Good morning. Happy President’s Day. Ligaya Mishan ran a lovely essay on the country captain’s origins in The Times last week, tracing the fragrant curry chicken dish from his home in the lowlands of the American South to its origins in Britain and India, “a legacy of colonials with taste buds have just awakened to the possibilities of spices.”
I’m intrigued by Ligaya’s recipe (above), which comes from Rohan Kamicheril, the founder and editor of Tiffin, a website dedicated to India’s regional cuisines. Kamicheril grew up eating land captain in Bangalore, his mother’s recipe, handed down by his grandmother, who was of Anglo-Indian descent. There are none of the pliable tomatoes that define the dish in America, just the juice and fat of the chicken, seasoned darkened onions, golden potatoes. It is a dish that is meant to be eaten right away. I can’t wait to do that.
You can later compare it to this recipe I learned from community cookbooks and some of the best kitchen hands in and around Charleston, SC. The chicken is fried, then stewed with tomatoes and served with rice with crumbled bacon, slivered almonds and dried currants, occasionally with sliced bananas. It’s very Junior League. Also super tasty.
Land captain for dinner tonight, then! Maybe with Melissa Clark’s new pineapple-ginger coffee cake recipe for dessert and tomorrow’s breakfast?
And we’re here to help, should something go wrong in your kitchen or with our technology. Just write cookingcare. and someone will contact you. (If not, write to me: foodeditor.. I can take a beating. I read every letter sent.)
Now it’s a long drive over rough terrain from anything related to celeriac or maple syrup, but I loved Alexandra Jacobs’ wry review, in The Times, of “Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies,” by Laura Thompson .
Equally amusing is Molly Young’s recommendation, in her Read Like the Wind newsletter, of Han Suyin’s 1962 novella “Winter Love.” “This review goes to all my lesbian zoologists,” Molly wrote. “Make some noise, ladies!” Others will also be enthusiastic about the prose. (I found a copy online for about $12.)
Watch the Chris Martin show at New York’s Anton Kern Gallery, with his great Brooklyn-in-the-Catskills energy. (Roberta Smith likes it!)
Finally, Richard Fausset referred me to William Beckmann’s cover of “Volver, Volver,” which Beckmann played live in Texas last year. Listen to that, cook a lot, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.
