Le Vallon de Cherisy, Cherisy, France

This was our last meal in France from our trip last fall, and I am writing about it on the occasion of the anniversary of my spouse's birth, an event I missed but am quite grateful for it. The overlap is that the adventures we have had together are greater than what we would have had apart, and this meal from this trip contains some of the elements of that love of travel and food that I most value. The French have been locavores for century's and this restaurant is typical of that, sourcing it's food and wine locally and highlighting both traditional French cuisine as well as the value in eating things that haven't come far to be on your plate. These principles are good for the French but also good for the planet.

On to the meal. As is our preference, we had the meal of the day, eaten in a leisurely manner over lunch. The soup contained autumnal gourds, probably Vitamixed today, but traditionally would have been pushed through a chinoix to achieve the silky smooth texture, and to this was added some local trout, which was poached in the soup before serving. An unusual idea (for me at least), but it was delicious. The entree was a long braised chicken dish with root vegetables that had all the great elements that such a dish can bring to the table. May this year and many years to come be filled with meals as satisfying as this one!

Spencer (2021)

This movie is about Princess Diana, but not an overview of her life, but rather focuseing on one extremely painful moment in it. Much like Jacki focused on Jackie Kennedy's response to the assasination of her husband, this film zeros in on the end of Diana's marriage to the Prince of Wales. It is Christmas 1991, which Lady Diana is spending with the royal family in Sandringham even as her loveless marriage is unravelling. There is a protocol, there are expectations to be met, and nothing is her own, not her choice of clothing nor her husband, who is now known to be having an affair. She is humiliated and spied on from every corner of her day. She is close to a nervous breakdown with bulimia attacks and episodes of self-harm. From the beginning, where she deliberately arrives late to trying to entering her family home and picking a jacket off a scarecrow, Diana feels like a barely tolerated stranger in Sandringham, where the Royals are celebrating Christmas. Apart from her sons, the rest of the royal family are largely indifferent and cold towards her. Only the help, and we the audience, are rooting for her--but it is a painful thing to watch.

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

Let me start off by saying that I very much enjoy every book that I have read by this author (this book makes five, so I am not such a fan that I devour every book as it emerges, but enough of a fan to keep coming back for more), so weigh that in as you decide whether this book is for you. It asks the question "who is Hilary without Bill?" and what might have happened it she left him when she found out that he had a deep seated compulsion to cheat. In telling that story, the author very directly and accurately examines the prevalent sexism that women face in literally every professional field, and it is oddly comforting to see it so expertly flayed ouIt is a voice we recognize, the voice of countless hours of TV interviews and debates, the voice of several best-selling memoirs, the confident, carefully modulated voice of a woman who has been telling her story for decades. Indeed, the first third of the book, which is what actually happened, feels comfortably familiar. There’s bright young Hillary speaking at her Wellesley graduation in 1969, already burdened by the discontinuity between “how I seemed to others and who I really was.” Looking back over half a century, she realizes that the intertwined conditions of her life were set early: “my competence, my loneliness.” The standards that are routinely applied to women and completely ignored for men are glaringly obvious and yet somehow a happy ending is attained. This is the alternate universe where the right thing happens in 2016.

