Christmas and Food Minimalism. A soap box and an epiphany. And a simple overly intellectualised recipe.
Two ingredients, Pomegranate & Fennel
CHRISTMAS ORPHANS
Christmas approaches and food becomes even more important. What and how we eat is how we celebrate and communicate that we love someone. The table of the season can be just that. It can brim with seasonality. It can have a traditional flavour or be a modern take. It can include family favourites, as wild as they may be, or it can be incredibly simple. Either way, it’s all a way to say, 'Hey, I made it this far. I have loved ones and friends (even if they can't be with me right now), and I'm here.'
When I was young, my family always used to adopt Christmas strays. I think they are call them Christmas orphans now. Having new people at the table always made the day more! They would introduce us to new traditions, either culturally or ritualistically. It was always fun as new people gave us a lovely counterpoint perspective on what we thought was normal.
May your Christmas be whatever you want it to be.
MINIMALIST
Minimalism in the kitchen: Have I joined the ranks of those who cook as well as live? A sidestep from those who live to cook? i.e., a chef lives to cook. Then goes home to eat pizza or a peanut butter sandwich, as we see in THE BEAR. And I can testify, it’s true. I left kitchens after hours of working with amazing food to have cereal when I got home at 3 am.
ART
Now, as I lay out my art projects across the table, the idea of cooking my three meals a day becomes slightly less important. But possibly even more so, as I want it to sustain my energy to do the things I want. It's different to planning meals for their own sake.
Not that I have fallen very far off my chef wagon and it’s not like I only have toast as a meal. Not that toast can’t be an experience. Simplicity is even more attractive to me now. And as you may notice, it has always been my style. With chronic fatigue, you don’t want to misspend an ounce of energy.
CHEFY
Finding extravagant-looking flavour combos is always cool. The fact that they can go together so weightlessly is very exciting. i.e., if you can mix two ingredients together and have the main part of the dish, that is something.
In fact, cultures have depended on such simplistic, oversimplified ideas for hundreds of years to feed families, armies, and guests, or all of the above
For example, where would we be without tomato and mozzarella? Yes, you can add EVOO, seasoning, and basil. But the bones are the two ingredients. The adoration and extremism of this dish adorns many menus. The artisan factor can show off your wealth and your knowledge, not that the two are interchangeable!
ARTISAN FACTOR
The mozzarella can be from a grass-fed buffalo, and the tomato can cost you a week's parking from the farmer who grew it on his daughter's property. Etc., etc.
Or you can go to the corner store and buy the commercially diminished article.
SO! What can we do with this idea? How can we take this minimalism to enrich our lives and give us our VOGUE ENTERTAINING table at the same time? Yes, I know you want it to look classy.
And that is the point, really. This idea of two ingredients is incredibly classy.
It is so classy you need a Professorship to understand and appreciate it. Simple food is for those who understand and connect with the land and production and those who are culturally educated, knowing that people and land are one and the same.
FOOD IS
I have said that there was no food before there were people. Obviously, everything eats, but they didn't call it food. We came up with this name for things that we and things eat. Yes, it’s a concept.
Food is an everyday thing, it is as much an equaliser as it is a status signifier. Food is plants and animals that eat plants and animals. Everything is connected to the soil and how it is tended, produced, and gathered by the individual.
TWO INGREDIENTS
POMEGRANATE & FENNEL
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