Photo of the Day: Delhi Elephant

I should be jaded about seeing elephants by now. I've seen them just about every time I've been in India. Sometimes they're creating traffic jams (once, in Varanasi, while I was on my bike) and sometimes they're blocking traffic in such a way that a pedestrian can cross the street freely and with no fear of being run down. (Alas, that only happened to me once, but there's always hoping.)

Sometimes, I have to wait until the very end of my trip to see one. A few years ago, I was in the car with Navtej and Sunil, on the way to the airport, when the headlights picked up several shapes lumbering in the distance--3 elephants, on the airport road. "I wonder where they're going," I said. "To the airport, of course," Navtej replied, and we all laughed.

So it was on this most recent trip. I was having lunch at Rasil's house on my final day in Delhi, and over the wall, we saw the swaying top of the elephant's back. This elephant and its mahout apparently roam the area--one of Delhi's nicest neighborhoods--looking for people with well-lined pockets who might want an elephant ride. When I left Rasil's house and walked down the service lane beside her house, there they were. The mahout beckoned to me--perhaps I was one of those people who would like a ride--but I waved him away. I did get close enough, however, to take this photo. And then, elephant sighting completed, I walked through the gate into Lodi Garden and onto the rest of my day. I was very sad to be leaving India, but at least there had been an elephant to wish me farewell.

Friday Link Love

Fridays are going to be my roundup day, with some links of things I found interesting during the week.

This week's links are divided into categories.

The Political

This is clearly not a political blog, but given the news this week, I'm going to include 2 pieces.

"The Lies They Tell Us" is a Foreign Policy article about Pakistan, which includes a discussion with Sohaib Athar, the Pakistani IT consultant and coffee shop owner in Abbottabad who gained instant fame for becoming "the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it," gaining more than 100,000 Twitter followers as a result. Athar has posted an FAQ on his site from all the many (many) questions he's been getting on Twitter.

The other piece is Megan McArdle's post about the fake Martin Luther King quotation that flew through cyberspace in the wake of bin Laden's death. I'm not much of a McArdle fan--I don't agree with her politically and find her generally irritating--but I thought this was interesting, and given that she was the person who discovered the quote was fake (and has the platform to talk about it), it seemed fitting to let her describe it. A less thorough analysis was in a blog in the Christian Science Monitor as well.

The Sad:

Derek Miller was a writer, blogger, musician (and much more) from Vancouver who died of cancer at 41 earlier this week. In his blog, he wrote a last post, his own obituary: The Last Post. It is lucid, thoughtful and very sad. The Vancouver Sun also published a tribute to him.

The Uplifting:

I'm a recent convert to The Rumpus' advice column, Dear Sugar, but I think she is very wise and knows of which she writes. Also, while reading this column, I realized that I think I know who she is in real life. (I've had a few clues, but only while reading this column did it suddenly make sense.) Still, Sugar is Sugar as well as her real self, so I will let her continue to be that, especially in case I am wrong. Dear Sugar: The Future Has an Ancient Heart or, a graduation speech for English majors.

The Delicious:

I am always a sucker for cheese biscuits, and these look particularly yummy. Not sure when I will have the occasion to make them, but I hope it will be soon. Cheese Biscuits from Food52. There will be more about Food 52 next week.

The Overdue:

In past years, I have posted the links of all of the other bloggers participating in the blogathon on my own blog, but I think the list is actually too long to do that this year--nearly 200 bloggers and more than 200 blogs! (Some people are very ambitious, blogging every day in multiple blogs--I can't even imagine!) Thankfully, Michelle Rafter has the list up, and so I will link it here and encourage you to check out some of the many other interesting bloggers posting daily this month. I certainly plan to!

The 2011 Blogathon Blogroll

Happy Friday!

P.S. If you're wondering about the above photo, I've decided to also use the Friday posts to post random photos I like but have no other place to put. The photo above, as some might know, was taken inside the sculpture "Cloud Gate," otherwise known as "The Bean" in Millenium Park in Chicago.

