See Food? Eat It! How Our Senses Make it Impossible to Say NO.

25 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

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If you see food on the table, can you stop yourself from eating at least a little bit?  If it happens to be fresh seafood, does that make it any easier to resist?  (Allergies aside, just in case any of you are in fact allergic to fish and/or shellfish).

The truth is, food has great powers because it appeals to some of our senses – what we see, smell and, ultimately, touch and taste.  The funny thing is that the former two trigger the desire to do the latter two.  In fact, even the fifth sense might be involved.  How many of you start to salivate when you hear sizzling sounds coming from a frying pan?  Bacon anyone?  Our senses are essentially prisoners to culinary creations.  Nothing wrong with that, I say.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I hosted a dinner party for five of our friends, but the amount of food I made could easily have fed fourteen.  You see, all my senses were captivated by the contents of my kitchen and I might have gone a bit overboard.  Allow me to explain.

I happen to have some very close Italian friends who happened to bring back Tipo ‘OO’ flour from their motherland, all because I had mentioned to them one time that I loved making homemade pasta.  You might well be wondering what’s so important about using ‘OO’ flour to make pasta.  Basically it has to do with the gluten (or protein) content.  If I were baking bread or pizza, I would need a flour with a higher gluten content.  A mid-protein flour (Tipo ‘OO’) is needed for pasta.  In case you’re wondering, pastry is best made with a lower protein flour.  But I divert a little here.

At the time, I  happen to have procured 6 pounds of fresh lobster at J$300 per pound.  I kid you not.  That’s how reasonable it is when you buy it directly from a fisherman who lives in the southern tip of Clarendon.  I was lucky enough to be given as much fresh crab by a very kind person, procured in the same place as the lobster.  I also happen to always keep Arborio rice (risotto rice), smoked marlin, cream cheese, bammies and ginger nut biscuits in my freezer.  Not kidding.  So, my menu pretty quickly came together in my head, made easier by the staples in the liquor cabinet and those that I buy for my fridge on a weekly basis – tomatoes, thyme, scotch bonnet, scallion, garlic, onions, limes/lemons and grapefruits.  It was really only down to getting heavy cream and shrimps.  Dinner plans were sorted.

Well, I thought they were……until the morning of the occasion, when I made two stocks – a white fish stock for the crab risotto and a shrimp stock for the lobster pasta.  With both completed, I kept the shrimp stock boiling so as to reduce it to the most intensely flavourful concoction you could imagine.  It would be the key to the success of the pasta sauce.  Alas, I became distracted and, heading back to the kitchen from outside, I knew what I would find.  That was the end of that.  Out to get more shrimps in their shells! (The shells are used to make the stock).  Fortunately for me, my Italian friend took it upon herself to make the errand to PriceSmart and I was able to remake the stock in time.

Lest you all start beating down my proverbial door for the menu, here it is:

Hors d’oeuvres  

Smoked Marlin, Cream Cheese, Scallion & Scotch Bonnet Spread with Baked Bammy Triangles

Demi-Tasse de Roasted Tomato & Thyme Soup

Starter

Fresh Crab Risotto with Saffron & Sautéed Shrimps

Main Course

Homemade Pappardelle with Fresh Lobster, Roasted Mini Plum Tomatoes and a Shrimp & Rum Infused Cream Sauce

Palate Cleanser

Grapefruit & Campari Sorbet with Mint

Salad (courtesy of SB)

Arugula (Rocket), Tomatoes, Cucumber & Feta with a Simple Vinaigrette

Dessert

Jamaican Coffee, Ginger Nut & VX Rum Tiramisu

Needless to say, dinner was stretched over five hours, because my senses were way bigger than everyone’s bellies.  That said, they saw the food and they ate it all, because it was impossible for their senses to say no.

Emma Smiling Long Pasta

Rolling the Pasta Dough with the help of my KitchenAid pasta attachment!

