{"id":149418,"date":"2020-12-04T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T14:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=149418"},"modified":"2020-12-04T11:14:48","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T16:14:48","slug":"cooking-with-james-baldwin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/12\/04\/cooking-with-james-baldwin\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking with James Baldwin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Please join Valerie Stivers and Hank Zona<\/a> for a virtual wine tasting on Friday, December 18, at 6 P.M.<\/small> on <\/em>The Paris Review\u2019s Instagram account<\/a>. For more details,\u00a0visit our events page<\/a>, or scroll down<\/a> to the bottom of the article.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Baldwin\u2019s characters haunted French bistros, where oysters with mignonette are a staple. Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cNot everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.\u201d So read the inspirational quote in the front window of my Brooklyn gourmet market the day I shopped for a meal celebrating the work and life of James Baldwin (1924\u20131987). These words, coincidentally but not surprisingly, are from Baldwin, who is the man of the moment again thanks to the extraordinary relevance of his writing to today\u2019s America.<\/p>\n

Baldwin as a novelist is perhaps best known for Giovanni\u2019s Room<\/em> and Another Country<\/em>, the former a gay man\u2019s self-reckoning and the latter a brutal and tragic wrestling with being Black in America. He is known to a lesser extent for having lived most of his adult life abroad, first in Paris and then in the Proven\u00e7al town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, though he always kept up his connection to the Harlem of his birth and was an active participant in the U.S. civil rights movement. Intense and multitalented, Baldwin was also a playwright\u2014he loved actors and the theater\u2014and a critic and essayist. His nonfiction collections Notes of a Native Son<\/em> and The Fire Next Time<\/em> have predicted the future to an astonishing degree. <\/p>\n

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My homemade baguette was imperfectly shaped and slashed, but it tasted nearly right. Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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One of the great Black intellectuals of his era, Baldwin posited race as the central conflict in American life\u2014and identified the \u201cinnocence\u201d of race as the white man\u2019s central crime. \u201cI can conceive of no Negro native to this country who has not, by the age of puberty, been irreparably scarred by the conditions of his life,\u201d he writes in Notes of a Native Son<\/em>. He believed that America taught Black people \u201cwith brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity.\u201d This schooling made it impossible to love self or family, made it impossible to live as a Black person in America\u2014Rufus, the main character of Another Country<\/em>, dies by suicide. In later years, Baldwin claimed that the nation\u2019s fundamental qualities had remained unchanged despite integration and civil rights. \u201cEurope has not yet left Africa, and black men here are not yet free,\u201d he writes in The Fire Next Time<\/em>. These facts contain \u201cthe gravest implications for us all\u201d because \u201cthe Negroes of this country may never be able to rise to power, but they are very well placed indeed to precipitate chaos and ring down the curtain on the American dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2016 documentary I Am Not Your Negro<\/em> juxtaposes Baldwin\u2019s words and speeches with images of contemporary protest against police violence in places like Ferguson, Missouri, to great effect.<\/p>\n

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A character in Another Country<\/em> cooks a plate of pork and rice with salad during a domestic dispute. This version is from the culinary icon Edna Lewis. Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The root of the racism that defines life in America, Baldwin felt, is fear. White people, Baldwin says in The Fire Next Time<\/em>, \u201chad robbed black people of their liberty and \u2026 profited by this theft every hour that they lived.\u201d The white man despises the Black man because doing so provides him with a feeling of superiority and he cannot face his crimes against the Black man. \u201cA vast amount of the energy that goes into what we call the Negro problem is produced by the white man\u2019s profound desire not to be judged by those who are not white,\u201d Baldwin writes. Elsewhere, he says: \u201cThe crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen, and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, [is] that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baldwin\u2019s thought seems an obvious progenitor to the core ideas of contemporary racial-justice movements. I find it edifying\u2014and a fact to which close attention should be paid\u2014that the influence of Baldwin\u2019s thought has lasted and grown, as a peer to, or perhaps even overtaking, the ongoing generative power of the legacies of other great figures who were his contemporaries. I Am Not Your Negro<\/em> takes as its starting point an unfinished Baldwin essay on three Black leaders of his time, all of whom were assassinated\u2014Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers\u2014and all of whose deaths affected Baldwin profoundly. Each embraced a slightly different form of activism. Baldwin\u2019s was through his art\u2014and his artistic mission, as he conceived it, was to wrestle honestly, visibly, and unflinchingly with everything he saw as true in himself and in the world around him. As Baldwin\u2019s biographer David Leeming writes, \u201cHe was born to translate the painful human experience into art.\u201d Baldwin wrote about the church, about his homosexuality, and about race without regard for the sensitivities of anyone and despite the great difficulty and personal pain inherent in doing so. This truth telling has held tremendous power over the decades since his death.<\/p>\n

