Kamala is sharing the true joy of cooking — and top chefs are Cooking
for Kamala, to help her create a kinder and richer society as president
By CINDA CHAVICH
It occurred to me this week that we are finally entering a new era — a time when powerful women can again proudly announce that they can, and do, cook.
It was the bouquets bestowed on the US vice-president at the Democrat National Convention that flipped the switch. Whether it was her husband, Doug Emhoff, her nieces, or her friends (like actor Mindy Kaling) singing her praises, one of the things that stuck with me is that Kamala cooks. She makes brisket for her Jewish husband and Tex-Mex for her kids. She can whip up a masala dosa (my own south Indian addiction), and she knows her way around the LA restaurant scene.
Hell, she even did a series called Cooking with Kamala during the pandemic, cooking with chefs and other celebs in live stream videos (hence the dosa day with Kaling, which has since gone viral), and you can still tune in to watch these archived culinary moments on YouTube.
This is a woman close to my heart.
Because I grew up in a time when many women liked to say that they that they could not or would not cook. In the early feminist years and beyond, professions not pies were the aspirations for most women — and cooking was a domestic task they didn’t have time to worry about.
As a young journalist and news reporter — before I became a newspaper food editor and wine writer — I remember being mocked in a job interview when I said that I liked to cook in my spare time.
But that was then. Now women (and men) cook outside the professional kitchen and prepare great meals with pride.
Yes, the daily drudgery of family meals at 5 p.m. probably still falls disproportionately on the women in most families, but I like to think that cooking has new cachet, not least of all because the Veep does it so well.
WHEN WOMEN DIDN'T COOK
When I wrote my third cookbook, The Girl Can’t Cook, 20 years ago, it was in reaction to all of the women I met as a newspaper food editor and book author who told me, “I can’t cook” or “I don’t cook” or “I never cook.” Even in 2004, it was the mantra of many.
So I set out to create a kind of handbook for all of those times when everyone needs to cook, whether simply to feed yourself (and your family) on a weekday, to host a great dinner party (with a cohesive and doable menu), or to celebrate all of those times in life when food is part of the equation, from birthday parties and baby showers to high holidays. The book (and its popular sequel, The Guy Can’t Cook) is divided into three sections that reflect life's everyday realities — Sustenance, Decadence and Observance — with well-tested recipes that work.
THE VICE PRESIDENT MAKES COOKING COOL
But back to Kamala.
“If Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris wins the election in November, she may be the first president with a platform on dry-brining turkey.
She's in favor, and also recommends a rub of butter and herbs under the skin.”
This week more than 60 top American chefs (think José Andrès, Cat Cora, Ruth Reichl and “Top Chef” judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons) host a video livestream — Cooking for Kamala — featuring demos of that famed roast chicken recipe among others, to celebrate Harris and raise money for her campaign.
As many have noted, Kamala Harris not only cooks, she has been a vocal advocate for improving food security and nutrition, and a champion local food systems, whether feeding children, small business initiatives to help restaurants cope with the pandemic, and agricultural issues, from animal welfare to the rights of farm workers.
Cooking is just something else that makes Harris real and relatable. Can you imagine Donald Trump in the kitchen? Or even talking about feeding kids and keeping small restaurants alive with supports for workers and vulnerable populations with legislation like the FEED Act, a bill she spoke with Chef José Andrés about while they cooked omelets and tofu on Cooking with Kamala.
Hilary Clinton once noted (back in the 1990) that she’d rather pursue a profession than stay at home baking cookies, but Harris is comfortable doing both — and notably baked her Monster Cookies with an young Iowa supporter (her one hand, egg cracking skill blowing up into another Tik Tok meme).
CARIBBEAN ROTI IS KAMALA ALL WRAPPED UP
When I watched Kamala cooking Masala Dosa with fellow south Indian American Mindy Kaling, I was reminded of a similar dish that’s popular in the Caribbean, simply known as Roti.
As Kamala’s parents were both immigrants — her mother from India and her father from Jamaica — this dish, which also combines both cultures, seems to be perfect to celebrate her roots.
I developed this recipe after a food writing trip to Barbados, and included it in my book, The Girl Can’t Cook. You can make the roti from scratch or use an Indian flatbread (like paratha or roti) or even a flour tortilla (which would also channel some of Kamala’s favourite foods).
Harris has said she believes in the power of family Sunday dinners and cooking to stay grounded. It's an important quality and one to value in a national leader.
“Everything else can be crazy, I can be on six planes in one week, and what makes me feel normal is making Sunday-night family dinner,” she told The Cut in 2018, when she was a senator. “If I’m cooking, I feel like I’m in control of my life”
And as Chef Thomas Keller kindly told a young Carmy in an episode of The Bear — teaching him to truss a chicken for roasting — “We cook to nurture people.”
Surely that’s a recipe for why we all need more Kamala now and in the next four years.
@cooking4kamala
ROTI WRAPS
A roti is a curry wrapped in a tender flat bread, common in the Caribbean, a kind of hybrid of the traditional Indian dosa and paratha bread with a spicy potato filling. Make it with potatoes alone, augment the filling with cauliflower or chickpeas, even cooked chicken if you’re not a vegetarian.
