Blog – Page 15 – Nicole Peyrafitte

Òda au James Dean is OUT!

Hooray! we are delighted to announce that our translation of Bernat Manciet’s Òda au James Dean is out!
Pierre Joris & I worked directly from the Gascon. Thank you’s to Sèrji Javaloyes, Estelle Comelas, Alem Surre-Garcia & Domenja Lekuona for their precious assistance. We are off tomorrow to France & a post will follow with our itinerary since we will have several performances in the occitan country with our NY’OC Trobadors friends.

Meanwhile get the book here, & thank you Guy Bennett at Mindmade books for the opportunity to publish this incredible European writer. More to come from the voices of this part of world soon since Pierre and I are working at an anthology of Occitan literature. Meanwhile:

Adishatz!

A “Restaurant” with Healing Paste

Food for health is not a new trend; after all the name “restaurant” comes from the verb “to restore.” At the beginning of the 16th century the word was used to describe a meat fortifying broth sold in small Paris shops. Then, by the mid 18th century the word became the name for places where restoring soups where served.

If you feel “under the weather,” something most of us have experienced these past few months, this soup will give you a lift! This is how I proceeded but there is a lot of flexibility in the recipe. If you are vegetarian or vegan just make a rich veggie broth.

In my case I had the carcass of a Guinea fowl we had roasted a couple of days ago (chicken or any meat bones would do, though beef and lamb will have to cook longer). The carcass went into a large stock pot. I added a few green cabbage leaves; 1 onion with 3 cloves stuck in it; 1 carrot; 1 leek; 2 laurel leaves tied together with a small bouquet of parsley; 2 branches of celery; a few grains of black pepper; 1/2 lemon; a little piece of ginger that was lingering around; and a couple of garlic cloves. I simmered it for a couple of hours. Meanwhile I prepared the healing paste.

In a food processor I mixed 8 cloves of garlic, 2 pieces of fresh turmeric, 2 pieces of fresh ginger, 1 tsp 1/2 of cayenne pepper, 1/4 cup of sesame oil (I use all organic ingredients). Once all is well blended, it is ready to be used and can be kept in the fridge in a glass bowl — I pour a thin layer of sesame oil on top to keep it moist. I got the idea of the paste by reading an article by Dr. Majid Ali. I simply followed his idea for Poly-spice therapy. Dr. Ali considers ginger, turmeric & cayenne pepper the most important healing spices. Here is a quote from an abstract of his article you can find the full version here:

Principles of Spice Medicine
In closing this first of my series of article on the spice medicine and oxygen, I briefly state the following important aspects of such therapies that may be considered the principles of spice medicine:

1. Mono-spice therapy in large doses but for short periods of time can be very effective for acute conditions. To cite one example, large doses of ginger are often helpful in controlling motion sickness and pregnancy- related nausea. However, continuous mono-spice therapy for extended periods of time should be avoided.

2. Poly-spice therapy — the concurrent use of spices with empirically- recognized complementary roles — is generally more beneficial for controlling acute infectious and inflammatory processes. For instance, turmeric, ginger, garlic, and cayenne (when tolerated well) can be combined for better results.

3. For chronic inflammatory and infectious disorders, mono-spice therapy should be avoided. Poly-spice therapy for such disorders yields superior results when combined with direct oxystatic therapies, such as hygrogen peroxide foot soaks (done with one part 3% peroxide and 30 parts of water with a pich of salt added).

The discussions of the therapeutic benefits of specific spices are presented in other articles of this series.

Returning to the cooled soup. I poured 1 1/2 quart of the broth into a sauce pan, added the meat I picked off the carcass and the cooked veggies — discarding the bones and skin and removing the parsley & laurel leaves. I warmed the soup again, added some soy sauce, & once the soup was hot I added country style miso (never boil miso, it looses it’s potency), & finished it with 1 tbsp of the healing paste (or more if you like the heat of the cayenne.) Serve garnished with parsley and lemon. Bon appétit & bonne santé!

