A foolproof cheese fondue

If you’re making a dish as simple as fondue you need to use top quality cheese. Emmental and Gruyère are traditional but once you’ve got the hang of it you can play around with other alternatives.

Serves 2/3

425g finely sliced or coarsely grated cheese, with rinds removed
150g Gruyère or Comté,150g Beaufort and 125g Emmental or 225g Gruyère and 200g Emmental - i.e. 425g in all
2 tsp potato flour or cornflour
1 clove of garlic, halved
175ml very dry white wine (e.g. Muscadet)
1 tbsp kirsch (optional)
Freshly ground nutmeg and black pepper
Small bite-sized chunks of sourdough, pain de campagne or ciabatta to serve

You will also need a cast iron fondue pan and burner

Toss the sliced or grated cheese with the cornflour. Leave until it comes to room temperature. Rub the inside of the pan with the cut garlic. Start off the fondue on your cooker. Pour in the wine and heat until almost boiling. Remove from the heat and tip in about a third of the cheese. Keep breaking up the cheese with a wooden spoon using a zig-zag motion as if you were using a wire whisk. (Stirring it round and round as you do with a sauce makes it more likely that the cheese will separate from the liquid).

Once the cheese has begun to melt return it over a very low heat, stirring continuously. Gradually add the remaining cheese until you have a smooth, thick mass. (This takes about 10 minutes, less with practice.) If it seems too thick add some more hot wine. Add the kirsch, if you have some and season with nutmeg and pepper. Place over your fondue burner and serve with small bite-size chunks of sourdough or country bread. Use long fondue forks to dip the bread in, stirring the fondue to prevent it solidifying.

Suggested wine match: The one thing not to drink with a fondue, I was once told by a Swiss chef, is iced water. It coagulates with the cheese in your stomach and gives you chronic indigestion! Full bodied reds can also be an uncomfortable match. The best choice I've found is a crisp dry white like a Swiss Chasselas or Chignin or Roussette from Savoie. You could also drink a young grüner veltliner.

The fondue in the photo is not this recipe but taken by margouillat photo at shutterstock.com

Peter Gordon's nam phrik num dressing

An amazingly delicious Thai-ish sauce that I discovered a few years ago when I was researching food pairings for pinot gris and which seems especially appropriate as I'm in New Zealand currently.

It comes from Peter Gordon of London’s Providores and Kopapa who recommends it with “fish, chicken, roast sweet potatoes, cassava chips, pumpkin and lots more besides”, according to his book Cook: at home with Peter Gordon.

I tried it with salmon which was perfect. You need a blender to make it.

For 8 generous main course servings

30ml lemon juice
250ml light salad oil
2 tsp Thai fish sauce
finely grated zest and juice of 3 limes
1 very ripe mango, approximately 400g, stoned and peeled
1 clove of garlic, peeled
1 thumb of ginger, peeled and finely grated
(I'm guessing Peter means a chunk about 2.5cm/1 in square)
1-2 chillies of medium heat, cut into quarters
1 cup coriander, washed, drained then roughly chopped
15 mint leaves.

Put all the ingredients in a blender is the same order as they are listed above, starting with the liquids. Blend for 1 minutes, scraping down the sides if necessary. This dressing will keep for 2 days in the fridge but make sure you serve it at room temperature.

Celery, tomato and echalion sauce - a simple way of serving fish

My friend cookery writer Andrea Leeman is one of the best home cooks I know with a knack of making even the simplest food taste utterly delicious.

Her latest book A Veg for All Seasons, inspired by her (and my) local Bristol greengrocer Reg the Veg and published by Bristol photographer and designer Stephen Morris is a great example of the kind of small-scale publishing project that's burgeoning nowadays.

As the title suggests it includes a selection of recipes for using seasonal vegetables including this healthy sauce for serving with roast or poached white fish.

Andrea writes: echalions are the long torpedo-shaped or 'banana' shallots. An excellent sauce in which to cook fresh white fish such as chunks of flaky cod, sea bream fillets or whole sea bass. You could pep it up with half a chopped green chilli.