If you want it really authentic, go to an Indian grocery and buy roti or paratha bread, but an extra-large flour tortilla from the supermarket does the job, too. This is my pared down recipe for an easy roti-style fix. If you have leftover potatoes or roasted cauliflower in the refrigerator, it makes a fast weekday meal for four. From The Girl Can't Cook by Cinda Chavich.
1 pound white potatoes, peeled, boiled 10 minutes, drained and cubed
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped (about 2 cups/450 ml)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon each ground cumin and mustard seed (optional)
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned chickpeas or chopped, cooked cauliflower (optional)
squeeze of fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
4 extra large flour tortillas, very fresh (or roti or paratha breads)
Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and fry for 5-10 minutes, until it is just beginning to brown. Add the garlic, curry powder, cumin and mustard seed, if using, and cook together until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in the hot sauce.
Add the cooked potatoes to the pan and stir to coat them well with the spices. Cook together for 5 minutes to heat through. If you’re using chickpeas or cauliflower, add them now and heat them up. Squeeze on the lime juice and stir in the cilantro.
Divide the filling among the four tortillas, piling it in the center. Fold each roti like a square envelope – bottom up, sides in, top down — then wrap in waxed paper and/or foil for easy eating.
Rotis are made for moving and carrying. It’s a to-go for lunch or dinner. Serves 4.
MASALA DOSA
The dosa is the ultimate Indian wrap, and this is the traditional recipe for the dish you will be served in southern India. I became so enamored with these ethereal potato-filled crêpes (a.k.a. masala dosa) when traveling in India, I had to figure out how to cook them myself.
You can buy a prepared dosa mix (sort of like pancake mix) in most Indian grocery stores (like the prepared batter Kaling uses when cooking dosas with Kamala, or the Dosa Batter made by Dosa Kitchen right here in Victoria).
Making traditional dosa batter from scratch requires soaking and grinding urad dal (a small white split bean) and rice, and then fermenting the mixture to create this uniquely thin and crisp pancake.
I’ve discovered that a mixture of rice flour and chickpea flour (both easy to find at health food stores), water, and a bit of yogurt makes an almost instant (and decent) substitute.
If you can boil a potato and flip a pancake, you can make this simple dish any time. And this delicious gluten-free meal, perfect for lunch, dinner or brunch.
But be warned, dosas are highly addictive.
Here’s my recipe, as published in my cookbook, The Guy Can’t Cook: over 350 fabulous no-fail recipes a Guy can’t be without.
Dosa Batter
1 cup (250 mL) chickpea flour (a.k.a. besan) or urad dal flour
1½ cups (375 mL) rice flour
½ cup (125 mL) all-purpose flour
½ tsp (2 mL) salt
¼ cup (60 mL) plain natural yogurt
2 to 3 cups (500 to 750 mL) water (enough to make the batter, thick as heavy cream)
canola oil for cooking
Potato Filling
6 large potatoes, peeled and boiled
2 Tbsp (30 mL) canola oil
1 Tbsp (15 mL) butter
½ tsp (2 mL) whole cumin or fennel seeds
1 tsp (5 mL) black mustard seeds
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 tsp (5 mL) grated ginger
2 jalapeño or serrano chili peppers, seeded and minced
1 tsp (5 mL) turmeric
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp (30 mL) chopped fresh cilantro (or coriander chutney)
In a blender, combine the chickpea flour, rice flour, all-purpose flour, salt, yogurt, and about 2 cups of water. Whirl until smooth. Place in a bowl and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place for 8 to 12 hours (you want the batter to bubble and ferment slightly). Then refrigerate until you’re ready to make the dosas—the batter will keep for two days.
To make the filling, heat the oil and butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add the cumin and mustard seeds. Stir while the seeds pop, for about 30 seconds. Add the chopped onion and cook over medium heat until golden brown. Add the ginger and minced peppers and cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the turmeric. Chop or lightly crush the warm potatoes and add them to the
pan. They should remain chunky but slightly mashed. Mix the potatoes with the spices and cook for 10 minutes. Keep the filling warm while you make the dosas (or make it in advance and reheat in the microwave).
To make the dosas, heat a very large non-stick frying pan or griddle over medium heat and brush with a little oil. Water dropped on the surface should sizzle. I hauled a heavy cast iron griddle all the way from Hyderabad and found that this, or a cast iron pan, results in the lightest pancakes. A non-stick pan will work, though, and the pancakes don’t stick.
Use a ½-cup (125-mL) ladle to pour a portion of the batter into the center of the hot pan. Quickly swirl the pan to distribute the batter thinly over the entire surface. After a minute or two, the edges of the crepe will start to brown—brush edges of the pan around the pancake with a little more oil. The dosa should be crisp and golden brown on the bottom. Use a wide spatula to loosen the pancake, then flip and quickly cook the second side for one minute.
Fill the dosa with ¼ _cup (60 mL) of the warm potato filling. Pile the filling down the center of the crepe, then fold each side over the filling and roll. Serve immediately with coconut or coriander chutney. Wipe the pan and brush it with oil before making another dosa. Rather than serve immediately, you can also stack the dosas and keep them warm in a 200°F (95°C) oven—but they will soften. The best dosas are eaten as soon as they’re out of the pan, so plan to be standing by the stove. Makes about 12 dosas.
TIP: If making the crêpes is too much trouble, just wrap the spicy potato filling in a fresh flour tortilla, or stuff it inside a pita pocket.
©Cinda Chavich 2024