Saturday, September 22, 2012

Emancipation and Pasta

So last night was great. Katie and Faye and I grabbed soul food at Manna's on 134th and Malcolm X, which I'd been craving for some time. Mac and cheese, collard greens, truly amazing candied yams (and I do not like my yams candied), mashed potatoes, bread pudding, plantains. Yum!

Then we went and saw the Emancipation Proclamation Exhibition at the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture. It was really good. The exhibition was pretty simple, in a small room, and it pretty much consisted of the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, a later draft on vellum, on the other side of the room a typewritten first draft of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 100-year anniversary Emancipation Proclamation speech (with his edits on it in turquoise ink!), and some explanatory panels. But the panels were thorough and detailed, a good brief refresher on the events surrounding emancipation and then a quick journey through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and post-Civil Rights challenges for blacks and others who still face systemic oppression (p.s. I love that museums will come right out and say things that are true, without equivocating or doing that thing the media does where they include viewpoints that are wrong in order to be balanced). And seeing the Emancipation Proclamation, written in Lincoln's hand, with bits copy-pasted in from a previous speech published in the newspaper, with caret-ed in edits, was just amazing, as was seeing the bits of MLK's draft and editing process. It only took half an hour to view the whole exhibit, but it was moving, educational, and totally rewarding.

In other news, round challah drizzled with honey, for a sweet and round new year!

Can anybody tell me what exactly would make a year round,
and why that is desirable?

I made it into French toast today, and that was great, although I think I actually still prefer my French toast from sourdough; it makes the flavor more interesting and vibrant.

Also I made salted caramel ice cream with salted caramel praline, and threw in leftover frozen bits of homemade cinnamon pecan roll, and it's delicious although too salty because when I halved the recipe I forgot to halve the salt. But I would make it again, with the correct amount of salt, and I can already tell it's an amazing recipe! (Recipe can be found here, btw. David Lebovitz is so great.)

Leftover giant upside-down cinnamon pecan roll.
These are a big pain,
even if you're in the habit of making bread,
but SO DELICIOUS.

Also, about a month ago I made pasta for the first time! I had like 18 egg yolks leftover from all the macarons for my tea party, and the pasta dough alone used up 7 of them. What a hilarious, pain-in-the-ass, kind of fun, ultimately delicious process!

You really do make a well of flour 
and throw the eggs and other ingredients in it,
and then...

Stir it up with your fingers! 

For a really long time. 

Until it turns into... 

This! And you incorporate the rest of the flour with a pastry cutter!

Eventually you get a ball of pasta dough! 

It is very important to pose prettily
as you grate parmesan for the alfredo sauce. 

It is also very important to wear your
original French chef hat
from New Orleans. 

After the dough chills in the fridge,
you roll it out AS THIN AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN,
which is difficult and not really that thin,
and then pizza cut it into
fettucine heaven! 

Success! 

Lots of cheese and more egg yolks for the sauce! 

Scrumptious homemade pasta,
and I am ten egg yolks down!

I also made tapioca pudding (which I thought I liked, but blech, I need to toss it), green tea shortbread cookies, and ice cream with the remaining yolks. A good food month!

5 comments:

  1. (This is actually Debby, on her mother's computer.) Look at those cheeks under the Le Monde New Orleans paper hat that is more than 18 months old. You should be making beignets.
    Maria taught me how to make noodles but there were not egg yolks, I think, and she used the side of a saucer to mix in the liquid with the flour. When you practice more, you will get thin noodles. Very impressive. We want to take you out to eat, but I also want to eat something interesting that you have cooked! I like tapioca pudding but whatever made you think you like it?

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  2. Debby again.
    The color of the walls - I guess you're used to it now?
    Also, I recognize all the clothing - the shirt, hat and apron.
    The fettucine looks delicious!
    Couple days ago I asked the expert why a sweet Round year and she said the year is already round. New tradition for Rosh HaShona - cocoa apple cake for a sweet round year. I took it to work and it got alllllll gone.

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  3. you were not lying about your kitchen being pink! also, all of that sounds delicious and amazing. also also, the fact that you do not have diabetes means you should probably volunteer your body for experiments. you owe it to science.

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  4. Debby, I really want to make beignets but I am afraid of deep frying. What do you want to eat that I cook? I'll make sure I have the right ingredients! I tried tapioca pudding once and liked it, but I really dislike the stuff I just made. I wonder if it's a tapioca quality issue or a recipe quality issue or if liking it was a fluke.

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  5. Yes, I'm more or less used to the color of the walls now, except when anybody new sees them and reacts and then I notice again and hate it. Lissa owes me a painting which will cover it up a bit, and I also have a photo that Alf took and got nicely printed on canvas that we will put up as soon as we have a long enough nail.

    Cocoa apple cake is a GREAT idea for Rosh Hashanah!

    Meredith, I would say that while I eat lots of different kinds of desserts, and fairly frequently, I almost never eat very much. Like, usually one cookie or a half a big cookie, or a little bit of cake, or a few spoonfuls of ice cream. So it's not like I'm in sugar overload all the time, and Alex and I cook with lots of vegetables and whole grains, or anyway try to. Anyway, you should come visit again soon and then you can eat the delicious amazing things!!!!

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