Autumn fantasies

Crunch!
Stomp!
Graaaaaaaaaaaar!
Crackle!
Stomp!
Graaaaaaarrrrrrr!


"....and why is your son stamping on those leaves?"

"Oh, he thinks he's Godzilla."

Live for today - plan for tomorrow.

Friday Fortnightly Food (F)post

Le riz avec le beurre
Time needed:
Preparation: 20 seconds
Cooking: 6-8 minutes

Keep ready:
1/2 cup of rice
1 cup water
Salt
Butter

Then:
Add rice to the water, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down a little, add salt, and cook till well....cooked.

Serve immediately, and add a big dollop of good, high-fat butter.
Mix.
Savour.

Why you should try this:
Because it's one of the simplest, yet most wonderful dishes to eat. Because the aroma of freshly-cooked rice, mixed in with that of melted butter is just oh-so-frikkin-great. And because it reminds you of being unwell as a kid, and being fussed over by your mommy.

Focus on:
1) Butter, not ghee. Butter's not as strong, and it's got a more mellow texture.
2) No other seasoning. Avoid the temptation to add pepper or oregano, even though they go well too.
3) Butter!

(Warning: Idea post. Lengthy-ish. Contains lateral jumps and irritating snarky asides)


Earlier this week, Neil G points us to the fact that some person discovered that hitting Marmite for 30 minutes turns it white. Apart from the obvious "kya lukhkhe log hain duniya mein" reaction, it made one think of a favourite topic.

Namely, the evolution of food dishes.

And by that one is not referring to variations or inventions. One can understand how somebody came up with the Margherita pizza, or Peach Melba, or even Bacon-and-egg ice-cream. That's just lateral thinking, just a bit of let's-spin-the-wheels-and-try-the-combination-they-suggest*.

What one is referring to, is the origins of the basic food ingredients. The flour you use, the rice, the wheat, the grains.

Think about it. It's not the same as with fruits, which simply sprout, dress up in pretty colours, and hang around hoping to tempt someone into nibbling on them. But rice, wheat, maize, lentils - they are all cultivated crops. Which means somebody must have figured out the process from first principles. Remember those geography lessons on rice cultivation? The sowing, the watering, the transplanting, the watering, the chaffing. Now try and imagine that whole system being thought up by some nomad way back when. From no prior reference point.

No, wait. Let's go back even further.

Thinking up the process would mean that, at some point, some genius/daredevil/idiot must have thought, "Let's try this and see if it's good to eat". Right. Who thinks that way? If you were rambling through some countryside, would you eat any random plant, hoping it would not only not leave you writhing about in agony with horribly coloured goo dribbling out of your various orifices, but also turn out to be a wonderfully nutritious food? Thought not.

And besides, these are crops. They're inedible when raw. Animals don't eat them in the wild (they don't, do they?). Which means that not only would that genius/daredevil/idiot have thought of eating it, (s)he would have also had to say, "Let's cook this in a pot of boiling water, two parts water to one part unknown stuff, and let it cook for 10 minutes till all the water drains away". Again, from no prior reference point.

And forget crops. Take flour. Who would consider that if you collect this plant thus, and beat it about thus, and then took the residue and heated it sufficiently, it would turn into a lovely base in which to put all that meat that you just hunted down?

Yes, the history books say all that really took place, but from the little reading one has done, it seems they just know it took place, but not how it came to be.

But yet, we're expected to believe all that just happened. Some animal-spearing hairy brute one day just decided that those strange brown reeds would be worth eating, and then spent millennia honing the right way to cultivate them.


....And then some people wonder why some people believe in alien intelligence(s).



* Think of two touching-but-not-overlapping circles, with random ingredients listed on each. Spin them around, and make a dish with the two that line up besides each other. Isn't that just whoopittydodaa!

The point is, is there a point?

Friday Food

Chapped lips, red noses, stiff fingers - yeh baby, it's getting to winter.
Which can only mean -
Apples!
Bramleys, Cox's, Royal Gala, Pink Ladies, Russetts, Golden Delicious', Braeburns, Granny Smiths'....

