Affordances- cooking-the endless lbour of love

Hello everyone, I better share my cooking story with you all……to begin with, last evening I blogged for about an hour taking you through the meandering pathway of my days in the kitchen….and as unexpectedly…or shall I add predictably my work was lost due to a technical glitch!! So that was that!!,

But I was calm and shut my computer and went to bed instead!! And here I am again this morning, trying to do damage control!! So bear with me and fasten your seat-belts , It’s  almost count down time to take off………10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0…………….!!!

Last week after a hectic day at school and picking my daughter up from school, we arrived to the comforts of home. There is certainly no place like the home. As I parked the car in the drive way, the cats came out bounding and leaping out from the garden bushes….. By the way,  even surpassing a wagging and excited dog, I must add; Our feline members have some traits that resemble dogs!

We marched straight into the kitchen, as is the custom in my house, and spread all our belongings on the kitchen table and take a breather to pat and cuddle the cats, before we begin the serious business of feeding and being fed!! The single most important survival task that human beings do. Over and over again in their life time.  In the olden days man hunted and gathered for food. They tilled and grew and harvested………….but nothing radically has changed from the past, in my opinion. We have been able to package, freeze, clone, hybrid, graft, globalize, transport food……..but food essentially remains the same and it is universally cooked in various forms and eaten, and digested and ……..Eureka! Man still lives on!!                                

I decided to cook “Sag Dal” (spinach, lentil) Sag Dal is a very popular vegetarian curry in India, and I have had fond associations with this very nutritious and wholesome food in my past. It is a comfort food for me and I want to share it with my family….so I proceed to cook this lovely aromatic, packed with goodness meal. My daughter and I begin with visiting our little vege-patch where we have grown some very healthy looking spinach, silver-beet, cauliflower, broccoli and onions, and other vegetables…all cramped in a small spot. We are in love with our humble  little “gold-Mine” and are very proud of our own fresh produce. ( Can you see us preening with pride??!! You would think we are Mr. Bill Gates himself, with a billion dollar IT industry!! ) ( No offence to Him, but we consider ourselves in par with him in wealth,…… and I bet you,  our wealth does not give us any sleepless nights…..but just the opposite!!) So much for the rendezvous in the vege-patch, which is no bigger than a  pocket-sized handkerchief. My daughter helps me pick some fresh, crunchy spinach. We pick a large bunch and head back to the kitchen.

I wash and chop the leaves up and leave it to drain in the colander. Meanwhile the jug has boiled with water that I need to boil my lentils in. I wash the “masoor dal” (red lentils) thoroughly till all the water is clear and I put it in a big pot to boil. I add a big chunk of pounded ginger and a tea-spoon of turmeric. I close the lid of the pot and turn the stove to low heat. I have a panache for cooking food in low heat, as I believe that food tastes a lot better and the nutrients are preserved far better this way……now anyone out there,  an expert,  on food- nutrition…..please prove me wrong!!! But this is how I have learned to cook, and it is certified by my grandmother who is in heaven now!! Mean- while my daughter has been busy talking nineteen- to the dozen and I have been answering all her questions, so communication is strong between us….. as you can imagine. She has had a bite to eat by now and trying hard to wiggle her way out of doing some writing exercise with very valid reasons….mind you; ( but according to her only!)  Reluctantly she gets her exercise book out and decides to write 10 lines on the happenings of the day with lackluster effort. I leave it at that and try not to sound too condescending.  I hum a little tune instead, and praise her for her great decision, and assure her that she can play a little computer game after she had finished her writing!!! I lost the battle, but won the war……..( I am the mother here, you must understand….and mothers always  know  what’s best  for their children....well! most of the time anyway)…I suppose  as the evening progresses in my kitchen, and patience gets frayed and thin, it is hard to keep tiredness and weariness out on the bay,…..therefore when I hear her begin to moan and grumble just after a sentence, I snap at her to concentrate and get on with it. Phew! That was a close call in nearly losing my voice ……but I managed to remain calm and get on with cooking…….. I must be mindful here, I remind myself, and I do want to breathe positive, loving vibrations into the meal to be soul food….. ! A bit of REBT (rational emotive behavior therapy) and a bit of mindful, meditation always helps me to be who I am essentially or strive to be….. day by day.  The next step in cooking dal is finely chopping a large onion, few cloves of garlic ready for frying. I also open a can of chopped tomatoes, not ideally my favorite as I do not like canned food…not habituated from my childhood, I must add! ( I don’t know about you people there, but my household economy and my ethics will not allow myself to buy a kilo of tomatoes for $21….i just think it is ludicrous! Absolutely not! Therefore I resort to canned tomatoes for $2 a can.)  I would have liked to grow my own, but I have no glass house, and the ones I grew in the pot wasn’t satisfactory, in the past unfortunately…  I pour some oil into the frying pan, and wait for the hot fumes to rise before I add a  large pinch of “Jeera” ( Cumin seeds), Lal Mirch, Tej-patta !( dry red chili, and  a few Bay leaves ) I fry these Masala till they are golden brown and I can smell a fresh waft of spices drift from the ingredients. Then I add the chopped onion and garlic and fry them as well, till the oil separates from the masala. Lastly I add salt and a can of chopped tomatoes. I give it a good stir and put the lid on the pan and let it all simmer for 5 minutes or so till the tomatoes are all nicely cooked.  Now I must retract my steps backwards a bit, as I multi-task while I fry my masala for the dal. The jug has been set to boil a second time, and that hot water has been used to soak a rice-cooker full of rice after being thoroughly washed.  I leave it to soak for 2- 3 minutes, as the secret for rice to be fluffy and rise in the pan Is this step of washing thoroughly with warm water and soaking it in hot water before cooking. After the soaking is over, I drain out the hot water and add some fresh hot water to the rice, with some cardamom seeds( Queen of all spices as it is known, and it gives a heavenly aroma to food,)  and a bit of cooking oil. I set it to cook in the rice cooker, which takes about 20 minutes.  The dal has been slow cooking for about 10 minutes and it is time to add the chopped spinach leaves by now. I let it cook for about 2/3 minutes more as spinach cooks easily and I do not like it over cooked. The next step is to add all the fried masala from the frying pan into the Dal and sag mixture and stir it gently. All the lovely aroma and flavor’s mix together and turns the humble Dal Sag into a delicacy, and only those who have savored this delicious dish will vouch for it to be one of the yummiest dishes created  on earth. ( well! At least in my opinion,……I know everyone’s pallet is not the same….and thank goodness for that , otherwise the world would not have a culinary melting pot of different flavor’s )

 Welcome to my kitchen….boan appetite!! The Sag Dal is cooked…………and the rice is cooked…………..the child is happy  as she has graduated from her 10 lines of writing unto her computer game……..the cats are purring and curled up after licking their chops………and  it is 6 o clock, …..and I am dog tired and I need a cup of tea..!!!! …and I will do this again tomorrow and all the morrows that follow ……….as Green ,T.F. (1968), Work, leisure and The American schools so aptly states that, “ it is the fact that we are alive that brings bout labours, leaving nothing behind. Yet we cannot say, that it is futile, there is nothing more urgent than the need to provide adequate shelter and food.” She could not be more right than this!!

i can almost  smell the fresh baked loaves of bread…… and the earth beneath my feet…..how about you??

Photo of an old town bake oven still in use in Europe.

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Cucumber in a pot in my back yard!!

Pocket-sized vege-patchProudly owned by me!!

References:

Green, T. F. (1968). Work, leisure, and the American schools. New York: Random House

Retrieved on the 14^th/10/2011 from  http://www.chimkc.com/masonry_heaters.htm