new year's eve: fondue chinoise
i spent new year's eve (boringly :) with my parents and the friends they had invited. they'd already decided on fondue chinoise (the meat in broth kind), which is somewhat of a swiss tradition on that day. i generally find it boring - the meat is most often low quality, the store-bought dipping sauces bland... but i decided to at least take charge of the rest of the culinary night.
apero - nibbles for when the guests arrive, served with a glass of white wine. i could have done something more interesting, but i didn't have the time or energy to figure something out or actually make it. my mom suggested puff pastry rolls, another boring standard ;) (can you tell my parents are really gourmands?). instead of the usual cream cheese/ham filling, i made one type with chorizo and a sharp cheese, the other one is artichoke hearts and sundried tomatos. surprisingly, they turned out really good.
the pot thing for the fondue.
i made this roasted tomatos as a side. they were roasted with olive oil, balsamico, salt, peper, sugar and rosemary. they are delicious and perfect with all that meat.
dipping sauces - they were all made with a base of quark and creme fraîche. there's curry, cocktail, garlic, caper-chili, apple-horseradish, wasabi and guacamole (not pictured). the wasabi sauce was a big hit, suprisingly, since i was cooking for culinary conservative people who hadn't even *heard* of wasabi. i loved it, too, myself.
my plate. we also had basic yummy ovenbaked potato wedges.
we wanted to go with something light for dessert. fruit salad is another old stand by in my family. this time, we made it with mango, papaya, pineapple, physalis.
served with a yoghurt-peppermint mousse.
our midnight snack - fig tarte with honey, walnuts and dried meat.