Oil Fondue Recipes

Four sauces and a filet

Filet mignon is one of the most tender and easy cuts of beef to cook. Too bad it's also one of the priciest. Get the most beefy bang for your buck by serving this cut with a sauce that adds flavor, color and texture.

Here are four sauce recipes. All are easy to make, so don't feel you're stuck with serving one sauce at a time. Remember how half the fun of an old-fashioned beef fondue was having a variety of sauces on the table to dip your cooked meat into? Offer one, two, three, four (or more!) sauces when you whisk that filet off the grill.

Once you've made these sauces, let your imagination take you in other directions. Try a classic béarnaise sauce, or spoon up a chunky salsa made from chopped tomatoes, onions, parsley and capers.

A yogurt-cucumber raita from India would be a cooling counterpoint to the sizzling meat, and a mustard butter would add a silky richness.

Any of these sauces, condiments or toppings will spark up more than a filet mignon or other beef cut. Try them with grilled chicken, leg of lamb, even grilled salmon or swordfish.

Gyu dare

Gyu dare ("guh-you-dareh") means "beef sauce" in Japanese, according to Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat, authors of "The Japanese Grill: From Classic Yakitori to Steak, Seafood and Vegetables" (Ten Speed, 192 pp., $25).

Combine ¾ cup soy sauce, ½ cup sake, ½ cup mirin and ¼ cup rice vinegar in a saucepan; heat to a boil over medium heat. Boil 1 minute. Cool; refrigerate at least 12 hours to let flavors mingle. Store refrigerated up to 1 month. Makes 2 cups.

Variations: Spike the sauce with flavor accents: wasabi paste, grated ginger, fresh tarragon or basil.

Mint-cilantro chutney

From "Modern Spice: Inspired Indian Flavors for the Contemporary Kitchen," by Monica Bhide (Simon & Schuster, 288 pp., $25):

Blend to a smooth paste in a blender: 1 cup packed cilantro (stems and leaves); 1 cup packed mint (leaves only); 1 green serrano chili; ¼ small red onion, sliced; 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; ½ teaspoon salt. Add up to 2 tablespoons water, if needed. Chill, covered, 30 minutes.

Sauce choron

Bearnaise is a rich sauce, based on hollandaise. Give it a tomatoey twist by turning it into Choron sauce. This recipe, adapted from Jacques Pepin's soon-to-be-published "Essential Pepin" (Houghton Mifflin, $40), builds on his hollandaise in a blender technique.

Peanut Oil Fondue Recipes | Crude Oil Trading

Peanut oil fondue recipes

A pot of hot oil that you dip meat into sounds downright barbaric but it can also be heart healthy. Broth and hot oil fondues are much less decadent than their siblings, cheese and chocolate fondue but they’re just as tasty. If a little care is taken when selecting ingredients and overeating is avoided, then both broth and hot oil fondues can become a healthy meal.

Fondue Bourguignonne (also known as hot oil fondue) consists of diners who cook their own food on long forks in a pot filled with hot oil. The oil is heated in a fondue pot to about 325 degrees and guests spike cubes of meat and place them directly into the hot oil. While waiting a minute or two for the meat to cook and also to enjoy some wine and their company (the best part of fondue) the cube is removed from the oil and ready to be dunked into a variety of dipping sauces.

In order to make hot oil fondue healthier you need to start with the oil. Peanut oil is low in saturated fat and cholesterol and it’s also high in monounsaturated fat. This means that just like olive oil, peanut oil will improve the ratio of “good cholesterol” to “bad cholesterol”. Next you will need to use lean cuts of meat. Beef tenderloin, pork tenderloin and loin of lamb are good but chicken or turkey breast are your best bets. And keep the portions small. The general guideline is that the portion should be about the size of your palm of your hand.

Dipping sauces can also be made healthier with ingredient substitutions. Try using low sodium soy sauce or fat free sour cream. Take a small dip and don’t drown your food in the sauce. Just say no to the béarnaise or hollandaise sauce.

Broth fondues are similar to hot oil fondue except they are cooked in broth instead of oil. The benefit of cooking in broth is that it takes on the flavors of the ingredients dunked in it and you can eat it. Often broth fondue (or Shabu Shabu) is followed by a course of noodle or rice soup that is made with the leftover broth.

Start your broth fondue with low sodium chicken or beef broth. Like hot oil fondue you should use lean cuts of meat, small portions and limit the use of dipping sauces. Broth fondues add vegetables to the mix. Try adding mushrooms, green onions, carrots and celery to the broth. Loading up on vegetables will not only fill you but they’re healthy for you.

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