Recipe: Fondue (and other cooking tips)

I have only just started to post to this board, but have been reading it for a while, and may I just say thank you to the many people who have provided me with a good laugh with their postings (particularly Jake!)- makes the working day go by a bit quicker. I know nothing about hairdressers, barbers, unemployment benefits or those dirndly things, but if anyone needs advice about cooking, then I may be your man. Hope I can help someone out sometime, you have certainly all helped me.

Hey Don, I'll take you up on your offer...what can you tell me about fondue? What do I serve with it? I'm thinking of using oil instead of cheese. Help!

Oil or cheese eh? Nasty predicament. Or perhaps you could use stock? There is an asian was of eating called a steamboat where a pot of stock is puit on the table, and different things like prawns, fish and veg are paoched in it, and eaten with the resulting flavorsome broth. In France, you can often order a 'pierrade', which is a hot stone (or hotplate) that you cook pieces of meat and veg on. Fantastic. The whole fun of fondues, pierrades, raclettes and the like is that everyone can talk and eat, and normally they are kept very simple. Just unseasoned cuts of meat, and lots of dipping sauces on the side.
In Germany, they often eat fondue using oil and different meats. Chicken, pork and beef are all used, but remember, you are not getting a long cooking time, and as such, you really want to buy the best cuts of meat to use in your fondue. The accompanying sauces vary to taste, but you should offer a selection ranging in colour, spiciness, and texture. Some thick and chunky, some thin. Also, germans like to have a good range of mixed pickles on the table.
If you are cooking for locals, then it is always a good rule NOT to try and cook something they already know too well. I would suggest going for a fondue, which germans love, but with a different approach (like maybe a fish fondue, with some good quality pieces of fish and shellfish using a white wine flavoured stock in the fondue pot), or doing an oil fondue, but served with a selection of asian sauces and dips, and a big bowl of noodles.
So, theres a sort of overview, I would be only too happy to offer spcific details if you'd like.
BTW, read a post from you on another site. Great quote:
I have little interest in reflecting on the philosophical ramblings of the mentally ill "messiahs" of history.
Superb

Hoddy - I have a book of fondue recipes/ideas which also gives approximate weights/quantities of meat/veg/stock per person. But its in German.

I'd just like to state for the record...

I HATE FONDUE!!! :evil:

Thanks

Pootle

Hey Poots, Poo on you too.

Don, you are my new best friend! What great ideas! Thank you. I think I'll go with a sea food/shell fish menu (you know how much I love my fish suppers Jake)...now what sort of dipping sauces would you suggest? I like a lemon/lime/cilantro mix with shrimp and a basil base is always good with salmon but I am willing to try new ideas.

Koala, maybe if we ever get around to having that girl's night out (hint hint Sez) I could borrow your book?

Hoddy - sure you can borrow the book - no problems there! I was going to suggest organising a Toytown girls brunch one weekend anyway? Sezie, Bee - interested? And anyone else for that matter.

Yeah, citric flavours and coriander (cilantro) always goes down a treat with shrimps. I really like a sweet hot chilli sauce with them too. Very thai. Certainly, if you have a bottle of fish sauce (nam pla - available from any asian shop, thai or vietnamese are good) some good dark soy, some fresh chillis, cilantro and some palm sugar, or brown sugar, then you have the basic ingredients to make lots of different dipping sauces. Salmon goes really well with a sesame flavour. I do a kind of grilled salmon satay with a sesame crust, served on a bed of cucumber cut into long strands (like spaghetti) and dressed ina lime and coriander oil, and it works wonders with people. Try to go for a range of sauces that offer a range of tastes, like sour, sweet, salty and hot. There are some great asian supermarkets here in munich, and they always carry a good range of ready made sauces if you want to supplement your own sauces with some bottled ones. I tend to cook by taste and ignore quantities a bit, because the quantities given in a recipe never really take into account the quality of the ingredients used, but I have a relatively goof collection of cookbooks and encyclopedias at home, so if ya like, I'll get some recipes together and put a few on the board for you.

I would just like to say that, as of this morning, I have lived in Munich for exactly 1 year. In all of that time, I have cooked only one meal - chicken burger and chips.

Koala, a day/evening out on the Toytown sounds good to me. Come on bee and Sezie!

Don riina-I would be very interested in any recipes you could provide (that Thai sauce sounds really good) as I left all my cookbooks at home when I moved here. One of the great heartbreaks of my life, really. :cry:

Was that the time I was round at your place? I suppose I should feel honoured or something...

Reading and having to prepare recipes from a German cookbook is a good way to improve your German if its not so hot. Plus, they list ingredients that are normally easily available in Germany, rather than things like butternut squash that are almost impossible to come by in your local Penny Markt.

