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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.

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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. 🙂

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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. 🙂

Hey, locals — here’s a little surprise treat! This Sunday, Amanda Daly and I are hosting a Sri Lankan bagel brunch. This was part of the Kickstarter Amanda ran to raise funds to help open a physical Daly Bagel shop (coming soon to 130 Chicago Ave. in Oak Park), and we have a few more slots left.

 

Tickets are $60, for this coming Sunday, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. and include an experimental but guaranteed delicious fusion of Sri Lankan cuisine and Amanda’s awesome bagels, mango-passionfruit mimosas, and as much conversation about bagels, Sri Lankan food, and women starting up their own businesses (both brick-and-mortar and online) as you can stand.

 

I’ve been watching GBBO: Masterclass, and one thing I’ve noticed is that Mary says that things are ‘easy’ really often. So much of teaching everyday cooking is about reducing people’s anxiety about it. I’m still startled by how many people don’t cook at all; they assume that it’s going to be hard, time-consuming, etc.

There can be tricky aspects, of course, but most of basic cooking is dead easy, honestly. The key is not get flustered when you make a mistake. If you’ve learned how to drive a car successfully, which requires a lot of simultaneous actions and paying tons of attention, then I’m pretty sure you can make a curry too. (And if things do go wrong, instead of dealing with the consequences of a crash, all you need to do is throw out a pot of burned food and start over.)

Also, don’t get thrown by the long list of ingredients for many of my curries — having twelve different spices to toss in just means opening twelve jars; it isn’t materially more difficult than a recipe with just salt!

Here’s an example of the kind of thing I might make if I’m in a hurry. In Feast, I generally gave you the full recipe — how I’d do it if I were cooking for my mom or for guests, if I wanted to be sure I did it right, to get full flavor of what it’s supposed to be. But for everyday, there are all kinds of shortcuts you can take. I give you permission!

*****

Salmon and Potato Sothi

This is a salmon and potato sothi that I served over from-frozen store-bought pittu, though if you don’t have that available in your area, rice will work just as well. This is me coming home Friday from an exercise walk with Roshani, realizing I wanted this for lunch, and making it in 25 minutes, in between packing up to go to the airport. It made four servings, so three of them are in the fridge, waiting to feed me when I get home from this trip.

Ready?

1. Open a pack of frozen onions; if it has other frozen aromatics in there, like bell pepper or carrots, that’s fine (assuming you like those elements). They won’t hurt the dish. Add to pot with a few T of oil (I don’t measure usually, just guesstimate), start to sauté on high, stirring occasionally to avoid burning. (2 minutes in)

2. Get a cutting board and knife, pull out a few green chilies, chop, and toss them in. You could skip this if you don’t want it spicy, or remove the seeds for less heat, or use black pepper instead. (5 minutes in)

(If using rice, set rice going in a separate pot at this point: 2 c. rice, 4 c. water, pinch of salt.)

3. Add 1 T fenugreek / methi seeds (normally you’d soak them for a couple hours beforehand, but it’s still tasty even if you don’t), a stick or two of cinnamon, a dozen curry leaves if you have them on hand (skip if not), 1/2 t. turmeric, 1 t. salt. Cube some potatoes and add those too — I’d cut them fairly small if I were in a hurry, so they’d cook faster. Don’t bother to peel — the skins are good for you. (I do usually rough-peel russets.) Add 2 c. water.

(We’re now 10 minutes in, and you’re almost done with active cooking.)

(If using rice, turn that pot down to a simmer and cover somewhere around this point — whenever it starts to boil. It’ll cook 15 more minutes, so should finish about when the curry does.)

4. Add two salmon fillets. Here, I added them straight from the freezer, not bothering to thaw or cut them up at all. Stir it all together gently, cover the pot, and cook on medium for 10 minutes. Wander off and do something else for a bit, but set a timer if you’re likely to forget about it.

(If using frozen pittu, take it out of the package and microwave for 4.5 minutes before the next step).

5. Take off the lid, stir, and add in 2 cups coconut milk, 1 c. water, and 1-2 T lime juice. Taste it, and if you think it needs it, maybe another 1/2 t. of salt. Simmer a few more minutes, just to blend all the flavors, and it’s ready. Serve hot with rice or pittu.

Pittu can be a little dry, esp. from frozen, so make sure to ladle plenty of that sothi (sauce/gravy) over the pittu to soak through and soften it up. I added some store-bought coconut sambol from a can. 🙂

Mmm…a little taste of a Sri Lankan breakfast; sit in the sun to enjoy it if you can.

*****

And if you’re NOT in a rush, this is the regular recipe:

Coconut Milk Gravy / Sothi
(45 minutes + soaking time, serves 8)

This is a delicious traditional accompaniment for stringhoppers, served with a little coconut sambol. When I last visited Sri Lanka, that was one of my favorite meals to have for breakfast, in the very early morning at the hotel, while I was still jet-lagged. It’s quite soothing. This makes a fairly large quantity, suitable for feeding several people; just cut ingredients in half for a smaller portion.

1-4 TBL fenugreek seeds, soaked for two hours beforehand
1 TBL toasted rice powder (optional)
1 large onion, diced
12 curry leaves
1 small stick cinnamon
2 fresh green chilies, seeded and chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 cups water
1 russet potato, peeled and cubed (optional)
3 cups coconut milk
4 hard-boiled eggs, cut in half lengthwise (optional)
1-2 TBL lime juice, to taste

Note: Traditionally, this dish was made with quite a lot of fenugreek; modern recipes tend to reduce to about 1 TBL, instead of 4. But fenugreek is a potent galactagogue, so if you’re making this dish for a nursing mother, you may want to go old-school.

Note 2: Toasted rice powder is used through Asia (especially in Thai cooking) to thicken and add flavor and fragrance to dishes. It’s best made fresh, in the quantities needed. To make, take one TBL rice and sauté over medium heat in a dry pan for 10-15 minutes, stirring constantly. It’ll release a beautifully nutty, toasted scent. Then grind to a powder — I use a coffee grinder that I keep dedicated for spices, but you could also use a food processor, or the traditional mortar and pestle.

1. Put all the ingredients except the last three (coconut milk, eggs, and lime juice) in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer, covered, until onions are reduced to a pulp and the potatoes are cooked, about 30 minutes.

2. Stir well, add thick coconut milk and heat without bringing dish to a boil. Stir in lime juice, and/or additional salt to taste, and then carefully add the eggs. Simmer a minute or two longer, stirring, and then serve hot, with stringhoppers or rice.

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