Chlorentine cooking #5: Well-Intentioned White Women
I usually kept my socio-political beliefs to a minimum while cooking. Not this week.
When this started this cooking newsletter, I originally kept my socio-political beliefs to a minimum, relegated to the bottom section. I work in politics, read and watch a lot about politics— basically breathe politics. Running and cooking allow me to dissociate from my normal work self.
Not this week. It started with Ahmaud Arbery and the rise of his murder’s profile. On Wednesday evening, my activist friends and the POC running groups I follow all started posting about #IRunWithMaud. By Thursday morning, every white runner and white liberal activist I knew hopped on the bandwagon. By Thursday afternoon, Pinterest-y posts circulated amongst my white-liberal-but-only-vote-in-national-elections-since-2016-friends.
As Asian American, I live in the in-between. In the eyes of white people, we hold privileges above that of Black and Brown folx, and yet simultaneously reminded of our otherness and that we may rise only so far. It also means that as Asian-Americans, our allyship to our Black and Brown sisters and brothers is tested at moments when they need our support the most. And in this case, I purposefully refrained from commenting in my own voice but only shared/promoted Black voices who hold the space I should not occupy.
I was TIRED of the white performative commentary on Ahmaud (and don’t get me started on the trauma inflicted BY SHARING THE VIDEO OF HIS GODDAMN MURDER). I logged off on Friday afternoon, went on my 2.23 mile run (there’s WAY MORE that we can all do as a running community to uplift POC runners than one solidarity run), and then someone sent me the Alison Roman article.
White women, come get your millennial kitchen guru. Sure, Alison Roman’s recipes are 80% solid and normally hard to fuck up (and trust me as someone who tried to make one of her recipes and mildly screwed up in a previous newsletter). But her edge of success does not give her license to take down women of color, especially not in the same breath as she promotes her own “indie” kitchenware partnership. If you try to justify her half-assed comment about Goop to negate her singling out two Asian women by name, please GTFO. Also, Chrissy Teigen had signed on to executive produce Roman’s show… biting off the hand who feeds you.
This is all to say, I don’t trust well-intentioned white women who say “I’m not racist but…”, “I have a black/POC friend, so I can’t be a racist,” and “I posted this thing previously, therefore I’m not racist.” So this week’s newsletter is dedicated to promoting the success of people of color, and elevating spaces of our own.
COOKING RECIPE OF THE WEEK:
Sohla El-Waylly’s Spiced Lamb and Yogurt Pasta
I made a half portion because we only had half the yogurt and dill, and made some substitutions based on what I had in my pantry.
INGREDIENTS
3 large egg yolks
2 cups kefir (cultured milk) or whole-milk plain yogurt (I used non-fat)
3 cups (lightly packed) dill fronds with tender stems (about 1 large bunch), divided
3 garlic cloves, divided
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
½ cup pine nuts or slivered almonds (I used pine nuts, but they are expensive so almonds and even pistachios could work well)
½ cup dried currants or raisins (I used rehydrated dried dates, chopped up. This could also work with dried apricots or yellow raisins.)
1 tsp. kosher salt, plus more
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 lb. ground lamb (We had ground lamb, but you could substitute for pork, turkey (I’d add some paprika to get that smoke-y flavor), or even Beyond Meat ground)
1 lb. orecchiette (We had cavatelli, which is very similar in texture and end result)
½ lemon
Combine egg yolks, yogurt, and 1½ cups dill in a blender; finely grate in 1 garlic clove and blend until smooth. Set purée aside. Finely chop remaining dill; set aside.
Melt butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add pine nuts and cook, stirring often, until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Add dried currants and cook, stirring often, until plump, about 1 minute. Scrape nut mixture into a small bowl; season with salt.
Wipe out the skillet (Honestly I didn’t do this because there wasn’t much left in the pan) and heat over medium-high. Stir together cumin, pepper, and 1 tsp. salt in a small bowl. Place lamb in pan and use a sturdy spatula to aggressively flatten (like you’re making smash burgers); sprinkle spice mixture over. Cook, undisturbed, until lamb is well browned and crisp underneath, about 4 minutes (this took closer to 6 minutes for me to get some good browning). Hold back meat and drain off all of the fat (there really wasn’t anything to drain, maybe I got a lean pack of ground lamb?). Break up meat into small pieces and mix in reserved nut mixture. Finely grate in remaining 2 garlic cloves (eh I just smashed and minced) and add reserved chopped dill. Cook, stirring, until herbs are wilted, about 1 minute. Set aside until pasta is ready.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until 1 minute shy of al dente (pasta will finish cooking in the sauce). Drain pasta and return to pot.