Deborah Madison's Spinach Frittata: or, Friends with Chickens

At the beginning of the academic year, I acquired a new office neighbor. This was a good thing, as my office is on the third floor of an old house, tucked under the eaves, and for company, I was reduced to calling across what once had been an attic playroom to my colleague on the other side. But then, the empty office next to mine was suddenly populated, and first, I had a neighbor, and after not very long, I had a new friend. (Hi Beth!)

Beth has been a lovely new friend. (She, in fact, was the one who suggested that I go to Navdanya in January!) But in addition to all of her fine qualities, there's another thing: she has chickens. I heard last fall about the building of the chicken coop and the acquisition of 8 hens. I heard about the months in which those 8 chickens, expensively settled into their expensive coop, showed little interest in laying eggs. But then, at long last, they began to lay eggs, just in time for our winter from hell, and then I heard stories of Beth's 8 year old daughter going out to feed the chickens and coming back with frozen hair while reporting that the chicken's water was also frozen. Ah, the joys of outdoor animals in a New England winter!

But through it all, those intrepid hens kept laying eggs. And some of the eggs laid by Tiny, Chinchilinna, Bindi, Fluffy, Hannah, and Fluffy-Lucky-Dr.Dufenschwartz found their way to me. (I am sad to report that of the original 8, Dora was lost to a skunk and Nemo to a hawk; Beth would probably like me point out that 1) her 2 daughters named the chickens and 2) they will stay away from Disney names in future.)

Over the past few months, I've scrambled the eggs and poached them and made them into egg salad. I've put them in quiche and custard and Deborah Madison's chard and onion torta. And yesterday, I had 3 eggs left from the last batch Beth had given me, and I made this frittata.

This frittata has much to recommend it--it's easy and quick, filling and delicious. And if this happens to be early May and new spinach and green onions are readily available at the farmers' market, even better. Although I always like spinach and cheddar together, I used the goat cheese called for in the recipe and was not sorry. The whole thing was done very quickly. You can mix together the eggs while the spinach is cooking down, and as long as the heat is low, you can go off and do other things for the 8 or so minutes that the frittata is cooking. When the mingled and yummy smell of green onions and goat cheese begins to permeate your kitchen, you'll know it's almost done.

Meanwhile, I brought an empty egg carton to work and left it meaningfully on Beth's desk. I'm already plotting what Chinchilinna and co.'s next offerings will become.

Spinach Frittata
from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen

8 to 10 ounces baby spinach leaves
2 tbsp. butter
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
4 eggs
2 scallions, including 3 inches of greens, thinly sliced
3 ounces crumbled firm goat cheese

1. Put the spinach in a large skillet with a teaspoon or so of the butter, season with a few pinches of salt, and add a tablespoon of water to create a little steam. Cook over medium heat until wilted and tender, about 3 minutes. Drain and chop coarsely.

2. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl with several pinches of salt and some pepper. Stir in the scallions, cheese and spinach.

3. Melt the remaining butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet. When it foams, swirl it around the pan, coating the sides. Add the eggs, reduce the heat to low, then cover the pan and cook until golden and puffed, about 8 minutes. If, at this time, it's cooked to your tasted, slide it out onto a serving plate without turning it over. If you like your eggs cooked more firmly, slide the frittata onto a plate, invert the skillet over it, then, grasping both the plate and the skillet in your hands, invert the whole thing. Cook the second side for a few more minutes, then slide the frittata onto the plate, cut into quarters and serve.

Serves 2-4, depending on what else you're serving and how hungry you are.

Melissa Clark's Olive Oil Granola

I have to admit, I was somewhat hesitant to write about this granola. After all, it's not as if it hasn't already received its fair share of attention. Melissa Clark first wrote about it in her Good Appetite column in the NY Times in 2009, and the recipe was reprinted in her excellent cookbook last year. In between, it was blogged about repeatedly.

But then I thought about how I felt recently when I realized that my supply of the stuff was almost gone--panicked. I couldn't imagine the house without even a little bit of the granola around, for breakfast and for snacks, occasionally for dessert. The granola, I decided, was worth my adding my voice to the crowd.

