Coco Nut
When I was in my twenties my mother took me on an amazing trip to Hawaii. She wanted to escape the brutal New York winter, but also thought it would cheer me up since I'd recently had a bad break-up with Charlie, my first serious boyfriend...the guy I moved out to LA with.
There really is nothing to compare with a first deep romance, particularly if it ends badly, with the jerk dumping you for someone else. In all the years since then, with the many men I've been involved with, I seem to keep the back door open and the car running. I only see this in retrospect of course. I would have sworn to you that I was quite committed to most of them, but the fact is I always left first. I've taken a pole among my women friends about their break-ups, and when they're the ones to leave first they all say they were driven to it. The guys treated them so horribly they finally had to walk out. So that will be my story too. I mean, who wouldn't get out of THAT MESS?
I was genuinely heart-broken with that first boyfriend though, and mom was right to get me out of town to a beautiful place where all we had to do was go to the beach and order room service. We had a little apartment with a 'lanai' that looked right out onto the water. It was up on a high floor, and when you looked out you couldn't see the beach, just the ocean, so it was like being on a ship. In my younger years mom and I had a pretty difficult relationship. I was a horrible teenager, trying to exert my independence, with her pushing back, attempting greater control. At one point she called my father, who was living in a tiny pad in Brooklyn Heights with his girlfriend. She asked him to come get me. 'Get her out of here' I assume she said, though I didn't hear this part. She came into the bedroom, handed me the phone with dad on the other end, who suggested I apologize to her since he couldn't possibly put me up. I did say 'sorry' with very little enthusiasm, and very little success, and though she let me stay, there was a week of silence from her. Scorn was a true talent of mom's, as it certainly is of mine. We had about 5 years of a power play, but it largely washed away when I left home, and I could do as I pleased with my life away from her gaze. Mostly this meant smoking pot, drinking, chasing boys, and working as little as possible, which is easy to do in art school.
So the trip...by then I was a seasoned driver, having lived in LA for years, and she hated to drive, so just being the navigator was a new role for me in our relationship. We rented a nice new car...thrilling for someone who had a 1965 Rambler American at home. We saw waterfalls and jungles, and ate great food, and drank...and drank...at this early stage I could still drink with impunity, and actually was rather proud of the quantities I could consume without a problem. I cannot remember having a hangover in my 20's... ever. A young liver is a beautiful thing. Plus, when a cocktail is served in a coconut shell with tiny umbrellas and slices of pineapple sticking out of it, it's not really about alcohol, but slap-happy tourist fun. Take the Pina Colada. I think it's rum and cream of coconut, pineapple juice, maraschino cherries floating in there. What you taste is the coconut, and that's what's so incredibly good about this drink. Coconut! So special! So transporting! I could be walking out of Zabars on Broadway, eating one of their chocolate-covered macaroons, and Manhattan is gone....no snow....no crowds...I'm on a tropical island!
So here's a sauce that will take you even farther away than Hawaii. Travel is good for the soul.
Maud's Exotic Coconut Sauce
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 large garlic clove, crushed
1 small red onion, grated
1 tablespoon of grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons each of:
ground cumin
ground cinnamon
garam masala (easily found in any upscale grocery...at least in LA)
smoked paprika
turmeric
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 teaspoon honey
1 can full-fat coconut milk
a pinch of cornstarch in a slurry
a pinch of salt
Saute onion and garlic for about a minute over a medium flame, and add ginger and all dry spices. Stir for 2 or 3 minutes, making sure nothing burns. Add tomato paste and honey, stir for about a minute. You will start to smell a deep smoky aroma. Add the can of coconut milk and simmer, stirring for a good 10-15 minutes. If your sauce is thinner than you want, create a 'slurry'. This is a bit of cornstarch mixed in water. Pour into sauce, stirring. It should thicken right up. Taste for salt.
I'm making this right now, and my plan is to add some chopped mango and serve over basmati rice, with a sprinkle of cilantro on top. I need a vacation.