The Invention of Wings By Sue Monk Kidd Book Review

As I mentioned in this post, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd was the February book club choice. This book was released only a week or so before we choose it and I'd just recently heard a review of it on NPR, so it was exciting to find it on the list of nominations for book club.

The Invention of Wings is a novel based on the true events of two sisters and their fight for the rights of slaves and women.  Sarah, the main character, is given a slave at a very young age, Hetty (a.k.a. Handful).  The novel chronicles her journey to fight for the right of 'her' slave and others alike, all the while fighting to find her position as a women in male dominated mid to late nineteenth century southern states of America. Sarah is eventually joined by her sister, Nina, who is like a child to Sarah to help pursue her dreams of equal rights for slaves and women.  It's their mark on history that Kidd tries to capture in this novel.

This novel is a fast read, but I have to say I learned a new word or two.  Like many other novels, I read this on my iPhone using the kindle amazon app which allows me to check definitions of words as I'm reading, I love that feature.  Oddly, I've taken to reading on my iPhone perhaps out of necessity but I also prefer the weight consistency of the device (meaning reading an actual book [imagine that...] and shifting the pages changes the way I hold the book which I've realized can be uncomfortable, especially when reading fat books!), that the text is less per 'page' so it seems to be a faster read than a traditional book (I realize this is a superficial reason, but on the other hand I've managed to get through more books this way), and it's super convenient as I'm rarely without my phone.

Most of us at book club agreed that this novel was much more powerful once we realized it was written based on true events and people.  I agree with the groups general opinion because as I was reading, I found myself questioning the plausibility of various events (mostly the chance of them occurring at specific time points) and also just started to get sick of Sarah's inability to stand for herself, a reoccurring problem in the beginning of the novel.  In a purely fictional novel, where historical events wouldn't constrain the writing (by this I mean that the character doesn't have pre-defined events in his/her life... open to opinion if this is a constraint, but I've chosen that for now), I'll venture a guess that the number of occasions where Sarah let herself down would have been reduced.

I found the most powerful symbol in the novel to be Charlotte's 'life-story' quilt.  Charlotte is Hetty's mother, the slave that is given to Sarah on her 11th birthday.  Slaves were not allowed to know how to read or write (it was a crime to teach them to do so), but the quilt is in defiance to this law and is the medium for Charlotte to write her story.  It's the release of her tragic life and history.  Nobody can take away her ability to tell her story even if it's not in a written form.  Charlotte's quilt represents her wings, which as you could guess is a reoccurring symbol.  I don't think these are the 'wings' that Charlotte wanted or hoped for, but they are just as powerful at releasing her from the physical chains that bind her.

So, if you are looking for a book to read that you will want to pick up every night, this is a good choice.  Sue Monk Kidd also has many other novels which come highly recommended, so I think given her track record, the chance you will enjoy this novel is good.  Happy Reading!

Raghavan Iyer's Lamb Biryani from 660 Curries

Recently, the local Persian grocery store butcher has been stocking the meat case with lamb shank (or what we think is lamb shank - speaking in English is iffy and we don't speak enough Dutch to converse adequately).  Given that lamb is pretty expensive or not stocked at other butchers or the standard grocery store, we've been taking advantage of their supply as much as possible.  I often use lamb in a Persian soup which serves as our lunch, but this week I decided to also explore the lamb curries of Raghavan Iyer's 660 Curries.  While this isn't a 'curry' as many people understand curry, it's a wonderful mix of meat, herbs, spices, rice, and sometimes nuts and raisins. According to Raghavan, this biryani is originates from Hyderabad and is called 'kacchi biryani' where 'kacchi' is uncooked lamb (which is later layered with cooked rice and then baked).  

I've previously made chicken biryani's (although I realize I've never posted about them on this blog!), but this is a different twist with a completely different flavor from the meat.  

Ingredients: 

For the Lamb Marinade:

• ~ 1 lb (I used 10 oz) lamb of leg, cut from the bone (if not already available this way), fat trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 cup of plain yogurt (I prefer Greek yogurt, but otherwise use full fat yogurt)
• 1/2 cup of firmly packed mint leaves, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup of firmly packed cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons of minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1-2 Thai chilies (original recipe calls for Kashmiri chilies, which I have replaced with Thai chilies)
• 1.5 teaspoons of sea salt
• 1 teaspoon of garam masala (I used a pre-made mix)
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground turmeric

For the rice: 

• 1 cup of white/brown basmati rice
• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (original recipe calls for Ghee or unsalted butter)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 black cardamom pods
• 2 free or dried bay leaves (I used dried)
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt

Others: 

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil (original recipe calls for Ghee or unsalted butter)
• 2 tablespoons of finely chopped mint for garnish

Directions: 

Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350F (~175C).

