Of stretch goals, Sri Lanka food tours, and appetizer photos...
about 5 years ago
– Sat, Apr 20, 2019 at 10:22:50 PM
Woot! Up to $11,000 on the Kickstarter and 250 backers.
I love you all. Truly, madly, deeply.
What I really want for a stretch goal? If we make it to $20K, then I'd commit to going to Sri Lanka in the next year and doing a food tour, interviewing cooks from different regions, hiring a videographer to go with me, taking videos of them cooking, etc. I know Suchetha Wijenayake and Mandy Jayatissa would help me make it happen. Maybe I could talk Roshani Anandappa into going with me. It would be amazing.
But okay, okay, let's do it step by step. First, get to $15K, do the process videos at home, which is much more manageable. We'll see what happens if we get there. I'm probably dreaming, because there's only 11 days to go, so it's unlikely that we'd make it to $20K. But a girl can dream.
Plain or Prawn Lentil Patties (Vadai)
This weekend, I'm working on final photo selection and editing, which is slightly more time-consuming than I'd anticipated. Two hours later, the appetizers are done, although even there, I'm not thrilled with the curried mushroom photo and may re-cook it this afternoon. But the rest I can live with, reminding myself that I never claimed to be a photographer. (The prettiest photo in this section is the last one, I think.)
Stretch, more coffee, onwards. I'm planning to hand the book off to the layout person on Monday morning at latest -- eep. Then it really will be done -- at least the ebook version.
Ribbon Tea Sandwiches
Tangy Shrimp on Toast
Feast Stretch Goal #2: DONE! Stretch Goal #3: ANNOUNCED!
about 5 years ago
– Tue, Apr 16, 2019 at 11:56:41 PM
Woot! We blew through goal #2, making it to $10K, so this summer, I'll be developing a gluten-free digital cookbook that will be sent to all backers. Thank you! It'll be a smaller sampler than Feast, around 40 recipes, I think, with a fair bit of overlap, but I'm planning to develop some specific new recipes just for this. I had a request for a gluten-free dessert that has a crisp element, so that's going to be interesting to think about! Hopefully this will be a pleasant addition for all of you, and something you can share with a friend if you don't have a need for it yourself!
I'm setting the next stretch goal a little further out, because honestly, it's going to take some work and be a little tough for me in various ways -- but I really want to do some Sri Lankan cooking videos. I love this food so much, and I want to show people how easy it can be to make.
So here's the stretch goal -- if we make it to $15,000 on the cookbook, I'm committing to doing at least 3 full recipe cooking videos and 3 shorter process videos -- processes like 'how to make / swirl a hopper.' (We're at $10,388 now.) There's about two weeks left, so I think that's do-able, though if you can take a moment to share the project with your friends and family, that'll definitely help!
Honestly, I'm hoping to do a lot more videos than that, but we'll see how it goes! Here's the first one, a teaser -- it's just me and my assistant, Heather, and I'm teaching you how to make ginger-garlic chicken, which is my kids' favorite Sri Lankan dish -- it's super-popular with kids, adults, and is generally an easy and approachable dish. If you can sauté, you can make this!
This first set will be of roughly this quality, so correlate your expectations appropriately. If it goes well, maybe we'll hire a videographer down the line, and do it all a little more professionally? Well, we'll see. For now, it'll be like this -- hopefully you'll like it!
One last thing -- we're doing a little cross-promotion here, and I think you're going to love this gorgeous little food product. Yuan has given us an eco-friendly, beautifully designed, sustainable cutlery set. Spoon and fork, chopsticks and straw, in a lovely case that makes it easy to toss in a bag for daily use, for a family picnic, or to take on your world travels. I've ordered three for myself (one for me, one for my husband, and one for a friend) -- take a look! It's just so darn pretty.
About the art -- a thank you.
about 5 years ago
– Wed, Apr 10, 2019 at 10:06:53 PM
I just want to take a moment to say thank you to the people who backed The Stars Change, and A Feast of Serendib, specifically because you made it possible for me to commission artists like Jack Kotz and Pamudu Tennakoon to do illustrations and cover art.
I really love the process of creating a book that is also a work of art, and being able to support young artists, both here and in Sri Lanka -- it means a lot! I'm hoping to commission an artist based in Sri Lanka to do some art for the hardcover; working on it. It'd be great to direct a little of the Kickstarter money back home.
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(Also, I have a mad fondness for pen-and-ink work in particular, maybe because I am completely incapable of producing it myself. Also because one of my best friends in elementary school, Karen Zalewski, could do the most incredible pen-and-ink drawings, even in 8th grade, and whenever I see them, I think of her.)
