Author: Mary Anne

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Ginger & Blood Orange Vodka Press

I’ve started working on recipes for the little cocktail cookbook; I promised it as part of the Vegan Serendib Kickstarter. My goal is to do a mocktail version to pair with each cocktail; we’ll see if I can do that in an interesting way, rather than just taking out the alcohol.

For example, for this one, I can do a ginger simple syrup instead of ginger liqueur, and you can get non-alcoholic bitters (Dram Apothecary makes some, for example), so that by itself should be pretty good. But if you have suggestions for something else to add instead of the vodka, feel free to chime in!

But tonight, here’s the one with alcohol.

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Ginger & Blood Orange Vodka Press

This would be a nice brunch cocktail, and if you want a less alcoholic version, just leaving out the vodka works nicely.

3 oz. orange juice
2 oz. blood orange soda
1 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. ginger liqueur
dash of orange bitters
slice of clementine
1 tsp chopped crystallized ginger

1. Combine orange juice, blood orange soda, vodka, ginger liqueur, dash of orange bitters.

2. Garnish with clementine and crystallized ginger. Enjoy!

NOTE: I enjoy locally-produced Koval ginger liqueur in this drink, along with Ketel One’s Grapefruit Rose vodka, and Strongwater’s orange bitters.

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Sri Lankan Grilled Beef Kabobs

(25 minutes + marinating time, makes 8 skewers)

This is a fusion-y sort of recipe, taking a shawarma-style approach, but with Sri Lankan flavors, adapted from a recipe found in Bon Appétit magazine.

I was aiming for something I could easily prep on a weeknight and throw on the grill, and this worked really well — it takes a little marinating time, so plan ahead, but actual cooking time is minimal. It also works well with pork or chicken thighs.

(You can certainly use a more expensive cut of meat if you prefer, such as sirloin tips or anything up to filet mignon. The lime juice in the marinade here tenderizes the chuck, which can be tough otherwise for quick cooking.)

NOTE: Sri Lankan curry powder recipe can be found here; it can also be purchased online: https://serendibkitchen.com/sri-lankan-curry-powder/

zest of 2 limes
4 large garlic cloves, finely grated
1 c. mayonnaise
1 c. plain whole-milk yogurt
3 T lime juice
1 t. salt
1/3 c. ketchup
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
2 t. Sri Lankan curry powder
1-2 t. cayenne
3 T vegetable oil (plus more for grill)
2 lb. beef chuck, cut into 1/2″ cubes
naan bread, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers (for serving)

1. Make sauce: In a large bowl, whisk lime zest, garlic, mayonnaise, yogurt, and 2 t. of the lime juice in a large bowl to combine, add salt to taste. Transfer 1/2 c. of sauce to small bowl for serving; cover and chill until you’re reading to eat.

2. Make marinade: Whisk into the remaining sauce the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, curry powder, cayenne, and remaining lime juice. Add beef (or other meat), toss to coat. Cover and chill at least one hour (up to 12 hours).

3. Prepare grill for medium-high heat; oil grate. While grill is heating, remove beef from marinade, letting any extra drip back into the bowl; thread meat onto metal skewers, spacing slightly apart.

4. Grill kebabs, turning a few times, until browned and just cooked through, 6-10 minutes. Lightly toast pita on grill, and serve kebabs with peta, tomatoes, cucumbers, and reserved yogurt sauce.

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Cooking Class: Sri Lankan Brunch (9/25, in person)

Cooking with Mary Anne! Learn how to make a classic Sri Lankan brunch of hoppers (with both egg hopper and sweet coconut hopper variations), along with coconut (pol) sambol accompaniment. Served with an accompanying fish or jackfruit curry, and mango-passionfruit mimosas.

  • Sunday, September 25, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
  • $60 / person (or $85 / person, which includes a signed copy of A Feast of Serendib and a 4 oz. sampler of homemade Sri Lankan curry powder).
  • Limit 8 in class.
  • 332 Wisconsin Ave, Oak Park, Illinois

Click here to sign up for the class.

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Blueberry-Orange Mini Muffins with Vanilla-Lime Drizzle

(Makes 24 mini-muffins or 12 regular muffins)

You can certainly make these in regular muffin pans, but I was making these for my Patreon treat boxes, which have a fairy theme this month, so I went for mini muffins instead — smaller, cuter, fairy-sized. 🙂 It does take a little longer this way to fill and bake them, but the result is adorable.

Skip the drizzle for a slightly healthier version — but it does add a very nice zing! My kids don’t like cooked blueberries (weirdos!), so I just left the blueberries out of the first batch; they loved the plain orange muffins, no drizzle required. (Kavi thinks she doesn’t like orange, but she is wrong.)

