Loaded Eggs and Muenster Fondue

I recently tried two variations on favorite recipes, each with moderate success. The first was a fairly traditional variation on deviled eggs, and the second was the substitution of a new cheese in my cookie-cutter fondue recipe.

I decided to make a batch of deviled eggs to take in for my co-workers at the studio this week. I know that we have a collection of varied tastes, and so I wasn’t sure if one of the more exotic deviled eggs I have in the works would appeal to them (e.g. tuna wasabi, citrus chipotle) so I tried a variation on one of the “loaded eggs” (i.e. a la “loaded baked potato”) recipes I found online:

Loaded Deviled EggsSARAH’S LOADED EGGS

6 hard-boiled eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon real bacon bits
1/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon white vinegar, or lemon juice
1 green onion, sliced thin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
extra paprika for garnish

Cut eggs in half length-wise and scoop out the yolks. In a small bowl or container, combine yolks, mayo, sour cream, bacon bits, cheese, mustard, vinegar, green onions, and spices. Once the yolk mixture is combined, spoon the mixture into the yolk halves and chill for at least two hours before serving.

While this is not my very favorite deviled egg recipe, it really turned out as well as it could, given the mundane ingredients. The amount of cheese can certainly be increased (decreasing will make the mixture too liquid), and the spices can be turned up and down as you like. Real bacon could also be used in lieu of canned bacon bits (which I did for the sake of ease). Next time I think I’ll use lemon juice instead of vinegar. I used the vinegar because I was concerned that the citrus would clash with the cheese and sour cream, but I generally like to avoid adding more vinegar to dishes when I can (the mayo and mustard will probably already have some vinegar in them), the notable exception being something that features vinegar, like a vindaloo. I think that the lemon juice would give it a fresher burst (albeit less traditional) of flavor.

Muenster FondueNext up was the Muenster cheese fondue. I stopped by the Penn Hills Giant Eagle on my way home from work to find creative inspiration among the offerings of the cheese counter. I wanted to pick up a cheese for my fondue that I hadn’t tried before… and yet, I didn’t want to spend a ludicrous amount of money. Unfortunately there is no place better for a boring, over-priced cheese selection than a mid-sized Giant Eagle. After browsing the selection of pre-packaged $6.99 cheeses, I ended up the Helluva Good aisle. The only reasonable cheese (I wasn’t excited at the prospect of colby-jack fondue) I found that I hadn’t tried yet in a fondue was muenster, and so at $2.50, it went in my basket. The result was muenster fondue:

MUENSTER FONDUE

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
1 to 1 1/2 cups half n’ half or light cream
1 (8oz) package of cream cheese
8oz block of muenster cheese, cubed
4oz sharp white cheddar, cubed
dash or two of white pepper (optional)
1 to 1 1/2 cups white wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)
bread cubes or vegetables for dipping

Combine the garlic, cream, cream cheese, muenster cheese, cheddar and the pepper in a medium saucepan. Melt over medium-low heat, whisking frequently until the cheeses are melted and well combined. If cheese does not melt smoothly, use an immersion blender to smooth is out. Whisk in the white wine until combined. If the fondue is too runny for your taste, then mix the cornstarch with a bit of additional wine (just enough to dissolve it) and then whisk it into the fondue, heating until it thickens. Serve with bread and/or vegetables.

The muenster fondue turned out, like the eggs, as well as could truly be expected. Muenster is not a terribly strong cheese and so it did not stand out from the base cheeses with much audacity. In fact, it was probably the first time in all of my fondue experiments that I could distinctly taste the white cheddar. All in all, it was tasty but unremarkable. Unless I’m cooking for a muenster aficionado, I’ll likely opt for one of my standbys (gorgonzola or swiss) in the future.

Gorgonzola Fondue & Black Russians, plus sushi cravings drive me to Giant Eagle

Gorgonzola Fondue & Black RussianAs I’ve mentioned before in my previous musings on the wonders and pitfalls of fondue, I find the use of traditional French cheese in fondue to be problematic for a variety of reasons. Difficulty melting, expense… who needs it? Besides, breaking away from tradition is a great way to let creativity take flight. One of my favorite experimental fondues has been gorgonzola, but since it is such a strongly flavored cheese, arriving at the best recipe has required a bit more trial and error.

The challenge in refining this recipe was in bringing out the true gorgonzola flavor. I’ve tried this recipe with a blend of gorgonzola and blue cheese, but found the results disappointing. I’ve also made the mistake of using a bit too much garlic, which makes the gorgonzola flavor much too intense, bringing out an unwanted salty quality in the fondue. The use of sherry wine is also problematic in this regard, causing too strong a clash of flavors. This past weekend, I made a batch that, I believe, finally struck a perfect balance.