Illustrator sneak peek / beef and potato curry teaser recipe / $8100 out of $10K!
about 5 years ago
– Wed, Apr 10, 2019 at 11:17:20 AM
Exciting -- Pamudu Tenakoon has delivered the first draft sketch for the cookbook. Making stringhoppers! She didn't use me as a model, but I can totally see the resemblance. :-)
Pamudu wanted me to emphasize that this was just a pen draft, and that she'll be working on it more digitally, but I love the strength of it already. So looking forward to having her work in the book! Here's a little more about her...
Pamudu Tennakoon is first-year Ph.D student in History of Art and Architecture at Brown University. Prior to commencing at Brown University, Pamudu received her B.A from Bryn Mawr College, where she majored in Growth and Structure of Cities and Fine Arts (Sculpture), and her MPhil from the School of Architecture at the University of Queensland. Her academic work focuses on colonial architecture, particularly the contemporary understandings and usages of colonial architecture. Her artistic works, on the other hand, question the line between natural and man-made. Inspired by her previous works with wire, she is currently exploring how to navigate the language of three dimensional wire drawing within two dimensional line drawing.
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In other news, I'm still cooking for the Sri Lankan New Year's party -- I wish you could all attend. I left the potatoes out this time, because I'm going to do a separate deviled potatoes for Sri Lankan New Year. And I used rich coconut milk instead of regular milk, because it's a party. :-) Delicious.
*****
Beef and Potato Curry / Mas Kizhangu Kari
(1 hour, serves 6)
This was my favorite dish growing up, the one my mother always makes for me when I come home, and the first Sri Lankan dish I learned to cook, when I called home desperate from the dorms, begging her to teach me how to make it over the phone. It’s also the first Sri Lankan dish my husband, Kevin, learned to cook — I came home once from a long plane flight, walked into the house, smelled the scent of this curry, that I hadn’t even known he had learned how to make, and promptly burst into tears. Enjoy.
3-5 medium onions, chopped fine
2 TBL ginger, chopped fine
4-5 garlic cloves, sliced
3 TBL vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seed
1 tsp cumin seed
1-2 TBL cayenne
3 lbs chuck steak, cubed, about 1 inch pieces
1/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 TBL Sri Lankan curry powder
1 heaping tsp salt
3 pieces cinnamon stick
3 cloves
3 cardamom pods
1 dozen curry leaves
1/2 cup milk
3 medium russet potatoes, cut into large chunks
2-3 TBL lime juice
1. In a large pot, sauté onions, ginger, and garlic in oil on medium-high with mustard seed and cumin seeds until onions are golden/translucent (not brown), stirring as needed. Add cayenne and cook 1 minute, stirring. Immediately stir in ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, curry powder, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and curry leaves.
2. Add beef and stir on high for a minute or two, browning the meat. Add milk, stirring. Cover, turn down to medium, and let cook half an hour, stirring occasionally.
3. Add potatoes, stir well, and cover again. Cook until potatoes are cooked through, adding water if needed to maintain a nice thick sauce (and to keep food from burning), stirring occasionally. Add lime juice; stir until well blended. Serve hot with rice or bread.
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And that's it for this update! We're up to $8100, so well on the way to our $10K goal, which will let me develop and give you all copies of a new gluten-free Sri Lankan cookbook too. If we make it there, the next stretch goal will be, almost certainly, cooking videos. Eep! I'm excited, but also a bit nerve-wracked. Well, we'll see how it goes...please do share the project with your friends and family, if you're so moved!
- Mary Anne
Master Seasoned Onions & Black Pork Curry
about 5 years ago
– Mon, Apr 08, 2019 at 06:48:24 PM
Here's a few teaser recipes for you, and if you have a moment, would really appreciate it if you could share this Kickstarter! Please tell your friends about my little book. :-)
- Mary Anne
*****
Love is...swinging by the grocery store and grabbing bags of frozen onions, so you can make big batches of seasoned onions for a week of Sri Lankan New Year cooking, without asking your long-suffering husband to chop kazillion onions, please:
$25 for 5 bags = priceless when you factor in the bonus to marital harmony. The first four photos show the steps towards master onions for a meat curry (adding cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and curry leaves to the recipe below); the last is when I've portioned some out for the pork curry, and added chili powder, salt, tamarind, red wine, and ketchup. :-)
Kevin's still going to need to do some onions, because some will need slicing, and this might not be enough anyway, but don't feel too sorry for him -- he knew what he was marrying.
