The Exhausting Year

What to make of this year?  It has been truly exhausting to watch a largely incompetant man dismantle much of the good that came out of the previous eight years, and it appears to be at base racism in it’s most transparent form.  Such a contrast between the two, and the whole experience has left me, one year later, even less tolerant of those who did not vote for Hilary.  Yes, I blame you, and no, I do not want to talk about it or work it out.  There is no common ground to find at this point.

On the other hand, we have some things to cling to in gratitude.  The first is that I and many others around me are more politically engaged.  In my town we elected a Sudanese woman to the school board this year.  We has some nice voter turnout in the Deep South, in a state where the voter ID law was met with productive resistance, whereby they registered almost a million new voters.
Personally, I have been able to travel far and wide this year, and that has been very joyful for me.  I hope that the good continues to outweigh the bad as we move into 2018.

Desert Dancer (2014)

As the sun is setting on 2017, let's take a moment to think about supporting both the arts and freedom of and from religion.  Especially in light of our current government in the United States that seems to frown on all of the above.  What ever does not make the rich richer and the rest of us poorer has no place in theri agenda, and weirdly, at least at this point, we are still a democracy.
Not so for the Iran of 2009 depicted in this film.  Iran has a deep and rich culture when it comes to the arts, including poetry and film.  Not so under a severe religious regime.  The main character is Afshin Gaffarian, a man who even as a boy was obsessed with dance.  He manages to follow his dream for a number of years, but then has to go increasingly underground in order to dance, ending up in an epic performance in the desert.  It is not entirely successful as a film, but it does tell a story worth hearing about repression, the things that are essentially human, and the dangers that are at our very door.

Coconut Curry Squash Soup

We had this for Xmas Eve, and it is a great variation on a squash soup.  I have just returned from India and wanted an Asian influence in the food for a change.  I did not serve it with kale, but that would add some heft to the soup.

• 1 large butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil or other vegetable oil
• 1 large yellow or sweet white onion, chopped
• 1 medium apple, any variety, peeled and diced
• 2 cups prepared vegetable broth, or 2 cups water with 1 vegetable bouillon cube
• 2 teaspoons good-quality curry powder
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh or jarred ginger, or more, to taste
• Pinch of ground nutmeg or allspice
• 1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Garnish

• 2 medium red onions, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1 good-size bunch kale (about 10 to 12 ounces)

1. To bake the squash, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut in half and place halves, cut side up, in a foil-lined, shallow baking dish and cover tightly with more foil. Bake for 30 to 50 minutes, until you can easily pierce the flesh with a knife. Scoop out and set aside.
2. Heat about half the oil in a soup pot. Add the onion and sauté over medium-low heat until golden, about 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Add the apple, squash, broth and spices. Bring to a steady simmer, then cover and simmer gently until the apples are tender, about 10 minutes.
4. Transfer the solids to a food processor with a slotted spoon, in batches if need be, and process until smoothly pureed, then transfer back to the soup pot. Or better yet, simply insert an immersion blender into the pot and process until smoothly pureed.
5. Stir in the coconut milk and return the soup to a gentle simmer. Cook over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until well heated through. Season with salt and pepper. If time allows, let the soup stand off the heat for an hour or two, then heat through as needed before serving.
6. Just before serving, heat the remaining oil in a large skillet. Add the red onions and sauté over low heat until golden and soft.
7. Meanwhile, strip the kale leaves off the stems and cut into thin shreds. Stir together with the onions in the skillet, adding just enough water to moisten the surface. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the kale is bright green and just tender, about 5 minutes.
8. To serve, ladle soup into each bowl, then place a small mound of kale and onion mixture in the center.

Dunkirk (2017)

We are about to undergo an intense season of movie watching leading up to the Academy Awards.  This year we have decided to get a bit of a jump start on the movie watching by seeing things that are shortlisted for nominations, so I will be reviewing an awful lot of movies for the next two months!
This is what you might expect from a movie that really describes an event. There is not much in the way of plot development.  The British suffered a massive loss in the early days of WWII and found themselves not only in retreat, but with nowhere to go and no one to get them.  The Germans were bombing them on the beaches, attacking them at sea, and many thousands of soldiers were sitting ducks.  So what to do?  This is something the British do better than anyone else.  They called out to all boat owners on the southern shores of England to quick go across the channel and get them and bring them home.  Which they did in remarkable numbers, which provided a morale boost in what would prove to be yet another tragic war that went on for years and wasted lives and resources at levels that were previously unimaginable.  Well done, and well worth remembering. 

