Netflix of the Day

“Anyone can cook aloo gobi, but who can bend a ball like Beckham”

BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM
An old but very amusing film.

“Bend it like Beckham" is to curve a soccer ball around defenders during a free kick, a technique mastered by the famous soccer player David Beckham. The film of this title is about an Indian-British family who live near Heathrow airport. The teenage daughter is a keen and skilled soccer player, to the dismay of her family — who want her to be a proper Indian daughter and either go to school and become a lawyer or get married to someone they choose. Her mother especially wants her to learn to cook aloo-gobi, the traditional British-Indian dish. She’d rather bend it like Beckham.

Her fellow team-mate is played by Kiera Knightly. We saw the movie close to the time it came out (2002) and just watched it again. We expected it to seem out-of-date, but in fact, it’s held up very nicely over the decades! It inspired me to try recipes for aloo gobi, the cauliflower and potato dish that’s in the title. Maybe I’ll make it again soon.

Aloo Gobi that I cooked in 2009.

Anyone can turn blue…

Three Avatar movies from the past and present.

Kitchens and Politics, July 2024

In My July Kitchen 

New plate from the Ann Arbor Art Fair.

I'm sharing my July kitchen activities and food thoughts with Sherry and her blog party called In My Kitchen. It's been an exciting month, with lots of cooking: in fact, I have already posted photos of quite a few things that we ate. During the month, we’ve had visitors; moreover, we have been following the eventful news about the upcoming elections and the excitement of the Paris Olympics. I've also been enjoying the blog party Paris in July, where more than 20 bloggers have shared posts about books, movies, art, food, and other topics with a French theme.

But let’s look around my kitchen: first the refrigerator —

Cooking and Baking This Month

From the following photos, you can see that the innovative recipes and baking in our kitchen are now done by Len. I still do my share, but I tend to make our old favorites and easy meals — not worth photographing.  And he does the novel recipes, especially from the New York Times and a couple of recent Asian cookbooks. Len has been baking bread and trying new recipes for several years since I began to feel burned out (and since he retired from teaching at the University).

Len made pizza.

Dinner for two nights. Miriam made the New York Times farro salad. Len made the seafood dish.
I concocted the leftover versions.

I made Aloo Gobi — a dish of potatoes and cauliflower with Indian spices.

One French dish we made this month: I made the base and Len torched this crème brûlée.

More delicious baking from Len.

For more photos of our July meals, see this post from Monday:

https://maefood.blogspot.com/2024/07/what-we-ate-and-drank-in-july.html

 

Beyond My Kitchen: Kamala Harris and Food

Kamala Harris in the kitchen (a few years ago).

Some great facts about Kamala Harris:

• Harris loves to cook. According to a New York Times article, she "scrolls cooking sites and relaxes at the end of the day by reading cookbooks. (Her favorites are by the Italian cook Marcella Hazan and the California chef Alice Waters.)" She has made a few cooking videos, and has given informal demonstrations of her recipes during campaign events.
• Harris has consistently promoted policies and legislation to combat hunger and poverty. Unlike her Republican opponents, she has made efforts to provide more federal food aid — not to cut benefits for those in need. In 2020, as a Senator, she cosponsored the “Closing the Meal Gap” act which extended food benefits during the pandemic. She advocated for increases in funding for summer meals for children who were dependent on school breakfast and lunch programs during the school year. These children otherwise might go hungry when school was out-of-session. She also worked to expand eligibility for school lunch programs.
• “As part of the Biden administration, she of course supported a major expansion a of the tax credit that greatly reduced child poverty but expired in 2022 in the face of unified Republican opposition.” (source)
• Harris favors better wages for food workers; for example, she supported McDonald’s workers in Iowa in 2019 as they went on strike to obtain a $15 hourly wage and the right to form a union. 
• Harris has promoted efforts to improve working conditions and to ensure better pay for agricultural workers. The United Farm Workers has already endorsed her for President: 

“Since the very beginning of her career in California — the nation’s largest agricultural producer — Kamala Harris has proven herself a loyal friend of all working people. … Vice President Harris has stood with farm workers as California Attorney General, as a United States Senator, and as Vice President. The United Farm Workers could not be prouder to endorse her for President of the United States. Together, we continue the work of building an America that works for all of its working people. ¡Sí Se Puede!” (https://ufw.org/harrisendorsement7212024/)

 

And Olympic Gold

Blog post © 2024 mae sander 

Weekend Dining

 Saturday Lunch

Watching the sushi chef’s knife skills.

We like to sit the bar and look at the many interesting bottles.

Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor Summer Dinner

Members of the CHAA gathered at 4 PM Sunday for a celebration of wedding customs around the world.
Some of us brought food that is a family or community tradition, while others found special dishes
from cuisines around the world that are often served at weddings. Around 18 people attended the dinner.

Pancit, a cold noodle dish from the Philippines, was served at a family wedding of one member.

This was my contribution, suggested by Phil, who was organizing the menu.

