Dear Readers, The food is my favorite part of a book club. That’s not a knock on the books or my friends; it’s just that the food is generally my favorite part of anything. Vacations. Holidays. Parties. I don’t think it’s because I’m a glutton. (Well, at least, not entirely.) To me, food isn’t just something that I need to survive, or even just something that I enjoy. I’ve never met my grandma’s grandma’s grandma—I don’t even know her name—but I’ve tasted her food, her recipes passed down through the generations and cooked by my own grandma on holidays. Someday I’ll make those same dishes for my own children, and even though they’ll never have heard my grandma’s voice or her laugh or felt her kiss on their foreheads, they’ll feel her love on that plate all mixed in with mine. One of the reasons I wrote Sadie on a Plate is because I think food is love, and love is food, and so it seemed natural to me that a romance would circle around food. That was my starting point. From there, I let my mind wander while watching Top Chef, aka my favorite reality TV show. There were some contestants I was rooting for at least partially because they were hot, and they had chemistry with a judge or two, and I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if that relationship was taken a step further. But back to that first thing. Food and love. For a large portion of the book, Sadie and Luke can’t express their feelings for each other through voice or touch or even longing looks. They’re left with taste—with the food they describe or serve or eat together. For them, food is literally how they share their feelings with each other, from the beginning when Luke takes Sadie to his favorite restaurant to later on, when Sadie takes out her sexual frustration on the matzah brei at brunch. Sometimes expressing your love for someone is as easy as saying, “I love you.” Sometimes it’s harder, whether it’s because you don’t know how to say it or you’re in opposing roles on a TV show where you’re forbidden to interact. Sometimes you need or want to translate that love and that care into your hands chopping or mixing or typing something that will nourish others. Thank you so much for reading Sadie on a Plate. I hope it nourished you.
−Amanda Elliot
Discussion Ques tions 1.
The title, Sadie on a Plate, refers to the first challenge of the competition, where the chefs are asked to create a dish that reflects them. What would “you on a plate” look like?
6. Did you agree with the decisions Sadie made over the course of the book, both inside the competition and outside of it? Would you have made different ones?
2. Think about a dish that someone else 7. has cooked for you—maybe a dish served at a family holiday celebration from your childhood, or a dish made by a romantic partner or other loved one. Describe the dish and what makes it special. How does eating that dish make you feel? Why?
3.
What do you think the main themes of Sadie on a Plate were? How did you feel when you closed the book?
4. If you were able to ask Sadie or
another character in the book one question, what would it be? Why? What answer would you expect to hear?
5.
If you were to design a challenge for Chef Supreme, what would it look like?
8.
Who were you rooting for in the competition? Do you feel like the judges made the right decisions throughout?
If Sadie and Luke were one day to open a restaurant together, how do you picture that restaurant? What dishes would they serve? What decor would it have? If you were to open up a restaurant, by yourself or with a loved one, what would that restaurant be like?
9. Imagine an epilogue chapter that takes one year after the final scene. Where do you think the characters are now, and what are they doing?
i h c m i K & P otato s l l o R h s i n K My favorite part of hosting book club is coming up with a themed snack menu around the book. If you’re looking for some relatively easy and large group-friendly recipes themed around Sadie on a Plate, I suggest a good cheese board (which the contestants ate at home every night), bagels and lox (an echo of Sadie’s dish in the first challenge), and/or brownies with a cherry sauce and ice cream (a similar flavor profile to Sadie’s babka beignets in the final challenge). As far as drinks go, why not echo Sadie’s beloved bartender at the speakeasy and try a mojito or a mock-mojito with mint and basil and whatever other fresh crushed herbs catch your fancy? Onto this recipe. One of my most dearly held beliefs is that carbs wrapped in other carbs is one of the pinnacles of cuisine. In Sadie on a Plate, Sadie’s first instinct when depicting herself on a plate is to do a knish—a pocket of baked or fried dough typically filled with potato, cheese, and/or beef. While that attempt is foiled by a surprise challenge, she later makes knishes with potato, caramelized onion, and sauerkraut filling to great success. In this recipe, which takes inspiration from Smitten Kitchen and Two Kooks in the Kitchen, I simplify the knishmaking process by using puff pastry in place of homemade dough and add kimchi in place of sauerkraut for a similar briny tang that breaks up the richness of the dough and potato. Because her love interest, Luke, focuses on Korean cuisine, I picture Sadie serving a marriage of their two cuisines like this to celebrate their relationship.
Ingredients 1-1/2 pounds good mashing potatoes (I like Yukon gold) 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 medium onion, peeled and diced small 3 tablespoons heavy cream (or milk) 1/2 teaspoon table salt PINCH of freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup kimchi, drained of liquid and roughly chopped into small pieces (Feel free to add more or use less depending on your taste. For me, this amount made for a pretty mild kimchi flavor. Add an additional 2 tablespoons if you’d like it more pronounced.) 1 package puff pastry dough (2 sheets), defrosted if frozen OPTIONAL: 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon water for an egg wash (it makes the knishes look golden and pretty, but won’t affect the taste).
PREPARE THE FILLING: Peel potatoes if you wish (peeling them will make your filling smoother,
but it’s also a lot more work. I usually leave the peel on, though if you do, make sure to clean them well) and quarter them. Put potatoes into a large pot, cover with cold water, salt the water lightly, and bring to a boil. Cook until potatoes can be pierced easily with a fork; the amount of time will depend on how large the potato pieces are. Drain, then transfer to a large bowl to cool. Heat a skillet over medium heat on the stove. Once hot, add butter and oil, then the onions, and reduce the heat to low. Cook, stirring frequently, until they’re as brown and caramelized as you want them to be. Transfer to bowl with potatoes, drizzle the heavy cream (or milk) over top, and mash together until they’re as smooth as you’d like (I like a few lumps). Stir in salt, black pepper, and the kimchi. Assemble the knishes: Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lay out both sheets of puff pastry and slice in half lengthwise, so that you have four long, skinny pieces of puff pastry. On the first piece, spread a quarter of your kimchipotato mixture in an even line approximately half an inch away from one of the long sides. Roll the other side of the dough over the kimchi-potato mixture, making a log or roll. You may need to stretch the puff pastry out a bit at the edges. Pinch seams together so that the mixture does not fall out (some might fall out the ends and that’s okay, just push it back in), then repeat three more times with the remaining puff pastry.
BAKE: Arrange the knish rolls seam-side down on the baking sheet. If you’re using the egg wash,
this is when you can mix the egg yolk and water together, then brush it along the tops of the rolls. Bake the knish rolls for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown and crisp.
EAT: Slice rolls into approximately 2-inch-thick pieceswith a serrated knife and serve hot or at room temperature.
Serves 8-10 as a main, more as a side
About �Aut hor Amanda Elliot lives with her husband in New York City, where she collects way too many cookbooks for her tiny kitchen, runs in Central Park, and writes for teens and kids under the name Amanda Panitch.