Category: Uncategorized

Feast update & cookbook holiday gift ordering info!

I think at this point we have shipped almost all the Kickstarter orders that are just books. There are some exceptions — some order sheets are inexplicably missing information (like, oh, an address), and so we have to go back to the original orders and figure out what’s up. And there’s talking to locals to see who wants pickup instead of delivery. And international orders are a little complicated because they require the post office and a customs form (we think). So some bits still to figure out.

But still, we have sent out a LOT of books this week, and now we’ve started packing up the more complicated orders, the ones that come with curry powder or sweets or bath indulgences. Which, honestly, is kind of fun to pack. Not that it wasn’t also a pleasure gently sliding hundreds of beautiful hardcover books into padded envelopes… 🙂

We’re hoping to get all those out next week; my informal personal deadline is to have Kickstarter physical items shipped by Friday December 6, fingers crossed. (The gluten-free digital cookbook and the cooking videos will take a little longer, but I’m hoping to get them done by the end of the year. They’re in progress, and finishing them will be nice holiday projects for me once the semester ends.)

*****

Here is the timeline if you haven’t ordered copies yet and want to, or if you want to tell all your friends they need this book:

RIGHT NOW: You can order hardcovers, paperbacks, ebooks, and curry powder on the Serendib Kitchen website shop (www.serendibkitchen.com), and we should ship them within two weeks of ordering, so barring disaster, in plenty of time for holiday gifting. I’m happy to sign and/or personalize these if desired. If you want to add sweets or bath indulgences, that may be possible, mostly depending on how much I have on hand — at this point, it’s best to just message me and ask if you’re interested in something, and I’ll let you know what the price would be.

RIGHT NOW: You can also order the hardcover from the Mascot Books website, and while they say it’s a pre-order, in actuality, they will likely start shipping those out as soon as they get books in warehouse, which they expect by mid-December if not sooner. https://mascotbooks.com/…/coo…/regional/a-feast-of-serendib/ (We, and they, would LOVE it if you would post a review on Amazon and/or GoodReads…)

RIGHT NOW: Locals can also walk over to support a small LGBT-owned indie bookstore, Jake’s Place Books, in the Harrison Street Arts District. It’s the only bookstore carrying it right now! They have both hardcovers and paperbacks in stock. (I can’t remember if they’re signed, but if you’d like a signed copy, just call and let them know, and they’ll let me know, and I’ll stop by and sign them. 🙂 )

RIGHT NOW: You can join the Sri Lankan cooking club: To get the full set of recipes tested in the last few years, subscribe to my Patreon cookbook club for $2 / month. I’m continuing to develop and post recipes regularly. https://www.patreon.com/mohanraj

EARLY DECEMBER: We’ll be pitching to corporate buyers in early December, so please cross all your fingers and toes for me. If Costco picks it up, for example, I can breathe a huge sigh of financial relief.

BY MID-LATE DECEMBER: We hope to have listings available online at major booksellers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, for both hardcover and ebook (Kindle and ePub. (The paperback and PDF will still only be available from me directly at Serendib Kitchen; neither of those have photos, but will have a link to a full online photo archive.)

MARCH 2020: Formal ‘launch,’ which mostly means that’s when all the real publicity will be pointing towards, and which gives bookstores time to get it ordered and shipped to them. So Jan / Feb will be quiet, and we’ll be trying to schedule events and publicity after that.

JULY 2020: Benjamin and Mary Anne go on book tour, starting at ReaderCon and ending with a SLF writing festival thingie on Saturday July 25th. Details TBD, but will probably involve a reading, maybe some writing workshops, etc.

July 26, 2020: My 49th birthday. Right now, I’m thinking I may spend it sleeping. 🙂 (Unless Oprah calls…)

#blog
#serendibkitchen

What is the difference between a ‘chef’ and a ‘home cook?’ I found myself protesting (as I gorged on crispy delicious fresh-made lumpia) to Chef Estanilla at his pop-up for pig & fire (having given him and his wife Jen a copy of my cookbook that they were browsing) that I wasn’t a chef, I was just a home cook.

I actually think that’s true, but I realize also that I’m not sure what the distinction is in my mind.

