Here’s the Wisconsin live radio segment from earlier today!
Recipes From Sri Lanka
Cooking traditional foods connects us to our roots. We talk to the author of a cookbook that celebrates her Sri Lankan heritage.
Interesting, or a Disaster?
Okay, here’s a cooking question. I was buying some Bakto extracts, and they had smoke extract, and I have this dragon theme going for my Patreon treat boxes, so I HAD to get some smoke extract, right?
But now I realize I have no idea how to use it. I’ve used liquid smoke in a curry, but I don’t think this is the same thing. I suspect people mostly use it for barbecue?
I smelled it, and it smells nice and interesting. I tasted a bit, and the extract is VERY strong, so it’s honestly a little hard to get a real sense of the flavor that way.
What I actually want to do is put it in a sweet of some kind — a marshmallow or cookie or truffle. Thoughts? Is this going to be interesting, or a disaster? I haven’t found any recipes online using it.
Is More Good?
You know what feels really great? When you imagine a thing, and you make it, and it actually comes out the way you intended. I LOVE how this pumpkin curry tea towel came out! Kavi did the pumpkin and vines and leaf; I did the recipe and overall design. I tried to pick a cheerful, slightly child-like font that was similar to Kavi’s handwriting, which is neat and rounded.
Sri Lankan peeps, I feel like this would be a nice gift for Amma, don’t you think? 
If you have a cooking Amma, that is.
I had thought it wouldn’t be affordable for me to sell tea towels in my own shop, with shipping multiple directions, etc., but it turns out that Spoonflower has a fill-a-yard option that works really well. I can fit 4 tea towels on a yard of fabric, which brings the per unit cost down considerably. So if you’re sewing yourself, this is a great thing to know about, and if you don’t sew, I can actually sell them.
They’re still not cheap, I’m afraid — I need to price them at $24 each to make it worthwhile. But you get a significant discount on them if you get them as part of a Patreon treat box (sign up by November 30th for the December boxes). (http://patreon.com/mohanraj)
I think we can offer some package options too, since that saves us on the shipping cost part — I’m thinking:
• 1 tea towel ($24)
• tea towel + curry powder ($28)
• 2 tea towels ($42)
• 2 tea towels + curry powder ($45)
• Feast paperback + tea towel ($50)
• Feast paperback + tea towel + curry powder ($55)
• Feast hardcover + tea towel ($60)
• Feast hardcover + 2 tea towels ($80)
• Feast hardcover + 2 tea towels + curry powder ($85)
Is it confusing, having so many options to choose from? I felt like more would be good, but maybe not…?
Beet Curry is Pretty Sexy
The beetroot curry recipe has made it to The Province newspaper in Canada — I have to admit, the layout of this one kind of startled me, as it looks like a supermarket tabloid. Beet curry is pretty sexy, though, right? I think so.
New Tiers
Quick Patreon note that I’ve added a few slots and some new treat box tiers (and renamed one of them), because we’d sold out (a nice problem to have).
For ease all around, note that if you add or upgrade a tier by November 30th, we’ll send you a December box. (This is a pretty darn good deal — consider it a major holiday sale).
The December treat box has a dragons knitting theme (I don’t know if we’ll always have themes, but this was fun), and I’m including below a tentative list of what I’m planning to include at each level.
Thanks again for all your support! The treat box sales help a lot with paying my part-time staff, which is what’s making it possible for me to put out Vegan Serendib (which is coming along nicely), along with everything else I’m writing.
