RSVP NYC HOME SALON a New Interview Reading Series

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.”

 

Tourin or Quick Open Fire Soup

Tourin or Quick Open Fire Soup

 

The night before I left for a workshop with rhythm master Bernard Lubat in Uzeste, I made a tourin in our fire place. This soup of humble origin is mostly known as tourin à l’ail —sopa de ajo in Spanish or garlic soup in English. Many variations are possible & in this case I used the ingredients available in the house: 1 tomato, 1 head of garlic, 1 onion, old bread & goose fat.


In a cast iron dutch oven I thoroughly sauteed the thinly sliced onion in goose fat. Meanwhile I crushed 3 cloves of garlic & a sprig of fresh rosemary in the mortar. After adding them to the pot, I removed the latter from the heat to avoid bitterness — over-sauteed garlic becomes bitter. I crushed the tomato in the mortar & added it to the onion garlic mixture. With no stock available, I added plain water to obtain the desired consistency. Coarse sea salt, freshly ground pepper & a dash of piment d’Espelette are added for seasoning & then the pot is returned to the open fire for about 15/ 30 minutes.

With thick slices of old country-style bread rubbed with garlic & drizzled with goose fat lining the bottom of the plate, hot soup is poured in et voilà! le tour est joué & you get a magnificent & most satisfying soup. A beaten egg is often added before serving; this is especially enriching if you have only garlic to make the soup. Whoever needed canned soup? Pas moi!


Photos Pierre Joris & N.P

Gratinée or French Onion Soup

Gratinée or French Onion Soup

My dad always calls it a gratinée, but it is generally called une soupe à l’oignon, here in the USA it is mostly known under the name “French onion soup.” Whatever you call it, it is a delicious and incredibly restorative soup.  Actually they used to serve it at my dad’s night club at the wee hours when many customers would have it to soak up the booze and line their stomach for more drinking. I used to make it on New Years eve when we had a party at the house and serve is at 1 or 2 am. It really makes a difference in the quality of your hangover — trust me!
Well, this time it was not about a hang over but about the carcass of a roasted chicken that had been picked clean of all its meat and was sitting in the fridge. I threw it in a pot, covered it with water, 1 onion, 1 carrot , 1 bouquet garni. When it came to a boil, I let it simmer for 1 hour, then strained the broth and let it cool. This type of broth can be used as a base for many soups or sauces, but tonight as we were waiting for another snow storm I was craving my onion soup. (You can substitute the homemade broth for some store bought stock & if you are vegetarian you can use an Organic Mushroom Broth)

Recipe for two:

In a soup pot melt 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Meanwhile slice 2 large sweet onions very thin.
Cook the onions over moderate heat until they are golden & almost caramelized. At this point some recipes call for sprinkling a tablespoon of flour to give the soup a thicker consistency. I don’t, because I like my onion soup lighter, plus I feel that the bread that will be on top provides plenty of thickness & starch once you mix it in with the soup, but I though I’d mention it as so many recipe do.
Add about 2 1/2 cup of broth, 2 teaspoons of brandy or white wine —that is my secret!
Season with salt, fresh ground pepper  and let simmer for about 1/2 hour.

Garlic butter

Meanwhile make parsley & garlic butter. In a food processor add 1/2 stick of butter, 2 cloves of garlic, blend well and add 1 cup of chopped parsley, mix it in for just a few seconds, do not over  blend once the parsley is in. Fill a little ramekin and save in the fridge. Cut a few slices of good country french bread, butter generously with the parsley & garlic butter. Fill two individual soup tureens with the onion soup, place the buttered bread on top, & top generously with grated —in order of preference— Gruyère, Emmental or Swiss cheese. Place the bowls under the broiler until the cheese is golden and bubbly. Garnish with a few pink pepper corn and a spring of parsley and Bon Appetit!


