3 Recipes from Ursula K. Le Guin (Crab Nebula, Valley Succotash, and Primitive Chocolate Mousse)

In honor of science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin, who died today, I've decided to share three of her recipes. (Note: She was from Oregon, which is why she insists on Tillamook cheese.) Sorry that these are not properly formatted the way recipes are supposed to be on this sub, but this was just the way she wrote them.

• Crab Nebula

Make a cream sauce with tablespoon butter, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 cup milk. Add about 1½ cup grated Tillamook cheese (or more—or less … if you are unable to obtain Tillamook, you may use any inferior American Cheddar, but the difference will be noticeable unless you have a calloused palate).

Now add about ½ pound? 2 cups?—Well, add enough crab. (If you are unable to obtain Pacific crab, you may use those flabby little Atlantic ones, or even lobster; but if you are reduced to King Crab, forget it.)

Flavor with sherry to taste, salt, pepper, parsley.

Serve on rice, or wild rice if you are J. Paul Getty, or English muffins, or whatever. —Cooking Out of This World, 104–05.

• Líriv Metadí or Valley Succotash

(In her novel Always Coming Home, Le Guin constructs an anthropological record—with recipes of their foods—of the Kesh, a Northern California people who “might be going to have lived a long, long time from now.”)

Wash about two cups of small red beans (the Valley metadí is very like the Mexican frijole), and cook till done (a couple of hours) with half an onion, three or four garlic cloves, and a bay leaf.

Simmer about a cup and a half of parched corn until thoroughly cooked, and drain (or in season use fresh corn cut off the cob, uncooked).

Simmer a handful of dried black mushrooms for half an hour or so, and keep them in their cooking broth.

When all these ingredients are done combine them, along with:

the juice and pulp of a lemon, or some preserved tamarind pulp an onion chopped and fried in oil with some finely chopped garlic and a spoonful of cumin seeds

a large, mild green chile of the chile verde type, or a small, hot green chile (but not bell pepper), seeded and chopped fine

three or four tomatoes peeled and chopped coarsely

add, as seasoning, oregano, winter savory, and more lemon to taste

add dried red chile if you want it hot

To thicken the sauce, one dried tomato-paste ball was added; our equivalent would be two or three tablespoons of thick tomato paste. (If fresh tomatoes are not in season, double or triple the quantity of tomato paste.)

All this simmers for about an hour.

Serve with chopped raw onion to garnish, and a sour sauce or chutney made of green tomatoes or tomatillos, flavored with fresh or dry coriander leaf.

This dish, “too heavy for rice,” was accompanied by cornbreads, either of the hoe cake or the tortilla type. —Always Coming Home (New York: Harper and Row, 1985), 438.

• Primitive Chocolate Mousse

(Also known as Mousse au chocolat, Chocolate Moose, Brown Mouse, and Please Sir I want some More.)

Included because it is curiously hard to find a good plain responsible recipe for this extremely simple and impressive dish. Serves 4:

• 2 ounces bitter chocolate
• 2 tablespoons water
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 4 egg whites, beaten stiff
• 4 egg yolks, well beaten
• 1 or 2 teaspoon vanilla, brandy, rum, or bourbon
• ⅓ pint whipping cream, whipped

Melt chocolate, water, and sugar in double boiler. If you can stir fast, forget the double boiler.

Beat egg whites stiff. Beat egg yolks well and add vanilla and liquor. Beat in chocolate mixture (cooked a bit); fold in the egg whites.

At this point the French often stop, but about ⅓ pint whipping cream whipped can also be folded in, making it richer.

Chill at least 4 hours in individual dishes. You can make it the day before, in which case it gets spongy, which is equally pleasant. —Cooking Out of This World, 107.

submitted by /u/Sam-the-Lion
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