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Garden thoughts #1 2023

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it's a big book.  coffee table type.   Beauty FULL book.   i should take more pics.     or      i should take pics of food i 

cook.

Make.

Food.   i love it.  love "ethnic" foods.  Most of all maybe i love Indian food.   Having been there,  where the very air you breathe is food.    Spice.   Making.   Making food.  Food being made.

all of us love indian food.   There is no place ie a restaurant for it here.   There is one in Chico.   i don't go to Chico.    I have no spices anymore.    I think of whole cardomom.   What it does first sauteed in ghee and then simmering long in a curry.  A simple spice but i haven't had any for maybe 6 years.   Why.    Food takes time.     

Rest as Resistance

slow cooking is a certain kind of Rest.   it asks things of us.   to not hurry.   to focus,   to attend to the happenings in the pot or pan,  to Smell the ongoing of the transformation of ingredients as they marry..or as someone recently said,  become friendly.

Maybe this is the Year that i will give self to making Indian Food.  To really going slow,  taking the time to let it teach me.   Back in N Mex i could drive to Albuquerque to World Market for spices.   Here,  in fancy California,  i'd maybe find these in Sacramento,  almost 2 hours away.    OR,  i can get them

on line.

how do i feel about that?

i looked,  last night,  and learned about Hing.    Something to be said about and for   On Line.

 

it has rained.   All day.   the forecast is

Rain

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6 responses to “Garden thoughts #1 2023”

  1. Deb G Avatar
    Deb G

    I wasn’t familiar with Hing so I looked it up and found this:
    https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/22/482779599/meet-hing-the-secret-weapon-spice-of-indian-cuisine
    Yes, something to be said for on line. 🙂
    Rain can encourage rest… I think that is sometimes why we resist it. Spent some time with the seed and plant catalogues yesterday. Dreaming and thinking.

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  2. jude Avatar
    jude

    hing, yes, we call it zing.

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  3. CatherinE Avatar
    CatherinE

    I feel energized by reading your thoughts about cooking. I cook almost every day. It takes a long time. I have a lot of spices, but no hing. Maybe I’ll try it? My brother lives in Danbury CT near a large Indian grocery store. I went in there last time I visited him and it was so massive, I couldn’t think straight. Next time, I’ll make a shopping list ahead of time. I went to India once in 2015, a wonderful trip.

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  4. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    I LOVE that you have been to India! Cooking to me is very relaxing but requires time. Its the cleaning up afterwards that is exhausting with no running water. So I cook every three days enough to eat leftovers or make easy creative dishes from what is already made. Mmmm need to get to a place with good spices too!! Smell is one thing I hope I never lose.. but it can be conjured up in the mind!

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  5. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    That you’ve been to India is exciting ., as a young girl it’s one of the places I always thought about thinking probably because everything always looked so colorful. I like cooking .. after coming home from Tucson my friend really inspired me to cook moor Asian. Love that you’re already looking forward to planting next years garden . Sending you love and Blessings for a Happy and Healthy New Year.😊

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  6. Faith Avatar
    Faith

    I have never heard of hing and thought how weird, but then saw it is also called asafoetida, which I do know.
    The book cover looked so familiar, I had to go look at my cookbooks. Yes, we have it. I’ve only occasionally used it, but Iqbal has (as much or little as he follows recipes) and says it’s very good. Our most used book is An Invitation to Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey. I like Jaffrey because she simplifies while keeping traditional flavor. (And she apparently comes from UP, where Iqbal is from, which is considered the best Indian cuisine of all. I like them all, but Iqbal can be fussy.)
    My only suggestion for online is Know Your Source. We’re fortunate to have a decent Indian grocery, but it has not always been the case and mail order and online were not always the best quality.
    I’d like to cook more Indian food, but I simply don’t enjoy cooking most of the time any more (and neither is Iqbal), especially when it’s an all afternoon affair. We’ll see if I manage to do it. That said, if it were just me, I’d make a big pot of something once or twice a week and enjoy eating it every day until it was gone. Indian is one of those cuisines that gets better the longer it sits. Iqbal wants more variety.
    Hmmm… maybe we’ll have some dal for dinner…

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