3 Add the raisins and cook for 5 minutes, continuing to stir. Stir in the coconut flakes, and continue to stir for another 5 minutes, until rice is soft.
4 Spread mixture evenly in 9″ × 13″ × 2″ rectangular glass pan or 12 6-ounce ramekins (see note). Allow to cool for 15 minutes. Sprinkle ground cinnamon on top to taste. Serve at room temperature (see note), or refrigerate and serve cold. When ready to serve, slice into squares.
Lisa See
Patricia Williams
SELECTED WOEKS
Shanghai Girls (2009)
Peony in Love (2007)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005)
The Red Princess Mystery series
On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family (1995)
Inspiration In 2000, while researching Chinese opera for an article I was writing, I came across the story of lovesick maidens — Chinese girls in the mid-seventeenth century who loved an opera called The Peony Pavilion but were never allowed to see it. These maidens caught “lovesickness” by simply reading the opera, and they would waste away and die. I became obsessed with the true story of three of these lovesick maidens, who were all married to the same man, one right after the other. Together they wrote The Three Wives Commentary, the first book of its kind to be written and published anywhere in the world by women. Even though these girls were young — not one of them reached age twenty — what they wrote about love 300 years ago is still absolutely true today. But even though I wanted to write about their lives and explore the different aspects of love, I couldn't figure out how to do it. I tucked all this away in the back of my mind, and I wouldn't use it for eight more years until I sat down to write Peony in Love.
A few years later, I was reviewing a book on the history of foot binding that mentioned nu shu — the only writing system found that was used exclusively by women in a remote county in southwest Hunan province in China for a thousand years. How could it be that I didn't know about it? I became fascinated. This led me, of course, to write Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
As I wrote the last page of Snow Flower, where the narrator, Lily, hopes her words will travel to the afterworld, I finally realized how I could tell the story of the three lovesick maidens. I'd use one voice, the voice of Peony, the first wife, and I'd follow her after she died so she could tell the story of her other sister-wives.
The Uniqueness of Female Relationships Shanghai Girls is about two sisters who leave Shanghai in 1937 and come to Los Angeles in arranged marriages. Sisters have a unique relationship. A sister is a person who's known you your whole life and therefore knows right where to drive the knife! In Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I wrote about best friends for life. Female friendship is different from any other relationship; it's a particular kind of intimacy. In Peony in Love, I wrote about three women married to the same man but also about the relationships among grandmother, mother, and daughter. I'm very interested in the beauty and wonder, as well as the dark shadow side, of female relationships.
Readers Frequently Ask After reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, book clubs continually ask: how could a mother bind her daughter's feet? In nineteenth century China, the one thing a mother could do to ensure a better life for her daughter was to help her marry into a better family. If that was the only thing we could do for our daughters today, wouldn't we be tempted to do it?
Book club members are also interested in the very different belief systems portrayed in my novels, especially the idea of the Chinese afterlife as depicted in Peony in Love. The Chinese believe that when you die, your emotions travel with you. This is very different from Western beliefs. Male and female readers have opposite reactions to this idea. The men often say they don't like the idea of having the same family in the afterlife. The women, on the other hand, love the idea of staying connected to their families after death. They still get to interfere in their lives! Women who read Peony in Love relish this idea of being able to maintain a connection to the people they love on earth, even after death.
Influences on My Writing Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner inspired me when I was working on On Gold Mountain, the history of my Chinese relatives. The narrator in Angle of Repose was also researching his family. Stegner's narrator says of the people he's been investigating, “I want to live in their clothes a while.” I feel that way about the research I do, whether it's for fictional characters or real people. I want to live in their clothes for a while, feel what they feel, and live where they live. This brings the characters alive not only for me, but I hope for my readers too.
As a child, every morning I would read “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling before I got out of bed. I loved the idea of being immersed in another culture, but also being able to relate to the people there. Reading that story made this completely different culture real and believable, like I was there in that garden in India.
LISA SEE'S WON TONS
Makes approximately 48 won tons
Food and the Chinese language are the two most important things in Chinese culture and to the Chinese people, so it's no wonder that they both play such important roles in all my books. In Peony in Love, food has a greater significance than usual. I don't want to give anything away, but it has to do with the nature of the lovesick maidens and what they were doing (or not doing) in life, as well as the ravenous desires of hungry ghosts.
We've always made won tons in my family. Everyone rolls their own won tons on Thanksgiving in my family. We have a lot of fun, everyone gets their fingers messy, and we come up with some odd shapes. Not to worry though; as long as the won ton is properly sealed, it will cook up just fine.
You can add anything you want to the filling — chopped Chinese mushrooms or garlic, for example — but below are my favorite ingredients. I love fresh ginger and the crunch of the water chestnuts.
If you have extra won tons, you can always make won ton soup. For won ton soup, boil the won tons for a couple of minutes to wash away the flour, drain, and then add them to your soup just before serving.
Note: One pound of ground chicken can be substituted for the pork and shrimp, but the filling will be less moist.