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Lewis\u2019s technique calls for the butter and water to be heated together before incorporation with the stuffing. Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I would love to know Baldwin\u2019s thoughts on today\u2019s issues. He was insistent that as a matter of self-preservation, Black people must neither hate white people nor give up on them (despite the manifest temptations of doing so), but very often he had white liberals in his crosshairs, memorably accusing them once of \u201cincredible, abysmal, and really cowardly obtuseness.\u201d If nothing else has changed, that probably hasn\u2019t either. The Baldwin quotation at my gourmet market, for example\u2014\u201cNot everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced\u201d\u2014felt to me more ironic than perhaps the people choosing it had intended, since the shoppers at this particular store are predominantly white and the cashiers are predominantly Black. I was there for oysters and imported French butter and Roquefort cheese\u2014to celebrate James Baldwin, no less\u2014yet I doubt my awareness of race while I made my purchase changes anything. In the more sinister sense, the market\u2019s association of itself with Baldwin probably serves to entrench the status quo.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s discouraging, and it can be difficult to feel much optimism for the solutions currently on offer for the ongoing problem of racism in America. Today\u2019s objectives seem to be mostly the same ones we\u2019ve already been attempting, just more so. Yet if Baldwin is to be believed that nothing has changed\u2014and I do believe him\u2014these methods already haven\u2019t worked for half a century. It\u2019s possible that we just haven\u2019t tried hard enough, but it\u2019s also possible we aren\u2019t trying the right things. In reading Baldwin, then, I tried to learn something new by mimicking his openness as a writer with my openness as a reader. I attempted to read with the same tolerance for difficulty and complexity with which he wrote, and to encounter surprises, to find not what I expected but what I didn\u2019t. In the end what struck me most was the power of his contention that \u201cthe price of the liberation of the white people is the liberation of the blacks\u2014the total liberation, in the cities, in the towns, before the law, and in the mind.\u201d I imagined all the ways the world might look if we gave up American whiteness and American Blackness both\u2014they are linked, after all; they live and die together\u2014and found in this exercise an arena for ongoing meditation.<\/p>\n

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The apple-herb stuffing for Edna Lewis\u2019s crown roast of pork uses a lot of butter, but it\u2019s so worth it. Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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It\u2019s much easier to cook dinner than to provide answers, even when the dinner is an elaborate feast befitting one of our greatest writers. And while the people in Baldwin\u2019s books are usually short on money or appetite\u2014moral nausea has that effect\u2014the writer found food important in a variety of ways. He risked his life on many occasions to protest segregated dining. In his bohemian youth, he was often hungry. Later, he famously became a bon vivant. Describing Baldwin\u2019s great love, Lucien, Leeming says, \u201cThey both loved laughter, food, sex, and, above all, drink.\u201d This might seem trivial, but it was a central part of Baldwin\u2019s philosophy: he thought that our fear of sensuality was a fear of ourselves and that without loving ourselves, we would not be able to love others. In one oft-quoted passage of The Fire Next Time<\/em>, Baldwin writes of this American fear and the importance of overcoming it in our liberation:<\/p>\n