Sicilian Caponata: a traditional wedding menu item.

Danish Meatballs.

Polish pork roast with prunes and traditional vegetable salad.

“City Chicken” — during the Depression, families who couldn’t afford chicken used pork instead.
Everyone finds it ironic that pork and even veal were once cheaper than chicken.

The table was decorated with a few “wedding” gifts.

The drinks table — the venue doesn’t have a liquor license so no wine!

On the dessert table: beautiful fruit with a creamy dip.

Chinese sesame cookies and Mexican wedding cookies.

A blueberry clafoutis, said by the person who brought it to be traditional for French weddings.
(I’m not sure about this.)

We always enjoy meeting new people at the CHAA dinners, and also enjoy seeing how a variety of people interpret the theme of the dinner. All photos © 2024 by mae sander for maefood dot blogspot.com.

What’s cooking in my kitchen and happening in the world

In my kitchen in March, I tried quite a few new recipes for various vegetable dishes, and I want to share them with the other bloggers who participate in Sherry’s blog event called “In My Kitchen.” I’m always happy to see what others have written about their kitchens — but also saddened by a few spoilers who link posts that have no kitchen content, nothing but a recipe, an old blog post, or even just an ordinary post about some unrelated topic. It’s too bad when they do this at Sherry’s blog event or other blog events. Many of the committed participants -- whom I feel are my friends on almost every continent -- share new things they have acquired for their kitchens, which is always fun. So here is a wrap-up of what's been happening in my kitchen, and what I've been thinking about.

Trying New Recipes

Raw carrot salad with dates and almonds. (Recipe here)

Steamed Brussels sprouts: to be cooled & tossed with parmesan and pecorino cheese 
 and dried fruits and nuts. Recipe from combined sources online.

Aloo Gobi: the “dry” version without tomato sauce.
A classic made with cauliflower, potatoes, and Indian spices.

Squash made from a recipe in my Ethiopian cookbook.

Red beans to go with brown rice. A vegetarian version of the Louisiana dish.
I started with a recipe, but used canned beans and smoked paprika in place of
ingredients suggested (source).

Dressing: kefir, mayonnaise, chopped green onion, crushed garlic, dill, fines herbes, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, salt, black pepper
Veggies: fresh green bean, frozen peas, and to be added: leaf lettuce

Old Favorites

Shakshouka: the tomato sauce is simmering, the eggs ready to be poached.

Artichokes waiting to be steamed and eaten with melted butter.
Small Campari tomatoes are a winter treat!

Salmon patties, which I made from frozen salmon filets.
My mother's recipe, but she used canned salmon.

Len made a few batches of bread.

Outside my Kitchen

On my week of travel in March: I watched this vendor making tortillas on a tortilla press at the Charlottesville Art Park.

Food Thoughts about the War Zone

Everyone expected the war to end in March, but it goes on and on, increasing the suffering of the citizens of Mariupol, Kyiv, Kharkiv. Kherson, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, and numerous other cities. Haunting images of bombed-out apartment towers, ruined cultural institutions, subway stations turned into bomb shelters, and makeshift graves appear in newspapers day after day, along with reports that supplies of food and safe drinking water are becoming scarce or nonexistent. 

Bread distribution in a subway station in Kharkiv. (source: UN)
One of many brutal Russian actions was killing people in a bread line.

Each day there is a new total for the number of Ukrainians displaced by the war. Endless streams of refugees are arriving in the surrounding countries with almost nothing of their former lives. The refugee total beyond the borders of Ukraine is now more than 4 million! People throughout the affected areas, aid organizations, and local and foreign governments are struggling to provide basic food and shelter to displaced residents, to people stranded in the devastated areas, and to those that have fled across the borders. 

World Central Kitchen, for example, was founded by the chef José Andrés, and is one of many organization providing meals to Ukrainian refugees. World Central Kitchen was recognized for success with previous disaster relief efforts; for example, they were among the most helpful after the hurricane in Puerto Rico a few years ago. They have set up a kitchen just over the Ukrainian border with Poland where large numbers of refugees are fleeing to try to find safety from the invasion.

World Central Kitchen operating in Poland in March.

Hunger and heroism are hand in hand throughout the devastated areas. Here is a description from mid-March of the efforts of one Ukrainian corporation, attempting to deal with the food shortages in cities that are being attacked:

"MHP, the sixth-largest poultry exporter in the world and said to be the biggest food company still operating in Ukraine, is giving away as many as 330 tons of chicken every day to feed thousands of civilians in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol under attack by Russian forces led by President Vladimir Putin. The courage comes in getting the food safely to destinations, bypassing blown-up bridges, maneuvering checkpoints, avoiding bombed-out terrain—and death. There’s no telling how many Ukrainians are living in desperate circumstances, without heat or sustenance, but reports of apartment buildings and hospitals ablaze in residential neighborhoods are frequent."  

 

“'It’s a humanitarian crisis,' said John Rich, chair of MHP, an Australian who’s running the company from safer ground in Slovenia. 'People in bombed-out areas have no access to anything.' 

