Table of Contents: From Breakfast With Anita Diamant to Dessert With James Patterson - a Generous Helping of Recipes, Writings and Insights From Today's Bestselling Authors (35 page)

My mother, four of my five sisters, and my five brothers now live in the United States with their spouses and children. Whenever we get together, for celebrations and holiday meals, Mami or one of my sisters will make pernil — pork shoulder that is prepared, rubbed, and marinated overnight before it's roasted for hours, depending on its size. For Puerto Ricans living away from the island, and increasingly those in Puerto Rico, the pernil is the surrogate for the traditional
lechón
— a whole pig roasted on a spit served for Christmas and special occasions.

Before we prepare the pernil, we must make two of the staples of Puerto Rican cuisine:
sofrito
and
adobo
. My earliest olfactory memory is of sofrito sautéed in olive oil until the garlic, onion, green pepper, and
recao
(also known as culantro) mixed and melded into the scent of my mother's love. The proportions of the ingredients for sofrito are as individual as the cook's palate, so I can recognize the smell of Mami's sofrito from my sister's or from mine. The basic ingredients are chopped and then mixed together, but cooks add different components to their sofrito, like tomatoes or fresh oregano. For mine, I add red pepper for color and a bit of sweetness. Traditionally, sofrito requires culantro, which can be found in Caribbean or Asian markets. In this recipe I replace it with cilantro, since it's easier to find, and has a similar but milder flavor.

Sofrito is usually sautéed until the ingredients are fragrant. (To make Puerto Rican beans, cook the sofrito in oil until it smells good, add tomato sauce, salt, pepper, a pinch of oregano, and a bit of cumin.) Sofrito is used to season
arroz con pollo
, fricassees, soups, and stews. As with the following recipe for pernil, sofrito is also used as a marinade for meats.

Pernil is most often served with pigeon peas. It is also served with fried plantains, with boiled and marinated yucca (my favorite), or with marinated green bananas.

Note:
Adobo is the second essential ingredient in Puerto Rican cooking. It's always prepared just before used. Like sofrito, cooks individualize their adobo to their palate. In mine, I add cumin.

If you don't have a mortar and pestle to make the adobo, you can use a spice grinder. The idea is that the garlic and other ingredients form a paste. I like pounding it with my mortar and pestle to take out my frustrations as I crush the ingredients.

1
Prepare sofrito (recipe below) and set aside.
To make the adobo:
Using a mortar and pestle (see note), pound all ingredients into a paste. Once you've made your sofrito and adobo, you're ready to massage them into the meat.

2
Wash and dry pork. Score all around with a sharp paring knife, making slits deep into the meat. Set aside.

3
Mix the adobo with the olive oil and vinegar, then rub the adobo over the pork roast, making sure that the paste goes deep into the slits.

4
Rub the sofrito over the meat, again, pushing it into the slits. Place the roast in a deep baking pan, fatty skin side up. Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil, and allow to marinate overnight.

5
Remove the pork from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking. Discard aluminum foil. Drain any liquid that may have formed overnight and pour over the meat.

6
Preheat oven to 400°F. Cook the pork uncovered, for 1 hour. Reduce oven temperature to 300°F and cook for about another 4 hours, without turning the meat over, until internal temperature reaches 185°F and the meat shreds with a fork. To achieve the much desired crispy, fatty skin, increase the oven temperature to 400°F for the last 20 minutes of cooking.

7
Allow the pernil to rest for at least 20 minutes before serving. Slice with the grain. Serve a bit of the crunchy skin with each portion.

My mother prepared her sofrito fresh for each meal, but the recipe below will make approximately two cups and any extra can be frozen. Defrost before using.

Whirl all ingredients in a food processor until finely chopped.

Makes 6–8 servings

Comfort food brings you home, engages your senses, nourishes your body and recalls memories. For me, asopao not only brings me home to Puerto Rico, it brings me closer to my mother, who makes the best, most creative asopaos.

