¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons uncooked short-grain white rice, unrinsed (see note)
¼ cup water
3 cups whole milk
4 eggs
–½ cup sugar, depending on taste
4 tablespoons butter
Ground cinnamon for topping (about 1½ tablespoons)
………
FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX, 2002
(available in paperback from Picador, 2003)
MIDDLESEX IS the fictionalized life story, in the form of a first-person narrative, of Cal, a hermaphrodite living in Berlin. Calliope “Callie” Stephanides appeared female at birth and was raised as a girl, but is genetically male.
During adolescence in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, in the 1970s, Callie becomes increasingly concerned when facial hair appears, and breasts and menses fail to develop. Callie develops a crush on a female schoolmate, “the Object.” When Callie’s parents consult with a New York specialist, Dr. Luce, and Callie learns the truth of her condition, she flees by hitchhiking across America.
Cal discovers the source of his unusual condition by tracing his family history. His grandparents are Desdemona and Eleutherios, or “Lefty,” Stephanides, a brother and sister who marry en route to America after fleeing an attack by the Turks in the 1920s. In their tiny Greek village, Bithynios, families had intermarried for centuries.
As immigrants in Detroit, Desdemona and Lefty share a home with a Greek cousin, Sourmelina, and her husband, Jimmy. The women give birth to Tessie and Milton, who later marry and pass the genetic flaw that causes hermaphroditism to their daughter, Callie.
Comic and tragic, Jeffrey Eugenides’ Pulitzer Prize–winning novel spans three generations of the Stephanides family against a panorama of events in American history that includes Prohibition, the Depression, World War II, and the civil rights movement.
In Detroit, Desdemona and Lefty immerse themselves in the Greek community. Soon after their arrival—and continuing into the next generation—food and cooking become their livelihood. They open a bar, which later becomes a diner, the Zebra Room. Their son, Milton, Callie’s father, becomes the successful founder of Hercules Hot Dogs, a chain of restaurants in shopping malls.
Unlike Sourmelina Zizmo, Desdemona’s cousin, who “erased just about everything Greek about her” in America and adopted peanut butter and lobster thermidor as favorite foods, Desdemona clings to the foods of her homeland. To combat homesickness after her arrival in Detroit, she packs lunches of feta cheese, olives, and bread for Lefty, and spends days making pastitsio, a baked pasta dish; moussaka, a casserole of eggplant, meat, and sauce; and galactoboureko, a custard-filled dessert. Still, Desdemona finds the American grocery store produce selections depressing and misses “the savor of peaches, figs and winter chestnuts of Bursa.”
Desdemona’s rice pudding appears in several scenes in Middlesex: It is served to Callie’s brother and to Dr. Philobosian, the elderly physician who delivered Callie. As Callie says, restaurateurs in her family became the “technocrats of rice pudding and banana cream pie.”
Elaine Ogden, of Washington, D.C., says it was no different for her father, who immigrated to America at the turn of the twentieth century. She spent years assimilating and perfecting pudding recipes handed down from her Greek elders, and here contributes her authentic Greek recipe for rice pudding. This is a favorite Greek dessert, and, as you will find, the recipe will be well worth your efforts.
NOTE: Ogden recommends using short-grain rice; its starchiness will help bind the pudding better than long-grain varieties, but it’s fine to use medium-grain rice for this recipe.
She suggests using a flat-edged spatula to keep the bottom of the pan clean while stirring the mixture and emphasizes the importance of continuous stirring to prevent the mixture from burning on the bottom and to keep the eggs from curdling.
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons uncooked short-grain white rice, unrinsed (see note) ¼ cup water 3 cups whole milk |
4 eggs
4 tablespoons butter Ground cinnamon for topping (about 1½ tablespoons) |
Combine the rice and water in a heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until water is almost gone. Add 2 cups of the milk. Stir well. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until rice is very soft, about 1 hour. Take care not to let the mixture burn on the bottom.
Meanwhile, beat the eggs with an electric mixer on high speed until they are light yellow and thick, about 10 minutes. Add the sugar. Beat 5 more minutes. Add ½ cup of the milk and beat well.
Add ½ cup of the milk to the rice mixture, stir to combine, and remove from heat. While beating the egg mixture slowly, add the rice mixture, one large spoonful at a time, until it is all combined. It is very important to do this gradually so that the eggs do not curdle.
Return the pudding to the saucepan over very low heat and add the butter. Stir continuously to keep the eggs from curdling. Continue to cook until thick, about 20 minutes (the rice grains will rise to the top as the pudding thickens). Remove from heat and pour into dessert cups. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Allow pudding to cool before refrigerating. The pudding is also delicious warm, but allow it to cool and thicken a bit.