I’ve never gone to culinary school, certainly. I’ve read a lot of cookbooks! I’ve taken a knife skills class, but just the one, populated entirely by suburban couples doing date night, like us, and I didn’t actually change the way I used a knife, so serious chefs would laugh at me, I’m sure. (It actually makes me anxious about doing cooking videos for Feast, which is probably why I’ve been avoidant about them.) (Oh, just remembered, I took a canning class too. That made me less worried that I might accidentally poison someone!)

I was about to say I’ve never worked in a restaurant — but that’s not true; I’ve been a cashier and dishwasher at a pizza joint (one of my first jobs as a teen), and a waitress at a truck stop pancake house (where the truckers tried to stick tips down the front of my uniform, gah). I’ve also catered a few rather random events (back in college, for my dorm, and for a friend’s parent). But I don’t think I’ve ever cooked in an actual restaurant, and I have no formal cookery training.

When Melissa Elsmo was interviewing me, I mentioned that when I was first cooking in my mother’s kitchen, all she would let me do was chop onions (telling me every time that I wasn’t doing them finely or carefully enough) and sauté them (she’d get annoyed that I let them brown too much — in her defense, it was true that I was usually reading and stirring at the same time, which honestly don’t go all that well together…). Chop onions, sauté onions. Every few nights. For years. And Melissa laughed and said that was actually pretty much what the beginning of culinary school was like. So maybe my training wasn’t exactly ‘formal,’ but…

We would stay up the night before a big party, often ’til 2-3 a.m., helping my mother cook, rolling endless mackerel cutlets in egg and bread crumbs, crimping endless chicken patties. My mother, her sisters, me and my sisters, all crowded around the dining table, which was slightly too big for the room, so you could barely wedge yourself in or out, but it didn’t really matter, because you were going to be there for hours regardless. At least the gossip was fun. 🙂

I can cook dinner for 200 without worry, but I wouldn’t even know where to go to get the heat lamps to set up the kind of pop-up event Roel was doing tonight (conveniently at the Beer Shop a blocks down the street from me). I kind of want to work for him for a night, for free, just to learn the ropes. So many things I don’t know!

And yet also, so many things I do!

Imposter syndrome! It lurks everywhere!

I met a woman a few days ago (at the Kickstarter Sri Lankan + bagel event I hosted for Amanda Daly‘s upcoming Daly Bagel shop) who works doing food development for a major corporation, and I mentioned, only half-seriously, that Roshani and I had talked about putting Sri Lankan curry powder in stores. And that it frustrated us that there was so much Asian packet food at Whole Foods that we didn’t think was actually very good. (Use Maesri curry paste if you’re making Thai curries from store-bought paste, and Chaokoh coconut milk.)

The freaky thing was, instead of dismissing the idea, she said we could totally do that, and she’d be happy to advise. Which was a terrifying thought. And Amanda chimed in and said something about how people thought this stuff was more complicated than it was, and she should know, since she’s actually opening a brick-and-mortar business, so I suppose I should trust her, but eep. Surely not!

And yet…

#serendibkitchen

CONTEST! We have actually made enough progress on A Feast of Serendib Kickstarter fulfillment orders that I can see through the stacks to the other side! I might actually be able to use my dining table for board gaming tomorrow. Very exciting.

So in honor of that, I’m holding a little contest. Here are the rules:

1) Between now and Sunday night 11/24/19 at midnight CST, post a photo in the comments to this thread.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10160163311494616&set=a.10150140183694616&type=3&permPage=1

It can be:

Locals, if you have requests for particular scents or designs for body butters ($8), soaps ($5), lip balms ($3) to pick up from me at Colorful Holiday (at L!ve Cafe, Sat the 21st, 10-2) let me know? If I have your orders in advance, I can set those aside for you to pick up then (or do porch pick-up if that’s easier). Also books, curry powder, recipe postcards, etc.

I guess this goes for out-of-town people too, assuming you’re willing to pay shipping? Still figuring out the best way to handle orders for that, but maybe I just take requests for whatever I’ve made so far, or am making, and keep a list, tell you how much PayPal will be? A little chaotic, but perhaps manageable!

#blog
#serendibkitchen
#serendibhome
#colorfulholiday

Stephanie has been putting in a ton of extra hours this week, helping me get the early Kickstarter copies of Feast out the door. Still quite a few to go, but they’re going, they’re going!

