New Year’s Eve Fondue

So, as I mentioned, just after Christmas, Stephen and I flew out of freezing London to sunny South Africa. We arrived to bright sunshine and heat that peaked at 40 degrees. It was glorious and very difficult to get back on the plane to come home.

The first real meal we ate was fondue, to celebrate New Year’s Eve. When Stephen was growing up, this was the traditional dish and one which I was really looking forward to. Along with the chocolate fondue that I’m familiar with for dessert, there was also a savoury fondue which wasn’t cheese. I don’t know a lot about fondue but I was under the impression that savoury = cheese, apparently not. This kind of fondue is oil with a selection of stuff to fry in it. Genius! We started with salmon trout which is similar to the salmon we have here but meatier and then followed up with steak. There were also potatoes (which weren’t supposed to be submerged in the oil but I couldn’t resist) and the “veggies” which we ate at every meal and were generally a combination of cooked vegetables and salad. It was great, such a sociable way to eat and also perfect for people with different tastes since it’s so easy to cook the meat to your preferred doneness.

I meant to ask Stephen’s mom what kind of chocolate she used for the dessert fondue since it didn’t have that oily texture I’ve experienced with the chocolate fondue I’ve had before. We mostly ate fruit with this, since we were all quite full of fried stuff but there were some marshmallows too, at Stephen’s request and the cake worked very well, just so long as you didn’t leave it in the chocolate for too long.

You have no idea how hard it was for me to leave that beautiful red and white fondue set behind. If I’d have had more space in my bag then I would have begged Stephen’s mother for it. I’ve been busy scouring charity shops for a set since I got back so you can expect to see more fondue very soon. I’m definitely keen to try a cheese one.