I love rice. It is so versatile and I could quite happily eat rice
every day, much to Ms Onion’s chagrin, although we don’t eat it every day
for exactly that reason. Sometimes I wonder if I was born on the
wrong continent.
If your area is anything like mine then Covid19 has seen no flour on
the shelves for some time, along with associated items like yeast,
and it is only just beginning to reappear now. I don’t really know
why, because bread has not been in short supply, but I can only
assume that in isolation people have dragged out their lonely and
neglected bread machines, or just started from first principles and
begun artisanal baking. To that end let me introduce you to my
friend Doug (the dough).
In his book ‘Bills Basics’ (which I thoroughly recommend), Bill
Granger says that he stopped eating meat when he was in India,
because the choice of vegetable dishes was so vast. Having recently
returned from India, just in time to beat the worst of the Covid-19
madness, I know exactly what he means.
The Dad’s Onion kitchen is on the move! In just a few days we’re
heading off to India for a holiday, and as well as all the wonderful
sights and experiences, I’m perhaps most looking forward to the food and
the opportunity to get some ideas and expand my repertoire.
Lately I’ve been playing around with and making a few vegan recipes.
I haven’t grown my hair long (those that know me will know that ship
has well and truly sailed) or developed an inexplicable fondness for
mung beans. I also won’t be taking up veganism on a full time basis
anytime soon, but my son and daughter-in-law have, which has pushed
me into trying a few recipes, and I’m also interested in some of the
replacements and substitutions that can be made for common
ingredients.
There’s a wonderful feel about egg and bacon pie – something
reassuring about the sense of simplicity, old style homeliness and
‘tradition’. It’s unusual (for us anyway) to have things like this
these days, but it’s an old blast drawn from the pages of the
‘Golden Wattle’
cookbook.
Every cuisine has its distinctive dishes and characteristics, and
it’s partly that variety that fascinates me and no doubt keeps us
all interested in food. As with music, where I am constantly amazed
at the different ways of putting eight notes together into something
unique and new, so it is with cooking and the different ways of
combining ingredients. Each cusine not only seems to have its own
style but also borrows elements from other nations as people moved
around the earth and made contact with each other and new
ingredients over the ages.
Since 2010 I’ve kept a food diary – a record of the meals I’ve made
and the things we’ve eaten virtually every day since then. What
would be the purpose of doing such a thing, do I hear you ask? Read
on, and note the stylish segue to the recipe for kedgeree.