Yes, you might get them through the year, but 'tis truly winter that allows apples to really show off their versatility. How so? Thus so:

Stewed apples, apple tarts, apple pies, apple crumble, Danish apple cake, apple strudel, rhubarb-and-apple strudel, apple-and-plum cake, apple-and-parsnip soup, spiced apple jam, apple-and-plum jam, apple-and-fig jam......oh yummmmmmmm. Expect some of these recipes in the months ahead.


French Apple Tart
Time Needed
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes

Keep Ready:
2 green apples, peeled, chopped
1 green apple, unpeeled, thinly sliced semi-circles
Puff pastry
Cinnamon
Butter
Light muscovado (or nearest brown equivalent) sugar

Then:
Put the chopped apples in a small pot with some cinnamon and a couple of tablespoons of water. Cook on a low heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, till apples turn into a soft mush. Roll out the pastry into a circle, and brush all over with butter. At this point, you can choose to make a raised ridge around the edge, or just leave it flat.

Spread the apple mush on the base. Then arrange the sliced apple semi-circles over the mush, first laying them around the outside, then moving to the middle. Brush all over with butter again, sprinkle with sugar, bake at 220C for 25 minutes (or till the apples just start to singe).

Serve hot, with thick cream, or vanilla ice-cream.


What's nice about it:
It's an apple tart! What more do you people want?

..ok fine. It's one of the easier baked apple dishes to make, because there's no making a batter and fuss (although that is much fun too). You can get ready-made puff pastries, and that cuts down half the work. And it's the simplicity of the dish that makes it wonderful - the softness of the apples, the crisp base, and the sheer prettiness of the dish.

Focus on:
1) Using green apples - Bramleys are the best (these are the huge 'cooking' apples).
2) Getting the sugar-tartness balance right. You want to let the natural taste of the Bramleys come through, but not so much that it feels like your teeth are melting.
3) Brown sugar is preferable to white. Gives more flavour.
4) If you're not using tart apples, forget the sugar.
5) Just a sprinkling of cinnamon.


Ok, enough. Go away and make some. And if you don't - suffer, because one is sure to make some for oneself. Apple tarts this weekend! Yayayayayayayayayayay!!....ahem ... done now.

Some day,
we will peer back
at the reflected stranger,
and wonder when we stopped looking
like the pictures in our head.

And we will find ourselves
waiting by a moving stair,
patiently hoping for a little lull
in which to take our turn
and move on to nowhere.

Some day,
we will try and understand
the things that are changing the world,
but after nodding in quiet bewilderment, slink away
to put on the songs we have always loved.

And we will make up our minds
to rise up again and match our best,
but the body we will be lugging around
will sink back for a little more rest.

Some day,
we will sit down,
just for a while,
to rest our feet as the world flows hastily by,
and when we look up,
a year will have gone by.

And we will find ourselves
pottering away,
with all the time to live our lives,
but little life left to live them in.

Some day,
we will be of an age
to know ourselves to be aged.

When life takes you down a slope - freewheel.

Friday Funk(y)

* eh - Stephen Fry has a blog. As does Neil Gaiman.

* Say "widget".
Like so - wi-jit.
Now say "widget, widget, widget, widget, widget..."
Terribly addictive, very irritating to others. Highly recommended.

* If you look down, cover both ears tightly with your palms with your fingers on the back of your neck, and then start tapping the middle of your neck with one finger, you will get this dull gong-like sound echoing through your head. Surreal.

* Since BM doesn't blog anymore, is she still allowed at the proposed blog-meet with ph and Flaffy in October?

* Do people have unique knuckle-prints?

* Is any research being done to help reduce pollution by genetically modifying plants so that they have a higher rate of photosynthesis (thus reducing levels of CO2 more quickly)? If not, will you catch your friendly neighbourhood bio-geneticist and suggest this to them? And please don't forget to mention one's 5% commission from any patent royalties.

* Hummus-cucumber-tomato sandwiches taste surprisingly better after being lightly squashed against cut orange pieces.