Pappardelle

Pappardelle once I had cut copious amounts – laid out between parchment paper, so as not to stick

Roasted Tomato & Thyme in Demi-Tasse

Demi-Tasse Roasted Tomato & Thyme Soup

Crab Risotto with Sauteed Shrimp

Crab Risotto with Sautéed Shrimps (oops, one shrimp rolled down the mound of risotto!)

Lobster Pappardelle

Homemade Pappardelle with Lobster & Roasted Mini  Tomatoes in a Shrimp & Rum Infused Cream Sauce

Grapefruit & Campari Sorbet

Palate Cleanser: Grapefruit & Campari Sorbet

SB Salad

SB’s Simple & Refreshing Salad

DSC_0191 (2)

Jamaican Coffee, Ginger Nut & VX Tiramisu

 

Even Your Kid Will Eat Healthily If He/She Is Hungry

17 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Children, Food, Health, Humour

≈ 4 Comments

Several weeks ago, I was asked to give a talk to the kids in my eldest son’s class about healthy eating.  I suggested that along with speaking, I would bring snacks in for the entire class, saving their parents the trouble.

In I went with fresh watermelon wedges, raw carrot sticks, blanched broccoli, callaloo muffins and cocoa beetroot muffins – all homemade.  FYI: the muffins had literally a smidgen of sugar in them.

The class had recently been learning about proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and vitamins, so the idea was for my talk to tie in with that.  In fact, all these food groups were included in the snacks I had brought – right down to the protein in the eggs used in my muffins.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure how many of the Grade 2 children would actually eat what I had carried along, but they all seemed enthusiastic and excited.  In fact, what happened amazed me.  Fifteen out of sixteen of them ate everything.  These are children whose parents have often told me: “I can’t get him/her to eat vegetables.  He/She just doesn’t like vegetables.”  Well, sitting there altogether, with the same menu as their peers, each child did indeed eat their vegetables.  And the proof of liking what they had eaten came with the fact that most of them asked for second helpings.

So why is it that these children ate what I gave them, but won’t eat the same at home?  Okay, it could be because I’m a much better cook than everyone else’s parents!  However, it doesn’t take a master chef to prepare these five different foods which I brought, so I don’t think it has anything to do with my capabilities.  Which is probably why more than half the class had lunch boxes full of junk – chips, cookies, juice – all of which came in store-bought packets.  The parents had little faith in me perhaps?  Or, more importantly, perhaps they had little faith in what their kids would actually eat.

If the latter is true, then these parents underestimated their children and they did a disservice to them, in my opinion.  That said, it is easy to judge when you don’t have the same problem, which I don’t.  Not that my kids don’t like junk food.  Trust me, they do, but I have always insisted that they eat the healthy things first and they accept that – most of the time.  When they give me trouble about it, I spend time explaining to them the benefits of healthy eating and the negative side effects caused by the unhealthy options.  It is not always easy though, because there is peer pressure.

Which brings me back to why the Grade 2 boys and girls were happily willing to gobble up all the goodness I had taken into their classroom.  Peer pressure.  Sit them all down together, give them all the exact same healthy meal (with no alternatives), and they will eat if they are hungry.

 

 

 

What Can Someone Handle?

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Health, Life

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One of my pet peeves (I have several) is when someone says to me: “God only gives you what you can handle.”  Okay, it’s more than a pet peeve.  I find it excruciating to hear – like when someone runs their fingernails down a blackboard.  Remember blackboards?  If you have grey hair like mine, then you might 😉

While I can understand why there are those of you who believe that we really only get what we can cope with, you might consider keeping it to yourself.  Just because it helps you to come to terms with unfortunate happenstance, it does not necessarily follow that it is of any assistance to the rest of us.

The truth is: shit happens!  And that shit is random.  Plain and simple, folks.

So what can we do with that?  Well, we are certainly not ecstatically flying around the room and thrilled that life has dealt a bad deck.  “Woohoo!  I am so excited that…….(insert really awful event here)!”  Hmmmm, no.  You are not thrilled about that.  I’m certainly not, anyway.

