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Fondue

This is just one of many variations on the basic fondue recipe.

(Attention : you need special fondue equipment, consisting of a heavy pan (caquelon), and a special stand containing a burner with an adjustable flame. )

Ingredients for four people:

• 2 French sticks, cut into cubes
• 1 clove of garlic
• 0.3 l dry white
• 3 tsp cornstarch
• 400 g Vacherin Fribourgeois
• 400 g Gruyere
• dash of kirsch
• pepper

Method:

Peel and crush the garlic, rub it round the caquelon. Dissolve the cornstarch in the kirsch. Pour the wine into the caquelon, add the grated cheese, and melt together carefully on a very low heat on the kitchen cooker, stirring continuously with a wooden spatula. Add the kirsch and the pepper.

Transfer to the serving stand, whose burner should be kept at a steady temperature. To eat the fondue spear the cubes of bread on forks (preferably specially designed long fondue forks), and dip them in the cheese, stirring all the time to prevent the mixture from sticking on the bottom of the pan.

If you are eating your fondue in the company of Swiss people, be extra careful not to let your bread drop off your fork, or you may have to pay a forfeit. There's no knowing what this might be. In keeping with their democratic tradition the other eaters will get together and determine the punishment jointly. One possible forfeit if you were in a ski hut could be that you'd be made to run round the hut barefoot in the snow...

A more unusual cheese fondue - and one which dismays traditionalists - can be made with Vacherin Mont d'Or, for which you will need one box of cheese and a small glass of white wine.

Wrap the wooden box with aluminium foil, without covering the cheese. Puncture the crust with a fork, and pour the wine over it. Bake in an oven at 200 C for 25 minutes. Eat in the same way as a traditional fondue.

Since fondue can lie pretty heavy on the stomach, it is usually accompanied by white wine or tea.