To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Dear Chef Nyla — I know, you like me to call you Nyla, but this note is from a soon-to-be chef (me) to a real chef (you):
I had to write and tell you about my first week of school. Richmond Hill High School is totally amazing. There are a lot more kids than at my old school, and it’s pretty big. At first I was nervous, but it seems okay now.
Yesterday I finally started the C-CAP part of my curriculum. The first section is going to be on stocks and sauces. Eventually, we are going to learn to do things like cut up meat and fish. The teacher said it’s like being in regular culinary school. Pretty cool.
We have regular teachers, but then there are guest teachers — chefs from the big restaurants in the city, even a few Food Network chefs! Last week, Chef Daisy Martinez came to visit!!
Hope to see you soon.
Hugs,
Anjali
I read the e-mail through one more time before I hit send, then sit back in my chair. The smell of the curried mango that Deema is making for the family seeps into my room from the kitchen. I take a deep breath and stretch.
Ginger Beer
8 ounces fresh ginger, peeled and grated on the large holes of a box grater
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
12 cups water
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
6 sprigs mint for garnish
1. Put the ginger, lime juice, mace, and 1 1/2 cups of the light brown sugar into an 8-quart pot and add 12 cups of water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.
2. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the pot and add the pod.
3. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
4. Pour the cooled ginger mixture into a widemouthed gallon jug to steep. Cover the jar tightly and refrigerate for 1 week.
5. Strain the ginger mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into another widemouthed gallon glass or ceramic jar, firmly pressing on the solids with the back of a spoon to extract as much flavor as possible. Discard the solids.
6. Serve in glasses over crushed ice, garnished with mint sprigs. Ginger beer may be stored in a sealable glass jar, refrigerated, for up to 2 weeks.
Makes 8 to 10 eight-ounce servings.
Prasad
2 cups ghee (clarified butter)
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 cups farina
2 cups whole milk
3 twelve-ounce cans evaporated milk
4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
Raisins, grated fresh coconut, coarsely chopped almonds, and a few cooked chickpeas, for garnish
1. Heat all but 2 teaspoons of the ghee in a large, deep frying pan. Add the golden raisins and fry over medium-low heat until they become plump.
2. Add the farina one-quarter cup at a time, stirring constantly, until it becomes light brown.
3. While the farina is toasting, in a separate pan, combine the whole milk, evaporated milk, sugar, ginger, and cardamom. Bring just to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and add the milk mixture to the farina mixture, one-quarter cup at a time, until the prasad forms semimoist clumps.
4. Remove from the heat.
5. Heat the remaining ghee in a small frying pan, and add the raisins, coconut, almonds, and chickpeas. Fry until the raisins are plump, about 30 to 40 seconds. Stir while frying. Garnish the prasad with this mixture.
Makes 4 to 6 servings
BONUS RECIPE — Success
5 cups togetherness
4 pounds hard work
ambition as needed
equal measure of reality
liberal sprinkling of joy
satisfaction for finishing the dish
1. Put the togetherness and hard work into the large bowl of a food processor. Pulse evenly until well combined.
2. Remove the mixture from the bowl and knead lightly. Roll out into a large flat round that covers the entire work surface.
3. Walking around the table, spoon big dollops of ambition on the surface of the round. Spoon out enough reality to match ambition equally.
4. Sprinkle liberally with joy and allow to sit for a few days.
5. Garnish with just enough satisfaction to sweeten, and serve generously.
Author’s Note
With the exception of my friend and colleague Chef Daisy Martinez, the characters and places in this tale are fictional. However, readers familiar with New York City, particularly Manhattan and Queens, will recognize the terrain of Richmond Hill, the Indo-Caribbean neighborhood where Anjali lives; Forest Hills, where she goes to school; and Manhattan’s Chelsea, where the Food Network is located. Certain locales such as Chelsea Market, Stuyvesant High School, and the Institute of Culinary Education are, in fact, real places. While the entrance exam to Stuyvesant High School, or Specialized High School Admissions Test as it is more properly called, is a real event, I have taken liberties with the time the test is given for the purposes of the story. The other characters and events in this story are entirely fictional and bear no resemblance to real people, though I hope readers will find some piece of themselves in this story. Some recipes appearing here were originally published in Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad & Tobago (Hippocrene Books, © Ramin Ganeshram 2006; second edition 2010).
Acknowledgments
The greatest measure of my thanks goes to my editor, Andrea Pinkney, who saw the potential of this story when it was only a germ of an idea and whose boundless excitement for this work has kept me going full steam ahead. Thank you to my blood brother, Ramesh Ganeshram, and soul brother, Darrel Sukhdeo, for being careful readers and energetic cheerleaders. My gratitude is endless for my tireless agent, Michael Psaltis, who often sees the path clearer than I do. Many thanks to Chef Rob Bleifer, the captain at the helm of Food Network’s test kitchens, for giving me the tour and chat that enabled me to write the in-studio and contest scenes in the book. What can I say about my friend, and one of my own culinary heroes, Daisy Martinez, for agreeing to let me make her a character in this book? Thank you a million times, Daisy, for all you do and for being who you are.
Gratitude to my husband, Jean Paul Vellotti, for believing in my work. Speaking of champions, no one is a greater cheerleader than my dear friend Monica Bhide, from whom great things always come.
Most of all, an infinity of thank-yous to my sweet daughter, Sophia Parvin Vellotti, for being my reason and passion to write and live.
About the Author
Ramin Ganeshram has written for many publications, including The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, and Bon Appétit. She is the author of the cookbook Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad and Tobago. Stir It Up! marks her children’s book debut. She lives in Westport, Connecticut, with her family.
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by Ramin Ganeshram
Cover Photo-Illustration © 2011 By Marc Tauss
Cover Design By Marijka Kostiw
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
CIP information available
Recipes for Coconut Sweet Bread, Green Seasoning, Creole Rice, Sweet Rice (Coconut Rice Pudding), Ginger Beer, and Prasad are reproduced from Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad & Tobago, second edition, by Ramin Ganeshram. Copyright © 2006, 2010 b
y Ramin Ganeshram. Reprinted by permission from Hippocrene Books, Inc.
First edition, August 2011
Book design by Marijka Kostiw
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eISBN 978-0-545-38935-8
Stir It Up Page 9