weekend update, October 14, 2012

Here's Nicholson Baker, saying in 13 concise words  a thought I've been trying to express for years:

Friends are the only real means for foreign ideas to enter your brain.

Ever stopped and made an inventory of the things you like about your life?  Your favorite books? The hobbies and occupations that bring you joy? The music you listen to again and again? The memories that make you smile in a way that makes everyone around you wonder what in the world you're smiling at?
Next to every item on my inventory (and maybe yours too) I could write a name.  The name of the friend who introduced me to a new favorite author or of the friend who shared that meal. The friend who took me to that concert or played that music or told me that I HAD TO SEE that movie. The friend who taught me that new skill, believing I could learn it.
 It's a very long inventory, and a very deep source of gratitude.
Two examples of friends in foreign places gifting my brain with foreign ideas? Glad you asked!

1)Remember these?

I saw these in September, when I shook up an ordinary day by exploring an Asian grocery store and I wondered aloud (well not aloud exactly...I wondered in whatever font this is) what they were and how to use them.
Less than 24 hours later, thanks to my friend Alison,I knew!!!
 Alison's been traveling the world for ever so long, learning ever so much, and sent me news that they're sold and eaten all over Asia, and they're called....
Loofahs
That's right! When they're young and tender, they star in all sorts of yummy dishes and when they grow old and tough, they turn into this:

So, I bought some.
Funny, spongey things, more like zucchinis than cucumbers when raw and more like cucumbers that zucchini when cooked. And there's a good reason why all the recipes I found insisted on peeling off that pretty star shaped peel. The idea of adding those lovely slicey star shapes to a veggie tray was so irresistible that despite advice to the contrary, I tried them raw and unpeeled- kinda not very good. Not gag inducing or anything, but not very good. So I prepped them as those who know them best suggested:

I used the Donna Hay Pumpkin Stirfry recipe, adding the sliced loofa (or luffa, or loofah) when the pumpkin was nearly done. No complicated sauce or anything, just some fish sauce. I had some cooked chicken breast that had soaked in bourbon chicken marinade that jumped into the bowl and nestled in:

One word in support of fish sauce, the most unfortunately named ingredient on the Asian food shelf of your grocery store. True, it owes some of it's salty (very unfishy) flavor to anchovies, but you know what else does?
Cesear Salad dressing.
No kidding. 
So, if you've ever enjoyed a cesear salad, you're no fishist. Consider adding a bottle of fish sauce to the top shelf of your pantry.

Idea number....
2) Remember these?

 Of course you do- I've been happily cooking with them for 3 weeks. Within hours of posting one of those pumpkin posts, my sweetie heard from a childhood friend of his, who lives in a place where you can see Brazil through the window. Joel offered what turned out to be one of the most delicious international exchanges of information since pizza.
The orange pumpkin in the middle?  Here, it's a cheddar pumpkin. In Brazil, however, it's called a Moranga, and is part of a national treasure: Camarao na Moranga, or shrimp stuffed pumpkin.
There is absolutely no way I could leave this untried.
I procured another cheddar pumpkin, and set about experimenting.
So, on a cloudy Saturday, the pumpkin roasted in the oven, the filling simmered on the stove, and  when the home audience stepped in the back door, he said "This is what heaven smells like on a Saturday afternoon"
Putting aside my immediate internal musings about whether or not a realm that exists outside of linear time could be divided into days and weeks, and whether or not if it could, one of those days would be named after the Roman god Saturn,  I thought it was a lovely thing to say.
And the house did indeed smell very, very good.
The best recipe I could find for Brazilian shrimp and pumpkin is here .
I made the mistake of running an errand while the pumpkin was cooking, and compounded my mistake by being indecisive in the shop, so the pumpkin cooked too long and got so squishy it started to collapse in on itself.  This gives me a great excuse to try again very, very soon.

Thanks Joel, your friend my husband owes you for one of the most surprisingly delicious meals he's had in a long time.

I hope that this week, you spend time with people who love you, and that the people who love you fill your mind and heart with one good thing after another. Think a few foreign thoughts, and think a thankyou.
More recipes on Wednesday morning!