The number of won ton wrappers varies from package to package, but usually they have between 36 and 60 wrappers. I've included an extra package of wrappers in this recipe; the number of wrappers you'll use depends on how plump you make your won tons.
You can serve won tons hot or at room temperature. Won tons also travel well as long as you don't put them in a sealed container. I put them loose in a brown paper grocery bag lined on the bottom with a few paper towels. This helps to soak up any extra oil, keeps the won tons from getting soggy, and you don't have to wash your traveling container!
For an additional dipping sauce option, you can serve ready-made sweet and sour sauce.
FOR THE WON TONS
½ pound lean ground pork (see note)
½ pound uncooked shrimp, peeled, deveined, and minced (see note)
1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, minced
3 scallions, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh gingerroot
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 packages won ton skins (set aside one wrapper for testing) (see note)
1 large egg, beaten, to seal won tons
Peanut or safflower oil for frying
FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE
¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
Dash of Siracha chili sauce
1 scallion, chopped
1 To make the filling: In a medium bowl, combine pork, shrimp, water chestnuts, scallions, ginger, and soy sauce.
2 To assemble the won tons: Place won ton wrapper in front of you so that a corner is facing in your direction. Place about a teaspoon of the filling in that corner. Roll this corner toward the middle. Moisten the side corners with a drop of the beaten egg and fold those two ends together to lock the won ton in place. There should be a
single layer of won ton skin that curls out the back, like a jaunty scarf. Make sure the filling is sealed inside or the won tons will fall apart during cooking.
3 At this point you can store the won tons in the refrigerator until needed for cooking. When storing, make sure the won tons don't touch each other or they'll stick together.
4 To make the dipping sauce: Combine ingredients in a small bowl.
5 To fry the wontons: Pour 1–2 inches of oil into a pot or deep-sided skillet. Heat oil over medium heat. Test the oil temperature by tearing off pieces of one won ton wrapper and dropping them in the oil. The wrapper should turn brown quickly but not get too dark. Fry a few won tons at a time in a single layer until golden and crispy. Make sure they don't touch each other, and use tongs to flip them. Don't overcook! Drain on paper towels. Serve with dipping sauce.
THREE GENERATION CURRIED TOMATO BEEF LO MEIN
Makes 4–6 servings
Food is memory, and many of my memories are linked to food. This recipe has grown and evolved over three generations in my family. My grandfather used to own a restarant in Los Angeles's Chinatown called Dragon's Den. It was only the seventh family-style Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles. Back in 1936, when Dragon's Den opened, this dish — minus the curry and the noodles — cost just twenty-five cents. The restaurant had closed by the time I was born, but I can remember my grandfather making a version of the Dragon's Den tomato beef at home.
My father first tasted curried tomato beef chow mein (with fried noodles) in a restaurant in San Francisco. He later found it in a café on San Pedro Street, close to Ninth Street, and opposite the wholesale produce market in Los Angeles. He's been perfecting his version ever since. You can use Chinese egg or rice noodles for this dish, but my dad uses angel hair pasta. If I'm not in the mood for noodles, then I just serve the curried tomato beef with rice. My other addition to the recipe is the marinade. It tenderizes the beef and adds a little extra flavor. What I love about this dish is the taste of the tomatoes and vinegar. It's a combination that takes me right back to my childhood. Best of all, this dish is fast, colorful, and combines all the food groups.
Tomato beef is a uniquely Chinese-American dish — symbolic in many ways of Amer-ica's “melting pot.” “Mein” means noodles in Cantonese, but beef and tomatoes are not typical Chinese ingredients. In the past, if you were Chinese and lucky enough to own your own restaurant, you put together ingredients you thought would please your American customers. That's how American tomatoes and beef came to be thrown together with Chinese noodles. For a time, tomato beef chow mein and curried tomato beef chow mein could be found on every menu in Chinese-American restaurants and cafés, such as the Golden Dragon Café and Pearl's Coffee Shop in Shanghai Girls. Now you can't even find tomato beef in Chinese restaurants! No one asks for it, orders it, or remembers it. So this truly is a taste of the past, specifically 1950s Chinese America.
Note: There is no right or wrong way to make this dish. It's all about your personal taste and whether you like more vinegar or sugar.
For the more health conscious, you can substitute chicken for the beef. My dad fries boneless, skinless chicken thighs until they're done enough to cut them up easily. Then he adds them back to the wok after the onion and bell pepper to cook a bit more.
Some people like to add the noodles to the wok and toss them with the other ingredients. Transfer to a platter and sprinkle with cilantro.
FOR THE MARINADE
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon dry sherry
1 teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon salt
Black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon cornstarch
FOR THE NOODLES OR RICE AND STIR-FRY
1 pound flank steak, cut into ¼-inch strips against the grain (see note)
1 pound pasta of your choice, or 1 cup rice
2–3 tablespoons canola oil
1 medium to large onion, cut into 1-inch squares
1 green bell pepper, chopped into 1-inch squares
1 tablespoon Madras curry powder
3–6 tablespoons white vinegar (see note)
1–3 teaspoons sugar (see note)
4 Roma tomatoes, quartered
2–3 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro leaves, for garnish
1 In medium bowl, combine soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil, salt, pepper to taste, and cornstarch. Add sliced beef, and let marinate for 20 minutes.
