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Supper Club Jan 2015 - Fondue

4/9/2015

2 Comments

 
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Do you fondue? We do and we did in a super-fun, lively and highly interactive dinner club experience. I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t sure how much room for creativity and playfulness this theme would allow. Fondue is fondue, right? Ours is a group that likes to surprise and delight each other with out-of-the-box interpretations of the theme, and how many ways can one fondue, after all?! Quite a few, as it turns out.
Fondue X 2 for the appetizer course
Greg explains the main course: 3 fondues, 3 proteins, infinite vegetables, and 5 sauces
If our evening had a sub-theme it’d be “something-something Numbers Game”. Every course featured multiples upon multiples and the flexibility to create a customized, suit-your-own-tastebuds feast. 

  • 2 versions of the same cocktail – Cherry & Lemon Gilroys, featuring Kirschwasser liqueur, often served with fondue as a digestif, cutting through the cheese in one’s system allowing even more consumption [cut the cheese, yes]. Wine was consumed in multiples too (7! The tablecloth drank at least half a bottle; you’ll see below), a mix of dry French and Austrian white wines and a few tasty reds as well. (Ilise and Ann)

  • 2 appetizer fondues – Cheese and Roasted Garlic Broth + multiple dippers including bread, salami, pickled vegetables, and shrimp + 2 post-fondue dipping sauces (Karen and Kathleen)

  • 3 main course fondues – Bagna Cauda for multiple vegetables; Mushroom-Beef Broth and Chicken-Shallot Broth – to cook 3 meats (chicken, pork and beef) + 5 dipping sauces: Aïoli, Olive, Remoulade, Horseradish Cream & Teriyaki  (Greg and Dan)

  • Just 1 option for the dessert course – Mexican Hot Chocolate Fondue with freshly-made Churros (Ellyn).  The multiples came into play because I could NOT stop eating these hot, sweet delights.
Cocktail prep - Luxardo cherries are a must!
Cherry Gilroys with herbaceous, botanical notes started us off (there was a tasty lemon version too!)
With two fondue pots merrily bubbling away during appetizers around the kitchen island, and three during the main course in D&G’s beautiful formal dining room, we diners were up and at ‘em, navigating the space, flitting between the pots, waving our little spears around. Platters of the raw materials – meats, shrimp, veggies, bread and pickles – were readily available from which we made our selections. Hunting and gathering in the modern age.

It’s entirely possible that the Dinner Club Diners may have burned off a calorie or two walking laps around the kitchen island and the dining room table to get to all the items of their choice. Speaking for myself, I usually just plop into a dining room chair at our gatherings and stay put all evening, so this felt quite virtuous, almost like exercise. Don’t worry, we won’t let this become a habit. 

Because this evening was all about mixing and matching, dipping and dunking, moving and grooving, it only makes sense to tell the story with pictures and motion and music rather than with words. So let’s set the mood with an up-tempo tune by jazz great Les McCann and please enjoy a photo gallery of our evening. Click to embiggen the pix. 

Greg, Karen, Ilise and Kathleen prep the appetizers
Pickles are a traditional pairing with fondue
Karen slices bread
Dippables for the cheese fondue
There was also a roasted garlic broth fondue for shrimp
Dan, Ann and Ellyn focus on the cheesy goodness
Ellyn masters string theory
Big bite o' cheese
Dan and Greg say Dippity-do-dah!
Veggies ready for bagna cauda
Down the hatch! -- Kathleen and Greg sample Kirschwasser shots
Getting a little fuzzy, as one does when shots are involved
Whisk it good!
Setting the table
Setting the table 2
Pix or it didn't happen
Dan and Ellyn making churros
They're awfully excited about those churros!
Mexican Hot Chocolate Fondue with Churros
The perfect plate of dessert plus a glass of Banyuls dessert wine
There's always room for dessert
Ann's getting mellow
Yes, we go through a few glasses, why do you ask?
Oops! Well, there's no use crying over spilled wine
Oh yes we did!
After-dinner clean-up
Pack it up
Boy, that hot oil clean-up sure is hilarious!
Watch what you're doing with that turkey baster, bub!
We're so sad the party's over :-(

We ended the evening sated, a bit fuzzy around the edges (if not actually tipsy, okay pretty tipsy), and with a new appreciation for fondue of all stripes, be it cheesy, broth-based, chocolate, or hot pot style with oil (which was not served this evening, but is often mentioned as yet another way to do the ‘due).

Who do the fondue that you do so well? We do, and we hope you do too! 


One Year Ago in Supper Club: 

Theme: Red Square   Hosts: Greg and Dan

Menu: 
  • Drinks: Red Hot Shots; Beet Generation; Beet Cubed; Russian River wines – Ilise & Ann
  • Appetizers:  Beet Carpaccio over Caramelized Onions; Pickled Herring – Ellyn
  • Main Course: Salmon Kulebyaka; Mtsvani Lobios Pkhali (Green Bean & Walnut Salad) – Greg & Dan
  • Dessert: Red Velvet Cake Constructions – Kathleen & Karen
Beet Generation cocktail
Beet Carpaccio -- red squares beet all!
Salmon Kulebyaka "painted" to show St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square
Cross-section of kulebyaka -- 7 layers of goodness including kasha, hard boiled egg, salmon, and buckwheat crepes
Green bean-Walnut salad -- extra garlicky and delicious!
Cake cut to evoke the onion-dome-topped buildings of the Kremlin
2 Comments
Barry Gersten link
4/13/2015 07:11:07 am

I was never a particular fan of fondue but after reading your blog it sounded so interesting and delicious that I decided to try it on my own. A bit over ambitious but it was easier than I had imagined and it turned out to be most delicious. Most of the ideas and recipes on your blog are ones that if you entertain at all they would be fun to use for multiple occasions and do not fear thaey are easier than you might imagine.

Reply
Phil C.
4/19/2015 12:56:44 pm

Wow, yes. This looks fantastic. I posted this on my Facebook with a request that someone set up a fondue party like this and invite me. Maybe I'll even give it a shot.

Reply



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