When bad things happen, we have no choice but to deal with it.  I lost a chef friend of mine to brain cancer – he and his wife did not succumb to such a tragedy because they could handle it.  My girl friend died of a heart attack, due to complications from scleroderma, at age 40, leaving her husband and their three young children – they handled it because they had to.  Another friend of mine has had a hell of a year and a half beating breast cancer – again, she had no choice but to deal with what life had thrown at her.

So did ‘God’ give those people these awful illnesses because they could cope more than the person living in bliss?  I don’t think so.  Are the earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions that take numerous lives sent by ‘God’ because those particular populations were able to manage better than others?  Really folks?  Do you honestly believe that?  I’m actually asking you the question, by the way, because I would love to know what exactly it is that you think someone could handle.

Excuse Me For Expecting More Than Mediocre Service

04 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Food, Humour

≈ 5 Comments

I walk into a cafe of sorts the other day, go to the counter to place my usual cappuccino order – strong coffee, lots of froth, no sugar, no cinnamon.  Yes, surprisingly, I have to request that I do not want sugar in my coffee because “Most customers take sugar in their cappuccinos,” I have often been told.  There’s only one barista in said cafe who knows how to make a decent cappuccino, so I ensure that she is on the job.  My friend orders her coffee and a muffin.

The coffees arrive promptly.  The muffin, which has been sitting in the display since we arrived at ten o’clock in the morning, arrives at our table thirty minutes later.  I ask if I may please have a couple slices of gluten-free toast, a regular order of mine in the same cafe.

Meanwhile, we witness one barista preparing a take-away bag of baked goods, previously paid for by the customer.  She then attempts to get the attention of said customer by waving the bag at her, while leaning up against the open section of the counter, where staff can walk through and access the ‘floor’.  Flabbergasted, I watched the bewildered-looking customer approach and take the bag from the barista’s hand.

I call the same barista over to our table and ask, again, for some gluten-free toast, because I have been waiting for half an hour for toast. She goes to check if there is gluten-free bread, returns several conversations later, and informs me there is none.  I ask if there is any in the freezer section of their adjoining market, from which they get their supplies.  I get an “I don’t know.”

“Would you mind checking for me?” I ask.

“Well, hmmm, okay.  I suppose I can.  But if there is any, it is going to take a long time before you get any, because I’ll have to have it signed off by the manager to move it from the freezer into the deli.  So I don’t really know,” she continues.

“Oh no!” I exclaim.  “I really don’t want to cause you any trouble at all.  Is it the case that you are not allowed to get supplies from the market-side?” I ask, with sarcasm, because I damn well know they are allowed.

“No,” she replies, deflated.  “It’s just, well, it is going to take some time to organise.”

FYI, there is a total sum of two occupied tables in the venue, and it is now eleven o’clock in the morning.

Again, I tell her that I do not want to be of any bother, especially if it is going to be so difficult.  Alas, she relents and off she goes – walking the twenty yards to the freezer in the adjacent room.  After twenty minutes, I see her return.  She is waving at me to get my attention, as if the place is crammed with six hundred people, yet there are only about six of us in total.  She shakes her head and I read her lips as she says “No gluten-free bread.”

We have been at the cafe for an hour and twenty minutes now, and between us we have had two coffees and one muffin.  We are very hungry, so we order omelettes.  Forty minutes later, our omelettes arrive.  They are hot, thank goodness.  However, one has to wonder what on earth the six or seven staff members were doing behind the counter during that time, because it cannot take a human being, let alone one trained in the restaurant business, more than five or ten minutes to make two omelettes.  Excuse me, but I do expect more than mediocre service!

My Curry Is Better Than Yours….Don’t Be Bitter About It!