Sticky Bun Monkey Bread

My youngest got up Xmas morning and had a hankering for monkey bread and when I got home from work, this is what they were in the midst of creating.  Wow!

• 2 ¼ teaspoons/7 grams active dry yeast (1 package)
• 1 ½ cups lukewarm milk (about 105 degrees, or just warm to the touch)
• ⅓ cup/67 grams granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon/15 grams kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons/43 grams unsalted butter, melted, more for greasing bowl
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 5 to 6 cups/640 grams to 768 grams all-purpose flour

For the sauce:

• 1 cup/227 grams unsalted butter (2 sticks)
• 2 cups/440 grams packed dark brown sugar
• ½ cup heavy cream, more to taste
• Salt (optional)

To finish:

• ½ cup/114 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), melted and cooled to room temperature
• 1 ¼ cups/275 grams light brown sugar or maple sugar, or a combination of dark brown sugar and white sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• About 3/4 cup/80 grams chopped toasted pecans or walnuts, more for garnish (optional)

1. In the bowl of a mixer, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup of the warm milk. Add the remaining warm milk, sugar, salt, butter and eggs.
2. Add 5 cups flour and mix with paddle attachment until smooth, about 2 minutes. Switch to hook attachment and knead on low speed, adding flour if necessary until dough is stiff and slightly tacky, 10 minutes.
3. Grease a large bowl with butter and turn dough out into the bowl. Flip over dough so greased side is up, cover loosely with a kitchen towel and set in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
4. Make the sauce: In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add sugar and stir constantly until simmering and the butter has melted. Pour in cream (it will bubble up) and cook until thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Taste and add cream and pinches of salt to taste. Turn off heat and set aside.
5. Brush a medium or large Bundt pan, preferably nonstick, with some of the melted butter. Combine the sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and mix well. Rewarm the caramel sauce over low heat.
6. Once dough has doubled in size, turn it onto floured surface and knead for 3 minutes. Cut or pull off small pieces, each weighing about 1/2 ounce/15 grams, and roll them gently into balls. Set aside on a baking sheet.
7. To assemble, dip about half of the balls in melted butter, roll in sugar mixture, and fit them snugly into the pan, occasionally adding a sprinkle of pecans. Pour about a quarter of the sauce over the sugared dough balls. Repeat with remaining dough balls, pecans and another quarter of the sauce. Reserve the remaining sauce.
8. Cover and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour, until puffy. (The monkey bread can be made up to this point up to 24 hours in advance and refrigerated overnight.)
9. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden and bubbling around the edges. Let cool on a rack for 5 to 10 minutes, then invert onto a platter.
10. Meanwhile, reheat the remaining caramel sauce and drizzle or spoon it over the top of the monkey bread until it runs down the sides.  (Any remaining sauce can be passed at the table, for dipping.) Serve warm or at room temperature, with hot coffee or tea and plenty of napkins.

Chasing Coral (2017)

This is a beautifully made documentary that captures the uniqueness of the life that coral reefs support, and then describes in devastating details why they are all going to die.
I knew that intellectually, but watching it happen is really painful.  Like make you cry painful.  The team that is documenting the death of coral spends a fair amount of time in the Great Barrier Reef, which is the largest structure built by living things on the planet and it is being killed by the activity of man.  Shame on us for doing it and especially for not doing something to stop it from happening.  Do not miss this, and I hope it makes it into the final five as a nomination.

Adoration of Christ, Fhillipino Lippi, 1480 CE

I know, this is similar to many birth of the Christ child paintings, but then, if the occasion fits, it seems quite reasonable.
This one is from one of my all time favorite museums, a place that despite the intense chaos and tremendous crowds I would go back to in an instant.  The Hermitage, housed in the Winter Palace, containing Peter the Great's art collection and put together by Catherine the Great.
It is painted by Filippino Lippi, the son of the artist-monk, Fra Filippo Lippi, and himself a pupil of Botticelli. This type of Adoration scene was characteristic of Italian art, being a modification of the scene of the Nativity. Set in a flower-filled meadow surrounded by a balustrade and symbolising Paradise, the scene unfolds before a poetic landscape which seems to be filled with a golden light filtering through the atmosphere(which truthfully is the thing that I like most about this piece).   Filippino was one of the first Italian artists to create a landscape in keeping with the mood and appearance of the heroes, creating an inspired emotional setting for them. In the fragile and ethereal Madonna and in the translucent figures of the angels we can feel the mystic exaltation characteristic of Florentine spiritual life in the late 15th century.