1. Marinate the lamb (min 3 hours, overnight if possible): Combine the lamb, yogurt, mint, cilantro, ginger, garlic, chilies, salt, garam masala, and turmeric in a bowl and toss/stir to completely coat the lamb.  Refrigerate, covered overnight (or at least 3 hours before cooking). 
2. Soak the rice (min 1 hour, longer for brown rice): Depending upon if you are using white or brown rice, before you are ready to start assembling the biryani, prepare the rice:  Rinse the rice until the water runs clear (first two rinses will be cloudy).  Fill the bowl half way with cold water and let it sit at room temperature until the grains soften.  One hour is sufficient for white rice.  I soaked for 3 hours for brown rice (note, I did not experiment with the time - seek advice on the back of your packaging for advice or elsewhere). 
3. Cook the rice: 
1. Heat coconut oil/ghee/unsalted butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium high heat.  Add cumin seeds, cardamom pods, bay leaves, and cinnamon sticks.  Cook until they sizzle, about 3 to 5 minutes (note, original recipe calls for 15 to 20 minutes, but on medium-high heat, this doesn't take long for me... if I let them go longer, the cumin seeds will burn).  Then immediately add the onion and stir-fry until the onion is light brown around the edges, about 10 minutes (note, original recipe calls for 3 to 5 minutes, for browning on the edges, I think it needs longer).  
2. Stir in the saffron and allow the mixture to release its fragrance.  Add the drained rice and toss gently to coat the grains with the mixture.  Pour 1 cup of cold water, add the salt, and stir the rice to incorporate the ingredients.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until the water has just evaporated and remove from the heat.  For brown rice, consider adding another 1/2 cup of water as this type takes longer to cook through.  
4. Assemble the Biryani and Bake: 
1. Lightly spray the interior of a medium sized casserole dish with cooking spray or coat with melted ghee/butter/coconut oil.  
2. Spread the lamb (including any remaining marinade) across the bottom and drizzle melted ghee/coconut oil/butter.  
3. Add the rice mixture, spreading evenly over the lamb. 
4. Cover the casserole dish and bake until the rice is cooked through and the lamb is fork-tender (approximately 1 hour).  
5. Serve: Garnish with finely chopped mint and serve.  Note, there are whole spices in this dish, so be careful to eat around these.  

What biryani's have you made?  Have you ever baked one (this was my first baked biryani)?  Any cooking tips?

On my nightstand

Still a slow going year so far...  anyway, I'm still making progress and book club keeps me chugging along ....

As I mentioned last time, February's book club choice was The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.  I did indeed finish reading it a couple of weeks ago and we reviewed it last Thursday at the February meeting!  General consensus was that the story was much more powerful after discovering it was based on the real events of two women fighting for the rights of slaves and women.  Look for a review soon!

Next month's book club is Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett.  I'm excited to read this one as I'd read recently it was a good book club read, let's see if it lives up to my expectations.

As reported previously, I was finding The Dinner by Herman Koch difficult to read, and indeed my library subscription expired before I finished it.  To be honest, I don't think I'll pick it up again, to whiny, to complain-y... just depressing. 

I'm really enjoying my library subscription and have picked up two new books: Provence 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste by Luke Barr and Longbourn by Jo Baker.  Unfortunately, my subscription to Longbourn lapsed after I had read  ~30%.  Three people had requested the book after my subscription ended, so now I'm on hold in order to finish it. Longbourn is a novel about the life of the servants in the novel Pride and Prejudice... the story itself is not unique (typical drama love story), but it's fun to put in perspective of Pride and Prejudice. Provence 1970 is a foodie book about the encounter and dinner event of great and arguably influential American culinary minds and chefs.  A bit slow going, but interesting to read and drool over the descriptions of delicious French food! 

Curry is still on my list, but with the discovery of this awesome library subscription I've been putting off reading actual physical books!  Since there's no time limit, it's taken a back seat, but I intend to get through it.

After these novels, I'm pretty open, but I have a lot of waiting list holds at my library.  For a few, I'm pretty far down the list, so in the mean time I'll have to find something new.  What are you reading?  

Sarah B's Roasted Fennel, Blood Orange Mint Salad from My New Roots

Here's a yummy winter salad that will knock your socks off and make you feel like summer is upon us (if you can forget that oranges are a winter fruit).  One of the best things about eating seasonal is that the food tastes soooo good.  