27 Tuesday Oct 2015

Posted by in Food

≈ 6 Comments

I use the term “Curry” very loosely here – to indicate that I am talking about Indian cuisine.  I believe that in India, however, they do not use the word to describe any of their dishes, but rather they have specific names like “Jalfrezi” and “Rogan Josh”.  Alas, I am from an English-speaking nation and we call it all “Curry” – Curried Lobster, Curry Chicken, Curry Goat, and so on.  By the way, the latter is particularly delicious, with all that juicy goat bone from which you can suck the juices!  I do have an issue with the store-bought curry powder in my country though.  It is full of turmeric.

Many of you may not know this, but while turmeric is meant to be good for one’s health, by reducing inflammation, it has an extremely bitter taste, which can overpower and ruin your food just like that.  If you come across a curry powder that smells bitter, that’s the turmeric.  My advice to you – don’t buy it.  I have an alternative that is far tastier than any ready-mixed Indian seasoning you’ll find in the supermarket – make your own.

Preparing “Curry” powder might seem daunting, not to mention time-consuming, but please try this at least once and see for yourself just how quick, easy and scrummy this is.

Firstly, go to an Indian spice shop and procure a minimum of the following:

2oz/55mg coriander seeds
1oz/30mg fenugreek seeds
0.5oz/15mg cardamom pods
0.5oz/15mg cumin seeds
1oz/30mg ground turmeric
1oz/30mg ground black pepper
1oz/30mg ground cinnamon

You may buy larger quantities of these spices and keep in airtight containers or plastic bags in the freezer.

1. Measure out all the seeds and pods, and toast in a dry frying pan over high heat, until they start to brown and pop, and a wonderful aromatic smell is floating through your kitchen.
2. Meanwhile, measure out the ground ingredients into a large bowl. 3. Once the seeds and pods have toasted, bash them for about 30 seconds with a pestle and mortar, and then add them to the ground spices.
4. Using a coffee or spice grinder, grind all the ingredients in batches and store in a glass jar or plastic container in the fridge or freezer.
5. Use according to any recipe requiring curry powder.
N.B. If you usually use the grinder for coffee, clean by grinding bread before and after use, and wiping out with a clean cloth.

Many of you are laughing at me aren’t you? How on earth do I expect you to find time to go and buy any of these items, let alone make your own curry powder? Do I not realise that you work long and hard hours, with a crazy commute on each end of the day, only to come home to kids and their homework? I do, and so I relent. Go ahead and use that yellow curry powder that’s been sitting in your cupboard for years, and when you do taste the bitterness, simply add chopped tomatoes (fresh or tinned) or coconut milk, or both, and that should do the trick.
Whatever you do, don’t be bitter about the fact that I am sitting at my dining table, gorging on my sublimely spiced creations.

40 & Grey, but I’m not a Granny

23 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by in Humour, Life

≈ 10 Comments

IMG_0106A year ago a sixty-something year old woman whom I have known nearly all my life declared to me that I was looking very old.  I was caught off guard and so I did not respond verbally.  My jaw, however, dropped an inch.  This very young-looking sixty-something year old lady, who is quite beautiful, is not blind.  She saw my jaw drop.  She immediatly followed up with: “but at least you’re thin, so you can get away with looking old.”  Again, I was lost for words.

What I should have said, however, is: “perhaps if you give me the name and number of your fabulous plastic surgeon, I shall be able to correct the problem.”  Alas, I am slow with comebacks most of the time.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when a child at my sons’ school asked me if I was their grandma.  I had not yet turned forty.  I laughed when the child said this to me and told him that I was their Mummy.  I get that it would be quite possible for me to be a grandmother at my age, but seriously?!

For the record, I do not believe that there is anything wrong with being a grandmother, nor do I think there is anything wrong with being a grandmother at my age, but my children are under seven, so it did come as a surprise to be seen in that role.

I feel that I must disclose the fact that my hair is grey and that after dying it for almost twenty years, I was pushed to shave it all off, because the medication that I was taking at the time was causing it to fall out anyway.  My lovely locks were gone and I embraced the baldness.  Equally, I decided to embrace whatever would grow back in its place – a courser and far more grey version of what I had had before.  I turned 40 this week and I am still grey, but I’m not a granny.