Southern Indian Cabbage

Also called Dakshini Band Gobi
2 Tbs. olive oil
1/8 tsp. asafetida
1 tsp. black mustard seeds
1 tsp. urad dal
5-6 fenugreek seeds
1/4 tsp. red chili flakes
10 fresh curry leaves
1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
1 tsp. salt
In a large wide pan, heat oil over medium high heat (I like olive oil but canola or peanut oil is traditional). Add asafetida, then mustard seeds and urad dal (you can use chana dal--which I did last night--or yellow split peas), then red chili flakes and fennugreek seeds after the mustard seeds start to pop and the dal takes on another color--all of this happens fast, so spices should be pre-measured.The put in curry leaves (can substitute basil, which I did last night after I couldn't find the 'fresh' curry leaves in the freezer), then the cabbage. Stir about every minute or so and cook on low for about 8-10 minutes--cabbage should be wilted, not cooked through. You can add water or a little white wine to deglaze the pan if that becomes a problem. Add salt at the end. I made this for a large dinner (I made two heads of cabbage as one of three vegetable side dishes for about 50 people, and it was gone, gone, gone).
There are a fair number of ingredients in this that may not be in the average cupboard, but they are very easily attainable in an Asian market--I live in a community of 60,000 and I have at least 4 places I can get these ingredients locally. Additionally, all are available by mail. This recipe is adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's 'World Vegetarian', which is a little uneven as a cookbook--unusual for her--but this recipe worked like a charm.

Hamantaschen

2/3 c. butter
2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
Put the first five ingredients in the food processor bowl. Pulse til butter is incorporated. Add vanilla and egg. pulse until dough is rolling around in the bowl. May need to add more flour.
Cut into 4 parts. Roll out to 1/8" thick, cut out 3" circles. Put a dab of jam in the center of each cookie. I like to use jam that is well beyond it's best-if-used-by date--a little bit dried up is good. I also like compotes, because they tend to be a bit thicker. The European jams tend to be a little thicker as well. This year I failed to prepare for Purim properly by stocking up on perfect fillings, so I used what I had on hand that best fit my criteria--huckleberry jam, fig compote, orange marmalade, and apricot jam this year (all well aged on our pantry shelf). Fold up three sides of cookies to make a pilgrim-like hat. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 12 minutes.
I only make these once a year, but this year I made 24 dozen. I am hosting the Purim dinner, and I really want enough hamantaschen for everyone. My third son and I spent an entire afternoon, he making the dough and taking the cookies out of the oven, and I rolling out the dough, then cutting and shaping the cookies. We shared putting them away and taste testing each jam type. I liked the fig the best, and Abe liked the huckleberry.
This recipe is adapted from Joan Nathan's 'Jewish Holiday Kitchen', available for almost nothing on Amazon, and the source of some of my go-to recipes for the holidays. She starts with a bit more flour than this one, but I have a cool and very dry house this time of year and stone counter-tops, so it is easy to roll out with less flour to start. This recipe is also a little bit sweeter than a European butter cookie would be--I like that sweetness, but the sugar can be reduced to 1/3 c. per recipe. The recipe makes 36 hamantaschen.

When the Food Matches the Wine

I have had two nights of excellent dining, with equally nice wine pairings to go with them. It is always nice when the two can compliment each other, and the wonderful company thrown in was nice as well. The first was a wine dinner at the Linn Street Cafe, prepared by chef Brett Smith with Southern Starz wines that was very good. All the wines retail for under $20/bottle.
The first course of this very memorable meal was:
Barely cooked scallops, thinly sliced and layered between equally thinly sliced kiwi, topped with a carrot and a candied citron, and book-ended by a macadamia nut coconut foam. The texture of the scallop-kiwi interaction was excellent, and the nuttiness of the foam was a nice contrast. The wine served was Mount Fishtail Sauvignon Blanc, 2008, from Marlbourough, New Zealand--the wine was more herbal than grassy, and was a good pairing with the dish.

The second course was a series of mushrooms that were served with two slices of smoked duck and a slice of Wisconsin Parmesan, with a marjoram-sherry-pancetta vinaigrette that made the dish sparkle. The duck was divine. The wine paired with it was Edgebason Pepper Pot, 2008 from Stellenbosch, South Africa. I thought the wine was delicious, but my husband thought that it sparkled with the food but was not as good alone. It is a combination of Syrah, Mourvedre, and Tannat grapes.

