Ostrich eggs and elephant milk

By bhi

Tue, 12 Oct 2021
  • 578 reads
3 comments
 

She looks at me, knife slicing through the ripe pear –

One of the windfall crop from our sheltered garden –

And tells me I should measure the spices.

“Cooking is a precise science,” she says,

“can’t just throw them in, pinch here, a cup there!”

 

“I’ve never followed a recipe,” I say.

“This is how my mother cooks, no scales, nothing.”

I toss chopped coriander into the pan,

Followed by halved tomatoes, green chillies whole.

I let them simmer in the bubbling ghee,

Watch the potatoes boiling, crisply softened,

Waiting to be mated into the thickening sauce.

With tablespoons of mango chutney added

I bring the two together

Folding one into the other.

 

She tastes, laughs, “It’s missing two things;

Ostrich eggs and elephant milk,

And so much the better without them!”

Certificate 12
Poem
Passion

Comments

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I love cooking, too, which is partly why I like this,  how sensuous you show it to be. But also how you use this to show , I don't know - cultures? people? can grow/blend, become something new and just as good,( maybe better, for leaving some parts of tradition behind.) If cooking is a science or an art, a recipe as a poem :0) Also, that it is not necessary to take eggs from ostriches and milk from elephants to make a tasty meal!

 

Submitted by bhi on

Di, my apologies for such a late reply to your comment; my youngest tested positive for covid and we've had to hunker down and make sure that it did not spread through the family. 

The poem was inspired by a chef who,while casually throwing together the ingredients for a split lentil dall, commented that great taste did not come from exotic spices and fancy items being used. That is pretty much my own philosophy- anything in the fridge and cupboard comes into play with me - and is a total opposite to my wife's! 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

That must have been so scary! I do hope you are all ok now!

I think your approach must be how lots of great recipes came to be, in the first place!

My trouble is, in the unlikely event my family likes something I have cooked enough to want it again, it's impossible because the original usually contains several lots of left overs from less successful creations that needed eating up...