RSVP NYC HOME SALON a New Interview Reading Series

npdrawing

If you RSVP’d to the March 15th Salon via email [email protected] ( that is before Sunday March 9th)
PLEASE DO IT AGAIN! because I didn’t get your message since
I made a mistake when I set up the gmail address.
the correct address is:
[email protected]
Sorry for the inconvenience.

RSVP NYC
(an interview/reading)
HOME SALON
To provide a space for conversation and
create a more meaningful feeling of community
Free events at rotating homes

RSVP #1:
SATURDAY MARCH 15th
at the home of Pierre Joris & Nicole Peyrafitte
Gathering 5PM/Reading 6PM

SERVING & GRILLING:

JEAN PORTANTE
Poet from Luxembourg ( see bio below)
SOUP & SALAD

You CAN BRING:
Drinks/cheese/dessert/bread/crackers/hors d’oeuvres
Let us know what you’ll bring when you RSVP.

You MUST RSVP to:
[email protected]
(no exception)

Space limited to the first 25 people – first come first serve basis
Address & direction will be given to you when with your RSVP confirmation: [email protected]

If you are interested in volunteering to help or host please email us at

Jean Portante was born in Differdange (Luxembourg) in 1950. He is of Italian origin. He lives in Paris. He has written more than fifty books, including poetry, novels, stories, plays, essays, and translations, and has been widely translated. His books have been published in Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec, Ireland, Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, Portugal, Germany, Slovakia, Serbia, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Great-Britain, etc. He translated to the French poets like Juan Gelman, Jerome Rothenberg, Pierre Joris, John Deane, Gonzalo Rojas, Edoardo Sanguineti, Valerio Magrelli, Durs Grünbein, etc.

In 2003 his book L’Etrange langue was awarded the Prix Mallarme in France, and the same year Portante was awarded the Grand Prix d’Automne de la Societe des Gens de Lettres for his entire work. In 2005, French editor Le Castor Astral published a personal anthology, La Cendre des mots, containing a selection of his work from 1989 to 2005.

Having lived in Cuba for many years Portante is very much at home in Latin America, and a prominent translator of Latin American poetry. Politically, he remains a combative spokesman for the Left in his columns for Le Jeudi, and is highly regarded for his representation of Italian immigrant experience in Luxembourg as described in his autobiographically-inspired novel Mrs Haroy ou la mémoire de la baleine.

In English he has published: Point. Eraising, The Daedalus Press, 2003 and In Reality, Seren Books, June 2013.

As a novelist, Jean Portante published, among others, Mrs Haroy ou la memoire de la baleine, which has been translated into many languages. He is also the author of a biographical essay on Allen Ginsberg: Allen Ginsberg. L’autre Amerique. Le Castor Astral, 1999.

Since 2006, Jean Portante is member of the Academie Mallarme, based in Paris. In 2008, he founded, in France, with the French poet Jacques Darras, the poetry magazine Inuits dans la jungle. In Luxembourg he is at the head of the literary magazine Transkrit.

In 2011 he was awarded the National Literature Award of Luxembourg for his entire work.

About:

In Reality: Selected Poems

Jean Portante

Zoë Skoulding (trans.)

Jean Portante is a lyric poet, and also one who has something to say to an international audience. As a Francophone Luxemburger of Italian descent, his poetry works at the spaces between European cultures and is concerned with themes of identity, politics, language, Europe, the divide between politics and everyday life. This dual language edition collects work from the last 20 years, including poems from his 2013 collection, Après le tremblement, which addresses an earthquake in his ancestral Italian village.

Rich in imagery, and addressing themes like memory and forgetting, Portante’s poetry moves discursively to a telling conclusion, which engages readers in whatever language they encounter him. The poems are presented in dual text.