Vasco Da Gama

Vasco da Gama rounded the horn of Africa and made it possible to have trade with India in a way that surpassed what the Romans had managed, and took out the middle men along the way.  He died this day in 1594, and thus ended the life of a man who changed the world in ways that would have defined his era had not Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas at the very same time.  It was just hard to compete with finding entire continents that were previously unknown, and then the silver from the New World changed the global finance structure in a way that essentially meant we were never going back. 
Vasco da Gama was born in about 1460 into a noble family. Little is known of his early life. In 1497, he was appointed to command an expedition equipped by the Portuguese government, whose intention was to find a maritime route to the East.
Setting off in July 1497, da Gama's expedition took advantage of the prevailing winds by sailing south down the coast of Africa, then veering far out into the Atlantic and swinging back in an arc to arrive off the southern African coast. This established a route still followed by sailing vessels. The expedition then rounded the Cape of Good and, after sailing up the coast of east Africa, took on an Arab navigator who helped them reach the Indian coast, at Calicut (now Kozhikode) in May 1498. This voyage launched the all-water route from Europe to Asia.

Cake (2015)

This movie is grim, but with good perspective on it's subject matter.  We have death of a child, debilitating chronic pain, opiate addiction, suicide, depression, divorce, a motherless child and two devastated fathers.  Jennifer Aniston, best known for her comic work, looks uncharacteristically awful.  Her hair is only washed once in the whole film, she is always wearing what she slept in, and she is disfigured by the terrible car accident that left her extremely damaged, both physically and emotionally.
Why, you should be asking at this point, watch this movie?  Well, the grittiness is very real.  When bad things happen, at least some people fall completely apart.  Her character is propped up by a long suffering housekeeper, but her hand up to starting the long arduous road to getting better is from the husband of a woman in her chronic pain group who committed suicide.  He, equally damaged as he is, is also just as angry as she is, and he tolerates her.  She needs that and so does he, and they give each other a bit of needed human companionship.  The leg up that she needs to crawl out.  It ends realistically. 

Meera Sodha's Naan

My youngest son has been cooking with a friend (who truthfully does the lion's share of the cooking, but my offspring has definitely made this before, because I had him make it for me).  This naan is the best of the bunch.

• 4 cups all-purpose flour, or 500 grams
• 2 tablespoons neutral oil, like canola, plus a teaspoon more
• 4 tablespoons whole-milk yogurt
• 1 packet of active dried yeast, or 7 grams
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 level teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup whole milk, warmed

1. Proof the yeast ahead of time with a little water and the sugar.  Put the flour into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle, and add two tablespoons of the oil to it, along with the yogurt, yeast mixture, salt and baking powder. Use your fingers to combine the ingredients until they resemble crumbs, and then add the warm milk in splashes, mixing until it comes together into a dough.
2. Put the dough on a clean, well-floured cutting board. It will be very sticky. Flour your hands, and knead the dough for five minutes or so, then scrape off your hands and knead it again, making it into a round ball. Rub a teaspoon of oil over the exterior of the dough, and place it in a clean mixing bowl. Cover with a dish towel, and place in a warm spot to rise for 60 to 90 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.
3. Using a knife, divide the dough into 12 pieces. Take each piece, roll it into a ball and flatten it between your palms. Dust the dough with flour, and roll each piece out into an oval of about 5 by 8 inches.
4. Place a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, and allow it to get hot. When it is, cook one naan in it for 30 to 40 seconds on one side, or until it begins to bubble, then use a spatula to flip it over to cook the other side for about the same amount of time, checking regularly to make sure that it does not burn. Flip the naan one more time, and press on it lightly with your spatula for 10 to 15 seconds, then remove to a warm platter. Repeat with the rest of the dough. (Keep the finished naan in a low oven, or wrap in foil until ready to serve.)