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Laura Banford: Today's destination is France. Our featured dish is a French classic, Cheese Fondue. The ingredients you will need to make classic French cheese fondue are half a pound of Emmenthaler cheese, one half pound Gruyere cheese, a half cup of flour, a quarter cup of cornstarch, one clove of garlic, a cup of wine and to dip some cubed French bread and some apples. The piece of equipment you will need to make fondue are a fondue pot with fondue forks, a cheese grater, wooden chopsticks.
First, we have to grate our cheese. Freshly grated cheese is a real important factor in this dish. This is the Gruyere, about half a pound or so. We are going to rub it against the large holes in a box grater. Now we are going to grate our Emmenthaler cheese. This is more about classic Swiss.
Now that we have grated our cheese, Gruyere and Emmenthaler, we are going to take our flour and we are just going to sprinkle it over. This is going to keep the cheese from clumping and make it nice and smooth. So the half cup applied, you don't even need that much for a pound of cheese. Let's toss at the other. Now we are going to set this aside.
I have an electronic fondue pot. If you do also, you can make your fondue right in the pot. If you have an old fashioned fondue pot with a candle, make it in a pot in a stove and then transfer it to that fondue pot. I have a cut piece of garlic. I am just going to take that and rub it on the bottom and the sides of my fondue pots before it gets too hot. It's going to imbue the fondue with a little garlicky flavor. It's very classic French touch. I have the pot turned up high to 400. I could add my cup of white wine. Get back to it simmer. I am going to let that simmer. I am going to burn off some of the alcohol.
That's simmered for a couple of minutes. I am going to start to add the cheese that’s combined with the flour. You want to stir the cheese. I find wooden or enamel chopsticks to be perfect. You don't want to stir in a circular motion. You want to stir in a zigzag motion. A circular motion is going to make the cheese stringy and you want the cheese to be smooth. Okay, put in a little and keep stirring it.
Incorporate the cheese into the wine. It is starting to smooth out a little. This is starting to come together. I haven't stopped stirring because I don't want it to seize up. So I am going to add a last touch. I have a little bit of cornstarch. I am going to add some water to it. If you have kirsch which is cherry liquor or you could add that. That's just going to smooth it out a little bit more. And stir that, the water and the cornstarch mixture. See how smooth that looks. Comes together very quickly Make sure you have an electronic fondue pot. Add that. Stir it in with our zigzag motion. That helps the cheese to hold together and not separate.
Okay, this is ready to serve and I have some cubed French bread and some sliced apples. Look at that. Doesn't that look delicious? Bon Appétit.
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