It's not as if I was looking for a new granola recipe. For years, I've been making (and eating) Suzanne's Famous Cashew Granola quite happily. But when I read about this version, I was intrigued by the combination of sweet, salty and slightly bitter that Clark says makes it so delicious. She was absolutely right.

Like most granolas, the recipe for this one is flexible. The original version Clark tasted had cashews and sunflower seeds. She changed this to pistachios--because that's what she had on hand--and pumpkin seeds because she doesn't like sunflower seeds. In my version, I go back to cashews and add some sliced almonds in, and replace half the pumpkin seeds with sunflower seeds, which I like just fine. I also upped the fruit a bit and used 1/2 dried apricot and 1/2 dried cranberries. (One of the other folks blogging about it liked that the original recipe had no almonds or cranberries in it--apparently a granola cliche--but I like them, and in my version, they stay.) Clark uses coconut chips, I used shredded coconut--as long as it's unsweetened, I don't think it matters. The only things not to tamper with are the olive oil, the maple syrup and the salt. Beyond that, tinker to your heart's delight. I have no doubt that it will be delicious. I even saw a Passover recipe that replaced the oats with matzoh--and that was apparently fabulous as well. With this granola, you can do no wrong.


Alas, my current supply is now low again--I know what's going to be on my to-do list for the weekend! I encourage you to do the same.

Olive Oil Granola With Dried Apricots and Nuts

Adapted from Melissa Clark's recipe in A Good Appetite

Time: 50 minutes

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 1/2 cups slivered almonds and/or cashews (I used toasted almonds and raw cashews.)

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup coconut chips or other form of dried coconut

3/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom or ginger

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, combine oats, nuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, coconut, maple syrup, olive oil, brown sugar, salt, and spices. Spread mixture on a rimmed baking sheet in an even layer and bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden brown and well toasted.

2. Transfer granola to a large bowl and add dried fruit, tossing to combine.

Yield: About 9 cups.

Hot Cross Buns, belatedly

Okay, yes, I know my timing is off here. Hot cross bun season is now over until next spring, and here I am posting about it. But by next spring, I will not remember much about my recent experience baking hot cross buns, so I wanted to make sure it was recorded for posterity.

My timing was off in several ways, in fact. Hot cross buns are not a food of my origins, shall we say, and to have made hot cross buns during Passover, no less, appears to make me a very bad Jew. Ah well. There is also the hot cross bun story I always think of when I go by the Bakery Normand in Northampton on an early spring day to see if they have any hot cross buns. Normand's is known around town both for its excellent array of baked goods and for its exceptionally cranky counter staff. Some years ago, I went in during the spring sometime and asked when there would be hot cross buns available. The pierced and surly counter person sniffed at me and said, "I have no idea. I'm not really into religion." And I thought, "You know, I'm not really into religion either. In fact, I'm a Jew who likes hot cross buns. But given that you work in a bakery, it's probably not a bad idea to know when seasonal products are going to be around." But, of course, I didn't actually say any of that because really, what was the point.

I did, in fact, eat a hot cross bun or two from Normand's this year (that counter person having moved on to hopefully less surly climes), but I also wanted to try to make some myself. I saw a recipe in Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book, which was intriguing. (Although I own another Cunningham book, I'd never heard of this one until Molly at Orangette posted the ginger muffins from it, which I made and which were delicious.) And then, the lovely Anne Bramley of EatFeed linked on Facebook a Guardian article about hot cross buns, which was quite interesting. This article included Nigella Lawson's hot cross bun recipe, which was also interesting.

In the end, though, I have to admit that I didn't go with any of these. One fact I hadn't known earlier is that the British version doesn't have a sugar-based icing on top. In fact, in the comments of the Guardian piece, people were somewhat horrified at the thought and sniffed at it as being particularly American. (They were even more horrified at the thought of cream cheese frosting, which I've never had on a hot cross bun but sounded like it could be good.) But to me, the icing is half the point! That's the treat factor--the bread and dried fruit and spices part are all well and good, but it's that bit of extra sugar on top that ties it all together.