GORGONZOLA FONDUE

a scant pinch of minced garlic
1 to 1 1/2 cups half n’ half or light cream
1 (8oz) package of cream cheese
8oz of crumbled gorgonzola cheese
4oz shredded sharp white cheddar
dash or two of white pepper
1 to 1 1/2 cups light white wine
1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)
bread cubes or vegetables for dipping

Combine the garlic, cream, cream cheese, gorgonzola, cheddar and the pepper in a medium saucepan. Melt over low heat, whisking frequently until the cheeses are melted and well combined. If cheese does not melt smoothly, use an immersion blender to smooth is out. Whisk in the white wine until combined. If the fondue is too runny for your taste, then mix the cornstarch with a bit of additional wine (just enough to dissolve it) and then whisk it into the fondue, heating until it thickens. Serve with bread and/or vegetables.

I find that cultivating the true gorgonzola flavor is so important, not only because it is one of my favorite cheeses, but because one of my favorite flavor complements is gorgonzola cheese accompanied by a Black Russian. This discovery was a happy accident back from the days shortly after I turned 21 when I did crazy things like ordering Black Russians with dinner at restaurants (i.e. before I had a driver’s license or had to pay my own rent). Dinner was a gourmet pizza rife with melted gorgonzola, and I discovered that, just as a Cabernet enhances the flavor of a rare filet mignon, and a pinot grigio lends a welcome harmony to lemon-squeezed crab, so does a Black Russian play subtly on the flavors of gorgonzola cheese.

BLACK RUSSIAN: vodka, Kahlua, ice. Mix.

I won’t post a recipe for a Black Russian cocktail, per se, since it’s just two boozes over ice, but I will give some tips and advice. Traditionally a Black Russian is two thirds vodka and one third Kahlua (try Kamora as an excellent, inexpensive substitute), but I usually prefer half and half. A Black Russian is mixed, quite straightforwardly, over ice in a double old-fashioned glass. These are the short, squat cocktail glasses, sometimes also called rocks glasses. Before pouring in the booze, fill the glass with ice, and I mean that literally. The ice should reach the top rim of the glass. This is true of any mix-over-ice drink. People think it will water down your drink (with a Black Russian, such a result would not be the worse eventuality), but it’s actually to help you get the right proportions and to keep your drink chilled at roughly the rate you drink it. Provided you keep your drink within arm’s reach and nurse it at a moderate pace, you will still have ice at the end. If you put two cubes in the glass, they’re going to be gone before your drink is, leaving your cocktail to get lukewarm from the temperature of the room and the heat of your hand. As for mixing, if your ice cubes fill the entire glass, you can pour vodka halfway, then Kahlua halfway for an even mix. If you have ice cubes only halfway up you’re going to end up with a lot more of whatever you pour second.

Giant Eagle SushiFondue plus cocktail makes a great snack or appetizer but does not, unfortunately, a meal make. After not gorging myself nearly as much as I should have at Coriander’s India Buffet at lunch, I was in the mood for something light. My cravings turned, as they have rather often of late, to thoughts of sushi.

While there are several convenient options for take out sushi, I have developed a habit for relying on the easiest solution: Giant Eagle. There is a large GE grocery within short driving distance of my apartment, their sushi is less expensive than Whole Foods, but includes a full selection of nigri and maki rolls, raw, cooked and vegetarian, unlike Trader Joes which only offers a few varieties of fully cooked fish rolls in the deli section.

Am I proud of being a Giant Eagle sushi consumer? No. Is it top quality? No. But it’s cheap and it satisfies my cravings. Six or seven dollars will get you a good twelve or sixteen pieces of maki, if it’s not a specialty roll, often with a variety of tuna, salmon, eel and shellfish within one package. Last weekend, in a moment of weakness, and faced with a dwindling Saturday night selection, I sprung for two packages, a Chef’s selection nigri and roll plate, as well as a spicy mango tuna roll. The total came to about $17, but I justified it for myself by digging seven dollars worth of change out of the bottom of my purse.

And that’s when I got to thinking… why am I spending nearly twenty dollars a pop on mediocre sushi, when I could probably make it just as easily myself? Now, if I were deluding myself with pretensions of competing with Tamari, that would be one thing, but Giant Eagle? I think that’s within my wheelhouse. I imagine it might take a good bit of research on the handling of raw fish, but there are plenty of sushi rolls that do not use raw fish as an ingredient, I’m just never inclined to buy them at a deli section or restaurant when I can get salmon or tuna for a dollar or two more.

So, as a result of Giant Eagle sushi guilt, it’s off to the library for more culinary research!

Two Fondues

There’s just something about winter nights that puts me in the mood for melted cheese and crusty bread… don’t mind it on summer nights either. Fondue is an alluring feast for any cheese-lover, but most traditional recipes are annoying and expensive. Traditional fondue calls for French-ified swiss-type cheeses like Emmenthaler and Gruyere that can as much as $11 a pound as an ordinary grocery store. Not only are they expensive, but they’re difficult to melt and have a tendency to re-congeal when cooled off.