* Has anybody ever read a sort-of fantasy book, about 150 pages long, which starts off with a boy in a strange magical land with no recollection about his identity, has a talking horse for company, concerns some journey of some sorts, and has a few conversations of the "Did that just happen? What did? That which just did. Ahh, but is what you think happened, the same as I think what happened?" kinds. Read just once, after being lent it by a friend long ago, the title of said book continues to elude, as the book itself is no longer locatable by said friend.

* Do people eat more fried foods on this day of the week? And if so, is it due to a subliminal association/suggestion with the name of the day?

* This weekend to try - Chocolate-and-date cookies. Recipe next Friday if successful.


Have a good one, folks.

* This was to be an extension of a Facebook moaning session that the poetry reading lady began. A look at how the site has gone beyond just catching up with old friends, and into some sort of fun-fair portal, what with all the applications. A look at how addictive it has become, and a mention of how naive people are, when they refuse to consider that the only reason the big M is shelling out bigger bucks for a slice of this pie is because it can show you lots of carefully-targetted banners telling you to buy stuff, which it can do (the careful targetting) because your information is an open secret.

* This was to be a smirk about the fickleness of Indian cricket fans, who now consider T20 to be the best thing since spreadable butter, simply because they won one tournament. And who transformed stone throwing and effigy burning into a city-wide victory parade. In Bombay. On the day of the Ganpati immersions.

* This was also to be a small warning about beginner's luck, about waiting till the next round, by which time the Aussies will have really planned things out, and about making sure you have enough stones ready for the pelting that will ensue after that rematch.

* This was to be a note pointing that that respective state governments are giving lakhs of rupees to players who have already won prize-money, got bonuses from the cricket board, and have won advertising contracts - but that these same governments seem to have no funds to provide any sort of compensation to the thousands of farmers who have seen their crops, livestock, and houses washed away in floods and storms.

* This was to be a post critiquing Indian governments for their gall to lecture others about democracy - after buying gas and lumber from Burma for two decades without so much as protesting against the repression of an elected government.

* This was to be a sigh and a farewell wave - for bloggers who won't write anymore (by-bye, CC). One has foreseen this.

* This was to be an incredulous shake of the head about us in general, when people can get so personal about a complete stranger that they resort to violence, despite the fact that the person in question couldn't be less bothered.

* This was to be an attention-drawer that some initiatives are worth being bothered about, however jaded you may be.


....this was to be, but now it just is.

Love is a matter of circumstances.

Corollary: Friend(ship)s are a matter of circumstances.

The-Yet-To-Be-Named-Food-Post

It's that time of the week. And to mark the end of summer, here's a nifty little starter/side-dish. Yenjoy.

Sizzling Asparagus
Time needed:
Preparation: 1 minute.
Cooking: 3 minutes.

Keep ready:
Butter
Garlic, few cloves, roughly chopped
Asparagus spears, cut into big chunks
Oregano
Light soya sauce
Lemon juice
Sweet-chilli sauce

Then:
On a medium-heat, add the butter, and when it melts, the garlic. Let sizzle for a few seconds, then add the asparagus, oregano and soya sauce. Occasionally stir, making sure all the asparagus is coated well in the soya sauce. When the asparagus goes bright bright green, remove from heat. Squeeze lemon juice all over, add salt to taste, and serve hot with a squeegee of s-c sauce besides it to dip into.

What's nice about it:
Asparagus, like broccoli, has a very distinctive taste, which is normally very overpowering and hence off-putting, but when complemented with other flavours can make for a wonderful dish. In this, the soya and garlic give it a slightly Oriental flavour, while the oregano mixes it and brings out its own lovely taste. The lemon juice just gives that little extra tang, and when you dip one of these into the sweet-chilli sauce.........oh yes.

Try serving with a wedge of warm olive ciabatta.

Focus on:
1) Not burning the garlic - keep it golden.
2) Not overcooking the asparagus - keep it crunchy, but make sure it's cooked.
3) Not too much soya.
4) Lemon juice, not lime - the latter is just too strong.