In the end, I went with Elise's recipe from Simply Recipes. I liked that it had been created from other recipes after a lot of testing. (Always nice to have someone else to test all those other recipes for you!) It turned out that it was fairly similar to Marion Cunningham's recipe with just a few minor differences.

A few comments.

It took awhile for the dough not to be sticky anymore. While the recipe says to use between 3 1/4 and 3 1/2 cups of flour, I used closer to 4. Eventually, it became tacky but not excessively sticky, and that seemed fine.

Don't skip the orange peel! Along with the spices, it really adds a nice flavor.


If you want the X to survive the baking, you need to have a firm hand with the knife before baking.

When I had to take all those IV antibiotics for Lyme, I ended up with a lot of sterile syringes (if that's what they are when there's no needle in them). I tossed most of them, but the nurses told me that some people saved them and used them to ice cakes with. Why not, I thought. After they went through the dishwasher a few times, I stuck them in a drawer and remembered them only when I was looking at the icing instructions for the buns. It worked beautifully--though on the second batch, I just pasted the icing on with a spoon, which gets you more icing per bun, if you're interested in that kind of thing.

And about that second batch. I made half of the buns the day I made the dough and the other half 3 days later. The dough spent those days in the fridge, and if I had to pick, I'd say that the second batch was a bit better. So, if you want to make the dough ahead of time and bake later, they'll still be great.

Chances are that I won't be making hot cross buns again for awhile, yummy as they were. On the other hand, since they're not the food of my origins, perhaps there's no reason not to indulge in a spicy, fruity iced bun before next spring rolls around.

Hot Cross Buns
Adapted very slightly from Simply Recipes

Dough

• 1 1/4-ounce package instant yeast (about 2 1/2 teaspoons)
• 3/4 cup warm milk
• 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used closer to 4 cups)
  
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons ground spices (for example, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 Tbsp butter, softened
• 2 eggs, room temperature
  
• 3/4 cup currants or raisins (I used 1/2 cup golden raisins and 1/4 cup regular)
  
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest

Glaze

• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp milk

Frosting

• 1 teaspoon milk
• 3 to 4 Tbsp powdered sugar

Baking Instructions

In a large bowl or the mixing bowl of an electric mixer, vigorously whisk together 3 cups of the flour (reserving additional flour for later step), the salt, spices, instant yeast and 1/4 cup of sugar.

Create a well in the flour and add the softened butter, eggs, and milk. Using a wooden spoon or the paddle attachment of your mixer, mix the ingredients until well incorporated. The mixture should be shaggy and quite sticky. Add in the currants or raisins and orange zest.

If you are using a standing mixer, switch to the dough hook attachment and start to knead on low speed. (If not using a mixer, use your hands to knead.) Slowly sprinkle in additional flour, a tablespoon at a time, kneading to incorporate after each addition, until the flour is still slightly tacky, but is no longer completely sticking to your fingers when you work with it.

Form a ball of dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit, covered, at room temperature (or in a warm spot) for 2 hours, until the dough has doubled in size.

If you're going to refrigerate the dough to bake it later, do that now. Otherwise, press down on the dough to gently compress it. Roll the ball of dough into a log shape and cut it into two halves. Place one half back in the bowl while you work with the other half. Take the dough half you are working with and cut it into 8 equal pieces.

Take the individual pieces and form them into mounds, placing them 1 1/2 inches apart from each other on a baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and then work the remaining dough into 8 equal pieces and place them in mounds on a baking sheet, again cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough mounds sit at room temperature (or warm place) to rise again, until the mounds have doubled in volume, about 30-40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Prepare egg wash by whisking together one egg and a tablespoon of milk. If you want, you can score the top of the buns with a knife in a cross pattern. You will want to make fairly deep cuts, for the pattern to be noticeable after they're done. Using a pastry brush, brush on the egg wash over the dough mounds. The egg wash will give them a shiny appearance when cooked.

Place in the middle rack of the oven and cook for 10-12 minutes, until the buns are lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool on the pan for a few minutes, then transfer the buns to a wire rack to cool.

