cheese, shredded
1 lb Gruyere/Cheedar Combo cheese, shredded
½-1 tsp ground nutmeg
baguette (the more sour the better!)
chicken breast
sausage
broccoli

canola oil - if you are also cooking the meat

1. Shred cheese (if you want, you can put all of the shredded cheese in a plastic bag and pour in the flour and shake the bag to coat the cheese with the flour - OR you can add the flour in at the end - in this case, we added the flour at the end - we have combined the cheese and flour before and I am pretty sure it turned out well!)

2. Combine the white wine, mustard and garlic in a fondue pot (or a large saucepan) over medium heat; bring to a simmer. Slowly whisk in the cheese, about 1/2 cup at a time, allowing each batch to melt before mixing in the next. Stir in a figure 8 pattern to prevent cheese from clumping into a ball.

3. Whisk in flour, a little at a time until the cheese is a thick consistency, and nutmeg to the cheese sauce; until thickened. 

4. Put the fondue pot over a flame and eat (if not using a fondue pot to begin with, transfer the cheese mixture to a fondue pot)

5. Cut/cube all of the meat, veggies and bread into bite sized pieces and either cook the meat before hand of put on a plate for cooking in a fondue pot.

Note: we have 2 fondue pots - yes, we are serious fondue-ers - one is electric and the other is not. The electric one is used for the oil and cooking the meat and the other one is used for the cheese. We will make the cheese mixture on the stove in our fondue put and then put it over a flame.