death/redemption, food-prejudice, rebirth/poignancy

sun in scorpio, y'all, not a game.
a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, i was catering for a media group - they were throwing a party for Trace Magazine. (black grrrrrrrrrrrls rule, incidentally) this was in a luxurious brooklyn brownstone, steps from where lisa price's Carol's Daughter empire was built on washington ave in bed stuy.folks were living good on the ave back in the day, unbeknownst to the gentrifiers.  @ the time, the lovely, luxurious, well-appointed brownstone was full of a group of movers & shakers who called it the batchelor pad, in reference to one of their names.  the parties were off.  the.  hizzy.  my grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl, a sexy/genius producer/writer w/a serious rack (sorry, grrrrrl, but it's true!) was the manager/producer/grrrl friday/conscience of the group.  together, we were twin flies on the wall of their testosterone driven bacchanal.  i had such a great time people watching, & feeding this roots/blingy set.  & you never knew who you would bump into.  in addition to more than one hip-hop luminary were various lyrical poets, hot actors, sumptuously beautiful designers, all kicking back & there to get their grease on.  my hosts always treated me like family, & were happy to let me cruise the party after i was finished cooking.  my grrrrrrl was always happy to lead me from secret room to secret room, where something odd was always happening, depending on what door we chose to open.  on one of these luminous, sweet evenings, when my work was done, praises heaped, & the rod (of pre-job stress) in my back dissolved, i happily settled into a vicious debate w/a rock star japanese DJ. who was flown in for the occasion, & who shall remain nameless. it all started w/his distracted musings on his ex-grrrrlfriend, whom i apparently reminded him of.  according to him, she'd been a "beautiful grrrrl.  beautiful ass, beautiful titties, but didn't cook, & didn't clean."  i would have been an upgrade from this situation. 
no.  i didn't punch him in the mouth.  but i wanted to.  in any case, he mentioned, that if, in japan, anyone wanted to serve soul food, he would put them on to me.  always looking for a way to get to japan, i said, "sure! - but soul food is only a small part of what i do.  what if i wanted to make sushi?  who would teach me?"  he LAUGHED @ me, & w/a condescending tone that produced, for me more fantasies of putting my fist through his grill, said, "...no.   i don't think so."  & giggled the fuck some more.

i got up, walked away, & after drilling myself on rice (making it over & over till i got a reliable product) began featuring sushi on every catering menu i could the following year.

apparently there are reasons for the sushi bullshit in japan:  one B.S.  excuse is our menstrual cycles:  they make us too 'hot' to handle the rice.  another that our hands are not scaled correctly - do you BELIEVE this bullshit??? - & all of it sounds like one big, fat, misogynistic mess.

 fuck.  off.

women do haute cuisine.  & any readers who want to be intimidated by the myth of a culture that wants to restrict what you experience of it?  don't listen to prejudiced haters.