To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present<\/em> in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread. It will be a great day for America, incidentally, when we begin to eat bread again, instead of the blasphemous and tasteless foam rubber that we have substituted for it. And I am not being frivolous now, either. Something very sinister happens to the people of a country when they begin to distrust their own reactions as deeply as they do here, and becomes as joyless as they have become.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus emboldened, I started out with the mission of re-creating a meal from the culminating pages of Another Country<\/em>, when the Black heroine, Ida, is making a dinner of rice and \u201ctomatoes and lettuce and a package of pork chops\u201d for her white lover, Vivaldo, while they say terrible things to each other. The scene is full of precise cooking instructions, like the way Ida \u201cwalked to the table and opened the meat. She began to dust it with salt and pepper and paprika, and chopped garlic into it, near the bone.\u201d But Vivaldo and Ida eventually abandon the dish\u2014\u201cCome away from the stove, I can\u2019t eat now,\u201d Vivaldo says\u2014and I thought its simplicity was not in the spirit of Baldwin\u2019s sensuality. To truly channel him, I had to go at least partially French. For that, I had a scene from Giovanni\u2019s Room <\/em>in which the self-denying gay hero, David, first and doomfully falls in love. David\u2019s Paris is Baldwin\u2019s Paris, and I imagine it being a scene from Baldwin\u2019s life when the two men go to a working-class bar in Les Halles to consume \u201cwhite wine and oysters,\u201d which Giovanni says \u201cis really the best thing after such a night.\u201d Eating them, \u201cGiovanni sat in the sun, his black hair gathering to itself the yellow glow of the wine and the many dull colors of the oyster where the sun struck it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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My efforts to combine these elements achieved a really exciting serendipity. I served a plate of oysters on a restaurant-style bed of crushed ice with a homemade mignonette, paired with a Where\u2019s Linus? Sauvignon Blanc<\/a> made by the Black American winemaker Chris Christensen. My spirits collaborator, Hank Zona<\/a>, suggested this wine as a dry, crisp, citrusy option that \u201cgoes nicely with fresh shellfish\u201d and is \u201clike the squeeze of lemon on the raw oyster.\u201d Where\u2019s Linus? is a collaboration between Christensen and the boutique distributor Jenny & Fran\u00e7ois Selections; it\u2019s more widely available than Christensen\u2019s own, also highly recommended, line of Bodkin Wines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I next made baguettes from scratch, following the injunction from The Fire Next Time<\/em> to eat better bread, and served them with Roquefort cheese mashed together with fancy French butter, as Baldwin believed was proper<\/a>. I riffed on the pork chops, rice, and salad by making them from the pages of Edna Lewis, an icon of the kind of Black Southern cooking that influenced the Harlem of Baldwin\u2019s youth. My salad follows Lewis\u2019s loving descriptions of how to mix different greens and how to make a dressing, including shaking it up in a pint Mason jar. My rice is her red rice, the secret ingredient of which is the rice itself\u2014either Carolina or \u201cpopcorn\u201d variety. Once baked, this mild, creamy, small-grain variant makes jewellike little clumps, and the balance of pepper, smoke, and sweetness is exquisite. Lastly, I\u2019d read a Saveur<\/em> magazine article by a woman who\u2019d dined with Baldwin at a restaurant owned by a friend of his in the South of France\u2014the kind of long, legendary afternoon meal the writer was known for. For dessert they\u2019d eaten fresh pineapple, and Lewis happens to have a recipe for a spectacular, show-stopping crown roast of pork garnished with pineapple and stuffed with a glazed-apple-and-herb bread mixture. This is far from the simple chop that Ida made, but its unabashed gustatory wow factor seemed right. Zona paired it with a Maison Noir OPP Pinot Noir<\/a>, from the Oregon winemaking operations of Andre Mack, a Black restaurateur and vintner based in Brooklyn. The OPP Pinot Noir is less ripe and fruity than the California styles of the same grape, but it still has \u201cplenty of that cherry fruit flavor that goes well with pork,\u201d Zona said, along with notes of herb and spice to match my stuffing.<\/p>\n

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This crisp, lemony sauvignon blanc from the Black American winemaker Chris Christensen is the ideal pairing for oysters. Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Frenchness and the Black Americana fit perfectly together. Lewis is more Alice Waters than country cook, and every one of her recipes I\u2019ve tried has been revelatory. Even my baguettes, which were denser and chewier than I think proper, were fresh homemade bread, which is never bad. The crown roast of pork was not difficult in terms of technique and seems like something everyone should be doing for a holiday table. I\u2019d make any one of these dishes again, and I highly recommend them as an entire spread, complete with the wines.<\/p>\n

