believe it or not, every time I post on food, I feel dreadful about discussing food in a world where so many are starving. that is not a trite comment. there is a weird tension between wanting to celebrate food and taste and cooking and eating, and the ghastly incongruity of deprivation that is due to environment, economics, war, trade, politics, production, and more. Yes, that's right. gluttony = pornography in a way. excess.
I have seen too little of some parts of this system... just last night one of our girls commented that the meals in Ernabella were nothing like this. [imported prepackaged food and too few local indigenous food sources]
There's some irony in my having been an agricultural economist in a former life (and being better at statistical analysis than at international economic policy!) and just now starting to understand so many connections between food and agriculture and and culture and cooking and ...
I have to work out how to post on this, then. I actually want to celebrate food and eating - the growing, buying, smelling, mixing, frying, bbqing, slurping, savouring - and all that goes with that. I know that some of this is personal and personality (I do 90% of the cooking in our house. Yvonne is a wonderful cook - she just lets me have the kitchen as a studio...), but for me it is also about rediscovering the kitchen and the table as places of creativity, craft and hospitable company in a world of fast food and fast meals. That sounds trite too. I/we don't have a plan. We just have dinner. And sometimes guests. And every guest helps make a memory of the meal.
I don't know how to cook a good meal in less than two hours (OK, I'm exaggerating, but only slightly). And the most interesting thing for me is that learning about what cultures cook and about healthier food, is that flavour is more about what you cook, how you cook and what spices you use than the actual recipe.
where is all of this heading? I was about to say that we had a voucher for Jimmy's Pizza Cafe at Crafers and used it tonight. Wood-fired oven. brilliant pizza. thin and crusty (we do thick and doughy). simple ingredients like I use but great flavours... I'm still working it out.
AND - I started out to say that the cafe had a sign out the front saying "Books 50% off". and we thought "books?". Oh yes. I now have "A Passion for Cheese"..."more that 130 innovative ways to cook with cheese: (and then die of course, but how can God judge cheese lovers...?"
recipes include..
(I was going to list a few posh-sounding ones, but let me give you some others...)
"Pear. Beenleigh Blue and Rosemary Galettes"
(my brother lives near Beenleigh but I've never heard of cheese from there)
"Roasted Aubergine Moutabel wth Roubiliac and Thyme"
(not sure whether to cook or smoke this one)
"Pea and Watercress Soup with Emmenthal Floating Islands"
(I understand "pea" and "soup", but "floating islands"... you'd have to see the photo)
I coud keep going, but actually, there is wonderful stuff here.....
lentil salad with pepper-grilled goats cheese and anchovy toasts (a pity our girls have lentlil allergy)
blackened leek, red onion, smoked mozarella salad
roast breast of pheasant wrapped in smoked bacon with caraway cabbage and gorgonzonla polenta
(and what's the scariest word in that phrase. no, not gorgonzola! it's polenta!!!!)
and to finish off...
"Topfenravioli with Prosciutto, Spinach and Foaming Brown Butter". Yes. the "foaming" thing bothered me too. I keep finding things like that in the back of the fridge.
I susepct that my cholesterol has gone up just reading the book.
Apparently Paul Gayler's second book is to be called A Passion for Vegetables". I hope I live to see it.
more musings to come.
"A Passion For Cheese" ISBN 1-85626-334-7"
AND I was planning to post about aesthetics vs ethics in worship. Really.
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