Asopao is the Puerto Rican version of chicken soup, but it can be made with shrimp, pork, beef, or gandules (pigeon peas). My uncle once brought Mami a couple of spiny lobsters, and to make sure that she, my uncle, and her eleven children could all have a taste, she made lobster asopao. Today, lobster asopao is not unusual in Puerto Rican restaurants, but they use North American lobster which is meatier and sweeter.

The recipe below for chicken asopao is quite basic. My mother adds pigeon peas, cubed potatoes, and/or sliced carrots. Asopao is served with a dash or two of homemade
pique
(hot sauce) and with a side of crispy fried plantains or slices of garlic bread.

The distinctive golden orange of the asopao is achieved by cooking the
sofrito
in
achiote
oil. Known in English as annatto, achiote is another of the staples in the Puerto Rican kitchen. Annatto seeds are gently warmed in oil until they release their color, then the seeds are strained and discarded. The bright orange achiote oil adds color, and a subtle peppery, nutty flavor to soups, rice dishes, and grilled meats and fish.

Note:
The chicken must marinate for at least 30 minutes, and preferably overnight.

My mother chops the chicken into at least 8 pieces so that everyone can get a
presa
(a piece of the chicken). I usually buy thighs and drumsticks because I like the flavor, but I'm giving you her recipe here.

We rinse chicken (and other meat) in lemon juice because of lemon's antibacterial properties and to remove the scent of the meat. The lemon juice also imparts a subtle flavor. It is not necessary though, if the chicken is thoroughly washed.

Short-grain rice is traditionally used in this dish. If you can't find short-grain rice, you can substitute medium- or long-grain rice.

1 To make the adobo:
Pound all the ingredients in a mortar and pestle, or process in a spice grinder, until the adobo forms a paste. Set aside.

2
Rinse chicken pieces in water, then generously sprinkle lemon juice on each piece, and pat dry.

3
Place adobo in a small bowl. Add vinegar and 1 tablespoon of the sofrito and blend well. Rub the mixture over the chicken pieces. Let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, preferably overnight.

4 To make the soup:
In a stockpot, heat the achiote oil over medium heat. Add remaining 3 tablespoons sofrito. Cook for 2 minutes.

5
Add chicken. Cook, stirring frequently to ensure that all the pieces of chicken are seasoned. Continue cooking a few minutes more until the chicken is opaque.

6
Add the white wine and tomato sauce and stir well, then add the rice, water, capers, olives, bay leaves, oregano, and salt. Return the mixture to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, 20–25 minutes or until chicken is well cooked. Remove bay leaves. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

Makes 1 cup

Note:
The best sources for annatto seeds are Caribbean and Latin American markets, or online grocery stores.

1
In a medium pan, heat the oil and achiote seeds over medium heat, stirring frequently until the seeds are just beginning to dance and sizzle on the bottom of the pan. (Do not overcook or the seeds will turn black and the oil green and taste bitter.) Remove from the burner, then allow the mixture to cool for 5 minutes. The oil should have a bright, orange color.

2
Pour the achiote oil through a metal strainer into a glass jar. Discard the annatto seeds. Cover jar tightly. The achiote oil can be kept at room temperature for 5 days, longer in the refrigerator.

Makes 12 servings

Note:
Short-grain rice has fat, almost round grains that stick together well when cooked, but you can also use long-grain rice.

I prefer the coconut rice at room temperature.

Some people like to pour the warm rice into ramekins and serve them as individual dishes with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream. I serve mine plain, with a cup of coffee.

1 To make the spice infusion:
Combine the ginger, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower heat, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove solids with a slotted spoon.

2 To make the pudding:
Place rice in a large bowl, cover with water to about one inch above the rice, and let soak for at least 30 minutes. Drain and add to the saucepan with the spice infusion. Bring to a gentle boil, then immediately reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Add the coconut milk and sugar. Raise heat to medium until mixture starts to bubble, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 10 more minutes, stirring frequently.

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.

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.

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.

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.