To speak of our holiday tables: that we all ought to sit down together and eat\u2014that we can do better\u2014was something Baldwin believed, though fitfully and with difficulty. I can only hope he\u2019ll be right about that, too, as he has been about so many things. In the meantime, at least we have his books to learn from.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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French Bread with Roquefort Cheese and Butter <\/strong><\/p>\n

Adapted from a King Arthur Baking Company recipe<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

For the starter:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1\/2 cup cool water
\n1\/16 tsp yeast
\n1 cup flour<\/p>\n

For the dough: <\/strong><\/p>\n

all of the starter
\n1 1\/2 tsp yeast
\n1 cup and 2 tbs lukewarm water
\n3 1\/2 cups flour
\n1 1\/4 tsp salt<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Note that this recipe takes twenty hours and needs to be started the night before.<\/p>\n

To make the starter, mix everything together to create a soft dough. Cover and let rest at room temperature for about fourteen hours; overnight works well. By then, the starter should have expanded and become bubbly.<\/p>\n

To make the dough, mix and knead everything together\u2014by hand, mixer, or bread machine set on the dough cycle\u2014to make a soft, somewhat smooth dough. It should be cohesive, but the surface may still be a bit rough. If you\u2019re using a stand mixer, knead for about four minutes on medium-low speed (speed 2 on a KitchenAid). The finished dough should stick a bit at the bottom of the bowl.<\/p>\n

Place the dough in a lightly greased medium-size bowl, cover the bowl, and let the dough rest and rise for forty-five minutes. Gently deflate the dough, and fold its edges into the center, then turn it over in the bowl before letting it rise for an additional forty-five minutes, until it\u2019s noticeably puffy.<\/p>\n

Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased work surface. Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into three equal pieces.<\/p>\n

Round each piece of dough into a rough ball by pulling the edges into the center. Cover with greased plastic wrap, and let rest for at least fifteen minutes (or for up to an hour, if that works better with your schedule).<\/p>\n

Working with one piece at a time, flatten the dough slightly, then fold it nearly (but not quite) in half, sealing the edges with the heel of your hand. Turn the dough around, and repeat: fold, then flatten. Repeat this whole process again; the dough should have started to elongate itself.<\/p>\n

With the seam side down, cup your fingers, and gently roll the dough into a log. The recommended length is sixteen inches. However, that made a baguette that was too long to fit on my cookie sheet. Measure your baking surface before you embark, and adjust accordingly. Taper each end of the log slightly to create the baguette\u2019s typical pointy end.<\/p>\n

Place the logs, seam side down, into the folds of a heavily floured cotton dish towel or onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined sheet pan. Cover them with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the loaves to rise until they\u2019re slightly puffy. The loaves should look lighter and less dense than when you first shaped them, but they won\u2019t be anywhere near doubled in bulk. This should take about forty-five minutes to an hour at room temperature.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 450 with a cast-iron pan on the floor of the oven or on the lowest rack. Start to heat three cups of water to boiling.<\/p>\n

If your baguettes have risen in a dish towel, gently roll them, seam side down, onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Using a bread lame or a very sharp knife held at about a forty-five-degree angle, make three to five long lengthwise slashes in each baguette.<\/p>\n

Load the baguettes into the oven. Carefully pour the boiling water into the cast-iron pan, and quickly shut the oven door. The billowing steam created by the boiling water will help the baguettes rise and give them a lovely, shiny crust.<\/p>\n

Bake the baguettes for twenty-four to twenty-eight minutes, or until they\u2019re a very deep golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and let them to cool on a rack. Or, for the crispiest baguettes, turn off the oven, crack it open about two inches, and allow the baguettes to cool completely in the oven, until both the baguettes and the oven are at room temperature.<\/p>\n

Serve with Roquefort cheese at room temperature, mashed together chunkily with about two tablespoons of high-quality butter, also at room temperature.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Oysters with Mignonette <\/strong><\/p>\n

For the mignonette:<\/strong><\/p>\n

4 tbs red wine vinegar
\n1 tbs shallot, finely minced
\n1\/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper<\/p>\n

