Food

 

My earliest memories of the kitchen involve fragrances, flour, the stove and dishes ... not necessarily in that order. I don’t ever remember Mother holding a cook book in her hand. Which was basically why, even though the food she made was fantastic, it always had a slightly different taste each time. Which doesn’t mean to say that it wasn’t fantastic each time.

My sisters and I still have a few words with each other concerning who has the most authentic recipe of Mother’s dishes. Api says, since she was in the kitchen with her longest, she knows the most.. Baj says, by virtue of her being the eldest, her memory is more accurate. Of course, it goes without saying that she never remembers what she puts in a dish – not even while she’s cooking it, but thats another story altogether.

However, they both know that I am the only one who can cook as well as Ma.. primarily because I’m the youngest. I’m sure there is a good explanation for this, which will convince you, dear reader. Its just eluding my mind at the moment..

Coming back to fragrances, there are many that fight for precedence in my memory. Some I’ve been able to recreate, and at others I’ve failed miserably. The one that always comes back strongly and luckily belongs to the former category, is meat loaf. The spices, the aroma of topping, mixed in with the slightly burnt one of topping dripping on the tray is a memory I love to awaken as often as I can.

The thing with meat loaf is, even if you do belong to the party that likes a nice dripping and dipping sauce, you can still enjoy it as a side. For those of you who’d like to try their hand at it, this is what you need and should do with it:

1/2 kilo mince meat
2 onions, very finely chopped
1 tbls ginger garlic paste
salt to taste
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp roasted cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1/2 cup ketchup
2 slices of bread, soaked in water, drained

Mix all spices and ingredients - except ketchup - in the mince. Mix well.

Flatten it in a baking dish, pour over some oil, cover with half of the ketchup. Cover with foil and bake in hot oven for at least an hour.

Check, if the mince is done and the juices are clear. You can either save them and make a gravy out of them, or ditch them.

If the meat is done - spread the rest of the ketchup on top and turn on the grill. As soon as the 'roast' gets a nice brown colour, its ready to serve.

If you’d like to do it our way, then serve it with a large portion of homemade, slightly soft potato chips and the obligatory ketchup to soak.

I read something the other day, about memories, by Cynthia Ozick: “What we remember from childhood, we remember forever.” I must say, I agree with her. 

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We have a quaint little bookstore here around the corner. They sell all sorts of wise books. How to get the most of your will power, how to eat right, how to become thinner, fatter, longer, shorter – well, maybe not that one. But you get the general idea.

I found an interesting one, the other day. Nutrition Calculator. I bought it just to see how they calculate nutrition. When I was growing up, it was all about following the main food categories. Which is now labelled the food pyramid.

Coming back to the calculator, I was surprised not to find any mathematical formulas in it. Rather, it tells you all about the vitamins and minerals in your food. Then it tells you what to eat and what not to and why. Confusing? No, just off-food-putting.

Did you for example know that to be strong and tall and beautiful, not necessarily in that order, you need to have lots of Calcium, Vitamin C and Zinc? But it’s true. A lack of all these and many more such causes poor growth, weak muscles and bad health.

But Mark Twain said, “Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint”. So I thought about my diet. Do I get enough of the above? Zinc for example is to be found abundantly in oysters. This is one food I would never willingly eat. I love walnuts though but they aren’t such a rich source. Next on the high level is crab. Thank you, but no thank you.

Moving on to calcium I discovered that Parmesan has the highest level, with whole milk powder coming close. That looked good to me. So I moved on to Vitamin C.

First thing on the list, was guava. Did you know that? Of all the fruits that come to mind, which would have a lot of the Cs, guava tops the list. I wonder why?

My husband loves guava. So do a lot of other people I know. Frankly, I’d opt for any other fruit but. Why? I don’t like the seeds. Oh lots of other fruits have seeds, tomatoes, for instance. But tomatoes are pretty to look at. Which makes them an easier thing to devour. At least, I feel good doing so. Besides, they have a few bits of calcium too. 18 mg per 100 grams.

The Doctor’s Vitamin and Mineral Encyclopaedia tells us that it is far more common to be deficient in minerals than in vitamins. Minerals are also more important for a healthy nutrition, than vitamins. Yet they are more complex and difficult to absorb.

The more I read into this wise book, the more I realise how inexperienced we are on the nutritional scale. Minerals and vitamins need to be combined in a healthy diet, so as to give the most benefit from the one, by help of the other.

For me that effectively means my glass of milk alone is no good – or not much. For it to work like it should, it must be accompanied by eggs and tomatoes, as in vitamins D and C.  That’s fine by me. As long I don’t have to resort to adding puree of guava and grilled fish to it.