Last night Laura decided she wanted fondue for dinner. She wanted to try something other than the oil-based fondues we had done in the past, so she decided to try a bouillon-based one instead. It was a resounding success. Here’s what we did…
Ingredients
- 2 14 oz cans of Swanson’s Beef Bouillon
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried parsley flakes
- pepper to taste
- 1 package Lipton onion soup mix
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 3 minced garlic cloves
- 2 cups water
Combine all in a fondue pot and simmer on stove until ready to transfer to the table. Our little fondue pot wouldn’t quite hold 2 cups of additional water, so we added enough to fill the pot, then added more as the bouillon evaporated off during the course of the meal.
Meats
This works best for beef, but it also works well for seafood. Here’s what we used…
- 1/2 lb beef (we used a couple of small ribeye steaks)
- 1/3 lb shrimp
- 1/3 lb small scallops
- 1 bowl baby bella mushrooms
Shrimps and scallops we left whole. The beef was cut into bite-sized pieces. The mushrooms were cut depending on size, but we found that quartering them made them cook a bit better in the broth.
The flavors were spectacular. The beef and mushrooms worked best, but the seafood was also tasty. We found that it helped to have some additional salt and pepper available. We served this with a small spinach side salad.
The unused broth can be refrigerated and reused. Take a small sliced onion and sautee’ it in a pan so that the rings fall apart and caramelize. Reheat the broth, adding the caramelized onions and slices of provolone cheese. This turns the leftover fondue into an excellent French onion soup.