Pierre Joris wrote of this book: “In reality, reality is ghosted by a multiplicity of forms of energy & energies of form it is the poet’s job to reveal & hide in the double play of his languages’ hide & seek. Jean Portante is a master at just that chassé-croisé of language & meaning, of real ghosts & ghostly realities. One ‘In Reality’ can (& does) hide another. Read on & in.”

Sweet Sweet Muffins (No Sugar, No Wheat)

For Marge Byrd who taught me how to bake the American way.
Above: the apron top she stitched for me in 1993!

Following a low-glycemic, no sugar diet doesn’t mean you have to eat boring foods…au contraire! If both Pierre and I have been successfully keeping up with this way of eating it is because there are actually plenty of other choices. It is all about using different ingredients & learning how to use them. This muffins recipe—& the Mooch-O-colat too— are good examples how it can be done. It took me a while to figure it out — but Voilà! le result is yummy! Can be served for brunch or dessert or any thing else you can imagine! Below are pictures of the some possible combinations.

for 12 Cast Iron Cookware Muffin Pan
(note to my friend Don Byrd: They are Lodge’s cast iron pans & I found them on Amazon)
Preheat oven 375 degres
Cooking : 30 minutes.

In the blender add :
1/2 a green apple with the skin,
1/2 lb silk tofu,
1/4 cup coconut oil,
1/4 tsp stevia, ( this is the brand I like to use)
1/2 vanilla bean (inside scraped),
1 cup cashew milk (any almond, soy, rice milk will do just make sure they have NO sugar added),
1 pinch of salt,
1 beaten egg at the end & mix it by hand.

In a large bowl combine :
1/4 cup buckwheat flour,
1/4 cup teff flour,
(can be substituted for buckwheat tho I really like the crunchy taste of it. I do buy the regular teff & then grind it myself in the coffee grinder),
1/2 cup coconut flour,
1/2 cup oat bran,
1 grated lemon,
1 grated orange
1 tsp baking powder.

Incorporate the blender’s liquid content into the dry ingredient bowl. Mix gently but thoroughly. Grease your muffin pans generously with coconut oil. Fill the molds & bake for 30 minutes at 350°. You can also bake this batter in a cast iron pan and then slice it as you see below.

Sweet sweet muffins w/ sunny side eggs, raw kale salad, red berry chia jam. Muffins, oeufs au plat, salade de choux frisée crue, confiture de baie aux graines de chia

Suive un régime pauvre en glucides et sans sucre ne doit pas être ennuyeux , au contraire! Et si avec Pierre nous arrivons à le suivre sans difficultés c’est par ce que: 1) c’est bon et 2) il y a beaucoup de choix, seulement voilà — il m’a fallu les trouver! La recette d’aujourd’hui — comme celle du blog précédent, la Mooch-O-colat — en sont deux très bon exemples. J’ai toujours beaucoup aimé les muffins et ça m’a pris quelque temps à créer une recette pauvre en glucides et sans sucre ajouté qui plaisait à tous. Voilà le résultat et vous allez vous régaler!

Chauffer le four à 200 degrés. Cuisson : 30 minutes

Dans le mixer ajouter:
1/2 pomme verte avec la peau,
250gr de tofu soyeux,
80ml d’huile de noix de coco,
1/4 de cuillère à café de stevia,
1/2 gousse de vanille,
1 tasse de lait de noix de cajou (ou bien utiliser du lait d’amande, de soja, de riz sans sucre ajouté),
1 pincée de sel,
1 oeuf battu et le mélanger à la main à la fin.

Dans un grand bowl ajouter:
25gr de farine de sarrasin,
25gr tasse de farine de teff,
(peut être remplacer par plus de sarrasin mais le teff apporte une texture agréable. J’achète les graines de teff entières et les passe au moulin à café),
55 gr de farine de noix de coco,
75 gr de son d’avoine,
1 citron (zestes seulement),
1 orange (zestes seulement),
1 c. à café de levure chimique.