Serves 4

4 celery sticks

4 ripe tomatoes

2 echalions (banana shallots)

A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley

2 tbsp olive oil

200ml dry white wine such as muscadet

a small to medium-sized seabass or 4 x 150g white fish fillets

sea salt and black pepper

String and chop the celery sticks in half lengthways, then into small half-moons. Make 3-4 slashes in the tomatoes, put into a bowl and pour over boiling water; after a couple of minutes, run under the cold tap, skin and remove the hard core at the top before chopping into pieces. Peel and chop the echalions and chop the parsley.

Spoon the olive oil into a pan and heat; add the celery, tomatoes and echalions, fry gently until the vegetables soften. Pour in the wine and cook for another 3 minutes before adding the chopped parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the sauce into a suitable dish for roasting or steaming the fish – if steaming the pan will need a lid. Lay the fish on the sauce and spoon a little over the top. Oven time is about 20 minutes in a medium oven, poaching on the stove takes approximately 5-6 minutes on a low heat, but don’t forget to cover the fish so the steam can do its work.

What to drink: As Andrea has mentioned Muscadet it would make sense to drink it with the dish. Picpoul de Pinet or a dry Italian white such as Pinot Grigio would also work well or even a dry Provençal rosé.

You can buy A Veg for all Seasons from Reg the Veg or order it online from Waterstones for £10.

Butternut squash with pistachio pesto, feta and pomegranate seeds

Finding a special occasion vegetarian dish is tough if you're not a veggie yourself but try this show-stopping recipe from Sabrina Ghayour's Persiana which won best new cookbook at this week's Observer Food Monthly awards.

Sabrina writes: "Middle Eastern people often perceive butternut squash as bland. Taking inspiration from an Asian pesto-and-squash dish made by my friend, the chef Tony Singh, I came up with my own Persian pistachio pesto, adding salty crumbled feta cheese and a handful of vibrant pomegranate seeds for a burst of flavour.

The result? It has become one of my most popular supper club dishes of all time and has proven itself to be the dish that converts those who were formerly not the greatest of squash fans."

Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a side dish

1 large butternut squash, quartered lengthways and deseeded

4 tbsp olive oil

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

150g (5 1/2oz) feta cheese

100g (3 1/2oz) pomegranate seeds

For the pesto

100g (3 1/2oz) shelled pistachio nuts

70g (2 1/2oz) Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese, chopped into rough chunks

olive oil

1 small bunch of coriander, leaves picked

1 small bunch of parsley, leaves picked

1 small bunch of dill, leaves picked

3 tbsp chilli oil

juice of 1 lemon

In a food processor, blitz the pistachios and cheese together, adding a generous amount of olive oil to slacken the mixture. Put all the herbs into the food processor with a little more olive oil as well as the chilli oil and lemon juice and blitz again, then add a handful of crushed sea salt and give the mixture one last blitz. Taste the pesto, ensuring it has enough salt and acidity, then allow it to rest in the refrigerator until you need it.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas mark 6. Once the oven is hot, rub each wedge of butternut squash with the oil, season generously with sea salt and black pepper and place it on a baking sheet lined with non-stick baking paper. Roast the squash for about 45–50 minutes, or just until the edges have begun to char slightly. You want to blacken the edges a little – this gives them a nice chewy texture. To check the squash to see if it is properly cooked, insert a knife into the flesh – if it slides clean through, the squash is ready. If you feel resistance, return the squash to the oven for a few more minutes.

Serve each wedge of butternut squash on a plate, drizzled generously with the vibrant green pesto. Crumble the feta cheese on top and scatter over the pomegranate seeds to finish.

What to drink: With the punchy, herby pesto you should be looking at a sauvignon blanc or other crisp white wine here. But a dry Provencal rosé would also work really well.

From Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour published by Mitchell Beazley (www.octopusbooks.co.uk) Photo © Liz & Max Haarala Hamilton