Sacrilegious Swiss Fondue

Missy Wombat's Note:

My other half has a Swiss heritage. I wanted to do something for Christmas Eve that reflected that for our toddler, and a friend on a discussion board elsewhere mentions that every year they have a fondue. That was it! A fondue...and when I looked for recipes I found two crockpot recipes. This fondue was obviously meant to be - I could use my crockpot! So I combined the two recipes I had. And to top it off, I could use the fondue forks inherited from my mother who had never used them for an actual fondue and which dated from 1976. So when my partner sees what's for dinner, he laughs..."Hey, where does your friend live...Canada?". Ummm, yes. Calgary actually. Where it snows... Did I mention that we live in the tropics? In 30 deg C/ 90 deg F plus heat? We sat around in shorts and singlet tops (and my toddler in even less) with the ceiling fans turned up pretty high. Okay, so I will concede that wasn't exactly traditional Swiss lol. And I got told that fondues are traditionally accompanied by copious amounts of white wine. We had used Chateau Cardboard for the recipe so in lieu of wine, we drank beer. Good beer. Australian James Boag and NZ Monteiths actually... The sacrilege came when I noticed that the cheese had separated out a little so I got the eggbeater out and gave it a quick whisk with that... And there is NO Kirsch. I went to a Swiss French club 'Fondue in the Snow' meeting with the in-laws and did not see anyone use Kirsch. Therefore it must be okay ;-).

• Total Time: 4 hrs 45 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 4 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 clove garlic
• 1 ½ lbs cheese , grated (I used an aged cheddar, gruyere and some mozzarella all of which were cultured with non-animal renne)
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 ½ cups dry white wine (eg riesling)
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard

Directions:

1. Rub the garlic on the inside of the crockpot and then very finely mince it and drop it in.
2. Turn the crockpot onto the auto setting and add the wine allowing it to warm up.
3. Grate the cheese and in a big bowl or a plastic bag, add the flour and some dry mustard.
4. Mix until the flour has disappeared, totally coating the cheese.
5. Gradually add the cheese to the crockpot, stirring carefully until each addition of cheese has melted.
6. Put the lid on the crockpot.
7. Allow to cook for 2-5 hours.
8. Eat with copious amounts of cubed bitesized French bread.