CHICAGO-CHEESE() - CHICAGO CHEESE DISH
CHICAGO CHEESE DISH - Bread dipped in melted cheese and wine
I am somewhat reluctant to mention the word
fondue
in connection with this dish. When I was a young woman living in
Chicago, I read about cheese fondue in one of those novels with which
I was attempting to to teach myself about how other people lived other
(better, more glamorous) lives than mine. Unfortunately, novelistic
detail goes only so far. Now that I've eaten real fondue, I can only
hope that some of the other notions I conjured up for myself out of
books work out as well as this. It bears very little resemblance
to real fondue, but it does taste good.
INGREDIENTS (Serves 3-4)
- (1 bottle)
- white wine
- (8)
- cloves garlic,
peeled and halved
- 300 g (10 oz)
- sharp Cheddar cheese,
cut or crumbled into cubes
- (1 loaf)
- French bread
PROCEDURE
- (1)
-
Warm the wine and garlic just to the simmer over very gentle heat,
preferably in an electric skillet in the center of the table where
you will eat.
- (2)
-
Add the cheese. Stir lazily from time to time till the cheese has
melted, never letting the mixture go above a simmer.
- (3)
-
Tear the bread into hunks, dip them into the mixture, turning your
wrist so as to scoop up as much cheese onto your bread as possible,
and eat the cheesy hunks. Be careful not to burn your mouth.
NOTES
If you cook this at too high a temperature the cheese will denature
and you will be left with yellow India rubber for supper.
No matter how carefully I regulate the temperature, the pan in which
I've cooked this dish is unpleasant to wash.
RATING
Difficulty:
easy.
Time:
10 minutes.
Precision:
No need to measure.
CONTRIBUTOR
Mary-Claire van Leunen
DEC Systems Research Center, Palo Alto, California, USA
mcvl@src.dec.com -or- decwrl!decsrc!mcvl