Merry Christmas!

 Personal Stories  4 Responses »
Dec 252004
 

Well, if Dad died and went to heaven with his herring salad, I joined him there today with my Christmas breakfast! This breakfast, accra and float, was long overdue. It’s been about 18 years since I last had it, but with one mouthful I was transported back almost two decades to Christmas mornings of my childhood. This was the breakfast I looked forward to every year, made graciously (now I know just how graciously) by my mother.

I ordered my saltfish online about two weeks ago. It arrived cryovac sealed. Yesterday I started soaking it in cold water in the fridge, changing the water twice. This morning, I soaked it in hot water and then proceeded with my mother’s recipe (see here). I was unsure about the direction to “pound” the saltfish, onion, thyme and chive, so I started by chopping everything together and then pulled out my meat pounder and pounded the mixture until I’m sure my neighbours were upset.

Frying the accra brought back floods of memories. I used to stand nearby when this part of the breakfast preparation was taking place. It was always difficult not to steal a taste. Today proved to be the same case, only there was no strict command not to do so. I looked around and seeing no-one, popped a preview of breakfast in my mouth. I was pleased to see my accra looking just like Mum’s. I suppose there’s no need to mention that this is not a low fat breakfast. It is Christmas, for heaven’s sake!

The float replicated Mum’s float as well, puffing up as I fried them in the oil, bubbles appearing everywhere. The only trouble with making this breakfast for yourself is that you have to hold everything in the oven while the rest of the meal cooks. It was better when Mum was the line cook, and we could eat everything hot out of the pan!

What a feast I created! I guess I must have thought I was cooking for an army. In reality, it was just me, and I think I ate less of this today than I remember eating as a child. In total, it took me two hours from the start of my preparation to the time of actually sitting down to eat. I estimate that it probably took me a total of 4 minutes to eat everything. Isn’t that always the way?

Loving thanks go out to my mother for all the years of delicious meals, but especially for the labour-intensive, absolutely fantastic Christmas breakfasts of my childhood, for which I now have a new-found respect.

Denys’ “I Don’t Remember Dying But This Must Be Heaven Herring Salad à la Corrensoise”

 Recipes  No Responses »
Dec 202004
 

Here it is, folks! At long last, I have tested and tried the famous salad (see here) and live to post the recipe for you right here. I’ve given you the authentic version of the recipe, followed by my adaptation of the classic. It was not easy to find smoked herring in Philadelphia. Indeed, I didn’t find it and settled for using kippered herring. Kippers are smoked AND salted herrings. The herrings that my father uses are just smoked, and would taste a little brighter than the kippers which can be found in tins in the supermarket. I think you’ll be pleased with whichever you use. When in Rome…or Philadelphia…

I must give credit where credit is due - Dad, this was the most flavourful and delicious breakfast that I have had for a very long time. My stomach doesn’t quite know what’s hit it, but my tastebuds are happy. Thanks!

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Christmas is Coming … What’s for Breakfast?

 Personal Stories  3 Responses »
Dec 182004
 

I come from a long line of eaters. Some people eat to live, others live to eat. My family definitely belongs to the latter group. When eating lunch, my father will ask “What’s for dinner?” You get the picture. Food is important to the Laurences. So, when my mother used to ask me what I wanted for Christmas breakfast a few days ahead of the day, I knew it was an important decision and I must be truly loved to be given the honour of deciding how our family would start that particular day.

It was an easy decision. Every Christmas I requested the same breakfast – “Accra and Float”, or saltfish fritters and fried bread. We would eat the fritters wrapped up in the bread with some hot pepper sauce. Delicious! It wasn’t until later in life that I realized this was not a normal breakfast request from an eight year old. It also took me years to realize that my mother had to get up at 6 am every Christmas morning in order to make this for me. As I think of it now, however, with two children in the house, perhaps she had another reason to get up that early on Christmas day…

“Accra and Float” is a West Indian dish. I’m not sure it is always served as breakfast, but in my house, with my Trinidadian father, it was always a morning meal. Now that I am older, I’ve decided to embark on making my favourite Christmas breakfast for myself. (I should have paid more attention when I was little!)

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Home Alone with Dad

 Personal Stories  No Responses »
Dec 132004
 

Growing up, my father and I didn’t spend a whole lot of time together alone. I was fortunate enough to have a mother that stayed at home to raise her children, and when Dad came home from work, we were all together as a family. On occasion, however, when I was in my teens and my brother was away at university, my mother would go away to England to visit her family, and Dad and I were left at home to look after each other. I was never really sure who was looking after whom, but we got along well and managed to survive.

There are two occasions when Dad and I spent time alone that are particularly clear in my memory. Both occasions happened to be meals.

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Cook Me Tender

 Personal Stories  No Responses »
Dec 102004
 

What can you do when you see someone you love upset or in pain, and there’s nothing you can do to change the situation? The only thing anyone can do is to offer comfort, support and love. I tend to do this through cooking. Food, by nature, nurtures. For me, the act of cooking is an expression of love.

Some people love to cook; some love to have others cook for them. Indeed, either option can be a practical substitute for therapy. The whole process of preparing to cook, going through the motions, making a mess, and cleaning it up can be very cathartic for me. When I’m upset – I cook. At the same time, I am so touched when someone offers to cook for me. Someone could make toast with jam for me, and it would be the best toast and jam I ever had. I certainly feel cared for and looked after whenever someone cooks for me.

It doesn’t happen very often – that someone cooks for me.

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

 General  2 Responses »
Dec 022004
 

The other day I received an email from my father, with a subject title that read “Geography Puzzle…it’s fun”. In the body of the mail was a link and the message attached warned that this type of fun was addictive. I went to the link and found both the subject and warning to be true. The link sends you to an online game called “Place the State”. To play the game, you are given a blank map of the United States and have to drag and drop each state, given to you in a random order, on the map within 50 miles or so of its correct location in the country. At the end of the game, you are given a percentage score and information on your error average in miles. The game is addictive - I can’t tell you how many times I have played it now, but it is rivaling Solitaire in my world. Achieving a high score in the game depends in large part on what states you are given first, but regardless, you’ll improve your knowledge of American geography every time you play.

Around the same time that I received the email from my father, I was chatting with a friend at work, who had seen Brussel sprouts on the stalk for the first time and was amazed. My friend is a food professional, and yet she had never seen Brussel sprouts on the plant, and I don’t think she is the exception. In general, we have lost touch with how our foods grow. Many of us, me included, could easily be stumped with a question on how certain foods grow – on a plant, on a tree, on a vine, underground? I think we’d also be stumped with the question of where our foods grow. That notion brought me back to Dad’s geography game. Wouldn’t a similar game with fruits and vegetables to drag and drop onto a map teach us a lot?

I started doing a little research into what particular states were providing a majority of various crops for the country.

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