Many of our dishes start with cooking onions in ghee with ginger, garlic, black mustard seed and cumin seed, so I wanted to take the time to go through that process in a little more detail. Do chop the onions finely; they'll be breaking down to make the base for your sauce, and if they're in big pieces, they'll take much longer to break down into a proper sauce.
A great time-saver, if you're making my curries often, is to do a double (or triple, or quadruple) batch of this, maybe on a lazy Sunday, and then divide and freeze the extra. It means that on a weekday night when you're in a hurry, you can grab a frozen bag of seasoned onions, toss them in a hot pan, and within minutes be adding your meat or vegetables, cutting your weeknight cooking time in half.
Also, you can buy chopped ginger-garlic paste in the Indian stores, which is helpful for when you're in a hurry -- I'd use about 2 T in this recipe. It's not quite as good as chopping fresh, but is an acceptable substitute for everyday cooking.
3 medium yellow onions, chopped fine
3 TBL ghee or vegetable oil
1-2 TBL ginger, chopped fine
1 tsp black mustard seed
1 tsp cumin seed
3-5 cloves garlic, chopped fine
Optional first step: Sauté black mustard seed in oil to make mustard oil -- this will add an extra little hit of flavor, but I admit, I mostly don't bother with this unless I'm being extra fancy; I add the seeds together later on.
1. Sauté onions in ghee until translucent. Now, you can cook them on high or medium-high, stirring constantly, if you have your other ingredients ready. But I tend to do this step on medium or even low, so I can stir only occasionally, in between chopping ginger, garlic, and any other ingredients.
2. Add black mustard seed, cumin seed, and ginger; sauté a few minutes more. (This is when I'd be chopping my garlic.) If you need more ghee, feel free to add it at this point.
3. Add garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, a few more minutes, until golden-translucent. Garlic burns easily, so you don't want to add it early on, especially when you just have hot oil in the pan. Much safer to add it at this stage.
That's it! You'll almost always be adding fresh curry leaves next, with pieces of cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, and cloves, and then going on to cayenne, roasted curry powder, and salt, but this is a good point to pause, divide, and freeze anything you're not using right away. Be sure to squeeze as much air as possible out of the plastic bag, to avoid freezer burn.
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Sunday afternoon, I slow-simmered a pork curry. I've saved a little for us to have for dinner tonight, and cooled and frozen the rest now, to heat up next Sunday and serve for Sri Lankan New Year.
This is how my mom prepped for her big parties, though she'd start two or three weeks in advance, and have sisters nearby who cooked plenty too. My sisters are sadly far away! But Roshani is making a cashew curry for us, so that is lovely. :-)
I basically followed the recipe from my cookbook, though I did throw in a cup or two of red wine as well, since I had an open bottle on hand. Yum. And they had a big pack of neck bones for less than two bucks at the store, so I threw those in with the cubes of pork shoulder, to add some extra flavor. Then I pulled the meat off the bones once it had cooked and cooled down. Mmmm...
*****
Black Pork Curry / Panri Iraichchi Kari / Padre Kari
(1 1/2 hours, serves 6-8)
This traditional tangy, peppery dish gets its dark color from the combination of dark roasted curry powder, tamarind paste, and lots of ground black pepper. (The colloquial name ‘padre kari’ refers to the black robes of a padre / priest.) Tamarind paste is fairly easy to find in Mexican and Indian markets, or you can order it online. It keeps well in the pantry for a long time, even after opening. Typically, you’d leave a good portion of the fat on the pork pieces; it soaks up a ton of flavor, and is truly delectable, balancing the meat, which can otherwise be a bit dry after long cooking. But you can trim all the fat off if you’d prefer.
3 medium onions, chopped fine
2 TBL ginger, chopped fine
4-5 garlic cloves, sliced
6-12 curry leaves (optional)
1 tsp black mustard seed
1 tsp cumin seed
3 TBL vegetable oil
1 TBL Sri Lankan curry powder
1 heaping tsp salt
4 tsp ground black pepper
3 lbs pork shoulder, cubed, about 1 inch pieces, with some fat left on
3 tsp tamarind paste
1/2 cup white vinegar
1. In a large pot, sauté onions, ginger, garlic, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and curry leaves in oil on medium until onions are golden/translucent (not brown), stirring as needed.
2. Add curry powder, salt, pepper, stirring to combine, then turn heat to high. Add pork and sear, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes, to bring out the flavor of the meat.
3. Add tamarind paste and white vinegar; stir well, turn heat to medium, and cover. Cook one hour, stirring occasionally. Serve hot, with rice or bread.