Yield: 8 servings
In Middlesex, Dr. Müller, a nutritionist conducting research on the Mediterranean diet, mistakenly believes Desdemona is ninety-one, and enrolls her in a longevity study. The Stephanides family does not reveal that the grandmother is actually seventy-one—that she confuses sevens with nines—as “they didn’t want to lose out to the Italians or even that one Bulgarian” also being studied.
Dr. Müller peppers Desdemona with questions about the Greek cuisine on which she was raised, trying to determine how much yogurt, olive oil, and garlic she consumed as a child. Callie is amazed that he considers their Greek diet—including their “cucumber dressings”—to be the secret to longevity.
Tzatziki is a refreshing cucumber-and-yogurt dip enhanced by garlic and olive oil. While we don’t know if this Greek dip is a “potential curative,” and can’t guarantee that it will prolong your life, it is certainly delicious. Try serving it with warmed or toasted pita bread, or as an accompaniment to grilled meat or fish.
Our recipe is adapted from The Complete Book of Greek Cooking (Harper & Row, 1990), by the Recipe Club of Saint Paul’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral.
|
2 large cucumbers 3 cloves garlic, minced or put through a press |
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Salt and pepper |
Spoon the yogurt into a sieve or colander lined with cheesecloth. Allow to drain for at least one hour, preferably several hours or overnight.
Peel, seed, and coarsely grate the cucumbers. Gently squeeze excess liquid from cucumbers and drain on paper towels. In a medium bowl, stir together the cucumber, garlic, and lemon juice. Add olive oil and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the drained yogurt and stir to blend. Adjust seasonings. Let stand 1 hour, refrigerated, before serving. Serve cool or at room temperature.
Yield: 2 cups
NOVEL THOUGHTS
The Book Club of the Brown University Club in New York reads books that reflect members’ interest in various cultures and that honor the link that brought them together: Brown University. “We occasionally choose books that are written by a fellow Brown alum, or that involve Brown in some way, and then we invite the authors to attend discussions of their books,” says John Kwok.
An intimate group of seven showed up at a Greek restaurant in Midtown Manhattan to discuss Brown alumnus Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex over grilled Greek chicken, a spicy gyro plate, lamb, rice pilaf, and pita bread. Kwok was delighted to find a “humongous, overgrown piece of baklava” on the table for dessert.
“It was one of our best discussions,” says Kwok. The group was impressed with Eugenides’ skill in developing characters. “We compared and contrasted the characters in the Stephanides family, trying to see the similarities in character between the grandmother and her granddaughter, Callie,” says Kwok. “Eugenides created characters that we cared about.”
Members also admired Eugenides’ grasp of social and historical movements—the rise of the Nation of Islam, racial unrest, and the development of jazz. “We were trying to understand what was happening in Detroit in the 1920s and again during the race riots of the 1960s. I think we were all impressed with Eugenides’ skill at incorporating such important historical elements into his tale,” says Kwok.
The group found it useful to compare Middlesex to other books about the immigrant experience, such as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (see p. 10), and books about family dynamics, such as The Corrections. “We agreed that Middlesex was deserving of the Pulitzer Prize,” says Kwok. “It was a powerful meditation on what it means to be an immigrant in America.”
The thirteen women and men of Stephanie Howard’s Boston-area book club always try to match food to the books they read, though some books lend themselves more easily to thematic meals than others. “In Middlesex, food is a big part of the story,” says Howard, who hosted her club’s Middlesex meeting. “There are issues of cultural identity as the immigrants attempt to hold on to tradition in the midst of Detroit. Food is also a way for family to gather together and discuss the latest issues relevant to Greece and Turkey around a traditional Sunday meal. And the father eventually opens up a chain of hot-dog stands. How American can you get?”
Howard’s Middlesex menu included hummus, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), vegetarian moussaka with rice, Greek salad, and Greek potatoes. The potatoes were prepared with olive oil, oregano, lemon juice, and garlic.
The Sea Dogs book club is named for the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where members conduct artificial intelligence research. The doctoral candidates discussed Middlesex over a Greek feast at host Erica Hatch’s South Boston home. The spanakopitas, spinach-and-feta turnovers, were favorites with the group. They also enjoyed mint-marinated lamb chops, Greek salad, Greek-style quesadillas filled with olives and vegetables, and marinated chickpeas, along with baklava and wine.
“Middlesex was well received by the group and inspired a lot of personal discussion about where our gender identity and attractions come from,” says Sea Dogs member Jaime Teevan. “We also talked about the different types of love, and how the love we feel for a biological family member may or may not be different from what we feel toward a partner.”