which brings me to my weekend.  it started off w/the memorial service for the father of one of my most loved, closest sis's (mentioned @ length in my 'i am not a movie critic piece published in coon bidness, & also in my cookbook/memoir, HEAT) that i NEVER see enough.  her taciturn, not trying to play jamaican father, whose hotsauce burned the skin off my lips (& please believe this did NOTHING to deter me from eating it) as a teenager had died.  there are so many things we do not know about the people closest to us.  apparently her dad  had been a prominent civil rights activist who'd won serious gains in the movement, had marched alongside MLK.  but when my grrrl took the mike in his honor, & described his veal parmesan, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.  there are not many people on earth that i have loved as much as i loved her that day, her lovely smooth skin, teensy waist (in spite of her gorgeous 2-&change-year old) & long shiny black locks, riffing on daddy's grub.  a grrrrl any parent would be proud of.  & w/good reason.  @ the repast, she'd taken his life/food legacy a step further:  she'd been up all night - hell, all month - reprinting pics from the different eras of his life, & since he was 91, there had been a few seasons; but the most touching part of all was the recipes.  i'd been eating his food for years - we are both virgos - & as i was staring @one of the recipe/posters, my grrrrl came up behind me & said that although these were great, that really, he cooked from 4 different books @ least, & then added his own twist.    wow.  'he cooks like me!!! - alright i cook like him; - we ARE both virgos..'  i thought. me & nashira had a stone cold ball, do you hear me? & stayed to clean up.  we had to take the posters down, & all the pics.  easy work for the 10 people that remained, (among them, another truly brilliant member of our crew - an elegant grrrrl who, although she, for many years, made her living as a dancer for urban bush women, is not above demo-ing every hood dance from every borough circa early '80's to present - can you spell wheezing w/laughter???) & the secret perk??? recipes, mofos!!! i had a nice stack set aside, that i knew Lincoln would have wanted me to have - or so i told myself - later, when i saw some bandit packing up a stack of MY recipes - i restrained my emotions, as i saw him bag them up & walk.  it would not have been good for me to act out my feelings on an occasion like this.
imagine my surprise, then, when my grrrrrrl dumped a GIANT stack of them in my lap, all "don't say i never gave you anything!" about it.  verklempt, we went through the stack together.  "let's look @ the ones i happened to gather up for you," she said.  & even though she KNOWS what a crier i am - & her too, dammit -she's a scorpio! -  we went through the stack.  a bunch of papers describing virgo was in the stack she erroneously snatched up for me.  cod fish fritters, real jerk, callalloo, rice & peas, beef patties, hot sauce, & scribbled across the the words love, & miss you... - can you spell sobfest???
Rest In Power, Kind New Ancestor, Mr. L...  b/c of you, i will be seeing your daughter a lot more... who else would be the one to re-create those dishes for her?
ya.
& even w/all that going on, a negress STILL had to cater the Burnt Sugar Smokehouse the next day, chile.
y'all already know the pure, pure love i have for the band.  & again the music burned down the house. - shameless plug:  (if you can make it, friends, we'll be there every sunday from 4pm on - it's a jam session for the band w/food: Time: 4:00pm. Admis­sion: $7 show $7 plate. Address: 56 Walker Street (btwn Broad­way & Church). 4-9pm. A Prop­erly Rau­cous Evening of Fine Din­ing, Danc­ing + Free­dom Jazz Con­duc­tions Food by Mas­ter Chef Ste­fanie Kelly @ $7 per serv­ing. – With Micah Gaugh, Andre Las­salle, Burnt Sugar, Ver­non Reid/Greg Tate Lap­top Light Saber Duet)

so let's just get to the menu:

spicy yellowtail rolls
spicy salmon rolls
spicy tuna rolls
1/2 # salmon steak, briefly - about 20 min. - marinated in 1/2 soy sauce, 1/2 apple juice then seared or broiled  w/the skin on, & crispy

for the spicies:
cube the fish to 1/4 inch, keeping it as cold as possible
add sesame oil to coat,
few dashes wasabi oil
pinches of sriracha
few dashes yuzu juice
chopped scallions to taste
1 - 2 TBSP soy sauce
mix together, let rest in fridge for @ least 15 min, then use for rolls

vegetable tempura rolls:
first, make the veg tempura - grapeseed or safflower oil, heated to popping & (- you know what?  i'm not going to lie - i got seduced by a tempura mix @ sunrise, & was ECSTATIC w/the results, so - once i break it down to scratch - i'llpost the recipe but yes, @ sunrise mart, in the flour section, there is a bag of tempura flour mix that will knock your socks off, homies - only thing is, the instructions are in japanese, so i followed the pics:  a cup of the mix to 3/4 cup water for a loose paste, let the veg swim in this for just a sec, then throw into the hot oil.  have i already used the word superlative?)
butternut squash - peeled, & cut into 1-inch cubes
zucchini - sliced crosswise or on an angle
eggplant - sliced crosswise, salted, drained & rinsed
broccoli - cut into florets
cauliflower - same as above
avocado - sliced into thin wedges
umeboshi - lightly mashed, peeled off the pit
gobo - jullienned

peeps, the flavors of japanese cuisine are so simple, gentle, elegant, & pure that getting every detail right is not preferable, but imperative.  & that is really, all about practice.

the rice:
3 cups sushi rice Tamaki, Kokuho Rose, or a rice that you feel good about @ sunrise mart (my FAVORITE.  a bright spot of goodness on 9th & cooper, this is the place to go for real wasabi flown in from japan when the season permits, same for yuzu, same for fine rare ingredients like gobo {pickled japanese burdock} - any of the secret ingredients the will make your soul croon:  japanese!)
water
1 TBSP sea salt - i prefer japanese sea on this - the better to get the water to taste japanese - w/the minerals & salts from the cooking water -
4 & 1/2 cups water pref. filtered or japanese mineral

again, very simple:  wash the rice till the water runs clear.  then add the other ingredients, cover, bring to boil, then turn the flame all the way down to a whisper.  leave to steam for 17 min.  then let rest for another 15 min.

