thanksgiving dinner
November 26, 2008
jane asked how i cook my thanksgiving turkey… my recipe is a hybrid of the high-heat recipe that was in the new york times a few years ago and more standard recipes where you baste the turkey. i brine my bird (i also brine the chickens i roast) b/c i think it gives you the most flavorful and moist flesh and beautifully-browned skin. patty unterman hates brined turkeys – thinks they taste like ham – but i think she’s only had over-brined birds. while i’m at it, you’re going to get my dried fruit stuffing recipe too (it’s actually more like a savory bread pudding)…
two days ahead, clean and rinse the turkey (free-range and organic). remove the wings — they’d just burn off. save them with the neck for stock. then soak in a solution of 3/4 cup salt, 2 tablespoons sugar, a couple of cloves of crushed garlic, some choped fresh rosemary, a fresh bay leaf and the juice of a meyer lemon — in enough water to completely cover the bird (a gallon?). refrigerate.
as a general rule, you’re going to cook 8 minutes per pound.
your oven should be clean b4 you start (if it’s not, you’re going to have a smoky mess) and you should be using a heavy roasting pan (an aluminum foil pan will incinerate).
rinse the turkey and allow to warm to room temperature, breast-side-up with at tea towel covering. put the oven rack on lowest level and pre-heat to 500 degrees .
put the turkey on a rack in the pan, breast-up. cover the breast with cheesecloth (at least 4-layers thick) soaked in white wine and melted butter. add water to the bottom of the pan (any time the oven gets smoky – add more water to the pan).
cook undisturbed for 45 minutes, then turn the turkey, add more water to the pan, brush more of butter/wine mixture onto the cheese cloth and turn the oven down to 475.
30 minutes later, remove the cheesecloth (you may have to dampen it with butter/wine if it’s sticking to the skin). baste again in 15 minutes. and 15 minutes later use an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh – the turkey is done at 170 degrees. keep basting and checking every 15 minutes or so.
allow to rest for at least 20 minutes b4 carving.
i never actually stuff my turkey. it goes back to my grandmother, helen, hating anything soggy. stuffing cooked in a bird is soggy by definition. the purpose of stuffing in the bird is to keep the flesh moist. then you’re left with wet bread. yuck. by brining, cooking with high heat, using the butter/wine soaked cheesecloth and not over-cooking, your bird won’t be dry.
sauté three cups of chopped celery and four cups of onions in one stick of butter for about five minutes. add three cups of dry sherry, 1 3/4 cups chopped (and de-stemmed) dried mission figs, 1 3/4 cups chopped dried sour cherries, 1 3/4 cups dried apricots, two tablespoons chopped sage and two tablespoons chopped rosemary. cook until fruit is tender. toss with nine cups of cubed hearty bread (i use a good ciabatta), crust removed. if you like, mix in 3/4 cup of pine nuts. at this point you can stop and refrigerate (covered) up to one day ahead, or, keep on…
beat three large eggs and mix with 1 1/2 cups of vegetable or chicken stock. stir this into the bread/fruit mixture. bake in buttered glass pie plates (maximizes the delicious crispy, crusty-stuff) for about 20 minutes covered, then another 15 minutes (depending upon how crispy and brown you want it) uncovered.
this savory bread pudding is also fantastic with roasted or grilled pork tenderloin, roasted chicken or grilled portobellos.
the spread:
gideon rubin
November 22, 2008
one of the new paintings by isreali-born, london-based artist, gideon rubin that we’ll be taking to the art fair in miami next week. we’ll be at the aqua wynwood fair. stop and see us if you’re in town.
david stroud
November 19, 2008
made these pictures in tahoe last week.
“the confessions of lady nijo,”
November 14, 2008
written sometime after 1307 by a 50-year-old woman of aristocratic birth who served at the japanese imperial court and was, from the age of 14, a mistress of the retired emperor gofukakusa, is a window into an extraordinary culture. it was written more than 200 years after murasaki shikibu wrote “the tale of genji” and like genji, it describes life at court in kyoto.
lady nijo and her contemporaries exert tremendous effort to replicate the customs, styles, artforms and aesthetics of the heian period in which “genji” was written. like murasaki, lady nijo constantly describes the carefully considered layering of gowns (as well as being related to the seasons, every color of fabric and embroidered pattern had signficance in the intricate social pecking order of the court), presentation of gifts, observance of holidays, communication through poetry and romantic intrigues of the palace. but while “genji” is a mostly fictional work written serially for the entertainment of ladies at court, “confessions of lady nijo” is the frank account of one woman’s personal life there.
even if it is by her own account, lady nijo is an impressive character. in addition to her considerable writing ability, she’s accomplished in music and painting and social skills. she must have been alluring. i lost track of the number of (powerful) men who were her lovers (or wanted to be) while she was gofukukusa’s mistress. and she’s tough. for twelve years she was able to maintain her status as a favorite of gofukukusa though her parents were dead and she had no close male relatives furthering her career at the court. she had three children with men other than gofukukusa, all of whom she gave up at birth. and she treated her protector and source of stability – gofukukusa – rather poorly (she may have even had an affair with his brother and political adversary). at the age of 26 she was banished from the court – the only home she had ever known. for the rest of her known life – at least twenty years – she was a traveling buddhist nun.