This salad really simple, easy to prepare on a weekend while your significant other is shoveling the driveway, working on the computer, or doing other things without you!  He or she will be happy to tear him/herself away from their activity and join you in sharing a plate of this lovely (and also detox friendly!) winter salad. 

Recipe from My New Roots

Ingredients (serves 2 people)

2 fennel bulbs (1 per person)

3 blood oranges (you could also use navel oranges or grapefruit, but take into account that these are larger)

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

sea salt to taste

1 small red onion cut into rings

1 bunch of fresh mint (I to ~ 10 sprigs or so)

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350F or about 175C

2. Wash the fennel bulbs and remove the green parts.  Slice into sections about 1/2 inch thick.  Place fennel in a roasting pan, sprinkle with olive oil, white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and salt. Cook under fork tender, about 30 minutes.  

3. While the fennel is roasting, prepare the oranges.  Remove rind from the blood orange and slice horizontally to make orange rings.  

4. Cut the red onion in rings in paper-thin slices.  

5.  Roll up mint leaves (like you would basil leaves) and slice thinly into ribbons. 

6.  Arrange everything on a plate.  (I put the fennel in the center, surrounded with the orange rings, topped with the sliced onions and mint ribbons).  If there is juice left in the rind of the orange, squeeze it over the fennel (I did not do this).  Serve immediately.

Detox Review

I've mentioned detox in a couple of my other posts already, but I wanted to write a dedicated post on detoxing, at least for me if not for anyone else! I'll use this post to describe the general philosophy and a general idea of what we did to meet the goals of the detox.  I encourage you to check out this website if you want to learn more.

How this whole thing came about: 
This idea was first proposed to us by our friend as a great way to re-set for the new year.  She had done this detox before through Replenish PDX.  I just want to be clear that this was not our brain child or even something I was particularly interested in.  In fact, at first I was pretty resistant to the idea.... pretty convinced we wouldn't have the conviction to stick through it for 3 whole weeks...but after reviewing the general philosophy of the detox, proposed menus, and discussing with my friend in great detail, we took the plunge and hopped onto the detox bandwagon!

General Detox Philosophy:
First of all, I should say that there was a guide that we used to help direct our meal plans (see website link above) for each week.  In general, however, while the recommended meals could be used we could also use our own as long as they followed the 'rules' of this detox.

The point of our detox was to eat whole foods, whole grains, consume organic foods, eliminate gluten, eliminate dairy ... in general, to put good, natural foods into our bodies.  While it was possible to use canned or jarred foods, the point was to stay away from any canned, jarred, or otherwise packaged food that used preservatives, or ingredients in general one was not aware of (and no, just because you are aware of monosodium glutamate and can pronounce it, doesn't mean it was an included ingredient on this plan).

We eliminated as much gluten from our lives as we could. In general, bread was out, but it certainly was possible to have gluten free bread (I made a sweet-ish 'bread' from almond flour). Additionally, the soup I made for lunches during the week included 1/2 cup of barley (total about 10 servings), which I didn't feel it was necessary to eliminate. We also completely replaced white rice with whole grains (think: quinoa, brown rice, or bulgur), I will continue to replace white rice with whole grains, but I still love my sticky jasmine rice!

Dairy: this wasn't a huge change for me, but a much larger change for my husband.  First thing I noticed was that the hassle around the milk status in our house went away! The largest size milk carton that is offered here is 1 liter... we usually pick up 2 for my husband and I'll take a little for our coffees in the morning.  We're usually at the grocery store buying milk at least twice a week to accommodate my hubby's milk drinking habit, but during the entire detox, we've survived off of only 2 liters for 3 full weeks! Woo hoo!  Anyway, we still used milk to top off our non-caffeinated chai (see below for more on eliminating caffeine and a link to the chai recipe I used) and a cup of yogurt in the large pot of soup for lunches. Other than that, there was no other dairy in our diet (including cheese! - I will be reincorporating cheese into my life, love it too much!).