 

"Thousands of drivers in Ukraine are embarking on what Rich called suicide missions to bring vans full of chicken to people who’ve gone days without food. Many of the drivers are new employees who turned to MHP after the closing of other companies, including MHP’s competitors.” (Source: Forbes)

This particular producer is currently struggling to maintain production in the agricultural areas of Ukraine, where the invasion has not destroyed the infrastructure. The spring planting season begins now, and they are trying to establish a way to keep going, and to continue exporting food, despite the war.  Details about their struggles give some insight into how the war is affecting the areas outside Ukrainian cities. (Source: Bloomberg)

The disruption of Ukrainian agriculture is a looming threat to global food supplies, as Ukraine is a major international agricultural supplier; however the immediate threat of hunger and even starvation is an unthinkable part of the life of large numbers of people in Ukraine right now, and my kitchen thoughts turn to them.

Ukrainian grain-processing plant as photographed last year. (source)

Blog post © 2022 mae sander.

Aloo Gobi for Louise's Picnic Game

I'm going on a picnic and bringing Aloo Gobi, an Indian dish with potatoes and cauliflower. It's a virtual picnic that takes place July 1. So...

Happy Picnic Day

Louise at Months of Edible Celebrations has come back to blogging and is organizing her popular picnic game where at least 26 bloggers create an alphabetical picnic menu, beginning here with A for Aloo Gobi. On July 1, she will post a list of all 26 dishes, with photos!

Actually, I really did bring real, not virtual aloo gobi on a picnic while I was in Aspen recently; I shared it with one of the Tuesday night barbecues at the Aspen Center for Physics. It's a good dish for a picnic because it's supposed to be served at room temperature.

Here's what it looked like towards the end of cooking, before being garnished with cilantro leaves:

Aloo Gobi made May, 2013 in Aspen, Colorado

I first became aware of this delicious dish around 4 years ago when I saw the film "Bend it Like Beckham." As I wrote in an earlier post about this dish, the heroine of the film wants to be a soccer player, and is very good at it, but her parents believe that it's better to make good aloo gobi than to "bend it like Beckham" -- another concept, this from soccer, that I learned from the film. The line is pretty memorable, but what's very memorable is the DVD extra of the film director, Gurinder Chadha, in the kitchen with her mother and her aunties, who watch and give advice while she's trying to explain to her audience how to make aloo gobi. This extra feature is fabulous, maybe better than the film itself.

One of my earlier efforts to make aloo gobi looked like this:

Aloo Gobi made April, 2009 in La Jolla, California

When I eat in an Indian restaurant, I often try to sample the aloo gobi, which always contains a number of spices along with aloo and gobi (cauliflower and potatoes), and sometimes contains tomatoes and sometimes not. An example of the dish with little or no tomato:

Aloo Gobi at Host Restaurant in Toronto

We had a great meal including the above dish a couple of years ago with our friends Rashmi and Kappu. Kappu sent me her aloo-gobi recipe that I followed last month. I didn't have the turmeric and paprika, but I did have all the fresh spices, cumin, and garam masala, a delicious Indian spice blend that's also good on other things.

Kappu’s Aloo Gobi

Ingredients 

1/4 C Oil (Vegetable or Olive)

1 large Onion- cut into thin slices and each slice cut in half crosswise

1 T cumin seeds

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro – leaves chopped and set aside separately.

1 t turmeric

1/2 t paprika

  salt to taste

2 to 3- Serrano or any green chillis – chopped (depending on how hot you like)

2 large whole tomatoes, chopped

3-4 cloves garlic – minced

2 T fresh ginger – peeled and grated

1 med – large cauliflower, broken into floweret

3 medium potatoes – peeled and cut into 1” cubes.

2 T water

1 t Garam Masala

1 T unsalted butter or ghee

Directions

Heat oil in dutch oven, or large pan with cover, over med- high heat.  Add onion and stir till translucent.  Add cumin seeds.  Cook until onions are light brown – do not burn them. Stir.  Add turmeric, paprika and salt; stir.  Add chillis, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, potatoes & cauliflower and mix till everything is well coated.  Add 2+ T water, stir and cover.   Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for 20 minutes until the cauliflower is cooked. Stir and add Garam Masala, stir again.  Sprinkle 1 T of unsalted butter or ghee, and cilantro leaves on top of the curry, cover and turn heat off.  Let it sit for as long as possible before serving – up to 15 min.

p.s. Do not cook after adding the garam masala.

Bon appetite

Louise's Picnic Game Logo:
See This Post for Details

Bismillah Pakistani Restaurant

We ate dinner with Lori, my fitness trainer (in pink sweater), her husband (next to Len), and some of their friends and neighbors. The spinach with paneer cheese, rice pilaf, aloo gobi, meat koftas, chicken tikka, and various breads were all really delicious. Somehow we communicated just how hot we liked the food -- at least for me, it was just the right level.