For the oysters:<\/strong><\/p>\n

12 oysters
\nabout 4 cups crushed ice
\nlemon wedges (for garnish)<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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To make the mignonette, combine all the ingredients in a small decorative dish, and stir.<\/p>\n

To serve the oysters, prepare a plate of crushed ice, and place it in the freezer. Open the oysters using your method of choice, making sure to reserve as much liquid as possible in the shell. Place each opened oyster on the ice in the freezer as you go along. Serve immediately with the dish of mignonette and lemon wedges for garnish.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Edna Lewis\u2019s Red Rice <\/strong><\/p>\n

From <\/em>In Pursuit of Flavor<\/a>, by Edna Lewis<\/em>.<\/p>\n

5 or 6 slices of good-flavored bacon, cut into half-inch pieces
\n2\/3 cup chopped onions
\n1 tsp dried thyme leaves
\na green pepper, seeded and chopped
\n2 small round hot peppers, seeded and chopped
\n2 cups fresh tomato puree
\n1 tbs brown sugar
\n2 cups cold water
\n2 cups Carolina or popcorn rice
\n1 cup or more small pieces of cooked ham or fish
\nsalt
\nfreshly ground black pepper<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Cook the bacon in a heavy-bottomed saucepan until crisp. Remove the bacon pieces from the pan, and set aside. Pour off half the bacon fat, and heat the remaining fat over medium-high heat. Add the onions, stir, and simmer for a few minutes. Stir in the thyme, and then add the green and hot peppers. Mix well, and add the tomato puree and brown sugar. Add the water, and stir in the rice.<\/p>\n

Preheat the oven to 350.<\/p>\n

Cover the pan, and let the mixture simmer on a low burner for about fifteen minutes, until the rice begins to cook. Add the bacon pieces and the ham or fish. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir well, and spoon the mixture into a casserole or rice steamer. Cover tightly, and bake in the oven for forty-five minutes to an hour, until the rice is tender. Keep warm until ready to serve.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Crown Roast of Pork with Herb Dressing, Garnished with Pineapple <\/strong><\/p>\n

From <\/em>In Pursuit of Flavor<\/a>, by Edna Lewis<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For the glazed apples:<\/strong><\/p>\n

2 tbs butter
\n3 medium-size green apples, cored and quartered
\n1\/3 cup light brown sugar
\n1\/4 tsp salt
\n1\/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg<\/p>\n

For the herb dressing: <\/strong><\/p>\n

7 cups diced white bread cubes, a day or two old
\n1 cup finely chopped onions
\n1 1\/2 cups chopped celery
\n1\/3 cup chopped celery leaves
\n1 tsp salt (or more to taste)
\n1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
\n2 tsp crumbled dried sage leaves
\n1 tsp dried thyme leaves
\n1 tbs Bell\u2019s Seasoning
\n1 1\/2 cups cold water
\n2\/3 cup butter<\/p>\n

For the crown roast: <\/strong><\/p>\n

a 6 to 8 lb crown roast of pork
\n2 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into slivers
\nground ginger
\nsalt
\nfreshly ground black pepper<\/p>\n

For the pineapple garnish:<\/strong><\/p>\n

a fresh pineapple
\na small one-inch round cookie cutter (or equivalent) to core the pineapple
\n4 tsp butter
\n1 tbs brown sugar<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Preheat the oven to 350. Be sure to adjust the oven racks so the roast has ample headroom.<\/p>\n

To glaze the apples, heat the butter in a skillet until it foams. Add the apple quarters, brown sugar, salt, and nutmeg. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender and well glazed. Set aside.<\/p>\n

To make the herb dressing, put the bread crumbs, onions, celery, and celery leaves in a large bowl, and toss. Add the salt, pepper, sage, thyme, and Bell\u2019s Seasoning, and mix with your hands. (Lewis specifically recommends using dried herbs instead of fresh here for the slightly different flavor they impart.) Heat the water in a small saucepan; when it is hot, add the butter, and let it dissolve. Pour this over the crumb mixture, and mix well with your hands or a wooden spoon. Gently stir in the apples. Cover the dressing until you\u2019re ready to fill the crown roast.<\/p>\n