Batter:
2 large eggs
2/3 c. granulated sugar
2/3 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. sour cream (room temperature)
1/2 c. orange juice
1 t. vanilla extract
3 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
zest of 1-2 oranges
1 c. blueberries

Drizzle:
1 c. confectioners’ sugar
2-3 T lime juice
1 t. vanilla
1-2 T milk, if needed to thin drizzle

1. Preheat oven to 350F; grease mini muffin pans.

2. In a large bowl, add eggs, sugar, oil, sour cream, orange juice, vanilla, and zest; whisk until well-combined.

3. In another bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt together.

4. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until just combined; gently fold in blueberries, and scoop into muffin pan.

5. Bake 20-25 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Remove muffins from oven; remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

7. Make drizzle: whisk together confectioners’ sugar, lime juice, vanilla. If a thinner consistency is desired, whisk in 1-2 T milk.

8. When muffins are completely cooled, drizzle, let set, and enjoy.

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Vegan Serendib Unboxing Day

Look what just arrived! Unboxing day for Vegan Serendib! 🙂

Official ‘launch’ date is November 15th, but if you know me, you can get your copies earlier…

…and if you’re a reviewer or industry professional interested in a review copy, now is a great time to let me know. We’ll have hardcover, paperback, and digital review copies soon, though I admit, the print copies are pretty expensive for us to produce and ship, so if digital works for you, that’d be ideal. 🙂

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Bumbleberry Rhubarb Bar

(about one hour, plus cooling time; makes 16 bars)

These fruity little fusion bars could be breakfast or dessert! I used up the last of the berries from my spring garden, along with rhubarb, and gave it a slightly Sri Lankan inflection with lime juice in the filling and cashews for the topping.

If you don’t have fresh berries and rhubarb on hand, frozen will work fine — just cook them down long enough for the excess water to cook off, so you get a good thick filling consistency.

If you’re making this in Sri Lanka, you might use native embilla, a berry with a flavor that’s somewhat similar to grapes, or try Ceylon gooseberries, which have a flavor reminiscent of apricot.

Filling:
1 1/2 c. rhubarb, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 c. fresh berries — raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, etc.
1/2 c. sugar
2 T lime juice
1 1/2 T cornstarch

Bar:
1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. quick oats
1/2 c. jaggery or brown sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. chopped cashews

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8″ square pan with parchment paper. (You can butter and flour the pan instead, but it’ll be a little harder to take the bars out neatly.) Set aside.

2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring filling ingredients to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about ten minutes, until the filling is thickened and rhubarb and berries are starting to break down. Remove from heat; set aside until fully cooled.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combing flour, oats, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Melt butter and drizzle in, stirring until the mixture forms loose crumbs.

4. Press half the mixture into the prepared baking pan. Spread cooled filling onto the crust, and crumble the reserved topping evenly onto the filling. Scatter chopped cashews over the top, pressing in lightly.

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until filling is bubbly around the edge and topping is lightly golden. Let cool completely in the pan. Transfer to a cutting board and cut carefully into 16 bars. Enjoy!

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Reclaiming Leftover Tandoori Chicken

Yesterday was another day of reclaiming leftover tandoori chicken. Makes enough for 4-6; this is something we end up doing about once a month.

1. Set water boiling for pasta.

2. While pasta water is coming to a rolling boil, strip chicken off the bone.

3. Add pasta to water, set a timer.

4. In a large pan, sauté chicken in a little oil or ghee with the onions that came with the chicken.

5. Deglaze the fond with whatever random wine you have open.

6. Add some cream (about 1/2 – 1 c.) and simmer it in.

7. When the timer goes off, drain pasta and add to chicken in pan.

8. Chop a little cilantro from the garden if you like, and stir it in.

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A Lovely Dinner Cooked by Kavi

Kavi was making herself spicy ramen noodles from a packet yesterday, and I asked if she could make me some too. As she was waiting the 4.5 minutes for the noodles to cook, she said:

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to cook an entire dinner. I get so impatient just waiting for this!”

Heh. I remember those feels, kiddo. College cafeteria food was what finally drove me to learn — we’ll see how it goes for her.

In the meantime, this was a lovely dinner cooked for me by my daughter on a day when I was tired from travel and had absolutely no inclination to cook myself. Spicy!

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Little Bits of Cooking

Little bits of cooking from the last few weeks. Seasoned onions, breakfast of mackerel & egg curry on toast, salad with apricots and blue cheese, breakfast of scrambled eggs, naan, and seeni sambol, Vietnamese-style spicy-sweet shrimp on rice.

Summer means I have more time to actually cook. It’s nice.