All of a sudden when I woke up this morning the world had turned white. White grass, white roofs and an crystal clear blue sky. What else to do than walk around outside and enjoy the who scenery, as in Holland this is actually something special and doesn't happen that often. Especially not in November, which normally here is really autumn and not winter at all.
We had this idea a while back, and maybe because of my years being spent in Switzerland that every time it snows in Holland, we should have a cheese fondue. And that is just exactly what we did!
For the people who do not know what cheese fondue is. Easily explained, this is just dipping in veggies and bread into melted cheese with white wine. That is the simple version but in Switserland this is totally too easy explained and I would get slapped in the face with saying this. Cheese fondue is a cultural thing, a tradition, and surely not something to do in Summer time (which I did once there in my Luzern days in Summer time, and all of my neighbors looked at my like I was mad).
But why was this edition different from all of the previous times when I had made a home cheese fondue. The last couple of times I had bought a mixture in the supermarket, and this time I went to the little cheese shop to get the cheese that were meant for this. (yeah, Holland has cheese shops, we love cheese you know)
When I went to the cheese shop and asked them about the cheese fondue mixture, I was surprised to hear that they knew what I was talking about. The fondue cheese is in general a mixture of three cheeses. Emmentaler cheese, Gruyere cheese, and Appenzeller cheese. Depending on how strong of flavour you want your fondue, that is how you balance your mixture. Appenzeller cheese (as well as the meat from there) is always a lot stronger of flavour and especially gruyere has a very distinct smell. Mixing the right balance is key!
Luckily the cheese shop had made the right balance for me and even grinded the cheese so it would easily melt while heating it up, so there were absolutely no worries with this!
The idea is that you need about 200 grams per person of cheese and this balance with a 2 to 1 balance of white wine. So two people would need 400 grams of cheese and 0.2 liter of white wine to make this in. I took a random white wine which I don't even know if this is a sweet one or more of a dry one. They say sweet is better for the balance.
Take a stirring pot and pour 0.1 liter white wine in there per person and start heating this slowly on the stove. Add a tea spoon of lemon juice for the sour part in there and heat this along with it. I chopped two cloves of garlic and also added these in the pot.
While slooooowly heating chop some red bell pepper, add some grapes and tomatoes and chop some cucumber for freshness. I also diced some Turkish bread just because I like this, but a baguette would also be fine. You just need bread.
When your wine mixture is warm start adding your grinded cheese and stir the whole time while it melts. Now comes the nitty-gritty part. You cheese should not be too boiling hot nor too cold otherwise it will start turning into a rubber mixture which you do not want. This is kind of tricky I must admit, and I guess buying your mixture in the supermarket will have some e-numbers in there which will prevent this from happening. (This just happened to me, so don't worry)
When all of your cheese is melted you are good to go. Put a pot on a candle and this will keep your mixture warm and creamy. Dip your bread and your veggies in the cheese and bon appetit! Heck, I even added some Swiss jodel music to the whole concept just for the feeling of it
When not being able to go to the place, get the place to you! Happy weekend guys!
Jode-la-hi-tiiii ... het klinkt als een gezellig, warme avond samen! Enjoy!
hahaha je moet wat he om toch een beetje die oostenrijkse vibes te krijgen. Tis toch weer gelukt en ik ga die sneeuw en kaas traditie zeker vasthouden!