To prepare the roast, make slits in the meat with the point of a sharp knife and insert the garlic slivers. (Being fairly aggressive with the knife makes this easier.) Liberally cover the roast on the inside, bottom, and all sides with ginger, salt, and pepper. Spoon the dressing into the center of the roast, pushing it down with your hands as best you can. (I had a fair amount of extra dressing; how much you need will depend on the amount of room inside your roast.) Place a sheet of tinfoil in the roasting pan, set the roast on top of it, and shape the foil up around the bottom of the roast.<\/p>\n

Place in the oven, and bake for two and a half to three hours, until the meat is tender and completely cooked. You may have to cover the bones of the roast and the filling with foil during roasting to prevent drying. Test the roast for doneness with a meat thermometer or by inserting a cake tester or small skewer into the meat, piercing the inside of the roast through the dressing. If the tester goes into the meat easily, it is done.<\/p>\n

To prepare the garnish, cut the spiny rind from the pineapple with a large knife. Slice the pineapple into six slices, each about half an inch thick. Use a small cookie cutter to cut out the core in a neat circle. Melt the butter in a wide, heavy skillet until foaming, and saut\u00e9 the slices for a few seconds on each side. Sprinkle the pineapple with brown sugar, flip, and continue to fry until browned.<\/p>\n

When the roast is done, lift it from the pan and, being careful to prevent the stuffing from falling out, slide the roast off the foil and onto a large serving plate. Garnish with the pineapple slices. Serve the roast by cutting between the ribs to cut off whole loin chops.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Edna Lewis\u2019s Green Salad <\/strong><\/p>\n

From <\/em>In Pursuit of Flavor<\/a>, by Edna Lewis<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For the dressing: <\/strong><\/p>\n

1\/2 cup cider vinegar
\n1 1\/2 tsp salt
\n1\/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
\n1\/2 tsp sugar
\n1\/2 tsp dry mustard
\n1 tsp scraped onion
\n1 clove garlic, peeled and cut in half
\n2\/3 cup olive oil<\/p>\n

For the salad: <\/strong><\/p>\n

1 good-quality tomato, cut into wedges
\n4 cups any mixture of high-quality greens (Lewis recommends combining different greens, \u201csome bitter, some sweet,\u201d and particularly likes \u201carugula, Bibb and Boston lettuces, early romaine, black-seeded Simpson, purslane and cress\u201d)<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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To make the dressing, put all the ingredients together in a pint jar with a lid, and shake until the salt is dissolved. Remove the garlic. Shake again just before dressing the salad.<\/p>\n

To serve the salad, toss all the greens together with the tomato and dressing to taste. Serve at the end of the meal, \u201cafter the main course but before dessert,\u201d Lewis says. \u201cI like to put a good goat cheese and bread on the table, too, and perhaps open another bottle of wine.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo: Erica MacLean.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Wine!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please join Valerie Stivers and Hank Zona on Friday, December 18, at 6 P.M.<\/small> for a virtual literary wine tasting on The Paris Review<\/em>\u2019s Instagram account<\/a>. We will be discussing food in the work of James Baldwin, the culinary legacy of Edna Lewis, and recommended wines from Black-owned wineries such as Maison Noir.<\/p>\n

The wines seen in the story are the Where\u2019s Linus? Sauvignon Blanc from Jenny & Fran\u00e7ois Selections and the Maison Noir OPP Pinot Noir, which is widely available in stores and on wine.com<\/a> and drizly.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyone who would like more specific advice on how to find these wines near them can email us (hank@thegrapesunwrapped.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Valerie Stivers is a writer based in New York.\u00a0<\/em>Read earlier installments of\u00a0Eat Your Words<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valerie Stivers makes a salad, red rice, French bread, oysters with mignonette, and a crown roast of pork inspired by the books of James Baldwin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":669,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30795],"tags":[67827],"class_list":["post-149418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eat-your-words","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCooking with James Baldwin by Valerie Stivers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Valerie Stivers makes a salad, red rice, French bread, oysters with mignonette, and a crown roast of pork inspired by the books of James Baldwin.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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