The Chronicles of Naania

July 28, 2015Leave a comment

Last week I spent several days with my dear friend Allison. It was just the sort of spontaneous visit that we both needed. We had both been feeling pretty restless in our summer downtime, and the mini-vacation filled with cooking, wine, and a bit of gossip really hit the spot.

To get out of our late-July slump, we decided to enter into a completely magical land in the kitchen. Like young Lucy in The Chronicles of Narnia, we were seeking something exciting, and we found it by daring to try something foreign and new. In making this chutney and naan combination, just as Lucy found when she climbed through the wardrobe, the most interesting parts were the unfamiliar. We paired spices whose uniqueness created perfect complements. Some of the color and flavor was completely accidental, as when the lid fell off the curry powder and a heaping amount turned from a mistake into a brilliant innovation.

The result was delicious, and Allison and I contentedly parted ways with renewed spirit (and palate)!

Mango ginger chutney:

3 mangos

1 red onion

~1/4 cup fresh ginger root

1/2 cup lemonade

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 cup brown sugar

Spices (about two shakes of each): ground ginger, garlic powder, curry powder, cumin, chile flakes, cinnamon, salt, pepper)

Instruction:

1. Peel and slice mangos, discarding of pit. Thinly slice red onion, and finely chop fresh ginger root.

2. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a saucepan. Add all spices and onion, allowing the latter to soften for about five minutes. Stir in brown sugar, ginger root, and mango. Allow sugar to melt – about two minutes.

3. Add lemonade and bring mixture to boil. Lower heat to a simmer and leave (uncovered) for about 45 minutes. Turn off heat and leave chutney in pan – letting it come to room temperature.

Naan bread:

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp curry powder

1/2 tbsp cumin

3 tbsp olive oil

¾ cup whole milk

1 egg yolk

Instruction:

1. Whisk olive oil, milk, and egg yolk. Set aside.

2. In food processor, pulse flour, yeast, sugar, salt, curry powder, and cumin. Begin to process while gradually adding wet ingredients. Stop when dough has just come together (about five seconds after all ingredients have been added).

3. Turn out onto floured surface and knead until smooth – about two minutes. Transfer to oiled bowl and cover with tea towel. Leave in a warm place for about two hours.

4. Punch air out of dough and knead again. Divide into four equal parts and form each part into a smooth ball. Transfer to a lined baking sheet and cover with tea towel again.

5. After another hour, roll each ball out into a disk – about quarter-inch thickness. On very hot grill (about 450 degrees), place each disk, grilling each side for about two minutes. Serve warm with chutney.

Enjoy naan bread and mango ginger chutney with C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, and check in at http://warandpeach.com for future recipes and book reviews!

The Shrimportance of Being Earnest

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015Leave a comment

This week I said (a hopefully temporary) goodbye to London and moved back to my hometown of Bryn Mawr. Like Jack Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest, I have come to regard London as a place where I can be someone else – someone more adventurous, more active, more exotic, even. (Suddenly having an American accent makes me of much more interest!) However, as this summer recipe proves by crossing the boundaries of hamburgers and fish cakes, it is indeed possible to incorporate two seemingly different ideas into something uniquely beautiful. I will keep this in mind as I try to retain aspects of my London life (with hopefully less farcical results than Oscar Wilde’s characters).

Citrus Shrimp Burgers:

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup mayonnaise

5-6 scallions, sliced thinly

1 lemon (both zest and juice)

1 lime (both zest and juice)

Pinch of cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

4 ciabatta rolls

4 leaves romaine lettuce

Instruction:

1. In food processor, pulse shrimp about 10 times (until a chunky paste consistency).

2. In medium-sized bowl, combine breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, scallions, lemon zest, lime zest, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Fold in pulsed shrimp until just combined. (Do not overwork the shrimp; otherwise it will become tough.)

3. Form four patties and refrigerate for at least twenty minutes.

4. While patties are chilling, slice ciabatta rolls in half using serrated knife. Drizzle with olive oil, then toast at 350 degrees for ten minutes.

5. Heat olive oil in sauté pan over medium-high heat. Brown patties for about two minutes on each side. Transfer to oven and cook for another ten minutes.

6. Combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, lime juice, and a dash of salt and pepper. Spread mayo mixture on both sides of ciabatta. Add a leaf of lettuce and shrimp burger. Serve with a fresh summer salad.

Enjoy shrimp burgers with Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, and check in at http://warandpeach.com for future recipes and book reviews!

The Unbearable Lightness of Bean

August 26, 2014August 27, 2014Leave a comment

This past January, I moved to London with no acquaintances and – more importantly – no concrete housing plans. As a perpetual planner, this was a very uncharacteristic thing of me to do. The first month of my living in London was a mess of hotel hopping, a brief two-hour commute from a small English village, and almost winding up in a convent with a 9pm curfew. Exhausted, I finally came upon the dorm-style housing that would be my home for the next five months. The building was right next to a cafe that served a lovely Tuscan salad, and I fell so in love with the dish that I set out to recreate it.

One of the key themes in Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being is the uniqueness of a single life. The decisions we make and the experiences that come of those decisions are unable to be replicated, giving our individual lives a certain ‘lightness.’ I cannot exactly imitate the cafe’s Tuscan salad exactly, but the choices I make regarding the ingredients and their proportions achieve a different and unique dish.

This book was given to me by a very important person in my life – someone I would not have encountered were it not for my decision to ‘wing it’ with housing in my early days abroad. The novel follows four characters whose lives collide in different ways. Like the confetti of ingredients in this summer white bean salad, no single figure would play the same role without the others complimenting and contrasting it. There are many textures and flavors in this dish that one would think it’d be overwhelming, but the salad achieves perfect lightness.

Summer Salad:

5 cups baby arugula

1/2 cup cannellini beans, drained from can, chopped roughly

1 tomato, diced

6 or so scallions, sliced thinly

Parmesan cheese shavings (several shavings per serving)

4 or so slices of prosciutto, cut into thin strips

2 slices of sandwich bread

Salt and pepper

Vinaigrette:

1 lemon (juice of)

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Salt and pepper to season

Instruction:

1. Croutons: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice bread into cubes, about 1/2 inch thick. Drizzle liberally with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake for about 10 minutes.

2. Bean salad: Dice tomatoes, add salt, and let sit over a strainer to remove some moisture. Add sliced scallions and chopped white beans. Let ingredients sit in strainer for a bit to allow flavors to blend. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Vinaigrette: Whisk chopped parsley, lemon juice, and olive oil. Season with salt to taste.

4. Assembly: Toss arugula in vinaigrette and transfer to plate. Top with bean salad, prosciutto, parmesan, and croutons.

Enjoy a summer white bean salad with Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and check in at warandpeach.com for more recipes and book reviews!

The Book Cook

Tag: summer

The Chronicles of Naania

The Shrimportance of Being Earnest

The Unbearable Lightness of Bean