Caffeine: We were able to eliminate caffeine by week 2.  Both my husband and I were already down to 1 cup of coffee in the morning for the day just before starting the detox (prior to Christmas vacation I was easily drinking 2 cups of coffee in the morning with an occasional shot of espresso at work from the coffee machine).  With achieving 1 cup a day, I didn't feel a huge need to rid myself of coffee for the purpose of this detox.  Well, by week 2 I was waking up in the morning with a clear head and decided to be ambitious and eliminate coffee.  I replaced coffee with this chai without adding tea bags/leaves (so, really there was no caffeine, just a lot of spice oils and aromas!) and adding a little bit of warmed milk to top it off (much like our coffee).  The first 2-3 days were ok, there was a bit of a coffee headache to deal with there, but it was very manageable.  By the end of the week, it was gone and it was fabulous!  In the end, I'm glad I eliminated coffee, but I enjoy coffee too much to completely eliminate it.  I plan to stick to 1 cup a day as we were prior to the detox.  The best part of eliminating coffee was how clear and awake I felt in the morning without coffee, sometimes even before my alarm would go off, this was fantastic!

Cooking with whole foods: For me, the big change was eliminating eating out (yeah, didn't think I would say that about Eindhoven!).  When looking at the suggested recipes and picking some of my own that met the rules (I replaced a lot of olive oil with coconut oil, although olive oil is perfectly acceptable), I found that my normal approach to cooking was on par with the detox with only a few exceptions (think: replace all that white rice with quinoa or brown rice and no flour tortillas!).  The bigger change for us was eating at home, every single day, for all 3 weeks...I have to say, sometimes I was cooking on an empty belly!  Meal planning helped a lot here, and this surprisingly (although retrospectively this should not have been surprising!) resulted in a near empty fridge by Saturday morning (our typical shopping day)! I bought meat from the organic butcher as much as possible which had the side effect of resulting (think: expensive!) in many more vegetarian dishes in the week than normal (which also meant we added different vegetables to our standard week purchases such as spinach and kale).  Of course, the biggest thing I craved was, in fact, eating out and all of its conveniences (which are limited... in Eindhoven ....but nevertheless missed... ha!).

Results:
I've observed a couple of different things while being on this detox which I've mentioned above also.  For me, these are more way-of -life (god, am I starting to sound Dutch?) related observations.

1. Meal planning is great and resulted in a nearly empty fridge by Saturday morning almost every week.  It's laughable that it took this detox to get this concept through my head.  In the last 2 years prior to moving to Eindhoven, I lived only 2 blocks away from a fresh market that ran all year round.  While I miss that (and Italy) so much, I have to accept that this is my life now and weekly shopping is how it is.  Meal planning is something to embrace, but allow yourself some freedom to be inspired by what's at the market (I find Saturday's and Sunday's perfect for this).  
2. I woke up with a clear head in the morning.  My guess is that the reduction of caffeine has really contributed to this, but I also think the amount of water I'm drinking really helps to flush out my system and rid my body of various toxins I've consumed throughout the day, leaving my body and mind to be clear by the morning (I have no idea if this is scientifically a real thing).  Whatever it is, the biggest drawback is the need to pee A LOT, but I think well worth the inconvenience (unless you're stuck in a meeting and can't get out of it!).  The water consumption is something I will continue to observe, I've also taken to bringing water with me to work and a small tupperware with lemon juice to last me through the day.  
3. Meals made from whole foods without gluten (or limited amounts) and dairy (or limited amounts) can be delicious!  I was convinced that this lifestyle was too hippie for me, but with the encouragement of this detox to give it a whirl, I've been persuaded otherwise (and happily found out it wasn't a huge change to our life anyway)! Here are some photos (some include links where I've posted previously) of yummy meals we ate during this entire experience! I hope they emphasize that you don't have to go hungry during a detox/cleanse and you can be completely satisfied, not only with the taste of your food but in cooking it too! 

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Cod with Dill and Lemon (side: Lime lentil salad with cucumber, and cherry tomatoes)

Jeweled Rice

Roast chicken with a cilantro-pistachio pesto

Coconut Quinoa (note: contrary to Yiling's method for making the quinoa, I made it like I make white rice, 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of liquid - for this recipe split by coconut milk and water.  Either way works!):

Weekly snacks of nuts and seeds (in the 3rd week, these ended up with small amounts of raisins which was a nice treat):

Garlic-Ginger Pumpkin Seed Sauce/Dressing to accompany my version of winter abundance bowl (which is brown rice cooked with lentils served with steamed sweet potato and broccoli or cauliflower):

Cherry tomatoes for snack (I packed these babies into 5-10 tomatoes per bag for a snack each day): 

Baked salmon with a Orange-Red Pepper Cilantro Garnish :

Seed Porridge (blended flax seed, coconut flakes, chia seeds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds topped with berries or bananas):

And nnnnnoooooowwww, I'm rrrrreeeeeallllyyyyy looking forward to this: 

Have you done anything to change your diet in the new year?  Is your change temporary or permanent?  Any recommended whole food meals?