Closing the Pages of "Another World"

Over the past few months I have identified and grown closer to my Asian routes; it has been entertaining, educational, but above all something that I feel quite passionately about following the conversations I have had with my family. In analysing the literature of the cookbooks that Granny has left behind and researching the topics that arise from different food-stuffs, I feel it has brought me closer to knowing more about my Granny and made me more aware of issues which are imbedded in Asian culture.

The most important features of my blog are: the memories (however inaccurate) my Father has of Granny's cooking, the traditions and stereotypes that we inadvertently have about food and where they are sourced, and the different adaptions of  dishes depending on who you are, and where you are in the world. Unfortunately I have not been able to write individual posts on all the different dishes from around the world that my family cooks; by now you may imagine dining at the Beeley household is similar to being on an around-the-world-flight where each night is like stopping off and samply the cuisine of a major town or city, but I assure you that is not the case! My family has varied tastes and whilst my Mother is probably the best and cooking curries and making rice cakes, my eldest sister, Miranda, has perfected the English roast, and at the other end of the spectrum is me where my forte lies in baking and desserts! Possibly that's the reason why studying Eastern cuisine and vegetables has been so interesting to me.

I strongly recommend that those of you who are interested in the versatility of vegetables and the ethnic origins of dishes from the East purchase Madhur Jaffery's book Eastern Vegetarian Cooking (1983). It covers a wide range of basic cookery and even sample menus, from which you can create different combinations of multiple course dinners, and her recipes credit the countries that they derive from. I have grown a very stong attachment to this book, surprisingly not for the lists of recipes but the note on the inside of the front cover:

 

"To Dearest Vi, With Love, From Margaret." - 25/06/84

 

It is this note from my Great Auntie Margie that I envisage my Granny cooking from this book and I hear her speaking in the same tone as Jaffery, who concludes her introduction with the incentive that I started with:

 

"I hope this book will open up another world for you and that you will have as much fun with the recipes as I did." xii

 

...don't worry Madhur I did.

 



Granny's 'Devil Chicken'

"You've got to find Granny's 'Devil Chicken'... Your Uncle Phillip would eat so much of it, he'd make himself sick!" - Craig William Beeley (my Father)

So far I have tempted you with stories about my heritage in relation to food, given you some insight in to the dishes that have withstood time and carried on being cooked throughout the generations, and introduced you to my late Granny Beeley; but of all the things worth mentioning to you about my Granny and eastern cooking, it is notably her 'Devil Chicken':

Granny's 'Devil Chicken' is one of those mysterious dishes that's bragged about, to the extent that you you can't help but be cynical and assume that the day you eventually do taste this amazing food, it will be an anticlimax from everything you had previously heard about it. Through out this assignment, whenever I've intermittently interviewed me Father about his memories of Granny's cooking he always raves about this dish; as far as he can tell me it concerns slowly cooking a chicken marinated in some sort of spiced mango glaze, and she'd serve it with mashed potato and green beans.
The recipe for this legendary dish has been something of a fickle obsession of mine, whilst I carelessly dismiss it whenever my Father brings it up in conversation, I secretly daydream about the ingredients and harbour a desire to try it, much like in Mapp and Lucia (1935) where Elizabeth Mapp is determined get Lucia's recipe for 'Lobster á la Riseholme’ but legitimately she can't. So, with Google at hand, I spent a good few hours searching this dish only to come across a recipe for 'Devil's Chutney', which is a simple condiment made of: onions, sugar, salt, sugar, and vinegar, this is commonly served as an accompaniment to coconut rice (so I've read). This research proved to be exactly what I had initially said to you about the anticlimax of some legendary dishes -
I told my Father about the 'Devil's Chutney' recipe and that I couldn't find a recipe for mango chicken, or a devil chicken, or chickens smothered in chutney, or any other description "...oh maybe that's it then..." He said. I have previously mentioned how my Father's memories of Granny's cooking are somewhat doubtful accounts, this possibly being the most disappointing one of all. I contacted my Uncle in an attempt to find out more, but alas all he could tell me was that "it was very good" and that he remembered the taste of "sweet chilli and mangoes".

