Poppy Tooker's Hot Rice Calas
Eddybles
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Printmonday, december 24th, 2007
The first time I watched Poppy Tooker make rice calas was at a Share Our Strength conference in New Orleans last November. The most recent was at a dinner she hosted for our CulinaryCorps team in her lovely New Orleans home. On both occasions I was inspired by how passionate this vibrant woman who valiantly heads up the New Orlean's Slow Food movement was about a recipe that she says changed her life.
Always passionate about food and the nostalgia it can trigger in someone who smells or tastes something long forgotten but precious in their hearts, she recounted the story of serving the sweet rice fritter at a New Orleans farmer's market several years ago. As she fried and served the toasty brown fritters whose crispy skins give way to meltingly creamy sweet interiors, a man stopped by to sample one of her sugar dusted offerings.
She watched him take his first bite and as he chewed saw the tears well up in his eyes. When he was through, he told her that his grandmother used to make rice calas for him as a boy and the first bite brought the memory of her rushing back to him. A recipe long surrendered to the plunder of time placed him once again as an eager boy in his grandmother's kitchen waiting for the first bite of her hot rice calas which she made to sustain him certainly, but also to show him how much he was loved.
This simple exchange changed the course of Ms. Tooker's career. Those few minutes with a stranger illustrated for her the important role food plays in our lives and by the time he was finished with his calas, she had made the decision to devote herself completely to a career, and life, of food.
Not only did the humble rice calas change the direction of Poppy Tooker's life but also the lives of many nineteenth century African slaves who bought their freedom with the money earned selling the feathery fritter on their one day off per week. A simple recipe of flour, rice, sugar and spices, the calas is served in myriad sweet and savory forms. The name was first printed in 1880 and is thought to be a derivative of the African Nupe word kara, or fried cake. In the nineteenth century the streets of the French Quarter were filled with the tantalizing aroma of the fried fritters and the sound of vendors crying from their stands and carts rolling through the city, "Calas, belles, calas tout chauds!" "Ladies, hot calas out here!"
A New Orleans food staple of the last century, the recipe for hot calas was almost lost to time but thanks to people like Poppy Tooker, who works tirelessly to preserve beloved recipes of the past, the calas is finding its way back to the menus and hearts of the people of New Orleans. It is more than food, it is a connection to the foodways of a region rich in culinary history. It symbolizes the legacy of a people who always valued the role of food in their lives and is helping contemporary New Orleanians find bridges back to the places they came from, and reminding them that food is not only sustenance but a symbol of those we loved and will never forget.
A favorite dish from childhood is so much more than a means of quelling hunger pains. It is one of our strongest connections to the past. While the memories are sometimes bittersweet and can fill us with longing or even pain, they are tempered by sweetness and joy. The food of our childhood, the tradition and ceremony of its preparation and the nostalgic thrill of eating something so familiar it is the very thread of the fabric of who we are, is invaluable. The sight, taste and aroma not only satisfies our cravings but reminds us of the people who loved us completely and without condition.
My wish for everyone this Christmas is that you taste something that reminds you of a joyful time when the holiday was not corrupted by the strain of consumerism or the sorrow of loss. I hope it returns you to the table of those who loved us first. I hope, in the chaotic swirl of the day, we will be reminded by eating something from the past that this holiday is not about who gives the most expensive present or wears the loveliest dress. It is about gratefulness for those we have loved in our lives, whether with us or not and I hope the taste of something this Christmas returns you to the cherished place we hold for them in our hearts.
Hot Rice Calas With Creole Cream Cheese
Poppy Tooker's Hot Rice Calas
This recipe is from the New York Times and is adapted from Ms. Tooker's original recipe for calas. The beauty of this golden friter is how open it is for experimentation. Make is savory with the addition of parmesan and proscuitto or spike it with curry and cubed tofu as a vegetarian alternative. Ms. Tooker served her hot rice calas to us with delectable handmade Creole Cream Cheese but store bought ice cream would work in a pinch.
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
2 cups cooked medium- or long-grain white rice
6 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioners’ sugar.
1. In a fryer or a deep pot, add oil to a depth of at least three inches, and bring to 360 degrees. In a large bowl, combine rice, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
2. In a small bowl, mix together eggs and vanilla. Add to rice mixture and stir with a fork until well blended. Keep mixture cool (below 70 degrees) so that it will not separate when dropped into hot oil.
3. When oil is correct temperature, drop in heaping tablespoons of batter. Calas will brown on one side and turn themselves over. When browned on both sides, after about 5 minutes, remove them with a wire skimmer and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar, and serve hot.