*****
Earth ($10 / month (so $30 / quarterly box), fits in a small priority mail box)
– stockinette-stitch soap
– small dragon candle
– cashew milk toffee
– assorted chocolates
– assorted marshmallows
– cardamom and pistachio shortbread
(limited: 6 of 30 remaining)
***
Sol System ($15 / month (so $45 / quarterly box), fits in a medium priority mail box):
– all of the above, plus
– larger quantities of the sweets
– spiced hot chocolate
– knitting candle
– yarn ball soap or dragon soap
– handmade bookmark
***
Milky Way ($20 / month (so $60 / quarterly box), fits in a medium priority mail box):
– all of the above, plus
– 8 oz. Sri Lankan roasted curry powder
– dragon greeting cards (by Kavya) (set of 5)
– a homemade tea towel (your choice of 5 options)
***
Interstellar ($30 / month (so $90 / quarterly box), fits in a large priority mail box):
– all of the above, plus
– 2 homemade tea towels instead of 1 (your choices of 5 options)
– dragon greeting cards (by Kavya) (set of 10)
– a soft jersey dragonlight infinity scarf
Sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/mohanraj
Swimming
If you fry little green chilies, they swim around like crazy. It surprised me, and is quite cute.
(Not sure if this only happened because they were previously frozen, so had a little extra moisture in them….)
Dragon Candles
Okay, I *love* how these candles came out. I was using up old candle bits to make these, so I didn’t add any scent or color; I just wanted to test the molds. They’re so great! My dragons knitting theme for the December Patreon boxes are totally a go.
I have to figure out which ones fit in which boxes, and then there’ll be a post about them. I think we’re going to ask people to sign up by the end of November, so I can be sure to have enough time to make all the stuff for all the boxes. So a post later today or tomorrow, I think? Quantities will be limited, so watch this space.
Essays on Food
Well, that was unexpected. I needed a writing sample for this fellowship application, and I pondered for a bit and realized what I really wanted to submit was a food essay, since I’m hoping to write and place a bunch of food essays, then turn them into some kind of memoir-thing.
But I’ve actually been planning this for many many months, and even took a food writing class online with Pooja Makhijani, and while I had written a whole bunch of bits and pieces, none of them had really cohered into an essay yet.
BUT I had a little time tonight (thank you, grants folks, for an 11:59 p.m. deadline, much appreciated), so around 6:30, I told Kevin I was going to go hide in the shed and try to write something. Five hours later, having taken work heavily from various earlier projects that never quite cohered, I appear to have written a 4100 word essay that I’m moderately pleased with.
This is actually a tremendous relief, because I kept saying and saying that I was going to write food essays, but not actually doing it. Maybe I just needed a deadline to get me over the hump.
I could use a few beta readers before I try submitting it anywhere. Also, I have to research who publishes 4000 word food essays. If you’re interested in taking a look and sending me your thoughts, drop your e-mail in comments.
…
“The day I arrived in this country, the taxi driver deposited me safely at Galle Face Hotel, a colonial dream. Two hundred years old, and for a long time the province of white masters who enjoyed the service of their brown-skinned, white-jacketed servants. The lobby wasn’t air-conditioned, unlike the more modern five-star hotels down the street; it sat open to the salt breezes and the occasional drift of sunshine. A man in crisp white uniform brought me a glass of fresh juice, which might have been the best thing I’d tasted in my life. Mango, distilled to its pure, explosive essence; what I’d been drinking as mango in America was insolent imitation. On this island, reality shifted and took on new forms. My old certainties felt fragile, ready to shatter at a thought, or an unkind word.”
Stronger Together
All the curry powder I roasted this weekend is spoken for now; very satisfying, getting it fresh and out the door quickly. (I’ll start prepping to roast another batch when the next order comes in…I’m out of cloves, so have to get some more of those first!)
Some curry powder packets were individual sales, but many were packaged with copies of Feast (hardcover and paperback). Three of those were birthday presents, which I find particularly lovely. What a nice thing to do for a friend, to introduce them to cooking a new cuisine.
Maybe I’m a little over-emotional, after long pandemic and with the election bearing down on us. It does make me happy, to see how in difficult times, we take care of each other and put in a little extra effort to strengthen bonds. Stronger together, right?
Fiberworld Grind-a-long
Quick save-the-date that I’m going to host a free virtual spice-grinding demo / grind-a-long for Fiberworld on November 18, 5:30 CST. I’ll show you how to roast and grind spices for your own Sri Lankan curry powder blend, and answer any questions you might have for 45 minutes or so. Followed by an hour of knit-a-long and chat, hosted by Fiberworld.
Flyer with more details to follow.