Why is this story relevant I hear you say, if not at least mildly entertaining? This story serves as an example of the connection we make between food and memory; over time we cling to the thought of food as opposed to the reality of what it is and without a reciept of ingredients we can only ponder what we taste  - in this case, because 'Devil's Chicken' has never been cooked by anyone but Granny and no one can find the elusive recipe, my Father and Uncle have clung to their initial memories of it and made it out to be the Holy Grail of chicken dishes instead of seeing it for some simple chicken, in a marinade of something involving ketchup. Quite ironically, if you type "memory and food" in to Google search engine a number of links and scholarly articles are listed promoting foods that are supposed to improve your memory, which can be seen if you click on the link below. (Maybe my Father and Uncle should try a few of them!)

https://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=memory+and+food&oq=memory+and+food&gs_l=hp.3..0j0i22i30l3.44459.47461.5.47627.15.12.0.3.3.0.233.1749.0j9j2.11.0...0.0...1c.1.8.psy-ab.S5SUk7vLqKE&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.44770516,bs.1,d.d2k&fp=4224c9abb9e60957&biw=1366&bih=643

Homely Anglo-Indian food: Pish-Pash

 

Pish-Pash is a simple traditional Anglo-Indian dish that gets its name from the overcooked consistency of the rice, as though it were a rice porridge or a rice stew, this is normally given to children or those who are unwell because it is easy to digest and very nutritious. When I was very young, we used to be looked after by Granny for a few hours each week and, depending on the time of day, we would be given this to eat for lunch or dinner because it wasn't something that required much effort and it was something which my Father and Uncle would be given when they were young and living in India.
Some contemporary recipes for this dish include dhal, which is made from lentils, but the way it Granny always made it using: rice, milk, chicken or lamb, potatoes, cauliflower and maybe some carrot. There are mixed reviews about this dish within my family, whilst my Father and brothers love it for its place as a comfort food, my eldest sister, Miranda, hates it for its likeness to baby food (apparently), I recall liking it very much when I was young but as I have grown up this dish has barely been made and lost its place as a family favourite.
Despite this, my Father does mention it from time to time in a bid to get it made, but I feel it has been replaced by an alternate dish, very similar in terms of ingredients. My comfort food is a clear chicken soup that my Mother makes and serves with rice - for a number of winters my Mother cuts up a whole chicken (or cooks several drumsticks) in a pot filled with chicken stock and whole, peeled carrots and potatoes. She lets this simmer for several hours without stirring, but checking on the heat in regular intervals to make sure that it isn't sticking to the pan or boiling over. After about 3 or 4 hours you have a rich, clarified soup with the most tender pieces of chicken falling off the bone, and soft vegetables that you can cut with a spoon! This is served over separately boiled rice with a ladleful of the clear soup. I'd like to think of this as my mother's take on a more bearable version of pish-pash!

Why Eastern cuisine?

My initial response to this module task was “Yes! An excuse to eat anything and everything that I come across and write about it!” But having revised the course requirements and investigated different types of literature based on food I have thought it be wiser of me if I were less impulsive; so here’s my decisive plan for this blog:
   Over the next few weeks I will be dipping in and out of one of my Grandmother’s cookbooks examining the literature and format of some of them in contrast to my knowledge and research on contemporary literature of food, as well as talking to my family members about their memories of the foods Granny used to cook and attempting to recreate some traditional dishes, specifically the dishes that my family and I grew up with. My overall goal is to "travel" through a selection of varied recipes and memories, and examine the ways in which my family engage with dishes native to their ethnic routes.

Ethnic cuisine was immensly popular in the twentieth century but prior to this varied dishes were included on the menus of cafes and taverns. In contemporary society Asian food in particular has been on the rise with a multitude of sushi cafes popping up and online dining becoming more popular and readily available. We have a fascination and fear of the exotic that was initially described in Orientalism (1978) by Edward Said that I have found to be relevant to food, and it is with this fascination and fear that I have found myself wanting to venture outside of common meals and everyday fruit and veg and try something different.
I come from a mixed background (my mother is from the Philippines and my father is also mixed with roots going back to India as well as being part English and Irish) and I have been fortunate enough to taste a variety of different foods from around the world, yet up till now I feel I have neglected the knowledge of 'exotic' cooking and the secrets that lie amongst these discoloured pages.



Common curry spices

Filipino cuisine

Lebanese cuisine



Chicken Adobo (Classic Filipino dish)

Hence fourth I am on an Eastern excursion broadening my culinary skills and paying my dues with invested reading!