Category: Uncategorized

In just 7 minutes, Jed Hartman will teach you how to make Sri Lankan beet curry. Okay, actually, I do the teaching, but Jed is very cute in the video, so that’s even better. . We recorded this back at Christmastime, finally getting it up now. Funfun. Beet curry is SO GOOD.

It’s my parents’ 50th anniversary today, and due to coronavirus, we can’t throw them a big party. But I thought maybe a little flash sale of my cookbook would be a nice celebratory event — my mother’s fabulous cooking was the seed for these recipes, of course, and my dad is also super-proud of this book. 

I’ll do a proper anniversary celebrating post later, but for now, here, have a cookbook sale! $10 off the ebook price, so $14.99 for a beautifully formatted electronic edition, ideal for browsing on the couch or propping up on a stand in the kitchen while you cook. One day only!

Happy anniversary, Mohan and Jacintha!

https://serendib-kitchen.myshopify.com

SALE! It turns out that Amazon will sometimes do discounts on books, which doesn’t affect how much I make (as the amount they pay the distributor doesn’t change), and right now, Feast is discounted from $40 down to $26.49 on their site, which I have to tell you, is a heck of a bargain.

We’re probably going to be running a sale ourselves soon out of the house, but our price won’t be dropping quite that much, so unless you want a signed copy from me, and/or some homemade curry powder, I’d love it if you’d buy a discounted copy from Amazon.

Maybe one for a friend? Your parents who are getting bored cooking at home for themselves? Your best friend from college who you haven’t called in too long? So many options…spread the word!

Hey, folks. You’re all cordially invited to this event. 

Cooking Kale Sambol : Online Event

Thursday, June 11, 2020
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Travel to a distant, delicious land: Sri Lanka! Waves of immigration from China, England, the Netherlands, and Portugal influenced the unique island cuisine of Sri Lanka.

Professor and author Mary Anne Mohanraj will give a brief introduction to Sri Lankan food history, review key ingredients (including where to order them), and teach you a few recipes from her new Sri Lankan cookbook, *A Feast of Serendib*, which features her mother’s cooking and her American adaptations.

Sign up for this event and receive the Zoom meeting link [here](https://skokielibrary.zoom.us/…/tJ0rdeyvpz8tHtRYdVbBKvD08sU…). This event will be recorded. Recordings with clear sound and video will be uploaded to the library’s events channel on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwzDADYru1knA0HR7HI72xA/).

https://skokielibrary.info/…/cooking-kale-sambol-online-eve…

Roti or love cake?? Hey, bakers. So at Serendib Kitchen, we’re planning on two things coming up soon:

– a baking video created as a sort of joint demonstration / interview with Pooja Makhijani (probably no audience / participants for this one)

– a bake-a-long (up to 20 participants who sign up in advance, get the recipe and ingredients prepped, then bake together in a Zoom call)

The two options I’d like to do early on are:

a) roti

b) love cake

If you have a preference for which of those we do for the bake-a-long, let me know? Thanks!

The bake-a-long will be held at 7 p.m. CST on either a weeknight / Sunday, at the request of Gin Grahame, who is in a far away time zone.  If you have a preference for a particular weeknight / Sunday, let me know that too.

This first one will be free, but later ones may morph into paid classes. First time around, you are my guinea pigs. 

Food brainstorming help? Specifically, I’m getting ready to start making items for the Patreon June subscription boxes, and I realized that I’m not sure what food items will be safe to ship in heat.

Especially since even Priority Mail shipping seems to sometimes be delayed a few days due to the pandemic — I’m imagining a box sitting in 90 degrees for several days. Chocolates & marshmallows won’t survive that, even if I included an ice pack.

I’m looking at what Harry & David ships for ideas.

***

I think it should be safe to ship:

– cookies and brownies

– spiced nuts

– jams and chutneys (following proper canning procedures in advance)

– herbal tea blends (tisane)

– and of course, curry powder

***

I’m not sure about how these will hold up:

– scones and muffins

– our milk toffee (which is basically fudge)

– soft caramels

– lollipops and other hard candies

Thoughts? I’m going to spend more time researching food safety guidelines for this, but if I happen to have any experts reading this, would appreciate the advice!

The FB group I started for the local garden club has been wildly successful, up to almost 2000 happy members in just a few years. So, y’know, I decided to try starting a sister cooking club. Plants + food = joy.

*****

This group was started as a sister group to the Garden Club of Oak Park-River Forest; all lovers of cooking are welcome to join, including neighbors from Chicago and nearby suburbs. Beginners welcome, and you don’t need to have be a good cook to join us!

Some of the things you could use this group for: recipe recommendations, requests for cooking advice, sharing a dish you’re proud of, asking where to find specialty ingredients, loaning out / borrowing specialty cookware, recommending good podcasts or TV shows about cooking….etc!

NOTE: This is an open public group, and will remain so, which means people outside the group can view your posts.

NOTE 2: If you have an ad for a cooking-related business, please post no more than once / month; we recommend on the 15th. Thanks!

Join us here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/588119708722159/

Birthday lunch crepes! In addition to the chicken filling and the apple filling, we put out lemons and sugar, plus Nutella. I would’ve sliced some bananas to go with the Nutella, but we didn’t have those on hand. Oh well!

I was very happy with first a chicken-and-Emmenthaler crepe, then apples-and-Emmenthaler, then finishing with a perfect lemon-sugar. Kevin and Kavi did similarly, but Anand — oh, Anand is our experimental cook. He did one crepe with Nutella and apples and Emmenthaler (he LOVES cheese), which is reasonable enough. But then he did one with Nutella and sautéed chicken and Emmenthaler.

I mean, a chocolate molé sauce is great on chicken, so he’s not SO far off adding Nutella, I guess? But I don’t think I’d do it. Anand did conclude that he would’ve liked that one better without the chicken. 

For Kavi’s birthday trip-to-France-themed lunch, we went with crepes. I love a crepe selection, personally, and when we did it for Sunday dinner, the kids had a lot of fun deciding what they wanted in their crepes. Normally I’d do a spinach-feta filling (sauté onions and garlic in olive oil, add chopped spinach (thawed from frozen works great, if you squeeze out the extra moisture), salt and pepper, stir in the feta), but we were out of spinach AND feta. Oh well. 

I did a chicken filling instead. Sauté 1 chopped onion in a few T butter, stirring ’til golden, add bite-size pieces of chicken thighs, 5-6 thighs (I could have cut it a little smaller, but was in a bit of a rush, and this worked fine), 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. fresh ground pepper. Sauté until chicken is browned and cooked through, then add 1/4 c. heavy cream and simmer until well-blended and the cream has thickened into a sauce. Mmm…

Kevin diced up some apples and we sautéed those in butter too (separate pan), adding a teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Both of those go well with Swiss cheese, if you feel like adding that — we used Emmenthaler, because we had some on hand, and it was delicious.

#kaviturns13