Rain Food Fest

-

Love the rain but not to the extent of singing in the rain. Mama taught me better than that.

We have a love hate relationship with the rain. We planned a summer wedding, then it rains. Cross country cycling? Oops! It rains. Promised co-workers to have drinks, to celebrate the opening of the bar patio down the road, after three months of COVID-19 lockdown. We were going to help grandma with the harvest, but there was a downpour. Everybody has a story.

You are indoors because nature showed you who is the boss. What next? You can take advantage of the rain by cooking food you normally wouldn’t cook because you are a take-out prince and princess. Cook Spanish paella or lasagna from scratch. No cheating. No raiding the store freezer for precooked stuff.

Bake some scones and invite the Queen to tea. They call scones tea biscuits in North America. They were mama’s favourite rain food. She would prepare her wood stove and knead that dough, flour the baking sheets, cut the dough into round objects and pop them in the oven. Us kids loved her for many things, including the warm aroma of baking, while it rained.

BABY SITTING FOOD

Certain food is good for cooking when it is raining, because it needs baby sitting, like yellow and green lentils, but it is worth your while because they are wholesome when cooked. You just eat them, with no foreign objects like salt, pepper, soy sauce, ketchup, spices whatever.

Lentils need babysitting because they boil over. You must keep an eye on them like guards outside 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister’s office in London.

RECIPE: LENTIL BRICKS

1. Soak green lentils overnight or a few hours

2. Cook for about 40 minutes depending on how much you’re cooking

3. Leave to cool for an hour

4. Put cold lentils on foil paper or square foil cake tin

5. Freeze overnight

6. Remove from freezer and defrost for an hour

7. Cut lentils into squares and wrap with foil

8. Freeze for future use

Serve: Drop bricks in your smoothies, soups and toast. Remember, no salt, pepper, nothing. Just green goodness.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elections And Political Bullies

-
Image
Forget democracy.   It should be called political bullying. We are watching it in the prelude to the Canadian election on the 19 th of October, 2015.   Americans have also started their political bullying for the looming presidential election next year. So many trees wasted on books about democracy.   Some countries have big budgets for invading other countries ‘ to defend democracy’ but it is seldom practised in campaigning for elections.   Calling opponents names and printing flyers attacking each other is behaviour that will not be tolerated in kindergarten, but it is all legal, in campaigning.   It is irritating and such a let-down to the whole notion of democracy.   Grown-up men and women behaving like Grade One kids. It is also misleading because many voters believe it is real hatred.   Don’t let that fool you.   These politicians play golf together, attend the same dinner parties, eat and drink at the same social events, share jokes and cut deals in parliament.   They
Read more

Comfort Food As Regret Food

-
Image
Chicken curry. Comfort food is good for the soul, which usually bleeds in winter from icy roads, bad drivers that want to annihilate pedestrians, frozen fingers and toes that take a sabbatical.   What happened to my toes?   I thought I was wearing special socks for boots? We therefore have a right to comfort food which throws doctors’ orders out of the window and has no loyalty to calories.   No calculator on the table, thanks very much.   Piece of bread 5 calories, half a banana 10 calories, sugar-free cheesecake 2,000 calories.   Ah! Ah!  We only live once. Naw!   Comfort food is old school food with its compulsory second helping.   It involves licking fingers and giving a big sigh, about the good life, which is shelter, food, love and debt.   The problem is the zip.   The jeans remind you that comfort food can also be called you will regret food .   Home sweet home is even sweeter in winter after surviving blowing snow and bumper to bumper traffic. What is more welcoming th
Read more

Einstein Passengers

-
Image
Being a passenger is very stressful.   You must listen to the owner of the car, nod and grumble yes to everything he says because you don’t want to piss him off. Two things can happen if you disagree with the driver: he can lose concentration and you all end up in a mash-up accident or stop the car and ask you to get out.   That is the driver’s prerogative.   You must listen to me if you are a passenger in my car.   Let’s flip the script for a minute and sympathise with the driver if she has a passenger who is more intelligent than Albert Einstein. He talks non-stop.   It is all about himself, how right he is, how good he is, how stupid his boss is. Einstein is also a driving instructor.   “Careful.   Look at that guy.   Is he crazy or something? ” says Einstein. Einstein is the unofficial pilot.   He presses imaginary brakes in the passenger seat when the driver stops abruptly for a guy who is texting on his bicycle. A certain Einstein took it to another level.   S
Read more