Dalai Mama Dishes

by Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Dalai Mama Dishes

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

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Friendly Fondue

Posted January 10, 2011
Find more about dinner , fondue , CHEESE
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Who doesn't love an interactive meal? It's like shabu shabu. Not that I've ever had shabu shabu.

Michael grated the cheese for me so that I could take pictures of him in his running clothes. Not that you can really see them very well, but his striped Adidas pants really add to the retrotastic quality of the fondue experience.

A bit of flour is kind of a cheat, but it means that you don't need to fret over the initial strange, stringy thinness of your fondue. It will be perfect from the get-go.

Don't think my kids wouldn't prefer a nice, normal baguette. Oh well. Tough. They are too polite to complain.

The broccoli.

But, the absence of the baguette notwithstanding, the kids literally clapped when I called them into the living room for dinner. "Fondue!" They were so excited.

I forgot to fish out the broccoli, and Birdy thought she'd dropped a piece of broccoli and ate it! She'll be healthy the rest of the winter.

Glorious.

Fondue has a kind of beadazzled bell-bottomy "now it's hip, now it's not" quality that simply does not do justice to its perennial good nature and wonderfulness. I don't even know where it currently stands. Is there a Mad-Men-era retrophilic fondue come-back? Whisk together a pound of Velveeta with a martini and an ashtray full of cigarette butts. . . I don't know. I do know that there are today 1,979 fondue pots for sale on ebay, which suggests that plenty of folks are still trying to offload their wedding-gift sets from the seventies--that glorious era of wife-swapping, Charmin-squeezing, and communal, molten-cheese dinners. My advice? Unless yours is still stashed in the basement beneath a dusty bottle of Jean Nate body splash, go ahead and bid on one. Fondue makes the most deliciously comforting family meal to cozy up around on a cold winter's night. You just need to be sure to keep it innocently mild or your kids might balk at the cheesy stink of the gruyere and the poisonous kick of the wine. And if you serve it with a nice whole-grain bread and a veggie or two, you'll even feel, despite the whole unavoidable molten-cheese-for-dinner quality of it, that you've served a reasonably nutrient-dense and wholesome meal. Or that's how I feel, and I prefer not to be disabused of that notion.

But the other thing I love most about fondue is that fact that we eat it at our coffee table, and, as I know I have mentioned in the past, my family finds eating dinner in the living room to be simultaneously consoling and celebratory. And we could use a little consolation on an icy back-to-schoolish January Sunday night when the world appears to have completely crazy; we could use a little celebration to remind us of our incredible luck and health and happiness. I keep a ten-year journal, another fact I know I've mentioned before, and when I was writing last night, I noticed that we had eaten fondue at the coffee table on either that exact day or thereabouts going back about five years. So yes, I am a creature of habit. I'm like a big, sleepy mama bear, only instead of hibernating, I melt a big pot of cheese for my little cubs to fatten up on--to dip their paws into and smile their cheesy, cubbish smiles.

Note: If the idea of a running journal interests you, and it should, this is the reasonably- priced and adorable one I gave Anni for Christmas.

Friendly Fondue
Serves 6
Active time: 10 minutes

This is a very gentle fondue. Feel free to experiment with the cheese and liquid. Believe me, I've made it dozens of ways: with apple cider and cheddar, with Swiss and broth, with the traditional gruyere and wine (which was, I should mention, the hands-down loser in my house). And feel free to cut the recipe in half: this makes a lot for a family of four, although chilled leftovers can be spread on bread and broiled until bubbly for a delicious open-faced cheese sandwich. Oh, and one last thing: if you don't have a fondue pot, you can try just eating this fairly quickly and it should be fine.

1 1/2 cup milk
1 pound Monterey Jack cheese, coarsely grated
2 tablespoons flour
1 smashed clove of garlic (optional, but it really adds something)

While you heat the milk (and optional garlic) over medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan, toss the cheese and flour together in a bowl until the shreds are nicely floured. Stir the cheese into the now-simmering milk a handful at a time, waiting until each handful melts before adding the next. When it is all melty and smooth (this should take only about a minute), pour it into a fondue pot and serve.

For dipping, I used this bread and half a head of broccoli, cut up and steamed until just tender. Other good dippers include cooked potato chunks or other veggies of your liking, cubes of ham, and apple wedges.

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About Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman is the author of the memoir, Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family, available online and in bookstores nationwide.

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