Incorporer les ingrédients liquides du mixer dans le bol des ingrédients secs. Bien mélanger. Graisser les moules généreusement avec de l’huile de noix de coco. Les remplir et cuire à four chaud pour 30 minutes. Vous pouvez aussi utiliser une poêle en fonte ou un moule à gâteau.

Sweet sweet muffins with goat yogurt sauce (cinnamon, stevia), seeds & fresh or frozen wild berries.
Muffins avec yaourt de chèvre parfumé à la stevia et à la cannelle, myrtilles fraîches ou congelées, graines grillées.

Mooch-o-colat for Valentine’s day (Eng-Fr)

Série: Recettes pour Jean & Renée Peyrafitte —Français en suivant—

Just in time for Valentine’s day: the ultimate healthy chocolate dessert made with unsweetened 100% coco organic chocolate bar. I call it Mooch-o-colat. Its very creamy texture & the crunchy orange zest will never let anyone guess that there is no dairy & no added sugar. Voilà! A low-carb delight very easy to make.

4 small ramekins

2 oz of unsweetened organic 100% cocoa bar
1/2 scraped organic vanilla beans
1 teaspoon of chia seeds
1 lb of silk tofu
1/4 cup of cashew nuts
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon drops of stevia (this the one I use)
1 organic washed orange for roasted orange zest
1 teaspoon of rasted seeds (flax, sesame, pumpkin, sunflower)

Melt the chocolate in a small pan.
Important: in order to be smooth, silky & homogeneous chocolate must not come into contact with any liquid. So place the chocolate ONLY in the pan & melt it very slowly. You can also melt it in a double boiler to avoid burning.
Add tofu, cashews, chia seeds, cinnamon & stevia into a blender. Mix thoroughly & add the melted chocolate. Fill the ramequins and keep in the fridge for a few hours.
Peel the orange with a good vegetable peeler, remove the white inner skin (see pix below), slice very thin, pat dry. roast them gently in a pan or in the oven until dry. Roast the seeds the same way. Garnish just before serving.

EN FRANÇAIS:
Juste à temps pour la St Valentin, voilà un superbe dessert au chocolat 100% cacao —sans sucre ajouté, sans produit laitier, sans cuisson, pauvre en glucides et en calories. Je l’ai baptisé Mooch-o-colat; la texture onctueuse se marie magnifiquement avec le craquant délicat des zestes d’orange et des graines grillés.

4 petits ramequins

55gr 100% chocolat noir
1/2 gousse de vanille — coupez la gousse de vanille en 2 dans le sens de sa longueur. Séparez la gousse en 2 et raclez l’intérieur
1 cuillère à soupe de graines de chia
450 gr de tofu soyeux
35 gr de noix de cajou
1/3 de cuillère à café de cannelle moulue
15/20 (1.25ml) gouttes de stevia
1 orange pour les zestes rôtis
quelques graines grillés (lin, sésame, citrouille, tournesol)

Faire fondre le chocolat à sec à feu très doux— le chocolat n’apprécie guère la chaleur directe. Vous pouvez très facilement le brûler et en altérer le goût et la consistance; si vous avez peur de le brûler faites le fondre au bain marie.
Dans le mixer ajouter le tofu, les noix de cajou, les graines de chia, la cannelle moulue & et la stevia.
Une fois le tout bien mixé — laisser tourner un moment pour donner le temps aux noix de cajou de devenir onctueuses — ajouter le chocolat fondu. Remplir les ramequins et réserver au frigo quelques heures.
Peler une orange avec un pèle légume. Pour éviter l’amertume ôter la peau blanche avec un couteau à plat (voir photo ci-dessus). Couper en très fines lamelles et faire griller soit dans une poêle à sec soit au four jusqu’à ce que les zestes sont “secs;” faire griller les graines de la même façon. Décorer au moment de servir.
Bon Appétit et Happy Valentine’s day!

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