Well...after a two-and-a-half year hiatus, I’ve decided I ought to start blogging again. I hold Facebook largely responsible for the decline of my blog. Why spend an hour or two of my day drafting a rant about what’s happening in my life, when I can update everybody with a witty two-line status update?
Now, however, I have entirely too much time on my hands, and going back to read my old blog posts, I realize that it’s nice having some kind of written record of what was going on in my life. So, I figure I’ll go back down the self-absorbed road of advising the world (or at least my parents and the few other folks who follow me) about how I spend my afternoons.
“And how is that?” you might ask. Pretty much exclusively chasing after the almost 18-month old ball of energy that is Sebastian, and cooking. Being a mostly stay-at-home dad in Zimbabwe has done wonders for my enthusiasm in the kitchen. Because it’s hard to find the stuff I love to eat but pretty easy to find the basic ingredients, I spend a lot of time over a ball of dough or stock pot full of raw milk, making yogurt, bagels, pita bread, pizza, or whatever else strikes my fancy.
So, I think the theme of this blog will be cooking adventures in Zimbabwe...a country where food is inexorably intertwined with politics. Four years ago, hyperinflation and a disastrous land-reform policy led to empty supermarket shelves and a population largely dependent on international food aid. Now the country uses the U.S. dollar, a “unity” government has brought some measure of stability, and optimistic Zimbabweans are opening (or re-opening) restaurants, butcheries, and shops. All this despite the sense that the political situation could explode at any minute.
And Monique, Sebastian and I are in the middle of it all...shopping at the outdoor market where ZANU-PF thugs assault vendors who are members of the opposition; staying at lodges on land that has been invaded by so-called “war veterans”; buying our chicken from a farm owned by Gideon Gono--the chairman of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank, who authorized the printing of the 100 billion dollar banknote in 2008. And doing our best to stay happy, healthy and well-fed in the midst of it all. So...that’s my spiel. Follow me if you feel like it, and hear about what I’m cooking and what’s going on around me while I cook it.
Since this was a spontaneous entry, I didn’t really think much about what kind of food I should talk about for my first post. So I’ll just snap a few pictures of the old fashioned chicken soup I’m cooking to help Sebby get over his cold. Nothing at all fancy, just good, hearty comfort food:
Recipe:
Take a whole chicken, chop it into pieces, and season it liberally with salt and pepper. Chop up an onion or two (I used one red onion and two big spring onions), a bunch of celery (about a half a cup of thin celery stalks from our garden), and crush some garlic cloves. Cook the celery and onion in olive oil in a big pot for 10 minutes, and throw in the garlic for the last 5 minutes. Lay the chicken pieces in skin-side down, and brown them for 10 minutes. Then cover everything with water, add 3 or 4 carrots, peeled and sliced, and simmer for a couple of hours. Don’t forget to throw in the chicken feet and necks if you’ve got them--really ties the soup together.
After a couple hours take the chicken out, discard the skin and bones, and chop up the meat. Skim out most of the old veggies and the gunk on the top, but don’t worry about getting every last piece of celery. Then throw the meat back into the soup with some new veggies and herbs (I used thyme, parsley and dill, but use whatever you have fresh). Throw some rice or noodles in too, if you like. I used Japanese buckwheat noodles, which worked great. Adjust the flavor with salt and pepper. Serve to babies and grown-ups alike to cure whatever ails ya.