I’m in love with her little garden cart, which is much more multipurpose (and foldable / storable) than my own wheelbarrow. Hm. I may request an upgrade for a Christmas or birthday present.

#serendibkitchen
#serendibhome

A lot of my soaps so far have been tipping towards the feminine side — rose and jasmine, for example. Which is good, don’t get me wrong, and I encourage people of all genders to enjoy florals. 🙂

But there’s some definite gendering of soaps in stores, and there are clearly some ‘manly’ soaps meant for ‘manly’ men. Thought I’d experiment a little bit, esp. since I’ll have some items at Pem Hessing‘s Colorful Holiday Fair in a few weeks, so this is a cinnamon-peppercorn soap. Spicy! Those flavors go together well in my recipes, so why not in soaps?

I did these in nice neutral tones, but I admit, there’s some subtle sparkly mica throughout. Even a manly man (or a manly woman, or a manly nonbinary person) can enjoy a little sparkle, say I.

I also gave these soaps a name, “Spiced Nights.” Fun, eh? Seems suitable for a holiday stocking gift to your sweetheart. I’d like to come up with more interesting, poetic names, if I end up doing more blends. We’ll see. 🙂

#serendibhome

Having fun prepping for the little Daly Bagel benefit brunch tomorrow. Amanda Daly and I are doing a little fusion bagel + Sri Lankan brunch (10-12 on Sunday), and I’ve been working on the menu. (Ticket link in comments — a few more spots available, until midnight tonight. $60 each, and you’ll be helping open up Amanda’s bagel shop!)

It’s super-interesting thinking about what Sri Lankan flavors would go well with bagels. 🙂 Amanda’s bringing chai bagels, also plain and I think sesame.

So far, I’m thinking:

a) green chili, onion, and vegetable frittata
b) curried salmon spread
c) Sri Lankan-style grilled jumbo shrimp (nice on a bagel sandwich with a little whipped cream cheese and some sliced tomatoes and red onion, maybe a little avocado?)
d) kale mallung (like a salad) with coconut, lime, and pomegranate seeds
e) curried chicken salad with mango and cashew
f) passionfruit & cream cheese spread (which I think might also be nice for tea sandwiches) — with a little mango w/chili and lime on the side, in case you’d like to add that

And then I’ve got some apple cider with ginger to mull, some mango kefir, and a little Sri Lankan arrack to add to the eggnog (if you like) because it’s the holiday season, after all. And Amanda was going to bring mango juice and prosecco.

I’ve just finished a batch of milk toffee too, so will put that out with the mulled apple cider marshmallows. Good? Good. 🙂

Now I need to think about what guests will get in their goody bags. I’m thinking some recipe postcards, rose & sandalwood bath salts, some jasmine & lime soaps, and batches of homemade curry powder, of course!

Plus $5 off if they’d like to buy a cookbook too. 🙂

#serendibkitchen
#dalybagel

My Sri Lankan cookbook, A Feast of Serendib, is coming out in bookstores next March, but we’re doing some early sales right now (we started shipping today!) for those who want to order before the holidays. We’re offering hand-roasted Sri Lankan curry powder too! Just got our first major review, from Publisher’s Weekly, and it’s glowing. 🙂 I’d love to do signed / personalized copies for your gifting needs, or for your own cooking pleasure.

Buy the cookbook: http://serendibkitchen.com/shop/
Locals: Copies are also available now at Jake’s Place Books, 142 Harrison Street! You can also request porch pick-up from Serendib House, at 332 Wisconsin (near Harlem and Washington).

Join the cookbook club on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mohanraj
Visit the cooking blog: http://www.serendibkitchen.com
Subscribe to the newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/mohanraj

*****

“Mohanraj (Bodies in Motion), a literature professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, introduces readers to the comforting cuisine of Sri Lanka in this illuminating collection of more than 100 recipes. Waves of immigration from China, England, the Netherlands, and Portugal influenced the unique cuisine of Sri Lanka, Mohanraj writes, as evidenced by such dishes as Chinese rolls (a take on classic egg rolls in the form of stuffed crepes that are breaded and fried); fish cutlets (a culinary cousin of Dutch bitterballen fried croquettes); and English tea sandwiches (filled here with beets, spinach, and carrots). With Sri Lanka’s proximity to India, curry figures heavily, with options for chicken, lamb, cuttlefish, or mackerel. A number of poriyal dishes, consisting of sautéed vegetables with a featured ingredient, such as asparagus or brussels sprouts, showcase a Tamil influence. Throughout, Mohanraj does a superb job of combining easily sourced ingredients with clear, instructive guidance and menu recommendations for all manner of events, including a Royal Feast for over 200 people. This is a terrific survey of an overlooked cuisine.”