Yes, Spud - it was when you came around to watch a DVD that time.

Since this has become the cooking thread, I just want to say that I received the best birthday present from the states today - measuring spoons and cups. They are fabulous because they have both the metric and English system on them (i.e. cups and milliliters). How cool is that? Now I can actually cook my recipes from the US and those from packages here. I have such good friends!

As for brunch, ok if I am free. I'd like to invite Don to cook for us though since his cooking posts have been making my mouth water all the long day. Any chance Don???

Guten apetit all. (If I just misspelled apetit, you know what I mean...)

Cooking brunch for a group of ladies? Some sort of mediterranean affair, with a selection of charcuterie, marinated vegetables, olives, bruscetta, sardines with rich green olive oil, orange zest and whole roasted garlic cloves? Surely an offer that most would find hard to resist, but sadly my free time is extraordinarily limited so I doubt I would be able to find a time. I would love to do such a thing, it has been years since I last worked in a restaurant, and I could do with some new people to cater for. I have a serious passion for food as you may have guessed. Hoddy - I will have a selection of lovely sauces, dips etc on this board by monday. I'll try to not go too asian with them, and give you a few from around the world. If you left your cookbooks at home, then I agree that getting a few german cookbooks is a good way to learn german (there are a few great german dishes), but also get yourself onto amazon or whatever and buy the 'Larousse Gatronomique'. I is an encyclopedia of food, and is great (although pricey). Explains EVERYTHING about food, and is very french, so wonderfully bias!!
An example is the humble sandwich. Apparently named after the earl of sandwich, who loved to gamble, and therefore requested that all his food be bought to him between two pieces of bread, so he didn't have to leave the gambling table. The Larousse explains this, then goes on to say that this cannot really be true, as the french invented sanwiches years before that. It is brilliant. I love the french. Pompous bast**ds!! When McDonalds arrived in france, the french academie (who govern the language) wanted to spell hamburger 'hambourgeur' to make it more froggy. They didn't of course, and as we know call the quarter pounder a 'Royal Cheese'. I will never understand them...

Hoddy, as promised, a selection of Asian dipping sauces. They are very very easy to make, and although very simple, taste delicious. Most of them are very 'thin' sauces, with strong flavours. Do NOT be put off by fish sauce. Fish sauce (ask for "Nam Pla" in an Asian supermarket, and buy a big 1 litre bottle, it keeps for ever!!!) smells absolutely foul. However, it is the best kept secret of Thai food. It makes ALL the difference. Adding fish sauce and lime leaves to the classic thai green chicken curry makes it taste authentic. Otherwise, it is just coconut milk with chilli and cilantro in it. Naff. It is very very salty, and used instead of soy sauce in some parts of Asia. You do not want to know how it is made...but it is a great seasoning, trust me!

Sweet Chilli Sauce
You can get great bottled sweet Chilli sauce, but for authenticity...
De-seed 6 large red chillis and soal in hot water for 15 minutes or so.
In a processor, blitz 1 red chiili (unsoaked, with seeds), the soaked chillis,1/4 cup (60ml) white vinegar, 1 cup (250g) caster sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and 4 or 5 chopped garlic cloves. Process 'till nice and smooth, then put it all in a pan for 15 minutes or so over a medium heat stirring very frequently until it thickens. When cool, add 2 tablespoons fish sauce.

Soy and ginger sauce
Very simple, very salty, but nice.
In a bowl, mix 1 large tablespoon freshly grated ginger, 2 teaspoons sugar, and 1 cup soy sauce. Mix well. Finito!

Lemon and Garlic sauce
In a bowl, mix 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons fish sauce, and i tablespoon sugar. Stir until sugar dissolved. Add 2 chopped small red chillis, and 3 finely chopped garlic gloves.
Surprisingly good...

Vietnamese Sauce
2 tablespoons cold water, 2 tablespoons fish sauce, 2 tablespoons chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves, 1 teaspoon chopped red chilli, and 1 teaspoon soft brown sugar.
My personal favourite.

Thai Dipping Sauce
Ina small pan, combine 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, 1 small chopped red chilli. Bring to the boil, and simmer (UNCOVERED!!) for 5 mins until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat, and cool a bit. Stir in 1/4 peeled, seeded and finely chopped cucumber, 1/4 small finely choped carrot, and a tablespoon of chopped roasted peanuts. (To roast peanuts, just dry fry a few unslated peanuts in a pan until slightly browned)

Thanks don riina! These look like great sauces. I've used fish sauce before so that shouldn't be a problem for me even though it does smell like dirty socks. :shock: