Off the Beaten Track: Calas—The Tale of a Rice Donut

Buffy Andrews began cooking as a young girl at her grandmother’s side in New Orleans. Buffy’s grandmother showed her how to make recipes that are handed down for generations along with all the tips and tricks for preparing them. While Buffy has taken cooking classes along the way, she has found that the foods she grew up eating are still her biggest source of inspiration. More tasty tales and recipes can be found in her upcoming book, The Creole Table; Contemporary New Orleans Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Cuisine.

Calas were, some believe, the precursor to the modern beignet donut you can get in the French Quarter of New Orleans today. The word “calas” hails from the West African word nupe kara, which translates as “fried cake.” Calas are soft, sweet rice donuts covered in powdered sugar and best served warm.

Historically, Creole slaves sold them on the streets of the French Quarter in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The story of the cala illustrates what a unique and beautiful melting pot of culture New Orleans is at its roots. New Orleans has brought the world Creole cuisine, jazz music, and a unique city unlike any other.

As a native New Orleanian, I always felt, in my heart, there was something special about the city of New Orleans. The Cala story begins to illustrate the subtle uniqueness that makes up New Orleans. The cala has all but fallen into obscurity, though it can still be found in a few of the old French Quarter restaurants as well as in the homes of some New Orleanians. The beignet has replaced it in popularity over the last 100 years or so but, at one time, it graced the tables where the beignet now resides.

The French Quarter

The cala, for me, is a story of hope and transformation. What moves me about the story of the cala is how a simple food like a rice donut was able to change the lives of some slaves.

I know it seems strange but, yes, slaves. To give a bit of background, there were laws that slave-owners had to adhere to.

The two local laws that are key to this story are:

1. Slaves were given Sundays off.

2. If a slave came up to their owner and asked to buy their freedom, the slave owner had to oblige.

These two rules set up the poetic beauty of such a simple food. If a slave was industrious enough, he or she could work on Sundays for herself making and selling calas. She could save her money and buy her freedom. So it was common back then to hear Creole girls carrying baskets full of hot donuts shouting Calas! Tout chaud! (“Hot calas!”) in the streets.

I love the thought of slaves being able to buy their freedom by making and selling calas. It makes my heart sing.

Growing up on the same rustic streets where calas were once sold, I can imagine a Creole girl walking the streets of the French Quarter selling her freshly made calas with the dream of buying her freedom.

So never underestimate the power of food, no matter how small. It can transform lives in so many ways...

A number of New Orleanian families have a wonderful tradition of serving calas. Typically, these families are descended from Creole slaves and have maintained this tradition of making and eating calas for many generations. And what an outsider, not from New Orleans, might miss at first glance is the true melting pot that is uniquely New Orleans. Many of the families that have a cala tradition are white but, as they look back along their family history, they probably have ancestors who were slaves.

So this is how I see New Orleans: we are all the same, joined together with a passion for food, music and a love for a city that most people can’t understand. New Orleans is a city that defies explanation; it must be experienced.

I have added here a recipe for calas. I have adapted the recipe printed in the Times-Picayune to make it gluten-free.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 pkg active dry yeast

3/4 cup cooked white rice

2 large eggs, beaten slightly

3/4 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour

1 pinch Kosher salt

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg or cinnamon

Optional peanut oil for frying

Powdered sugar for a heavy dusting

Directions:  The day before you make your calas, combine the water and sugar in a small bowl. Add the yeast and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes. Add the rice and stir well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and leave at room temperature overnight. This step will really give your calas a distinctive flavor; think sourdough.

The next day, stir the rice mixture and kind of mash the rice against the side of the bowl with a wooden spoon. Don’t go too crazy though, as you’ll want a bit of texture in the finished product.

Add the remaining ingredients to the rice mixture, and mix well with a wooden spoon. The mixture should be a fairly loose batter, a little thicker than pancake batter. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.  This step will make your calas as light as air when fried!

Heat 3 inches of peanut oil in a large saucepan that’s been heated to 365 degrees. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown, turning once. Serve with lots and lots of powdered sugar sprinkled over them, like beignets, or else drizzle with cane syrup. Recipe makes about 6 good-sized calas.

I do hope you enjoy the calas as much as I do.

Off The Beaten Track: Beginning a Literary Journal for an International Audience

We're pleased to host Kulpreet Yadav as our guest this week. Kulpreet answers our questions about how he came to start the Open Road Review, which he calls "a literary journal with a global soul."

Kulpreet is the founder-editor of Open Road Review. His creative work has appeared in numerous literary journals. Kulpreet’s latest book, a short story collection, ‘INDIA UNLIMITED – STORIES FROM A NATION CAUGHT BETWEEN HYPE AND HOPE,’ was released on Feb. 4, 2013 at the World Book Fair in New Delhi. More at www.kulpreetyadav.in.

Novel Adventurers: How did you start the journal?

Kulpreet Yadav: Open Road Review literary journal was founded in 2011 and the first issue was published on the first of May 2012. We had earlier planned to publish the maiden issue on the first of February, but couldn’t attract enough good submissions. I wanted the first issue to be special and we remained patient for another quarter while we reached out to writing groups and the writers themselves through word of mouth, social media, university circulars etc. By mid-April we had a good number of submissions to choose from.

NA: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced?

KY: For the team of Open Road Review this has been the first experience as editors. While it has been rewarding in terms of righting our individual literary careers, we have lost a few friends. The trouble with being an editor is that your friends expect you to accept their works. And when you tell them that you can’t, careful in putting it across – no writer wants to disappoint another one – that you can’t publish his work, you lose years of friendship. As an editor of Open Road Review now I know why editors of big publishing houses remain away from struggling writers, not hanging out with them, or turning their offers to share a drink.   

Shanti Perez, the fiction editor of Open Road Review, has been a part of our team from the beginning. Her commitment and editorial skills has played a crucial role in the journal’s popularity. Leah McMenamin, the poetry editor of Open Road Review, has been with us since issue 3. The poetry section of the journal is hugely popular among readers and poets and it shows the seriousness with which Leah selects her works.  

NA: Did you create the journal mostly for Indian writers and readers?

The Open Road Review's home page.

KY: Open Road Review continues to thrive among the readers from India and the rest of the world. This is not an India-focused-journal as one would assume. I feel the time has come for the world to see itself as a unified entity rather than a divided one. Indian writing, without a doubt, has its own distinctive flavour. But flavours are best served along with other flavours. Therefore, at Open Road Review we publish the best of Indian writing alongside international writing.

Open Road Review has a dedicated webmaster who likes to keep the website interactive. Readers can send their feedback, there are audio links for most of the stories, a blog section to understand the editors better, and the website is optimized for smart phones and tablets. The social media pages are part of the website and a visitor can download any work to read offline later.

NA: What would you like to add?

KY: Keep reading Open Road Review and sending us your best. The editors would love to hear from you. Remember, we exist for you, the writer and the reader. 

Off The Beaten Track: New Life in Northern Thailand

We're pleased to welcome Kim Roberts as our guest today. Kim teaches mindfulness practices such as yoga and meditation and coaches clients at New Life Foundation in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Summers she spends writing, practicing and cavorting with elk at her retreat home in Crestone, Colorado. Her new ebook, Ashtanga Yoga for Beginner’s Mind, was just published on Amazon. Learn more about Kim, her travels, her practice and her writing at: www.toolsforevolution.org.

I’m walking down a lazy dirt lane in the late afternoon heat of Northern Thailand. A gaggle of ducks waddle about, making their way to a large pond for their afternoon dip.  Rice paddy extends to low hills in the distance and as I approach the meditation hall where I am to lead the afternoon meditation, the canopy of teak forest provides a welcome relief from the sun.

Chiang Rai (not to be confused with Chiang Mai, her more farang inhabited big sister) is the frontier of northern Thailand’s hill tribes. Here is where you find tea and coffee plantations, traditional culture, and a slow taste of how Thailand was before tourism. The surrounding area is also one of the world’s most thriving opium and methamphetamine producing regions in the world. Which perhaps explains why a mindfulness based recovery center located itself here.

Simply being fully in the present moment is a healing practice. By being more aware of body, thoughts and emotions you will receive signals about what’s out of balance. Mindfulness teaches you to respect these signals and welcome them instead of pushing them away.

The New Life Foundation was founded by a Belgian entrepreneur in 2010, as a place for people to come rest, recover, and learn about the healing powers of mindfulness practice. His own personal struggle found relief here in Thailand at the unique Thamkrabok Monastery Detox program, and his wish was to offer something in return, by creating a place where other struggling addicts could mend their lives through the miracle of mindfulness at an affordable, nonprofit organization. The organization first contacted me while I was living in Phuket and asked me to lead a weekend yoga workshop. At the end of the workshop they invited me to return and work there as a life coach.

Photo courtesy Kim Roberts.

People come from all over the globe to become residents here, in order to establish new patterns and heal from a variety of issues: addictions, burnout, relationship issues, stress, mid-life transition, illness. Or they come to volunteer, sharing their skills as yoga instructors, life coaches, meditation guides, sustainable building engineers, or organic farmers. On weekends, residents and volunteers can participate in excursions to cultural attractions, hike to and swim in waterfalls, go trekking or kayaking, visit orphanages, or play football with the local villagers. People stay anywhere from one day to several months. The daily schedule includes morning yoga, silent breakfast, a community gathering followed by work to keep the facilities running, lunch, a creative or therapeutic workshop that focuses on mindfulness, afternoon meditation, and after dinner, an evening program that consists of a group check-in. Sometimes there are special presentations or movies or podcasts from Western Buddhist teachers are aired.

The facilities are located on 63 acres of land near the golden triangle in Chiang Rai province, which boasts plentiful natural beauty: lakes, mountains and hills, rice fields, forests, rivers, hot springs, waterfalls. On the land are two meditation halls, a swimming pool, organic farm, communal hall where three daily meals are served (with produce from the garden), consultation rooms for life coaching sessions, and around fifty single en suite guest rooms. Some of the communal buildings are built in traditional style, with teak leaf roofing and mud walls.

Over the past decades researchers and mental health professionals have been discovering that mindfulness practices such as yoga can alleviate almost every kind of psychological suffering. The increased awareness that results from mindfulness helps you to see what lies at the root of your behavior patterns. Once you can see the patterns, you then have the power to make choices, and eventually transform negative habits that perpetuate suffering. My own journey through yoga and meditation started 20 years ago as a graduate psychology student at the Buddhist inspired Naropa University in Colorado. The practices have been integral in helping me negotiate life’s transitions and have taught me how to stay calm in the most difficult situations.

Photo courtesy Kim Roberts.

Eventually, the goal of spiritual practice is to remain present and aware during all our daily activities. The best medicine is ironically the most simple: stripping away the distractions that keep us from experiencing the beauty of the present moment. Which begs the question: is spiritual growth different from healing?

While the mindfulness element is based on Buddhist principles, there is no religious affiliation. The practices are intended not for adherence to any particular lineage, but rather as tools to help people work with their minds in a more friendly way or you could say, for spiritual growth. Because it is a Buddhist culture, Thailand is a natural fit for a center such as this. I was drawn to Thailand, and to Asia in general, to learn how Buddhist teachings can be applied to daily life and apparently am still enjoying what I have discovered, since I have worked in the region for 12 years now.

The foundation’s mission is to cultivate a lifestyle that fosters inner growth and helps people to find meaning and purpose in life again. The foundation offers a unique learning environment based on mindfulness and sustainable living, where residents can learn to nurture and maintain their recovery—whether from substance addiction, grief, crisis or burnout.

With support from the community and guidance from the staff, each individual develops their own action plan that enables them to discover their potential and develop a new healthy lifestyle based on mindfulness, personal responsibility and respect. The most important tools on that journey are yoga, meditation and awareness practices.

The approach is to use a combination of practice and coaching to help residents discover their potential, regain a sense of self-value and find happiness in a new approach to life. Everyone experiences obstacles and suffering at some point in life, but these experiences can serve as a foundation to gain understanding of ourselves and life in general.  According to Buddhist philosophy, each of us has a seed of wisdom and goodness inside-- everything it takes to create a peaceful, equitable and sustainable existence. All we have to do is renew our relationship to ourselves through awareness practice to let that seed grow.