Ruby Chicken

This is the version of Chicken Tickka Masala from the ravishing new cookbook Dishoom. I really like it and am only sorry that my youngest son, who has only a handful of dishes that he truly loves, thinks this is inferior to the Madhur Jaffrey version that he prefers. 700g skinless, boneless chicken thighs 20g unsalted butter, melted 50ml double cream For the makhani sauce 35g garlic (7–8 cloves) 175ml vegetable oil 20g fresh root ginger 800g chopped tomatoes (fresh or good-quality tinned) 2 bay leaves 6 green cardamom pods 2 black cardamom pods 2 cinnamon sticks 2 tsp fine sea salt 1½ tsp deggi mirch chilli powder 30g butter 1 tsp garam masala 20g granulated sugar 1 tbsp runny honey 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp kasoori methi powder, crushed to a powder between your fingers ½ tsp fresh dill fronds 80ml double cream Advertisement For the marinade 10g chopped fresh ginger 20g chopped garlic 5g fine sea salt 1 tsp deggi mirch chilli powder 1½ tsp ground cumin ½ tsp garam masala 2 tsp lime juice 2 tsp vegetable oil 75g full-fat greek yoghurt For the garnish Ginger matchsticks Coriander leaves, chopped 1 tbsp pomegranate seeds First make the makhani sauce. Peel and finely dice 15g of the garlic. Warm a large saucepan over a medium-high heat and add the oil. Toss in the chopped garlic and fry until light golden brown and slightly crisp – about seven to eight minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Grate the remaining garlic and the ginger to a fine paste on a microplane (or grind in a mortar). Using a blender, blitz the chopped tomatoes to a fine consistency. Put the saucepan containing the oil back on a medium-high heat and add the bay leaves, green and black cardamom pods, and the cinnamon sticks. Let them crackle for one minute, stirring regularly, then turn down the heat and add the garlic and ginger paste. Cook for five minutes, allowing the paste to brown but not burn. Add the tomatoes, salt and chilli powder to the pan. Bring to a rapid simmer and cook until reduced by half, stirring regularly so it doesn’t catch – this should take about 30 minutes. Add the butter and simmer for a further five minutes. Add the garam masala, sugar, honey, cumin, crisp garlic, kasoori methi powder and dill fronds, and cook for a further 15 minutes. Add the cream and simmer gently for five minutes. The sauce is now ready to use. For the marinade, blitz all the ingredients to a smooth paste, then transfer to a bowl. Cut the chicken into 4cm chunks, add to the marinade and turn to coat. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for six to 24 hours. Heat the grill to medium-high. Put the marinated chicken on a rack in the grill pan, brush with the melted butter and grill for eight to 10 minutes, until cooked through and nicely charred. To finish, warm a large saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the makhani sauce, cream and grilled chicken, and simmer very gently for 10 minutes. Serve the curry garnished with ginger matchsticks, chopped coriander and pomegranate seeds, with a bowl of steamed rice on the side.

Jungle Cruise (2021)

I know, yet another Disney movie that has the defining feature that it is based on a ride. I am a huge skeptic of this concept, but the same was true of The Pirates of the Caribbean, and at least the first movie was hugely enjoyable. That said, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is a way better ride than the Jungle Cruise, and the same comparison can be made about the movies. This is simply not good. Another disappointment is that Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, both actors that I very much enjoy, are not able to salvage anything particularly good or entertaining out of it. The only good thing I can say is that the same cheesiness that the ride has, with mechanical animals and carefully constructed scares is well preserved in the movie. If you can't get to a Disney theme park with this ride, the movie will give you a very good idea of what it is like.

China Room by Sunjeev Sahota

There are two threads in this novel that weas long listed for the 2021 Booker award. The first is n unhappy addicted youth who returns to Punjab, where his great-grandmother lived, and the more substantial part of the story is that of the woman herself. The bulk of the story involves Mehar, a 16-year-old bride who finds herself living in the “china room” – a small, seldom used building on a farm, its nickname derived from the willow-pattern plates that adorn it – that looms largest in the novel. Mehar shares the room with Harbans and Gurleen, two women she has only recently met; the three of them have been married, in a single day, to three brothers. Now, they spend their days doing chores and waiting for the matriarch to tap one of them on the shoulder, thereby summoning her to a bedroom to meet her husband and, it is hoped, become pregnant with a son. The brothers knows which wife is which, the veiled young women do not, and so a deception that is ultimately corrupting begins.

Belfast (2021)

Kenneth Branagh was born in Belfast and lived in a neighborhood much like the one depicted in this film. His family emigrated to England when he was a boy to escape the surging violence and this is a story very much like his own. It is a story beautifully told and acted, all of it seen through the eyes of a nine year old boy, filmed in black and white, wtih a score written by Van Morrison. The actors are largely Irish, and the depiction of escalating violence that evolves along the lines of religion, but at heart it is aided and abetted by bullies who are looking for a cause. The result is to fracture people into one of two sides, and then wreck havoc on them all. The movie is lovingly rendered, and so amidst the senselessness of it all, there is a sweetness, a love song for a place that was worth saving, with the kids from all different backgrounds playing in the streets and in each other's yards, getting into trouble, sometimes serious trouble, but nothing like what followed. Everyone should watch this, regardless of your politics, and see if we are in fact perpetuating what is depicted here, judging people based on something that is one dimensional, and whether it has to be that way.