2 Heat water in a large pot and cook the noodles of your choice or rice according to package instructions. When done, drain the noodles or rice and put them on a platter (see note).
3 While noodles are cooking, heat oil in a wok or frying pan over high heat. When oil is hot and smoking, add the beef and stir fry until browned but not fully cooked, about 4 minutes. Add the onion and bell pepper. After they've cooked for a while but are still crisp (3–4 minutes), add the curry powder, vinegar, and sugar. Add tomatoes and cook until just heated through. (You don't want the vegetables to lose their shape. They should remain whole and crisp.) Taste for flavor. The sauce should be strong, because it will be toned down by the noodles or rice.
4 Pour the curried tomato beef on top of the noodles, sprinkle with chopped cilantro, and serve.
Garth Stein
Frank Huster
SELECTED WOEKS
The Art of Racing in the Rain (2007)
How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets (2005)
Raven Stole the Moon (1998, republished 2010)
Inspiration When I hear the voice of a character or several characters, I get really excited about finding their stories. For me, it isn't so much creating, but rather discovering or excavating the backgrounds and lives of these characters. I know my story will work when I start talking about it with my wife and she gets a little spooked. “They're here,” she says. And they are here. We can feel them. They are showing me the way; they are telling me what they will do next. When they start telling me how the story goes, I know I have it, and then I get very excited about writing.
The Drama of Everyday Life My writing tends to grapple with families in crisis: in Raven Stole the Moon a woman struggles with her grief over the death of her young son; in How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets, a musician must reveal his secret — he has epilepsy — to a teenage son he has never met; and in The Art of Racing in the Rain, a man must choose between his racing career and custody of his daughter in the wake of his wife's death. My interest is not in every day life, but in the dramatic moments, the moments when people are forced to act even when they might not want to. My goal is to capture these moments in an honest and humorous way that inspires people and highlights the drama of our everyday lives.
Readers Frequently Ask Everyone wants to know about the stuffed zebra that figures prominently in The Art of Racing in the Rain. I rarely speak about the zebra. Some things about books are fun to learn from the authors of those books; some things are more fun to puzzle out for oneself. I think all Zebronic themes fall into the latter category.
Theatrical Influence My writing has been mostly influenced by the theater. I have always acted, and I wrote a play that was produced in Los Angeles a few years ago, titled Brother Jones. I very much enjoy the immediacy of drama that comes to life on stage. Therefore, my greatest influences are Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, Tom Stoppard, Sam Shepherd, Bertolt Brecht, and others in the theater. I look forward to writing more plays in the future.
ENZO'S PANCAKES
Makes 16–18 medium pancakes
My childhood dog was an Airedale terrier named Muggs, to whom I dedicated my book. She loved pancakes more than any other food, and, in fact, her last meal was “hotcakes,” as my mother calls them. My current dog, Comet, was cut from the same cloth apparently, because she loves pancakes as well; in our house, Sunday is Pancake Day, and I know it is Comet's favorite day of the week. I am not above stealing from my own life for my books, so it was a no-brainer for me to give Enzo, the narrator of The Art of Racing in the Ra
in, this passion for pancakes.
When trying to think of a recipe that reflected some part of my book, I had to go with our Sunday pancakes. Enzo has some dietary peculiarities: he loves pancakes and bananas; peperoncini upsets his stomach; he enjoys cookie batter when he can get it. If you want to go completely crazy with these pancakes, add a mashed banana — Enzo's second favorite food!
My wife, Drella, and I discovered this recipe many years ago, when my two older boys were on a gluten- and casein-free diet. We absolutely loved the flavor of all the different flours. Several years ago, after my kids were liberated from their dietary restrictions, we kept making this recipe though we now usually use cow's milk and real eggs instead of their substitutes. Still, these pancakes can go either way and are equally delicious.
If you try this recipe, I hope you keep in mind the tastes of your personal Enzo — dogs love pancakes!
(Thanks to Gifts of Nature, an all natural baking mix company, Bette Hagman and, of course, Drella.)
Note: We use cow's milk now, but you can easily use rice milk or another milk substitute, to make it casein-free. If you do so, reduce the sugar by a teaspoon. Egg substitute is totally acceptable as well.
Bette Hagman's flour mix is available online or in natural foods stores.
These pancakes won't bubble as visibly as flour pancakes, so you need to watch the doneness by lifting the edge of your pancakes with a spatula. If the batter gets too thick, thin with a little water. If they end up gummy, your griddle is too hot!
For waffles, add ¼ cup milk or water, 1 egg, and 2 tablespoons oil, and use a waffle iron. Yum!
2 cups Drella's Modified Flour Mix (see recipe), or Bette Hagman's 4 Flour Blend (see note)
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
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