— Publisher’s Weekly

*****

And here’s a sample recipe; this one’s popular with children. 🙂 I make it at least once a week!

Ginger-Garlic Chicken
(30-90 minutes, serves 6-8)

The timing on this is so variable because you can either do it the long way described below, the way my mother recommends, which is definitely a bit tastier — or you can do a much faster version, where you mix the spices with the chicken, skip the marinating, and then just sauté the chicken in the pan on medium-high until cooked through and serve. I use both methods, mostly depending on how much of a hurry I’m in. Regardless of which method you use, this dish is best served fresh; if it sits, the chicken will tend to dry up and not be as tasty.

NOTE: This is my daughter’s favorite chicken dish, and one she always greets with delight; she started eating it when she was about five, with no added chili powder. Over time, I’ve added a little more chili powder when feeding it to both kids, serving with milk to help them along; you can also use black pepper if you’d prefer.

1 heaping tsp ginger powder
1 heaping tsp garlic powder
1 heaping tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
12 chicken thighs, about 2 lbs., deboned and cut bite-size
vegetable oil for frying
1/2 to 2 heaping tsp red chili powder (to taste, optional)

1. Mix first four spices in a large bowl; add chicken pieces and rub with your hands until well coated. Marinate 1/2 hour.

2. Heat oil on high; add chili powder (if using) and cook 15 seconds, stirring.

3. Add chicken and sear on high, turning to brown all sides.

4. Reduce heat to low and cover; cook approximately 15-20 minutes, until meat is cooked through.

5. Uncover and cook until all the liquid is gone.

6. Tilt pan and push chicken pieces to one side; allow excess oil to drain to one side for 5 minutes. Remove chicken to dish and serve hot.

NOTE: If reheating a day or two later, I recommend reheating in a pan with a little coconut milk; just simmer 5-10 minutes, enough for the milk to thicken with the spices into a nice sauce. Or serve dry chicken with a nice coconut-milky vegetable curry, like carrot or beetroot curry.

*****

(likes / comments / shares appreciated for visibility!)

It’s tempting to just power through and pack everything and ship everything at once, but this is a part-time business and has to be fit into the interstices of the rest of our lives. We spent the morning on packing, primarily, and now Stephanie is off to pick up her son from preschool.

 

She’ll ship several orders out this afternoon, including the one for my parents (Navaratnasingam Mohanraj). There might be a few extra treats stuffed in that one. 🙂

Stephanie laughed when I threw a blanket over those boxes, but those are the ones that are all done and just need a label from her and to be taken to the post office. I don’t want the kids messing with them! Out of sight, out of mind…

 

As for the dining room, well, we did a bunch of order packing, and got all the packages up off the floor today, so that’s definitely progress. I’m going to pause (and give my back a bit of a rest) for lunch of kanavai curry with a piece of toasted naan, then sit in a nice comfy chair and work on the very overdue Wild Cards story. If I need a break between drafting scenes, though, there are plenty of orders left to pack…

The recipe postcards finally arrived, and they look beautiful, huzzah, so we can finally ship! Poor Stephanie has been rassling for hours this morning with the U.S. postal website, which is utterly failing to save edits right now (which would in theory let us print postage at home).

 

I think we’ve now given up and decided that it’s honestly simpler and faster to just print labels and take packages directly to the post office, rather than trying to arrange for pick-up (which we could schedule for Monday at the earliest anyway).

 

So these will be going out in batches, and I’m afraid the order is quite chaotic, so I can’t tell you who will get books first! But they’re going, they’re going. Out the door, into happy cooking hands…

 

I want to proclaim it Shipping Day! But it’s really more like the start of Shipping Weeks, I think. Close enough, though. 🙂