Category: Uncategorized

Shopping cart advice? We’re realizing that the PayPal ‘shop’ buttons and the set-up of our Feast page isn’t ideal; it’s a lot of scrolling, etc. I’m wondering if we should set it up in a different kind of way, maybe an Etsy shop or something else? Recommendations welcome! I’m mostly selling print goods, but also digital rewards and occasional soaps, etc.

Here’s a fun bit of additional Feasting — the full-color digital photo gallery is now online! This is particularly relevant to people who bought the paperback, which doesn’t have photos in it (to keep cost down). Also to anyone who’d just like to page through the pretty pictures. All the photos from the hardcover are now up in this gallery — please enjoy!

My plan is to keep adding more process photos, video, etc., as I continue to make and re-make the recipes, so that eventually, each recipe will have a rich supplement of online material, to make it as clear and easy as possible to make these dishes yourself. 🙂

My GOD, these are luscious. Here’s a Valentine’s Day present from me to you, folks. Thanks for reading all my babbling so patiently.

The marshmallows themselves are fluffy and tangy and fruity and delectable — then, when you add the creamy white chocolate (and a sprinkling of pink hearts and sparkly sugar), it just takes it over the top into pure decadence. I like these best of every confection I’ve ever made.

***

“I Plight Thee My Troth” Marshmallows
(rose, passionfruit, and vanilla / love, passion, and home)

3/4 c. passionfruit puree
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. light corn syrup
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. rosewater
butter (for greasing the pan)
powdered (confectioner’s) sugar for dusting (about 1/2 c.)
about 1 – 1/2 c. white chocolate chips
pink hearts and sparkly sugar for decorating

1. Empty gelatin packets into bowl of stand mixer (whisk attachment), with passionfruit juice. Stir briefly to combine.

2. In a small saucepan (a bigger one will be heavy and hard to hold steadily at a later stage) combine water, sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Cover and cook over medium high heat for 4 minutes. Uncover and cook until the mixture reaches soft ball stage (240 degrees if you have a candy thermometer), approximately 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from heat; if it continues, it will swiftly turn into hard candy.

4. Turn mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. (Be very careful with the sugar syrup, as it is scaldingly hot and will burn you badly if it gets on your skin.) Once you’ve added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high.

NOTE: The volume is a little more than usual for my marshmallow recipes, as I wanted these on the fluffy side, so have a dishtowel or splashguard ready in case of need; once the mixture starts thickening, you shouldn’t need it anymore.

5. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 minutes. Add food color if desired — if not, they’ll be white. I added a bit of pink, for the romance of it all. Add vanilla and rosewater.

6. While it’s whipping, butter a large 9 x 12 pan. Prepare an oiled spatula. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly (and swiftly) with the oiled spatula.

7. Dust the top with enough of the powdered sugar to lightly cover. Reserve the rest of the powdered sugar for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

8. Turn onto a board, cut into squares, and dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining powdered sugar, using additional if necessary. (They are very yummy as is, so feel free to stop at this point.)

9. Melt white chocolate using either double boiler method, or at half power in the microwave (stirring every 30 seconds after 2 minutes until melted). Dip marshmallows and turn over to sit on parchment or wax paper.

10. Decorate with hearts and sprinkles before the chocolate sets up. Let set. May be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks, or frozen (in a flat layer, with sheets of wax paper between).

I brought some chocolates over (along with rice and curries) to a friend going through a tough time last night. Is it any wonder that I love cooking so? You get to make beautiful objects, and also feed people. What could be better?

I have a bunch of computer work to do today, but Kavi and I have an after-school date to experiment with mango creams in milk chocolate. She’s not a dark chocolate fan yet, so this round of passionfruit-ginger-cashew dark chocolates has been a tiny bit frustrating for her. 🙂 (Anand is happy to eat the dark chocolate scraps left over….)

Most of these chocolates are intended for Bite Nite next Friday, but I have 5 sets put aside to sell (last pic). Still have to figure out pricing; maybe they just get sent along with cookbook orders for a week? But what about the poor people who already bought cookbooks? They should get to buy chocolates too…. We’ll see.

 

I meant to post about this last fall, but in the harried I didn’t manage it, but better late than never, and I just want to say that it was a pleasure and a privilege being part of Professor Anna Guevarra‘s innovative food course.

Honestly, when I saw what she was doing, I was both impressed and a little jealous that I hadn’t thought of doing something like that — you totally could, on the literature front, as well as with the sociology approach she takes, using food as a way in to cultural conversations and analysis. Although it’s also a lot of work, how she does it, and I’d need to do a lot of prep to be able to do it nearly as well — maybe someday!

A flash from the past — my birthday last summer, when various friends took me out for various lovely meals around town. This one was at MORA Asian Kitchen, Oak Park, a new addition to our neighborhood — I liked the poke-style appetizer the best. 🙂 Lovely to be reminded of warmth and fellowship in the darkness of winter.

Heather sent me a photo of her making the curry powder from my cookbook. 🙂 She doesn’t have a grinder (I use a coffee grinder I dedicate for spices), so she’s doing it old school, with mortar and pestle… Looks good!

Okay, here’s a question for all the indie publishers out there. I know that on launch day on Amazon (March 6 for A Feast of Serendib!), I’m supposed to encourage people to go flood Amazon with reviews (which they can’t publish there earlier), but also encourage people to buy books on Amazon.

My question is, is there a threshold I should be aiming for? A certain # that would = making it over some algorithmic magical threshold?

Guys, I’m a little worried that in the next six weeks, with the run-up to the Feast launch, that the marketing is going to get so intense that you’re going to get utterly sick of me. Um, you’ll tell me, right? Are the hashtags deeply irritating? (They make it easier for Heather to propagate appropriately, but I worry that they’re bugging people.)

I swear, I have to climb over an emotional / mental barrier every single time I post a blurb, or even a hashtag. Sigh.

#serendibkitchen

Seattle, Elliott Bay Book Company. I went by to drop off a copy of A Feast of Serendib, to ask whether they might want to do an event there if I came back. First of all, their cookbook section is very impressive — Seattle people must like to cook! (Long, dark winters…) And check out the big dedicated section on SE Asian cooking; that tells you where you should try eating out when you’re in town. 🙂

But the funniest bit was that way back in 1997, twenty-two years ago, I did a reading here when I was a student at Clarion West. And amazingly, the programming guy, Rick, actually remembered me from back then! How cool is that? (What I would give for a memory that worked that well…)

Rick’s even going to Sri Lanka in a few weeks, and we had a great conversation about his travels there, and about other Sri Lankan American authors he likes, and it was just very cool. I hope I can manage to fit in a Seattle trip for the book launch this year!