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Swiss Fondue for Six
Stuffed Mushrooms ~ Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing ~ Classic Swiss Cheese Fondue ~ Black Forest Cake ~ Coffee
This menu is a serendipitous combination of Swiss fondue and the sublime chocolate-cherry cake from the nearby Black Forest of Germany. If ever there was a menu that conjures up a roaring fireplace with snow falling softly outside, this is it. It is not a menu for a crowd. Imagine instead a small group of people with nowhere special they need to be, candlelight, convivial laughter and clinking of glasses.
Generally, if I am going to the trouble to prepare a special dinner for guests, I like to include other special touches, such as favors, menus and so on. In this case, however, I think simplicity speaks for itself. If you choose your guests with care, you won’t need anything else. Let the atmosphere, the company, and the food do the dazzling.
I am opening with glasses of wine accompanied by Stuffed Mushrooms with Almonds and some soft jazz (think Montreaux Jazz Festival). Guests will sit down to a Spinach Salad with hot bacon dressing and garnished with egg. The fondue is an unctuous mix of Gruyere and Emmenthaler or Gouda cheeses topped with chives. Bread cubes in baskets lined with thick napkins would be perfect for dipping, but if you have big eaters, you might want to add a platter of roasted baby potatoes, cooked sausage or shrimp, or blanched vegetables if you like.
The Ahhhh . . . the Black Forest Cake. I think we can all agree that chocolate and cherries are a combination with star power. (Raucous applause accepted.) The kirsch gives the cake some oomph, the cream is rich, but light, and the shaved chocolate is just a whisper on the tongue before it vanishes.
Set a small table for four in front of a fireplace. We are going for a ski lodge flavor, with luxurious hotel napkins in deep burgundy red, and simple, sleek dishes, casual enough for the fondue and sleek enough to showcase the cake. No centerpiece is necessary thanks to your fondue pot.
I first made this exact same menu about fifteen years ago, and it is still as classic and delicious today as it was then. I recently took a fondue cooking class with two of my girlfriends. The recipe we were given was almost exactly the same, except for the addition of 4 ounces of grated Appenzeller cheese, which turned out to be a yummy addition.
18 medium cremini mushrooms 3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 large shallot, finely chopped 1 clove garlic, finely chopped ¼ cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted 1 ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce ½ teaspoon sweet paprika 1/3 cup dry sherry 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley 1/3 cup fresh breadcrumbs Kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper ¼ cup freshly grated high-quality Parmesan cheese
Wipe mushrooms clean or rinse very briefly and dry with a paper towel. Remove stems and chop stems finely. Heat butter and olive oil over medium heat in sauté pan. Add shallot and garlic and sauté 1 minute. Add chopped mushroom stems, season lightly with salt and pepper, and sauté until mushrooms are golden brown and starting to caramelize. Add almonds, Worcestershire, paprika and sherry. Simmer 1 minute. Add breadcrumbs and parsley and toss to coat. Taste for seasoning.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Stuff mushroom caps with the crumb mixture and place in a buttered 9x13” pan. Sprinkle each cap with about ½ teaspoon Parmesan cheese. Bake until heated through, about 15-20 minutes.
Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
1 pound baby spinach leaves ¾ cup pecans, lightly toasted ½ pound bacon, chopped 2 shallots, chopped 1 clove garlic, chopped 1 teaspoon sugar ¼ cup red wine vinegar ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil Freshly ground black pepper 3 hard boiled eggs, sieved
Sauté bacon until crisp. Remove bacon pieces from pan. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat from the pan. Add shallots and garlic to hot bacon fat in pan and sauté until soft but not browned. Add vinegar and sugar. Whisk in olive oil, salt and black pepper to taste, and whisk to blend. Place spinach, pecans and reserved bacon pieces in a large salad bowl and toss with the hot dressing. Divide among 6 salad plates and garnish with the sieved hard-boiled egg.
½ pound Gruyere cheese, grated ½ pound Emmenthaler (my preference) or mild Gouda cheese, grated 2 tablespoons cornstarch 1 clove garlic, peeled 1 cup dry white wine 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon Kirsch Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg Snipped chives for garnish
1 loaf crusty French or sourdough bread, cut into large cubes
Toss grated cheeses with cornstarch. Rub the inside of a heavy saucepan with the garlic and discard. Add wine and bring to a simmer. Toss in the cheese a handful at a time, whisking until each has melted before adding more. When all the cheese has been added and melted, stir in lemon juice, Kirsch, and nutmeg. Warm a fondue pot in a very low oven for a few minutes. Add the cheese mixture. Garnish with snipped chives.
Depending on you and your guests, you can choose a variety of other “dippers”, such as roasted baby potatoes, cooked sausage, cooked shrimp, blanched broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms, anything that would be tasty with melted cheese.
I would love to provide a great recipe for Black Forest Cake, but for the absolute best, most delicious version you must go to The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum. She sandwiches whipped cream and brandied cherries in between two layers of Kirsch-sprinkled génoise, then tops the whole thing with more whipped cream and garnishes it with brandied cherries and a drift of chocolate shavings. If you are a cake lover, as I am, you will find that the book warrants the title. Her Black Forest Cake alone is worth the cover price many times over.
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Copyright © 2008 by Charlotte Rose. All rights reserved. |