This week for Tyler Florence Fridays I tried Tyler's Feta Cheese Fondue with Walnuts and Parsley...yum!
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups whole milk (I used skim milk with no problems)
6 ounces feta cheese
2 scallions minced
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (I did not have to add any salt or pepper)
1/4 cup walnuts toasted and finely chopped
In a 2 quart saucepan over medium heat, melt butter the stir in the flour. Stir the 2 together into a paste. Whisk in the milk to create what the French call a bechamel sauce. Drop the temperature a little and simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes so it thickens and the flour taste cooks out. After that it's easy, just fold in the crumbled feta, scallions, and parsley. Season it with salt and a little cracked pepper.
Once the cheese melts it is officially fondue, you can either use a fondue pot with a candle or just leave it in the pot and have everyone eat from there.
Finish it with the walnuts tossed on top. I like to cut up bite size pieces of bread and melon or maybe pitted olives and prosciutto, either way this is always a holiday hit.
I made this for our New Year's Eve party along with some fresh bread and other dippers. The bread was my favorite for this fondue. I doubled this recipe and added an extra 4 ounces of feta since I had it on hand and noted in the foodnetwork reviews that it needed more feta flavor. I am a huge feta cheese fan and fondue fan so I was really excited to try this recipe. It did not dissapoint! My husband doesn't like fondue (yeah, this is the same guy who doesn't like cheesecake) but he does tolerate feta -- but would not try it in fondue. Oh-well -- more for the rest of us. I mainly doubled this because my Rival electric fondue pot seems to have a large capacity and I didn't want it to look like there wasn't much in there -- but I really didn't need to double this recipe. I ended up only using half and putting the rest in the fridge for what I think will be a yummy pasta sauce later this week.
I'm really glad I tried this recipe and did enjoy it especially the added crunch from the walnuts. I think pistacios or pinenuts would be a great substitution of you are not a walnut fan. What a fun pick that I would probably never have gotten around to trying if it wasn't for TFF :)