The third course was the best one of the night. A glazed pork belly (prepared in a sousvide), topped with poached apple and a cherry-vanilla gastrique, and rutabaga gnocchi. The pork belly was fall apart tender and suffused with spices and flavors that were easy to savor. The sousvide cooking technique is not one that we have tried, and neither had the chef done much of it, but he had just purchased a counter-top home model and was having fun with it.
Michael Ruhlman has a blog entry on it: http://blog.ruhlman.com/2009/12/the-sous-vide-supreme.html
Somethinig worth considering. The wine pairing was also the best of the night: Reilly's Old Bushvine Grenache, 2006, from Clare Valley, Australia.

The fourth course was good but not memorable. A lamb loin with bone marrow flan (rich and delicious, with just an inch square-sized piece, which was enough) and brussel sprouts. The lamb was unexciting, and under-flavored compared to the vibrancy of the rest of the meal. The course was served with a Goulart Reserva Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007, from Mendoza, Argentina that was excellent, both with the lamb, and all on it's own.

We closed with a chocolate cake (dry crumb, not intensely chocolate--I could have gone for moister and chocolatier), topped with olive oil ice cream, blood orange-thyme sugar, and raspberry syrup and an almond tuile on the side. The ice cream was devine, and the tuile was the right combination of caramel chewiness and nuttiness. It went perfectly with both the ice cream and the cake. The sugar was a lovely contrast to the other sweet flavors. The wine pairing was R. L. Buller Tawny Port from Victoria, Australia. it was the least well paired wine, and a bit sweet for dessert, but would have been nice on it's own.

The Story of Esther

Esther is a Biblical figure, and there a book in the Bible named after her. She was a Jewish slave in Persia about 470 B.C. and was adopted by her uncle after the loss of her parents. She was a very beautiful woman, so lovely that she captured the king's heart and became queen. From this influential position she risked her life to save her people from destruction. The presentation below is coordinated with some beautiful historical artwork, and gives her story the attention that it deserves.
The story begins with King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I, 485-464 B.C.), of Persia. Towards the end of a long party, he drunkenly requested that his beautiful wife, Vashti, appear before the populace and officials wearing nothing but her crown.
Vashti disobeys the order, and refuses to appear. In response, the king divorces her.
"But Queen Vashti refused to come at the royal order.. At this the king's wrath flared up, and he burned with fury." [Est 2:12, NAB]

"Let an irrevocable royal decree be issued by him.. forbidding Vashti to come into the presence of King Ahasuerus and authorizing the king to give her royal dignity to one more worthy than she." [Est 2:19, NAB]
MARC CHAGALL
Ahasuerus Sends Vashti Away
1960; Mourlot 251
Color lithograph
Galerie Art Chrudim, Czechoslovakia
Ahasuerus was thus left without a wife. In pursuit of a new one, many pretty girls were taken into his harem, and among them was Esther. After a year's preparation there was held a beauty contest, and he liked Esther the most.
"The King loved Esther more than all other women, and of all the virgins she won his favor and benevolence." [Est 2:17, NAB]
Esther was orphaned at an early age, and had been adopted by and brought up in the family of her older cousin Mordecai. He, like many other Jews, was a captive of Persia. Esther's Jewish hertitage was unknown to Ahasuerus.

"[Mordecai] was foster father to Hadassah, that is, Esther, his cousin; for she had lost both her father and mother. The girl was beautifully formed and lovely to behold. On the death of her father and mother, Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter." [Est 2:7, NAB]
ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO
Queen Esther
c. 1450; Fresco transferred to wood
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Soon thereafter king Ahasuerus appointed one Haman his first minister. Mordecai was among the spectators at the palace gates when the new first minister was entering the palace; everyone bowed, but Mordecai refused. Haman was infuriated and plotted to kill not only Mordecai, but all the Jews in Persia. Unknown to Haman, in his decree to destroy the Jews he had also ordered the death of the king's wife.

