Do you Fondue?

[Boo'sMom]

Okay, need some advice fairly quicky from any fondue experts out there.

DH's GM gave our family a fondue pot for Xmas...but I have to admit, I'm a fondue-virgin.....what do I do with the damn thing? Anyone have any recipes for something satisfying for a meal that my kids will actually EAT?? **I'm thinking traditional fondue with swiss cheese, etc., will NOT be in the dining reportoire**


Thanks!

 

[amid chaos]

Fruit and chocolate...YUM!

 

[Boo'sMom]

Originally posted by amid chaos
Fruit and chocolate...YUM!

I agree...but I was looking for more of a meal.....

 

[loisg1]

Try allrecipes.com and search for fondue. They have several different ideas. DH and I went to the Melting Pot - a restaurant - and had a blast fonduing (a word??) all kinds or meat, chicken, seafood, raw veggies. We were stuffed and skipped dessert. You might try their menu for ideas, also.

Have fun!!
Lois

 

[Cindy B]

I;ve seen the fondue pot with oil, and everyone sort of "cooks" thier own food on thier sticks.


You could do chicken, steak strips, etc...

 

[Roxter79]

We have a "Melting Pot" here in Indiana. I've never been, but I hear it's really good and really filling.

 

[nowellsl]

We love fondue - The Melting Pot is great. At home we use beef broth (along with soy sauce and ginger) to cook in. (We cook chicken, steak and mushrooms usually, shrimp is good also). It's a little healthier than cooking in oil. Your fondue pot probably came with a recipe booklet, they usually have good ideas! It's a little bit of trouble, but we enjoy it on occasion.

 

[meeshi]

I remember years ago making a "pizza fondue". I can't remember the exact recipe but it was with spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese and you dip Italian bread into that. I think that's something kids would eat. Although, my kids do love the swiss cheese fondue too.

 

[Boo'sMom]

Great Ideas..we're going to try one of those two tonight!
Thanks

 

[Allie322]

One of our family's favorites! We have 2 fondue pots. We use one with oil, and the other with cheese. We use peanut oil. I cube a good cut of beef and just before fondue-ing, I sprinkle it with seasoned meat tenderizer. For sauces, I usually have a few different dipping sauces for the meat: a teriyaki, a spicy one, a sweet one, etc. Then in the other fondue pot, we have a cheesy blend but not Swiss--no one else in the house likes it besides me. I usually use cheddar. You can also use a can of cheddar cheese soup as a base. Anyway, I cube a crusty bread and have assorted raw veggies cut up to dip in the cheese. My kids love it and we usually have at least one or two "Fondue and 70s Nights" at our house for friends. There's nothing like pulling out the old disco music and the fondue pots for a fun night!

 

[Maude4Disney]

Mmmm this is making me hungry. I remember doing fondue when I was a kid...seems like it was chicken in chicken broth. I'm not sure what else we had with it, but it was good!

 

[Disney845]

This fondue topic is very humorous to me at the moment. My best friend had been wanting to go to the Melting Pot for quite some time this year. She talked about it often. I had been before and told her how much I enjoyed it. Her SO took her there for their anniversary this year and she loved it. Well I suppose that all of her talking about fondue this year gave everyone who knew her the very same idea. She calls me up just before X-mas to tell me that her SO's sister had bought 3 fondue pots on sale and was sending one to my friend (not for X-mas, just because) well not only did she send the one "regular" pot (a large metal one with a lazy susan for the dipping sauces), but she also thought it would be nice to buy her a "just dessert" fondue pot for X-mas. It seems that my friend's brother and his girlfriend had a similar idea, and not only did they buy her the large regular one with a lazy susan, but also a dessert pot as well. So now she has 4 fondue pots. The kicker is that both her SO and I also thought (separately) that we would buy her a fondue pot for X-mas, until we heard of the others getting her the pots.

But anyways...to answer your question There are a ton of fondue cookbooks if you go to a book store such as B&N.

 

[sha_lyn]

There are 2 main types of fondue pots. One has a metal pot and is for oils or liquids and gets too hot for cheese or chocolate.

The other is ceramic and is for cheese and chocolate and will not get hot enough for oil or broth.

A favorite of mine is a hot pot, when you use a flavored broth and cook thinly sliced meats and veggies. you then drink the broth at the end as a soup. You can also add a beaten egg to it in the end just before serving the broth.

For a ceramic one... my favorite is 1 package chocolate chips and an 8oz package of cream cheese. use fruit, pretzels and cubes of pound cake as your dippers.

here is a search I did that came up with several sites.
http://www.google.com/search?q=fondue+recipes

 

[Lezah]

Our family loves fondues and does them at least once or twice a year. We actually had one at Thanksgiving this year instead of turkey (My Mom's idea not ours!). My DS9 absolutely loves it even though it takes a long time to cook because he gets to cook his own. We normally have one with oil and dip the meats/veggies in a tempura batter (very healthy I know, but remember only once or twice a year). We rarely have deep fried anything any other time. We have mushrooms, cubed cheese, cubed ham, chicken breast (we cook it first though), meatballs (the fully cooked kind), shrimp and whatever else we like at the time. I have had the cheese one with bread too, but DS nor I didn't like it much cause we don't like swiss cheese. I would love a recipe that does it with cheddar. A great recipe site that I use all the time (not sure if they have lots of fondue cause I haven't looked yet) is recipezaar.com Not sure if anyone else has mentioned it yet. Have fun and enjoy your fondue!

 

[huey duey & luey]

I was actually considering buying a fondue pot for NYE. We are having a few friends over. Now I think I will. Is it hard to use?

 

[Boo'sMom]

It was super easy...and my kids loved it!!!

We made pizza fondue, and used chicken, meatballs, and garlic bread as the dippers.

 

[barbeml]

I happen to love swiss cheese, but here is how I make a cheddar-only fondue:

Use 4 or more cups shredded sharp cheddar (you can grate your own or buy the stuff in bags). Add corn starch to the cheese (about a tablespoon for every two cups shreds) and "dredge" well. The corn starch adds the "glue" in place of that nice stringy swiss.

I heat a 12 oz bottle of good beer until hot, not boiling. Add the cheese & cornstarch mixture gradually and melt. I also add some fresh chopped garlic and black pepper (to your taste). When cheese is melted, I add some white wine. Again, this depends on your taste and how thick/thin you want your fondue.

I hope you enjoy!

Barbe

 

[wld]

We have used our pot for years. We usually do the oil one with chicken, beef, breaded cheese cubes and breaded mushrooms. Make sure the raw stuff stays separate!! As the girls got into their teen years we introduced lots of them to fondue. We do it every NYE instead of going out.

 

[MerryPoppins]

These sound really good. I have a copper fondue pot. I never realized that I should have a ceramic one to do cheeses. I may have to go shopping. My kids really like fondue.

 

[sha_lyn]

I'm sure you could get by with using a metal pot with the cheese, but it would have to watched carefully so it didn't burn. The good nws is it seems everyone only carries them for x mas and put the on clearence now, so you might get a good deal on a ceramic one. That's how I ended up with one of mine. I bought a metal one (I think it was) before X mas and had to exchange it because somethign was missing. I ended up getting my money back on it and buying both a metal and aceramic one for not much more htan the origional cost of the metal one.