I lived in New Orleans for 6.5 years of my adult life. I've lived lots of places over the years, but New Orleans feels like home for me. It felt that way my first day, and again when I went back for Mardi Gras this past week.
What amazed me this time is how my experience of the city has changed. I went to Tulane for undergrad, and for at least 3 of those years, my experience of New Orleans was fairly superficial. I went out, but I wasn't a local, or even really a legitimate resident. A big part of that is the nature of college. The whole point of the college experience is to separate young people from their families and home culture for a time while they learn (hopefully) to grow up. Which isn't conducive to embedding yourself in a place. That happens after.
Katrina hit when I was 21. It still reverberates through my life, and the lessons I learned during that time have guided my choices, for better and for worse. I moved back for two years when I was 25. My second stint in New Orleans was in many ways richer than my first. Most of the people I had known were gone, and I made an entirely new set of friends. I didn't work regularly during those two years; the job market isn't that great, and I had no idea what to do with myself. Instead I spent my time working temp jobs and restaurant jobs while I figured myself out. Everyone should do that, preferably when they're young and being broke doesn't hurt as much.
Moving to Boston has been great in many ways. The Gentleman in Question lives nearby, I have some awesome friends, school is going reasonably well, and I'm on a roller derby team. But it doesn't feel like home yet. I made myself a king cake for carnival season, because homesickness required one, but the budget wouldn't allow shipping one. It costs somewhere around $40 to ship a king cake, and they're not very good when stale. Better to make my own. So here's John Besh's recipe, to keep in your back pocket for next carnival season.
Cake Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons dry yeast (I used two packets)
3 3/4 cup flour
1 cup melted butter
5 egg yolks, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 teaspoons cinnamon
grated nutmeg ( as much as you want)
Icing Ingredients:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
milk
purple, green, and yellow sugar (Purple is hard to find. Use food coloring to make it)
plastic baby, or a bean if going out is too much bother
Directions:
Whisk together the water, sugar, yeast, and a tablespoon of the flour. Wait for it to get foamy (only a few minutes), then whisk in butter, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest. Fold in the flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Once the dough comes together, take it out of the bowl and knead it for 15 minutes on a flat surface. The dough will feel very oily because of all the butter. Embrace your inner Paula Dean.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and let your ring rise for 30 minutes. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Besh suggests 30, but mine was done between 15 and 20. Cool the cake completely.
Make the icing by combining the sugar, lemon juice and milk. The icing should be quite thick, so add the milk a tablespoon at a time until you get the texture you want. Insert the baby in the bottom of the cake, then smear the icing all over the cake (which if you're smart you've put on a lined platter/cookie sheet). Top with colored sugars.
Ta Da! Also, fair warning, this cake is ENORMOUS. It takes up one full sized cookie sheet. I tried to halve the recipe, and it wasn't as good. It's hard to figure out how to halve an odd number of egg yolks. So embrace the epic amount of king cake, and make your friends help you eat it. That's the point of it, to share good times with people you like, or at the very least civilly tolerate.