"We hereby decree that all those who are indicated to you in the letters of Haman, who is in charge of the administration and is a second father to us, shall, together with their wives and children, be utterly destroyed by the swords of their enemies, without any pity or mercy, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, of the current year." [Esther 3B:6, NAB]
REMBRANDT
Haman Sets Forth to Honour Mordecai
c. 1665; Canvas
Hermitage, Leningrad
Then the terrible decree was issued, Mordecai applied to Esther for help.
"Do not imagine that because you are in the king's palace, you alone of all the Jews will escape" [Est 4:13, NAB]
"..I will go to the king, contrary to the law. If I perish, I perish!" [Est 4:16, NAB]
The law in Persia stated that, "any man or woman who goes to the king in his inner court without being summoned, suffers the automatic penalty of death, unless the king extends to him the golden scepter, thus sparing his life." [Esther 4:11, NAB].

"'What is it, Esther?' he said to her. 'I am your brother. Take courage! You shall not die because of this general decree of ours. Come near!' Raising his golden scepter, he touched her neck with it, embraced her, and said, 'Speak to me.'
She replied, 'I saw you, my lord, as an angel of God, and my heart was troubled with fear of your majesty. For you are awesome, my lord, though your glance is full of kindness.'
As she said this, she fainted." [Est 4D:9-15, NAB]
PETER PAUL RUBENS
Esther Before Ahasuerus
1620; (medium?)
Akademie der bildenden Kunste, Vienna.
Esther in her turn asked the king to make a banquet and invite Haman, who at first was much pleased with the queen's attention. But during the banquet his delight turned to dread when Esther revealed her Jewish origin and told the king about Haman's plan to kill her people.
"'If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, I ask that my life be spared, and I beg that you spare the lives of my people. For my people and I have been delivered to destruction, slaughter, and extinction. If we were to be sold into slavery I would remain silent, but as it is, the enemy will be unable to compensate for the harm done to the king.'
'Who and where,' said King Ahasuerus to Queen Esther, 'is the man who has dared to do this?'
Esther replied, 'The enemy oppressing us is this wicked Haman.'" [Esther 6:3-6, NAB]
The angered king left the banquet room to consider the question, and Haman threw himself on the couch next to Esther, pleading with her to have mercy on him. When the king returned, in addition to Haman's decree effectively ordering his wife Esther to death, it looked like Haman was now attempting to violate her. The king's temper flew, and Haman was dead momentarily.

"Harbona, one of the eunichs who attended the king, said, 'At the house of Haman stands a gibbet fifty cubits high.' The king answered, 'Hang him on it.' So they hanged Haman on the gibbet which he had made ready for Mordecai, and the anger of the king abated." [Est 7:9-10, NAB]
MICHAELANGELO
The Punishment of Haman
1508-1512; Fresco
Sistine Chapel, Vatican
The Jewish population was saved, and the holiday of Purim was established as a memorial to this triumph.

The Art of Condolence

I have been struggling with what to say. The child of a colleague has undergone neurosurgery, and at least initially post-operatively, is quite impaired. Something to say usually comes naturally for me. Then again, so does thinking deep thoughts about how and when and what to say. In the end, this time I have come up short.The situation is complicated by the fact that I have been in these shoes myself, so my first thoughts were about what was not helpful to me rather than what was. People who asked about my "problem" drove me crazy (and I was already not myself)--this is not a problem, this is a catastrophe! So my first approach was to acknowledge that, and move on with words of wisdom. I did get some of those from those around me, and they were appreciated in the initial period of shock, but became gold once the full measure of what I faced was before me.
The most valuable lesson I learned came from more of an acquaintance than a friend. Her youngest daughter was born with a genetic disorder that is both rare and fatal. She took 2 years off from work to live with, nurture and care for, and then bury her daughter. She had sinced moved away from our community, but was back in town when we got out of the hospital, and she insisted on bringing over a meal. It was the wisest thing I received the whole year, and one of the nicest meals (especially when you consider that she cooked it in a friend's kitchen and had to purchase Tupperware to bring it to our house). In addition to the meal, she included a nice flowering potted plant, and a letter about what she had learned from her experience with her child. She warned me that we would quickly become the expert on our child's illness--that our investment in finding solutions for him would be so much greater than anyone on his treatment team. She warned us this is not always well-recieved by the professionals, and that we needed to develop useful ways to interact with them, so as to get the most from them, as well as the opportunities we could engineer. Everything she predicted--the truths, the pitfalls, the solutions, and the challenges--all came to pass, and I have thanked her a thousand times since for her wisdom and for sharing it. So this may be my second step towards showing condolences.

