Mama's Cooking My Cooking

Cooking outside the box is experimenting with new ways of preparing old favourites. What does the proverb say, new wine in old bottles? We can divide the experiment into two.

For some cooks, health determines what they eat, not taste. Consequently, they banned ingredients such as ghee, butter and lard from the kitchen. Health is also the main factor for going vegetarian or vegan. I still don’t understand the difference, but I’m working on it.

Then we have cooks who flip the script and add new ingredients to old recipes, just for fun. I added red beans to pasta a few weeks ago. Why not? Last year, I started adding a little olive oil-based salad dressing to raw chicken, cover it with double foil and bake it.

Mama used to boil pumpkin. I steam it. She used it as a side dish to meat dishes. I use it with rice and bean soup.

1. Toss onion, tomato, chili and garlic in olive oil. Cook for 8m in low heat.

2. Add cooked red or white beans. Cook another 8m.

3. Steam pumpkin with bamboo steamer for 5m.

4. Serve with rice.

Tip: Eat the following day. Beans taste better when they have a sleep-over.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang