Sunday - November 01, 2009

drunk bloggin

I had a hankering for cheese fondue the other day. We used to do that all the time when I was a kid, but I don’t think I have had any in 25 years. I don’t own a fondue pot, and the prices are out of this world these days.

So I used a regular pot, and Italian bread since I couldn’t find French bread at the grocery store. But I made as authentic a recipe as I could.

1/2 pound Emmentaler (aka Swiss ) cheese
1/2 pound Gruyere cheese
1 clove garlic
2 cups strongly flavored dry white french wine. I used a 90% Sauvignon Blanc blend from the Loire valley.
1 tbs lemon juice
ground pepper - white pepper if you have it
freshly grated nutmeg to taste
3 tbs or a bit more of Kirschwasser
1/8 cup flour
French bread, cut into slices and the slices halved. Leave them out to stale up a good 3 hours before cooking. Overnight is Ok too.

Cut the cheese into matchsticks. Toss it in a bowl with flour and mix it around until everything is evenly coated.

Rub the bottom of the pot with the garlic clove. Give the clove a bash to break it up, and drop it in the bottom of the pot. If you have a deep no-stick pan, use it.

Heat the wine and the lemon juice. Add the nutmeg and the pepper. Don’t boil the wine, but get it pretty hot.

Add the cheese a little at a time, and stir things constantly. When all the cheese is in, and melted, stir it around for another 5 minutes.

Reduce the heat to very low. Spear a bit of bread and dunk it in. Let it soak up for about 10 seconds, then drop it onto a plate. Serve. Repeat until out of bread or cheese sauce.

Damn that was good. It came out perfect. Stale bread soaked with soured white wine and covered in strongly flavored cheese sauce. You can’t beat that with a fargin’ stick.

So I gave some to my wife, the Italian. She hated it. “It’s too salty. And it has too much wine.” Arrggh. Culinary delicacies that only white people can appreciate.

Fine. So I ate the whole thing over the course of 2 days. And it was fucking fantastic. I ate until I was in pain. It was that good.

And tonight it’s spaghetti sauce. Oh joy. A jar and a half of the Classico brand stuff, mixed with 2 cans of Tuttorosso tomato chunks. And garlic. And onion. And basil and oregano. With browned ground pork and beef. Simmering away. After an antipasto appetizer of giardaneria (pickled veg) and soppresata (dry sausage). And some “naked redhead” red wine. Oh well. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

So I took the extra juice from the tomatoes and made myself a Bloody Mary. We keep a big bottle of Gordon’s gin in the freezer. And some Noilly Prat dry vermouth in the fridge. So I had my Bloody, and added a bit of Kirschwasser to it. Possible fail? Let’s just say that that could be an acquired taste. Not so great. Fine. So I made dirty martinis afterwards. What the hell, I have a fresh bottle of olives. And the sauce will take at least half an hour. Hey, maybe I can use up the last of the Italian bread. I’ll make some melted garlic butter.

I gather this kirschwasser stuff is booze used mainly for cooking. It’s the real thing, not the sugary sweet shit sold by Leroux. Nasty evil bitter orange brandy, from Germany. Actually, I rather like it. But it packs a wallop and takes some getting used to when drunk straight up.

Have to check to see if the sauce needs a stir. I know my martini needs a refill and another olive. CheerS!

Posted by Drew458     on 11/01/2009 at 07:53 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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