Three Sisters Soup

Three Sisters Soup

I am back from a wonderful trip to the Pyrenees and a short visit to Paris. I arrived just in time to dive into the kitchen to prepare our Thanksgiving dinner. Husband, older son & daughter in law had been very efficient on getting all the necessary ingredients. They also took charge of brining & smoking our 14 lbs organic turkey — it turned out delicious. Joseph —the older son— made the best oyster dressing he ever made for us; he has been improving the recipe we have used for a few years and I will pass it on one of these days. I will not get into all the details of our dinner as I have a few deadlines coming up, but the one thing I will share from our  2010 menu is our Three Sisters Soup. There are many ways of making this soup, and I have made it many times, but I do think this year’s version is the best so far.

First, a little light on the origin of the name. The soup is named after the Native American technique of growing maize, beans & squash together:

Three Sisters (agriculture)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Three Sisters are the three main agricultural crops of some Native American groups in North America: squash, maize, and climbing beans (typically tepary beans or common beans).

In one technique known as companion planting, the three crops are planted close together. Flat-topped mounds of soil are built for each cluster of crops. Each mound is about 30 cm (1 ft) high and 50 cm (20 in) wide, and several maize seeds are planted close together in the center of each mound. In parts of the Atlantic Northeast, rotten fish or eel are buried in the mound with the maize seeds, to act as additional fertilizer where the soil is poor.[1][2] When the maize is 15 cm (6 inches) tall, beans and squash are planted around the maize, alternating between beans and squash. Milpas are farms or gardens that employ companion planting on a larger scale.[3]

The three crops benefit from each other. The maize provides a structure for the beans to climb, eliminating the need for poles. The beans provide the nitrogen to the soil that the other plants utilize and the squash spreads along the ground, blocking the sunlight, which helps prevent weeds. The squash leaves act as a “living mulch“, creating a microclimate to retain moisture in the soil, and the prickly hairs of the vine deter pests. Maize lacks the amino acids lysine and tryptophan, which the body needs to make proteins and niacin, but beans contain both and therefore together they provide a balanced diet.

Native Americans throughout North America are known for growing variations of three sisters gardens. The Anasazi are known for adopting this garden design in a more xeric environment. The Tewa and other Southwest tribes often included a “fourth sister” known as “Rocky Mountain bee plant” (Cleome serrulata), which attracts bees to help pollinate the beans and squash.[4]


2009 Native American dollar reverse with Three Sisters on it

In the past I made three different soups and served them together. This year I decided to make only the back bean and the butternut squash soups and serve the corn as a garnish on top. This added a pleasant texture to the dish.

Black Bean Soup:
I had some cooked black beans in my freezer. I sauteed one diced onion, added one jalapeno, salt, and a dash of Melinda sauce (for the chipotle pepper taste), added the beans and water. Let it cook for one hour.  Then I blended it with cooking liquid. The consistency should be a little thinner than a smoothie.

Butternut Squash Soup:
I peeled a butternut squash and cooked it in salted water. Meanwhile I prepared a bechamel sauce:

Béchamel sauce
5 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups milk

Melt the butter over low heat in a heavy sauce pan. Add all the flour, move away from heat and stir briskly until smooth. Add the milk & put back on the stove, stir continually with a wire whisk to prevent any lumps —this is a basic sauce that you can use for many other recipes like macaroni and cheese, or any other gratins, lasagnas etc.

Once the squash is cooked, blend it in a food processor with enough cooking liquid to obtain a  thick consistency. Return to a pan and add as much bechamel as you like. Season with salt & pepper.

Corn kernels:
In a pan melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Add 2 cups of corn kernels, salt & pepper. Glaze them until golden and a little crunchy.

Keep your soups and the corn warm — I do keep everything in a chef pan double boiler mode— prepare the other garnish: cilantro, whipped cream & finely chopped jalapenos for the people who can handle it.
Once you are ready to sit down to dinner set up your plates.

1- Pour the butternut squash soup first.
2- The bean soup in the middle of the squash soup
3- Add a dolop of whipped cream, cilantro, chopped jalapeno and voilà!  & bon appetit!

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