It’s the 2021 Red Carpet Menu for Oscar®!
For Nomadland, it’s NomadYam!
It’s a Spring Garden Party theme in honor of the late April Academy Awards. I’ve enjoyed creating a “set it and forget it” menu, just like you do at an outdoor soiré. Here’s our first side dish!
Nomadland felt like a European movie. There’s not a typical “beginning-middle-end” to it. It’s like we’re let into a bit of Fern’s world and as it slowly unfolds, we see why she’s made her choices and what she finds wonderful in this nomadic life.
I’ve watched it twice. The second time was better than the first… picking up on little things I missed before. But the one thing you can never miss is another incredible performance by Frances McDormand. This woman can’t help herself. She’s wonderful in everything.
Only a wonderful dish would do for this movie. It wasn’t easy, but I was umm… driven. The only food references were fast food restaurants, some chili, soup, and peanut butter sandwiches. I settled on the PB.
Clearly, the yam idea made sense, although to be honest, yams are not what we think they are. The US almost exclusively has sweet potatoes, although we use the word “yam” interchangeably. Ohhhhh details… I was going with it! 🙂 The name of her beloved dish set and the Thanksgiving celebration made this even more right to honor this movie.
I got the tahini idea from my friend Andy Luke (who was everything for our next side dish) and thought, if I can use peanut butter and make it elegant, then this is a winner. As you can guess, it’s a winner! Hahahaha!
Originally I thought I’d do a stuffed skin with other things and finish it with the peanut tahini sauce but thought better of it – too much stuff when a more simple approach is the more flavorful one. So it was off to a land of twice-baked perfection! But it needed a finish… a bit of a crunch. Leave it to Joe Becwar to suggest the crumbled peanuts! It makes the whole dish!
I am usually thrilled with a plain baked sweet potato but it’s the perfect vehicle (ahem) for such a delectable fancied up version! Ha! Twice baked for me!!
Happy Oscars!
Annette