As an antidote to these difficulties I came up with an alternative fondue recipe, one that is not only easier and cheaper, but it is versatile and lends itself well to a number of creative variations. After you see a few of my specific fondue recipes, you’ll get the gist and see how you can bring your own creative freedom to the kitchen table.

Two weeks ago, I had a eureka moment and came up with another new twist on my fondue recipe. Thinking about a log of goat cheese that had been sitting, neglected in my cheese drawer for a few weeks, I recalled one of my favorite recipes from my vegetarian days and decided it might just be the next big thing in fondue… that is, the stellar combination of sundried tomatoes with goat cheese. This is the recipe that resulted:

SUNDRIED TOMATO & GOAT CHEESE FONDUE

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
3/4 to 1 cup half n’ half or light cream
3oz sundried tomatoes, not packed in oil
1 (8oz) package of cream cheese
4oz log of goat cheese
dash or two of white pepper (optional)
1/2 to 1 cup white wine
1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)
bread cubes or vegetables for dipping

Process the garlic and tomatoes with a little of the cream in a food processor until they for a paste. Combine the paste with the rest of the cream, the cream cheese, the goat cheese and the pepper in a medium saucepan. Melt over medium-low heat, whisking frequently until the cheeses are melted and well combined. Whisk in the white wine until combined. If the fondue is too runny for your taste, then mix the cornstarch with a bit of additional wine (just enough to dissolve it) and then whisk it into the fondue, heating until it thickens. Serve with bread and/or vegetables.

So, this fondue turned out to be tasty, but I wasn’t a hundred percent happy with it. If I had it to do over again, I believe I would either reduce the number of sundried tomatoes I used (i.e. use perhaps half of the 3 oz package) or increase the amount of goat cheese (double, maybe?) or both. I felt that the tomato flavor overpowered the goat cheese, and why are we eating fondue after all if not to enjoy bread dripping with cheese?

I believe further that this recipe, inventive though it was, also simply didn’t satisfy my craving for fondue. There’s just something about the ever present memory of traditional fondue, that marriage of swiss cheese and white wine, that represents fondue is my reckoning, and this variation just strayed too far from the founding ideal.

This past weekend I sought to sate my unfulfilled craving for fondue with a more traditionally-geared recipe. This recipe is, however, by no means authentic… call it a designer knock-off if you wish!

SARAH’S SWISS FONDUE

1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
1 to 1 1/2 cups milk or cream
1 (8oz) package of cream cheese
8oz block of swiss cheese, cubed
4oz sharp white cheddar, cubed
dash or two of white pepper (optional)
1 to 1 1/2 cups white wine or dry sherry
bread cubes or vegetables for dipping

Combine the garlic, cream, cream cheese, swiss cheese, cheddar and the pepper in a medium saucepan. Melt over medium-low heat, whisking frequently until the cheeses are melted and well combined. If cheese does not melt smoothly, use an immersion blender to smooth is out. Whisk in the white wine until combined. If the fondue is too runny for your taste, then mix the cornstarch with a bit of additional wine (just enough to dissolve it) and then whisk it into the fondue, heating until it thickens. Serve with bread and/or vegetables.

Now this recipe neatly scratched the itch for swiss fondue! Hearty and rich with the heady flavors of swiss and wine… I’m already excited about the leftovers.

A couple notes about the flexibility of these recipes. You’ll notice that there is a range of amounts listed for some ingredients. I do this because I know that not everyone’s tastes parallel mine, and hey, depending on the day and the crowd, I might want to make my own recipe differently. To be on the safe side, when trying one of these recipes for the first time, start with the minimum amount and then add gradually until reaching your desired result.

In terms of the garlic, I generally keep a jar of minced garlic in the fridge, and it’s best to use a small amount because the garlic can very easily become overpowering in fondue. Traditional recipes call for merely rubbing a halved garlic clove inside the pot and then discarding it. I can’t be bothered to peel and halve fresh garlic, so I just use a dash of minced. Garlic lovers should feel free to use more.

The amount of cream you use depends on the dryness and melting abilities of the cheese. As the cheeses melt, if the mixture seems too tacky (more of a glue-like paste than a melty sauce), cream should be added as needed to make the sauce more like a thick gravy.

Adding wine is another matter of taste. I personally prefer a heavy wine flavor and fondue that is thinner in consistency. That’s because I like the cheese to soak into the bread. If you’re serving the fondue with vegetables, you probably want a thicker consistency so that the vegetable cuts will “grab” more fondue. Some people have found my fondue to be too heavy on the wine, so again, start with the minimum and add to your tastes.