When unmolded onto a large platter garnished with fresh fruit, such as grapes, lady apples, tiny pears, and some greenery, this gelatin can serve as the centerpiece on a holiday buffet table. It is a stunning presentation and tastes so good, too. If you are not a fan of alcohol, you can replace the wine with any cranberry juice mix.
Whether shopping in your own garden or your neighbor’s, or at a farmers’ market, look for small vegetables for this. You want baby eggplant, either long Asian-style or smaller Italian globes, picked when the skin is still shiny and the interior seeds are still small. Skinny Italian frying peppers. Sweet garden onions with the green tops still attached. Thin-skinned cherry tomatoes and zucchini picked well before they explode. I’d avoid those tiny, bland “baby zucchini”; in my experience, zucchini doesn’t develop any personality until adolescence.
Prawn Curry with Darkened Cinnamon
An˘duru kurun˘du saman˘ga issan kariy
My Ammamma used to say that you were already aged two on your first birthday, that wearing a bra really showed a lack of decorum, and that Jaffna’s famous crab curry should be cooked like meat. Look, we didn’t agree about everything, but on crab, or nandu, and I know everyone says this about their own granny, there just isn’t a greater authority. And of Sri Lanka’s hundreds of lovely curry recipes, Jaffna crab curry is widely regarded as our best.
INGREDIENTS
This will be a revelation to those who tend toward plain steamed basmati. The method is fail-safe, and the result is stunning.
Thanksgiving is less than one week away! You've got your turkey taken care of, and mashed potatoes practically make themselves. But do you have a recipe for my very favorite holiday condiment: cranberry sauce?
Wine syrups are the answer to what you can easily have waiting in the fridge to tune up simple foods. A plate of fresh fruit, a scoop of ice cream or a store-bought brownie tastes a lot more interesting when drizzled with this syrup. It’s also pretty good on roasting chicken, lamb and especially pork. Brushed on grilling ribs, or yams—it’s really fine.
Ingredients
Of the many preserves made by my grandmother, one of the few made also by my mother was pickled peaches. Every summer mother made two or three large jars, and we generally ate them during the Christmas holidays. When I was first married, I, too, put up pickled peaches. These wine-infused pickled pears are a more elegant preparation, and I think more versatile.