Pour reserved purée over pasta and set over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens enough to cling to pasta and just comes to a simmer, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; finely grate zest from lemon half over pasta, then squeeze in juice. (I forgot the lemon and I’m not sure if it really would have added any more flavor to this already delicious, tangy dish.) Season with salt.
Divide pasta among bowls and top with lamb mixture.
BAKING RECIPE OF THE WEEK:
Té Company’s Spicy Pineapple Linzer Cookies
Frederico Ribeiro (former sous-chef at Per Sé) created this recipe for his wife Elena Liao’s Taiwanese tea shop, Té Company, in the West Village (we stan a WOC-owned business). The recipe is inspired by her love of Taiwanese pineapple cakes. Read more about the cookies here.
For a home baker with a tiny oven, this recipe is only manageable in half, so I’m giving half proportions and I changed a few things to make it easier.
Cookie Dough
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3/4 cups plus 3 tbsp. hazelnut flour (I got hazelnuts from Trader Joe’s and blitzed them in a food processor. You could also use toasted almond flour.)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. Kosher salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 2⁄3 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg
½ tsp. of vanilla bean paste
Pineapple Jam
2 1/2 cups cleaned pineapple, cubed (I cut a medium sized fresh pineapple, but you could just use a 20 oz can of Dole, drained)
1 cup granulated sugar
1-2 sprigs rosemary
1 tsp. Kosher salt
Zest and juice of 1/2 lime
½-1 tablespoon yuzu kosho (It’s preserved yuzu (Japanese lemon/lime citrus) and peppers. You can get this at Trader Joe’s in a liquid form and Whole Foods has it in a paste. Both are really strong, so add little-by-little to your own liking)
1 teaspoon of yuzu juice (you could just add more lime juice)
Maldon sea salt, for serving
Instructions
Make the pineapple jam
In a medium saucepan, bring the pineapple and 2/3 cup water to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook until the liquid has nearly evaporated, about 10 minutes. Transfer pineapple to a blender (or use an immersion blender) and purée. Return pineapple to the saucepan and add the sugar.
Only stir the pot enough to see the sugar begin to dissolve. Cook until the pineapple starts to caramelize, about 18-25 minutes. Do not stir/agitate the mixture a lot or you’ll get chunks of sugar crystals. (The second time I made this jam, I added a little bit of pectin and you could add a tiny bit of bloomed gelatin because the first time I made this, the jam wasn’t quite thick enough to sit out at room temp in the cookies.)
Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the rosemary and stir to coat. Stir in the salt, yuzu kosho (the original recipe spreads the kosho separate from the jam but since I had the TJ’s liquid version, I added it to the jam, and realized it makes the recipe easier, too), yuzu and lime juice. Allow it to set up in the fridge.
Cookies
Whisk together flours, salt, and baking powder in a bowl; set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium speed in a hand mixer or stand mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg, beating well until smooth; beat in vanilla.
Add dry ingredients and beat until just combined. Divide dough into 2 balls and wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
On a lightly floured surface and working with one dough ball at a time, roll out about 1⁄8-inch thick. Using a 3-inch round cutter, cut out cookies and transfer to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Re-roll scraps to cut out more. Using a 3⁄4-inch round cutter (I used a pastry bag piping tip), cut out another circle off-center from about half of the cookies.
Stick the cookies back in the fridge before baking to allow them to firm up.
Heat oven to 325°. Bake cookies, rotating pans in the oven, until lightly golden, about 15-20 minutes. Before they cool completely, on warm cookies, top with fresh lime zest and Maldon sea salt. (The zest and salt will stick better if the cookies are still warm.)
To assemble the cookies, Spread about 1 1/2 tablespoon of jam on a full cookie and cover it with a cookie with a hole in it.
Extra reading:
I shared Sohla’s recipe above and you should read this piece featuring her and her husband’s former restaurant in What Happens When a Brown Chef Cooks White Food?.
If you didn’t watch Little Fires Everywhere, you didn’t see the so-true-bordering-on-satirical portrayal of the “well-intentioned white lady” by Reese Witherspoon. It’s worth reading author Celeste Ng’s interview about it.
Honestly, the only thing that kept my blood pressure down were puppy pictures, so frolic through Dogspotting on Facebook or @dog_rates (We Rate Dogs) on Twitter.