2 TBSP rice vinegar
1 TBSP honey
4 TBSP soy sauce
mix all together till blended, then stir into hot rice till each grain is coated, & shiny, keeping in mind that you don't need to use all the mixture - just enough to coat each grain.

break out your sushi mat, as well as
wasabi oil
sliced gobo,
scallions
jullienned shiso

& your spicies:  tuna, salmon, & yellowtail - freshness is a must, so while working w/one, keep the others refrigerated.



& lay 1 sheet of nori on top of your mat.  then add the rice, smoothing it over a third of the seaweed, dipping fingers in cold water intermittently to keep the rice from sticking. 
add a strip of gobo, scallion, & seared salmon to the center, all horizontal, then roll the sushi, using the mat as a tightener/guide.
play w/each of the ingredients, or in combinations that suit you, like avocado tuna, or any of the veg tempuras, cut into strips.

your first few rolls will be, well, embarrassing - some of the most delicious mistakes you will ever make.  keep trying.


marinated kale

chopped kale, 3 bunches
vinegar
garlic mashed
lemon juice
rice vinegar
about equal parts of all liquids & to taste, just toss the kale in this mixture & let kale absorb for @ least 20 minutes.  serve.

romaine salad w/umeboshi vinaigrette

2 large bunches romaine
wash & tear the romaine into bite-sized pieces
3 TBSP rice wine vinegar
1 TBSP yuzu juice
1 inch knob prepared wasabi
2 scallions, minced
8 umeboshi
2 TBSP soy sauce
olive oil

blend to a paste.  season salad to taste.

&   inscrutably, curry chicken:

3 3# fryers, cut into pieces or 9# wings
marinate in:
6 TBSP crushed garlic
1 jar patak's curry paste
6 TBSP curry powder
3 TBSP garam masala
1 qut buttermilk
6 curry leaves
2 TBSP ginger, pulverized

sautee in a large pot:
6 cloves sliced garlic
2 curry leaves
1 bay leaf
2 sliced onions
3 sliced green peppers
(optional - black cardamom, extra ground cumin, or coriander, or turmeric - go by taste
even mushroom paste, if you have any shrooms on hand that you want to use up are perfect other add ons can be scallions, shallots, or chives - & these are to color the curry to your palate - but the straight recipe is a satisfying experience on its own) 

add the chicken & its marinade, + 1 quart chicken stock.  simmer for 45 min - 1 hr on a medium flame.

i served this as a soup, but if you want to serve basmati w/it, who would ever be mad???

basmati rice:
6 cups long grain basmati - (if you're using brown basmati, please triple the cooking time & double the water/stock/coconut milk)
3 cups water
3 cups coconut milk
3 cups chicken stock
6 TBSP butter or ghee
2 tsp sea salt, preferably pink himalayan
1 bay leaf

saute the bay leaf, & rice in the fat till every grain is coated
add liquids, cover bring to boil over high heat - turn the flame so low you can barely see it, & do not disturb for 20 min.  turn off flame, let sit for another 20, then fluff w/additional salt & butter.

...may have mentioned in previous posts how much higher my daughter's cool quotient is than mine...
but no one could be ready for this one:  we'd had such a long weekend; she was by my side pretty much the whole time, except when, while frying, i banished her from the kitchen, as anything can happen, & i like her face... the way it is.  she left the kitchen on the arm of one:  Ms. Blackbushe, one of the chakra igniting sirens that make up the band, & when the sis had to leave, i went to look for nashira.  this is Black Rock Coalition, so i was a little nervous that she might be off-put by the noise level.  i found my grrrrrrrrrrrl perched on her seat, fully attentive, eyes like gleaming saucers w/her sippy cup on the table next to her, eerily resembling a class of pinot.  i crouched down next to her & asked if she wanted to come back downstairs w/mommy.  "i'm enjoying the show, mama,"  she was clearly non-plussed @ my interruption. & she returned her attention to the musicians onstage.  poise personified, her fat little cheeks in profile.

dimissed!   

a single tear rolled down my cheek - b/c i saw her! in the future!  as a food/cultural critic, or maybe just as a rude bitch who never wants her mom to enjoy the concert w/her...  awww!!!  who knows, but talk about poignant.

thank you for your time!
all rights reserved:  stories & recipes by chef/healer stefanie kelly