On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

The author of this memoir is a historian who most famously wrote about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his wife's half-sister, Sally Hemmings, a slave that he owned. In this she is grappling with her inetensely felt mixed emotions about Texas. Austin, the blue capital of the red state, is named for a Southern slaveholder, the who brought 300 families and their human chattel with him to extend slavery to the American Southwest. And the Texans who fought at the Alamo died not to free themselves from despotic Mexican rule, but to make their newly occupied land forever unfree for slaves. Texaa is a place that once subjugated, segregated, and lynched Black people (including in her home county) and remains ruled by politicians determined to suppress the hard-won votes of minorities and maintain their own power even as demographics inevitably shift. This is a thoughtful and affectionate meditation on the state in which, despite its dualities, she still feels most at home. Where others might see a simple picture of unreconstructed racism, the author unpacks the complexities that largely defy stereotypes. Along the way, she dispels such foundational myths as those that equate Jamestown with Plymouth Rock: The former was strictly a mercantile venture, while the latter related to a quest for religious freedom. And throughout, she seeks to communicate a simple truth: Our history — whether in Texas specifically or in America at large — is complicated.

Unforgivable (2021)

This has been panned by many a film reviewer, and I do agree that the moniker "Mirthless in Seattle" isn't far off the mark. Sandra Bullock gives a stoic, stern performance in a grim and yet largely underwhelming tale of a woman seeking out her younger sister after being released from a 20-year prison stint for murder. At times, there's a noble grimness to the film, which is apparently based on a 2009 British miniseries, but the journey is stilted, the outcome fizzles, and the overall choices made by the protagonist are questionable or hard to understand--which has a way of undercutting much of the story. Here is the back story, which is flashed back to with some frequency. Decades previous, Bullock's Ruth was sent away for killing a kindly local sheriff when officers came to her home in an attempt to evict Ruth and separate her from her much younger sister, Katie, in the wake of their father's suicide. What she didn't understand, but comes to, is that she will forever be a cop killer, and moving beyond that is at best unlikely. The movie reveals why it happened but not why she was so wildly unrealistic about the consequences.

Chana Chaat Salad

This comes from Dishoom, a lovely cookbook and also an Indian restaurant in London. I subbed quinoa for the cous cous and sprouted lentils for sprouted grains, which worked well. The pomegranate seeds are key, don't eliminate them. 40g couscous 1 tsp olive oil 100g mixed sprouted grains 20g pumpkin seeds 2 tsp sesame seeds 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1 medium tomato, deseeded and finely diced 40g raisins 70g pomegranate seeds (about ½ pomegranate) Flaked sea salt 1 small handful coriander leaves, finely chopped For the dressing ½ tsp cumin seeds 20g coriander leaves and stems 20g mint leaves 15g granulated sugar 25g pickled jalapeños (drained weight) 25g sunflower seeds ¼ tsp ground turmeric 50ml lime juice 1 small ripe avocado, halved, stoned and peeled Put the couscous into a microwavable container (a large mug is ideal). Add 60ml boiling water and the olive oil, and microwave on high for one minute. Leave to stand for five minutes, then fluff up with a fork. (The couscous can be cooked in a small pan over a medium heat, but it’s just a very small quantity.) Once forked through, leave the couscous to cool. Put the sprouted grains into a bowl and pour on boiling water to cover. Tip straight into a sieve to drain, and refresh under cold running water. Shake dry and set aside. Warm a dry frying pan over a high heat and add the pumpkin seeds. Toast for two minutes, or until golden brown, shaking the pan to keep the seeds moving so they don’t burn. Add the sesame seeds and toast for a further minute, then remove from the pan and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the couscous, chickpeas, diced tomato, sprouted grains, raisins and pomegranate seeds. Season generously with sea salt. To make the dressing, warm a dry frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds, toast for two to three minutes, then tip on to a plate and leave to cool. Using a mini food processor or stick blender, blitz the first seven ingredients with half the lime juice and 25ml water until smooth. Add the rest of the lime juice and avocado, and blitz again to a smooth paste. Advertisement Add the dressing to the bowl, along with the chopped coriander and three-quarters of the toasted seeds. Mix well, then taste for seasoning, adding more salt if you wish. Garnish with the remaining toasted seeds to serve.