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!

A Classic: Pinakbet

Pinakbet is a dish native to the Philippines, a dish that I despised as a young girl for the incorporation of aubergines, okra and bitter melon, which if were to be left out, wouldn't be an authentic pinakbet at all. In all honesty I was a "lazy eater" as a child (as my family remind me all too often) and there were few dishes that I would willingly eat, making dinner an stressful meal time where I would sit with my siblings and typically not be permitted to leave the table till I had finished everything on my plate. Rather regretably I was picky and sought to dispose and conceal all food items that I could without getting in to trouble. I would disect meals, pretend to fall asleep with cheeks stuffed with rice or potato, and hide strange vegetables in tissue before throwing them in the bin. The irony is that I was always found out and forced to eat the food I then loathed or served another punishment like no dessert, but what I now realise about what I had previously dreamed of - that I could throw away food and never have to eat them again -  is that there is no escaping classic/ popular dishes because you they are exactly that! They never cease to me made, or enjoyed, or forgotten because they are entrenched in a culture.
In Eastern Vegetarian Cooking (1983) Jafferey includes a variation of the recipe and a little background on it's origins:

PINAKBET
(Mixed Vegetable Stew with Aubergine and Long Beans)
Philippines

(serves 6)

 

This popular Filipino stew, eaten in the president's palace as well as in the poorest homes, consists of aubergine, long beans (also called asparagus beans, the kind that are about a foot long and are found in Indian Chinese grocery stores), okra, fresh broad beans, and bitter gourd, all stewed quickly with onions, garlic, and tomatoes. In the Philippines, a salty fish past provides the final flavouring, but I have left that out and substituted a little soy sauce instead. The Filipinos use the slip, 6-in/15cm-long, pinkish perple aubergines that are found in many Oriental grocery stores. On the West Coast of America, I have heard them referred to as 'Japanese' aubergines. If you cannot find them, use slim white aubergines, or small Italian aubergines. If none of the above can be found, use the familiar-sized oval aubergines cut into 1-in/2.5-cm-thick and 2.5-in/6.5-cm-long 'fingers'. They may disintegrate a bit but the taste of of the dish will not be greatly changed. You may easily substitute ordinary green beans for the long beans and frozen large broad beans for the fresh kind. If you cannot find better gourd, leave it out, though that would really be a pity. That slight bitterness gives pinakbet its special kick.

About half of a 6-oz/180-g bitter gourd
3/4lb/340-g slim aubergines
1.25-1.5-tsp salt
8-10 whole okra
16 long beans of 5 oz/14-g green beans
2 fl oz/1/2 dl vegetable oil
4 five-pence-piece sized slices of fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into slivers
1 medium-sized onion, peeled and chopped
1.25 lb/560g ripe tomatoes, chopped
4tsp Japanese soy sauce
3/4lb/340g fresh or frozen broad beans*
*If the broad beans are frozen, leave at room temperature until you can  separate them.

Cut the half bitter gourd in half lengthwise, and remove all the seeds. Cut the halves into strips with 1/4tsp salt and then stand them up in a bowl for 20 to 30 minutes. Rinse the strips.
   Trim away the stem end of the aubergines and cut them into 2-3-in/5-8-cm lengths. You should now have tube-like pieces. The Filipinos cut gashes at both ends of the tubes this way: hold the tube so it is standing on one end. Make a lengthwise cut down the centre but stop when you reach about halfway. Stand the tube on its other end. Give the tube a quater turn and make another lengthwise cut down the centre again stiopping about halfway. Your gashes should resemble a cross, with one side of the cross at one end of the tube and the other at the other end. The two gashes should never meet.
   Trim away the okra caps and points. Cut the gashes on it just as you did for the aubergine.
   Trim away the ends of the long beans and cut them into 3-in/8-cm lengths.
   Heat the oil in a 4-qt/4.5-l pot over a medium-high flame. When hot, put in the ginger, garlic, and onion. Stir and fry for about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes. Stir and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until tomatoes have softened. Turn the heat down a bit, if necessary. Add 16 fl oz/ 1/2l water, the soy sauce, 1 tsp salt, the bitter gourd, aubergine, okra, long beans, and broad beans. Stir. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes on medium to medium-low heat. You should keep the pot at a vigorous simmer. Stir the vegetables gently throughout the cooking period (the Filipinos prefer to shake the pot and toss the vegetables every now and then). The liquid should reduce and become thick and all the vegetables should be tender. Check the salt. Add more if you need it. Remove the pieces of ginger.

In contrast to Jaffery's vegetarian version of this dish it is commonly cooked with salty meat, such as bacon or gammon, and my family being big on meat could not bear to be without it especially in this dish. My mother cooks it the Illocano way with meat, where you put all the ingredients in to the pot at once and cook slowly, she isn't particular about the type of aubergine or where you get the beans from either.A packet of vine beans are generally the same and she uses tinned tomatoes, and she always says "Keep an eye on it, make sure it doesn't stick to the pan, but don't stir it!" No, you couldn't stir it because you'd risk breaking down the meat and vegetables and end up serving a pulp on top of rice that I certainly wouldn't have eaten as a child, let alone any adult.
To this day my mother still cooks it as well as my older sisters and I have grown to like eating it (minus the bitter melon!)

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!