April 2020 – The Entertaining Anthropologist

Today I am going to give you a recipe that is filled up with love. I’ve been on the internet too much today and there has been a whole lot of not-love out there. I mean, just way too much of things that are anti-love. And this dish is going to help. It’s going to fill your belly and your heart. It’s the recipe I have been asked for more than any other dish I make, hands down.

I got this recipe from Deborah Madison, my favorite cookbook author, from her book, The Savory Way. My very favorite cookbook is another one of hers, but this was my first and the spine is broken right on the recipe.

This was the first dish I made for my now-husband and it may still be his favorite thing I make, which is saying something. I’ve made it for dozens of students over the years at our annual party. If I’ve made it for you, I loved you. I hate to tell you, but if you’ve eaten this served from my kitchen, you might already love me back and have not fully realized that yet. It’s okay to admit it now.

I made this recently because at this time of year my garden and yard are overtaken by cilantro. I have so much I’ve been giving it away to friends. I have even bartered with it!

That is free-range cilantro among my rose bushes.

I know some of you don’t care for cilantro because of your genetics. I still love you. You might still like this dish, as some have claimed, because it is so fresh and good. But maybe they just said that because they loved me. I don’t know.

I have had to change the recipe because my daughter is allergic to sesame. I have added things, like cherry tomatoes and sugar snap peas. I usually make it gluten free with tamari and rice noodles because I have a friend who can’t tolerate the gluten. It’s vegan, too, so all your friends can enjoy this in some form. I’m going to give you my simplified version below, because I love you.

Peanut Sauce (from Deborah Madison’s Savory Way)

6 large cloves of garlic
1.5 ounces of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped (about 2 Tbs)
1 large bunch cilantro, large stems removed

1/2 c natural peanut butter
1/3 c soy sauce (or tamari)
1 Tbs peanut oil
1 Tbs dark sesame oil
1 Tbs hot chile oil (I just use olive oil and mix in a little cayenne)
3 Tbs rice wine vinegar
3 Tbs sugar

Blend all but the last two ingredients in food processor or blender. Add the last two, adjusting to taste. And if you don’t have the fancy oils, just use olive oil. No one complains.

I serve this over cold noodles (even ramen work great) with chopped tomatoes, sliced green onion, ½ c cilantro, and tofu. Toss 1 lb of noodles with 2 tablespoons of peanut or sesame oil.

I know I usually give you a little anthropology in these posts. But today, I feel kind of spent. I also am just motivated to put something good out in the world. That’s all I’ve got.

In May and June of 2014, I took a group of college students on a study trip along the U.S.-Mexico border. They had all taken a course with me about cultures of the borderlands, and they were an amazing group of young women. Today, they are scattered around the country, but they keep in touch with me and with each other. As we read about the border in the news over the years, we all recall what we learned together.

This week, I got a present from one of them. She lives in Tucson now, working with refugees. She sent me a bag of mesquite flour made from beans she collected by the Santa Cruz river, and a jar of olives, also collected around town and cured herself. In this time of relative deprivation due to COVID-19 – deprived of friendship and of easy access to food – her gift felt like a little miracle. Both products took effort and planning, making wild plants into precious food. In both, the gratification from collection to consumption is quite delayed, but is all the more delightful because of the wait.

Mesquite pods ripening. Photo Credit: Elissa McDavid

On our trip in 2014, the students tasted and ground the flour themselves for the first time. We sought the shade of a mesquite to do the work, and touched the flour to our lips cautiously. I recall what a pleasure it was to see their astonishment at how very sweet the beans are.

Anna grinds beans while we hide in the shade

We looked for mesquite trees for their shade often on that trip, relishing the cool they bring to the desert.

Almost on the same day, a friend bought me wheat flour and yeast at the grocery store because she knew I had been unable to find either for weeks. I brought her a bouquet of flowers from my yard and a bunch of cilantro that I could easily spare. We made the trade in her driveway, keeping our distance. First, she put her goods on her car and retreated; then I approached and took hers and left mine. We sat about 15 feet apart and talked for a few minutes in the sun. Seeing each other’s living face, unmediated by a machine. I’m so grateful for that moment and for my former student, now friend, who thought of me in this dark time.

The combined loveliness of these two acts of friendship seemed to cry out for a celebration. I turned, of course, to From I’itoi’s Garden, a cookbook I have written about before. I knew the Tohono O’odham would have some good ideas about how to use mesquite flour. The Tohono O’odham people ate mesquite beans as a snack off the tree, or ground them into flour. The flour could be made into a porridge or into balls by mixing with water and drying in the sun to save for later. Today, the flour is used for all kinds of goodies with recipes in this great cookbook. I’m sharing their unaltered recipe here for the cake, though I modified it by making a layer cake and using an orange buttercream frosting. That was all me.

2310b67d-04bf-4498-a975-928eba7817ae — The decoration was also me

Almond Mesquite Cake

2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup mesquite flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup softened unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 1/3 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Cream sugar, butter and eggs, and almond extract in a mixer. Alternate adding dry mixture with milk to the butter mixture in three additions each. Pour batter into two buttered and floured (and I used parchment paper) 9″ cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Orange Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
Zest of one orange
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons orange extract
3-4 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Slivered almonds, toasted

Beat together butter and orange zest. Gradually beat in sugar until blended. Add liquids and beat. Taste for orange. I like it tangy.

Frost the cake and decorate with toasted slivered almonds. I put on a lemon blossom for prettiness.