i admit to finding nijo’s perpetually “damp sleeves” (she uses them to wipe her tears) boring. she’s an extremely intelligent and privileged woman living in luxury. during her life at court she’s a sophisticated, reckless and manipulative young woman. most of her dramas are self-initiated. but in a time when few options were open to women, she took every opportunity to direct her own life. and as the book nears it’s end (though she’s still in tears a good part of the time), you see her as an insightful and thoughtful person.
it’s not for everyone – like “genji” there’s no plot – events happen and time just passes – but this is a great book. it’s both a view into a completely foreign world and a lesson in how all similar all people are.
the photo was taken by david stroud in kyoto.
yiyun li
November 12, 2008
i wasn’t writing any stories when i was a child. i mean i did like to make up stories… but when i was young i was interested only in myself — as young people would sometimes be. i don’t think i had any understanding about human beings outside of me, so i could not tell a story. i think you have to be interested in other people to tell a good story. at some point i started to lose interest in myself – you know – “i’m this boring person” - but i started to find other people really exciting and their faces very intriguing to look at… that’s probably why i started to write stories…
- yiyun li, taken from the q&a after her reading at our san francisco gallery on september 10th, 2008
http://www.yiyunli.com
collecting
November 10, 2008
i’ve never believed you could be a good art dealer without being a collector. jeanne always says she doesn’t trust a collector who isn’t a foodie. it’s the same thing, all about obsession…
it’s hard to know if my collecting habits are genetic or environmental. my maternal grandmother, helen, who was probably the most influential person in my life, was an avid collector with a great eye. my mother is a collector. i am a collector. my grandmother had a fetish for dishes. my mother inherited that and a propensity to acquire everything that crosses her path. i go for contemporary art, of course. but have some other weaknesses as well…
i love auctions. my grandmother took me all the time when i was a kid. for a couple of years i’ve been addicted to swedish auction house - bukowski’s (http://www.bukowskis.se/english/). i mark my calendar with their preview dates, then trawl their online catalog late at night. twice a year they have an “international sale” and twice a year a “modern sale”. like any auction, it depends who else is bidding, but occasionally, there are bargains.
i have two bukowski’s heartaches — a set of twenty-four 18th-century meissen soup plates — i kick myself every time i set the table for a dinner party – and an 18th-century rock crystal chandelier.
on this post — a few things that i like from the upcoming international (25-28 november) sale.
wouldn’t you rather drink out of these 18th century goblets than reidel?
california’s proposition 8
November 7, 2008
“no state shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” that’s from the 14th amendment to the constitution of the united states.
marriage is a relationship that is licensed and sanctioned by the state and federal governments. moreover, benefits are conferred by the state and federal governments to people who choose to enter into this government-sanctioned contractual relationship.
how can one rationally argue that the state can deny benefits to a specific class of citizens – in this case same sex couples – without running afoul of the federal constitution?
“the sacred book of the werewolf” by victor pelevin
November 4, 2008
this is a very weird book. i’d been hearing pelevin (russian, b. 1962) called one of the most important “post soviet” voices for a while. then i read a (not very well-written) review in the new york times, prompting me to get this novel, more out of curiosity, than a desire to actually read it.
it’s narrated by A Hu-Li, a mythological chinese fox-woman who, though thousands of years old, lives as a teenage prostitute in moscow. werefoxes, though they eat “ordinary food (fairly close to the atkins diet)” also assimilate “the human sexual energy that is released during the act of love — whether real or imaginary. and while ordinary food simply maintains the chemical equilibrium of our bodies, sexual energy is like our most important vitamin, the one that makes us enchanting and eternally youthful.” “is that vampirism?” she asks. “we simply pick up what the irrational human being carelessly discards.” though a prostitute, A Hu-Li has managed to remain a virgin lo these many centuries since a fox can create illusion with her tail, making “tailless monkeys” believe she is engaging in their deepest fantasies. illusion turns out to be the cornerstone of the novel.
“the sacred book” looks, as it begins, like social satire in the tradition of bulgakov’s “master and margarita.” and it is. but it also turns out to be a finely-tuned philosophical discourse narrating in “as many as five inner voices.” “they can start to argue with each other over anything at all,” our heroine confides, “i don’t get involved in the argument, i just listen and wait for a hint at the right answer.”
A Hu-Li is a gorgeously rendered character who eventually meets the sullen and very, very good-looking alexander, of whom she notes “there used to be a lot of faces like that in the old days, when people believed in love and god, and then that type almost disappeared.” alexander is, of course, a werewolf and he and our lolita-like heroine engage in imaginative forms of “tailechery,” though their sexual relationship consists primarily of intertwining their magical tails… ok, now do you believe me when i tell you this is a very, very weird book?
it’s also a very, very good book. delightful and dark and insightful. well-written and engaging. reading “master and margarita,” i knew i was missing the most subtle and brilliant references. same here. but the ones you do get are fantastic. this isn’t a novel to miss.
all artworks are by kiev-born artist, yelena yemchuck.