Coco Avant Chanel

Directed by Anne Fontaine and based upon the book by Edmonde Charles-Roux, Coco Before Chanel is a biographical tale of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel which is just that, before she founded her empire. So for those who are more intrigued about the fashion world and the impact Chanel has on it, then this is not the movie you're looking for, as it firmly dwells on Coco as a person, and her romantic dalliances with two men who played significant roles in her life, be it in support of her daily sustenance, or inspiring her love, believing in her, and providing the means for her desire to make a name for herself.
The film dedicated plenty of time in Coco's awakening to the French high life of the time, since she insinuated herself as the mistress of rich playboy Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), who rescued her from poverty and whose riches afforded to her access to the slacker lifestyles of the rich and famous. The audience gets reminded time and again of how stifling a woman's place in high society was at the turn of the century, made worse by the restrictive clothing like corsets, frills, and lace from the neck right down to sweeping the floors. Coco's disdain for constraint, combined with her penchant for freedom from social norms led to bold designs that did not conform, starting from her hats, which provided her some attention and notoriety.
As Coco Chanel, Audrey Tautou epitomizes that level of elegance, vulnerability with a rebellious streak to do things differently. Her petiteness and somewhat boyish cut figure probably suited the role really well as the initial designs by Coco were those inspired by menswear, though you only get glimpses of her design genius from short montages scattered throughout, and from some scenes which show her working at a tailor shop.

Coco is a woman who did, finally, fall in love, with a man who saw her vast talent and her iron resolve as the keys to being a great success. Sadly, he dies (but not before he has financed her beginning), and Chanel never really recovers.
Though it is not a movie about fashion but rather the making of a designer, the clothes here are the star of the show, from the fashions of societal norms in both directions of the rich-poor spectrum, to Coco Chanel's designs with her menswear inspired pieces, and the glamour-chic pieces only making it through in a parting shot at the finale. The opulently designed clothes of that era stand in stark contrast to the Chanel pieces, which celebrates sheer beauty and elegance in their simplicity, and probably from there, stamping its mark on the fashion industry.

XXI Winter Olympics

My brother's Facebook status yesterday was:
"Watching the Olympics on TV while simultaneously watching the Olympics on the Internet. It's probably a good thing the Olympics are only two weeks."
This beautifully sums up the Kline-Woodman household's relationship to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. With the exception of a lack of mention of excessive use of the DVR. We all re-learn the rules for sports we never follow, we groan appropriately at the wobbly landing on a triple lutz. We converse knowledgably about Evan Lysacek's victory over Evgeni Plushenko--his athleticism and artistry are superior, despite his lack of a quadruple jump. We compare twizzling between ice dancing pairs (some of it was truly spectacular). We think that Shaun White is a little arrogant in an interview where he characterized his technique as vastly superior to his peers--until we saw him. It may be arrogant, but it is also true. Wow, he really was leaps and bounds better than them.

What are our favorites? The less popular the sport, the more we seem to enjoy it. It is the learning of rules and then appreciating the event as a result that appeals to us, and the less we know about it to begin with, the more we appreciate acquiring knowledge about it. Biathalon is an example--we do not require the commentator to follow the action. When I commented that the American Tim Burke was in the medal hunt until the third shooting, the response was "Well, that is the first standing shoot." As opposed to "What is the Biathalon again?" Similarly popular is curling. When I commented on the Swede's overthinking their strategy in the US vs. Sweden match, to the point where they were in danger of not finishing their throws in the alloted 73 minutes, no one asked what I meant. Did we get it in the house, that is what they wanted to know. The love of obscurity abounds at my house this week.

