White Cheddar and Green Peppercorn Fondue

As one of my anniversary presents for our paper anniversary, Chris got me a cookbook called "the Fondue Bible." The one we tried tonight with Ian and Lauren, our good friends who are moving to Dallas tomorrow, was the White Cheddar and Green Peppercorn Fondue. We picked this one in part because it calls for beer, which we have, as opposed to white wine, which we didn't and couldn't buy because it's Sunday, and we live in a weird state.

Ingredients:

8oz old white cheddar cheese, grated
4oz Gruyere cheese, grated
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 clove garlic, halved
1/2 cup beer (we used a lager) at room temp
2 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1 Tbsp grainy mustard (we used just a squirt of that golden mustard)
green peppercorns, coarsely ground (we just used normal peppercorns)

1. In a bowl, combine cheeses and flour. Mix to coat cheese with flour.
2. Rub the inside of the fondue pot with the cut side of the garlic, and discard garlic. Add beer and lime juice; bring to a simmer over medium heat. (this doesn't take long at all) Reduce to medium-low.
3. Add cheese by handfuls, stirring constantly after each addition with a wooden spoon in a figure-eight motion until all the cheese is melted.
4. Stir in the mustard and mix well. sprinkle with peppercorn. Serve with french bread or sourdough, lightly toasted pita, pretzels, gherkins, pearl onions... (we did french bread and granny smith apples)

RESULTS: I think I prefer this to our normal recipe. I like the cheddar, and the beer made for a less sour fondue than wine. Definitely something I would recommend trying for you cheese lovers out there (sorry Bethie!)

It's harder than I thought to figure out what color my parachute is, but I think I'd be perfectly content being the person to does the graphics and layout for cookbooks, especially the more arty ones with the big color photos. What an awesome job. Probably would have to live in NYC, though, which would not suit me very much.