A fondue pot can be the key to a romantic meal at home

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Feb 13, 2002 by Teresa J. Farney

Go on. Uncork the wine, light a few candles, set out some pretty plates by the fireplace and forget the kitchen table.

Thursday is Valentine's Day, a time for a special, romantic meal - not pot roasts or hamburgers.

But you don't have to do anything elaborate to make a memorable dinner. Go for something, oh, a little Swiss, like creamy cheeses and foods that are easily gathered together for a meal that you can linger over for hours. In other words, go for fondues and raclette.

Fond o' fondue

Fondue is back, even if it involves dusting off your sorry- looking olive green 1970s set. It won't matter what it looks like once it has Classic Swiss Fondue in it, or a dressed-up recipe from Rick Rodgers' "Fondue: Great Food to Dip, Dunk, Savor, and Swirl" cookbook. May we suggest the Cheddar, Roast Garlic and Zinfandel Fondue - "a fondue to share with friends who like food that packs a punch," he says. Or how about his Dutch Gouda and Beer Fondue, which has the soft spiciness of caraway seeds?

If your dinner plans already involve eating at a table, plan a cozy dessert by the crackling fire. Again, Rodgers' cookbook has some dazzling recipes, like The Original Toblerone Fondue and a Sweet and Tart Lemon Fondue. For the chocolate version, he suggests using bite- size cubes of pound cake or Angel food cake and fresh fruit as dippers. Have a crystal bowl of strawberries with the stems on for dipping up the lemony fondue.

Another show stopper, this one from the American Dairy Association, is Amaretto Mascarpone Fondue, a silky smooth mixture spiked with almond-flavored liqueur. The recipe calls for grilled peaches, nectarines or pears, but if grilling is too much of a hassle, just use fresh fruit.

Aside from dipping into the same pot, the other romantic aspect of fondue cooking centers around a European tradition that makes a good case for klutziness.

"I think the romantic thing about fondue is that when you drop whatever you have on your fork (in the fondue), you have to kiss everybody at the table. And of course, on Valentine's Day if it's only the two of you, that could be very romantic," says Arina Drakulich, whose family has made a tradition of eating fondue for special occasions.

Fondue sets include a pot, a stand on which to place the pot and, unless they're electric, a container to hold fuel (usually Sterno) to keep the pot's contents hot for cooking. Some come with a heat-proof tray and long forks.

There are three basic types: metal cookers, ceramic pots and dessert pots. Since metal can withstand very high heat, this type is for fondues that must be cooked in hot oil or broth - meat fondue, for example. By turning the heat down, it can also be used for cheese or dessert fondues.

Ceramic, pottery or earthenware pots should be used for cheesy fondues. They should never be used for a hot-oil fondue since the high heat required would crack the pot.

Dessert fondue pots are the smallest, designed to hold rich mixtures in smaller quantities. Because it's smaller, a candle warmer is adequate to keep the pot's contents warm.

Even if you don't have an official (new or dated) fondue pot, any heavy-bottomed pan will do the job. You can even heat the ingredients right in the pot over the hot coals in the fireplace ...

Hot for raclette

... Which brings us to raclette, another dandy Swiss idea for melting your way into a loved one's heart. Raclette (pronounced rah- KLEHT), a staple of wintertime in Switzerland, is essentially melted cheese served over boiled potatoes with lots of ground black pepper and accompanied by small pickled onions and cornichon (French for gherkin) pickles.

But the process is more involved than just melting cheese. "Raclette" comes from the French verb "racler," meaning to scrape - referring to the way the softened cheese is scraped off the block.

Sue Style, author of "A Taste of Switzerland," describes the traditional method of serving raclette.

"Buy yourself a wedge of real raclette cheese. Light a good fire. When the fire has died to a mass of glowing embers, place a large stone before the fire. Set the cheese on top, its cut surface exposed to the heat," she says. "Nearby have a supply of plates. As the cheese melts, scrape it off on to the plate and serve at once. Continue in this way until everyone is full."

The more popular and less unwieldy method for making this delicacy is to buy a raclette machine. The top of a raclette machine is a grill. Under the grill is an electric heating coil that heats the surface where meats, fish and vegetables can be cooked. Under the grill and coil is a shelf where you can place small dishes with long handles. While the food cooks on the grill surface, slices of raclette cheese are placed in the small dishes and placed under the hot coil - sort of like grilling and broiling at the same time. When the food on the grill is done, the cheese will be melted. Place the meat and vegetables on a plate and scoop out the cheese over the top.

Lynda Herbig, who owns the Zugspitze International Gourmet, can't keep a supply of raclette cookers on her shelves. She also sells raclette cheese.