Reflections on Rome

There is a lot to reflect on, but first I am going to start by focusing on the food. One thing that we did was to really think about what we wanted to be eating, what we wanted to get out of the trip. Food is not always such a central part of why we are going someplace, and after this trip, I think that might have been a mistake (good thing I finally figured that out). Many guidebooks are arranged so that there are sights described, and then places you might eat nearby, but the guidebooks that do this routinely (Lonely Planet, Rough Guide) are often times more interested in getting a reasonable meal rather than a memorable one. My husband did an exceptional job of researching places to eat and then patiently located them, first on the map, and then in real life. The only mediocre meals we had were those that strayed from his detailed preparations.
The beauty of the internet in the travel planning scenario is that it is possible to do extensive research on a place prior to going there, and the pay off is really many fold. First, we had meals that were worth the trip. I have always thought the idea of "Paris for dinner" was absurd, but when you have a meal that the combination of location, quality, and uniqueness make you think "this alone is worth it", and it didn't cost the earth, that is something to strive for in every meal when traveling. Web research, a good map, and access to transportation can make it a reality. I enjoy the occasional over-the-top meal, but not nearly as much as I enjoyed my week in Rome, which was a series of excellent but affordable meals. Now that I am home, and once the Olympics are not occupying every moment that I am not working, sleeping, or exercising,
I want to get to one of the benefits of travel at our house--making some food that reminds us of the trip.

John Pizzarelli

This show was one of the more unusual musical events that I have been to. First it was very intimate. The Grand Opera in Dubuque is a gorgeously remodeled venue that has seating for 622. So intimate in that way, but also because the performer acted much like someone who was a dinner guest who pulls out his guitar afterwards and proceeds to play a few songs. So he plays a couple of songs, backed up by a competent trio that includes his brother, Martin Pizzarelli, on bass, and a very good pianist and drummer--three people who probably wouldn't have been in your living room, and if you exclude Rock Band, we don't actually have a drum set. Then he takes some time to talk about the songs he just played, who wrote them, maybe some of the context around the song, who sang it, and maybe how they came to find the song.

So this was part concert--with an emphasis on the music of Duke Ellington, Rogers and his two frequent collaborators--Hall or Hammerstein, many of them easily recognized, and part history lesson. There were several twists that I got, and probably an equal number that I didn't. In addition to all the back story, Pizzarelli "updates" the words of some songs, and in others where he feels the lyrics don't make very much sense, he changes them, adds a pre-story so that you can see where the song came from, or tells more so you can see where it went. It is very clever, very funny, and very pleasant. I am definitely checking out his radio show, Radio Deluxe. He is a find.

Finally, a word about the theater itself. It was one of the nicest theaters I have been in. It was built in 1890 in the Richardsonian architecture style. This is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston (1872–77), designated a National Historic Landmark. Richardson first used elements of the style in his Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane in Buffalo, New York, designed in 1870. This very free revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish and Italian Romanesque characteristics. In other words, kind of a mish mash, but in this case it works. The facade is impressive, and the inside is very pretty, but it is also quite intimate, in both feel and size. A really lovely place to see music.

Baked Pasta

I came home from Rome with several new ideas to implement in the kitchen. Most of them relate to pasta, and one of them was to become far better at making baked pasta dishes. I am reknowned for my macaroni and cheese, which is noodles in a bechamel sauve with cheese--then baked. The beauty of it is that it can be made well in advance of cooking it, it doubles and triples and quadruples beautifully, and so it can be made for a crowd. If I use upscale cheese, like fontina and gruyere, and top it with panko it can be quite a nice dish at a buffet where some will take it as a side dish, but children and vegetarians can make it a meal. Many of the memorable pasta dishes from Rome are things where the pasta must be cooked in conjunction with the meal--they can't sit around for minutes, much less days, and so while tasty, are really for making for family.

I was making dinner for the synagogue, and decided to make baked pasta--one with the traditional red sauce and ricotta filling, and another with a bechamel sauce and sauteed vegetables. Bechamel sauces in Italy had a much stronger fresh nutmeg flavor than I have been using, so I grated an entire nutmeg into my sauce, and it was at the level of a Roman sauce. I used the Barilla lasagna noodles, which require no boiling, and while you need to be aware they will absorb some moisture, you don't need to overly compensate with sauce. The resulting dish has a noodle that is not overcooked, and it is easy to assemble as well. I made full sized aluminum pan-sized dishes, which weighed about 10 pounds each. Hefty, in other words. I baked the dishes for 2 hours at 350 (the first hour covered and the second uncovered)--this was good, but they could have baked longer--perfect for a meal where you are not exactly sure when it will start. There was room for improvement, but both were an excellent start to having some good make ahead pasta options.