To paint a cross on the top of the buns, wait until the buns have cooled (or the frosting will run). Whisk together the milk and the powdered sugar. Keep adding powdered sugar until you get a thick consistency. Place in a plastic sandwich bag (or handy sterile syringe!). Snip off a small piece from the corner of the bag and use the bag to pipe two lines of frosting across each bun to make a cross

Yield: Makes 16 buns.

A Visit to Navdanya

Vandana Shiva, the noted Indian environmentalist and activist, is speaking at Amherst tonight. I'm very sad that I will most likely have to miss it--an unavoidable work conflict, alas--but I'm grateful to have had a chance to meet with her for tea this morning.

I met Vandana Shiva for the first time in Delhi in January. Since I was going to be in India already, I was asked by a colleague to investigate the possibility of sending Five College students interested in sustainability to an organic farm and education center outside of Dehradun, run by Dr. Shiva's NGO, Navdanya. Through my friend Rasil (in whose documentary, Harvest of Grief, Dr. Shiva is a clear and excellent voice), I was able to meet Dr. Shiva for tea. A week later, I went up to Dehradun to spend a few days at the farm. (Of course, since this was India, it was more complicated than that. I was originally supposed to go to Varanasi first, but my train was delayed by 11 hours, 17 hours, 23 hours and then finally canceled, so I had to do some frantic scrambling. The folks at Navdanya were very accommodating, though, and didn't seem at all fazed when I asked if I could come up the next day rather than the next week.)

I had a lovely stay there. Dehradun is in the foothills of the mountains, and the farm is on the outskirts. In addition to the permanent staff, there were 6 interns and volunteers in residence when I was there along with a January interterm group from Colby College (small world!). I didn't write about it at the time, though I meant to, so I thought that Dr. Shiva's visit was a good excuse for me to post some Navdanya photos now.

Here's the sign you see at the entrance:

After which you go down a peaceful road toward the farm:

Then, the office and dining hall (and the stone wall outside where I sat several times to take advantage of the office's wireless connection!).


A particularly interesting sign in the office . . .


Although the sun came out during the day, nights and mornings were freezing. I slept under two incredibly thick and heavy comforters (the being suffocated by your covers means of staying warm) both nights, with my fleece hat on. The second morning, Jeet Pal, a member of the staff, brought me a cup of herbal tea, which I sipped sleepily (and warmly) from under my pile of covers. Given this, I was especially glad that Navdanya has solar hot water heaters--and the water was hot even when the sun wasn't out! Here's the building next to where I stayed.


A project by a recent intern documented all the local staff and farmers associated with Navdanya. I was only there for 2 1/2 days so didn't get to meet everyone who works there, but those I did meet were all very kind and helpful.

The second day I was there, I went on a farm tour with the Colby group, which had just arrived. We walked through the fields and ended up at the seed bank. Seed is saved from each harvest (Navdanya has 40 something acres of farmland) and then distributed to farmers, both locally and across India.

A posted list of seed varieties:

The rice room!

The fields were also labeled. There were a mix of vegetables and grains, plus some experimental fields.
There were also trees of various sorts and a medicinal herb garden. I wondered what a person had to do in order to have his name on the sign next to the tree he planted.


There are lots of reasons I'd love to go back, but one is to look at the cool trees again:

It's May Blogathon time again!

I can't even tell you how I've waffled over this. Should I do it, should I skip it, back and forth and on and on. I am, at best, an erratic blogger, and really, what I'd like to do is get myself on a steadier weekly schedule. But, as I know all too well, writing begets writing, even though, towards the end of the month, it feels like there's really nothing left in the world I want to write about.

So, for the third year in a row, I'm going to take on this challenge. When I sat down to make a list, I realized that I have at least a half of a month's worth of things to write about. Let's see if I can make it all 31 days again. There are some structured days built in--another guest post day, another haiku day, even an official Wordle day (which I'm pleased about, as I've done Saturday Wordles unofficially both years).

I don't yet have the list of all of the other May bloggers, but as of a few days ago, it was 132! I'll post it when I have it.

See you tomorrow!