Food

Torn Limb from Limb for Pickles

/ Food, Texts

Jar of pickles

None of the brats came back from Easter vacation. There was nobody left at Meanwell but Jongkind and me. The joint was a desert.

To save on housework they closed off a whole floor. The furniture had gone, they sold it piece by piece, first the chairs, then the tables, the two cupboards, and even the beds. There was nothing left but our two beds. They were really liquidating . . . There was more to eat though . . . Quantities of jam . . . all we wanted . . . we could take seconds on pudding . . . The food was plentiful, what a change . . . that was really something new . . . Nora did the heavy work, but she prettied up all the same. At the table she was perfectly charming, almost playful . . .

The old geezer didn't hang around long, he'd fill up in a hurry and start off again on his tricycle. Jongkind kept the conversation going, all by himself. "No trouble!" And he'd learned another word: "No fear!" He was proud of that, it made him jump with joy. He never stopped saying it. "Ferdinand! No Fear!" he kept saying to me between mouthfuls.

Outside I didn't like to be noticed . . . I gave him a few kicks in the ass . . . He got the drift, he left me alone . . . As a reward I gave him pickles. I always took a supply with me, my pockets were full of them . . . They were his favorite delicacy, that way I made him behave . . . He'd let himself be torn limb from limb for pickles . . .

-- Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Death on the Installment Plan, tr. Ralph Manheim (New York: New Directions, 1966), 254-55.

Mrs. Manjuparkavi Madhanmohan’s Egg Rice

/ Food

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Mrs. Madhanmohan's recipe:

Ingredients:

Egg 5
Rice 1/4kg
Onion 2
Jeera 1tsp
Red chillies 4
Salt to taste
Corriander leaves
Oil 5tbs

Instructions:

Cook the rice separately and keep aside. Take a bowl,break the eggs and beat nicely. Take a kadai, add oil. Add jeera when oil is heated. When jeera splutters add onion and red chillies. When onion turns golden brown colour, add the beaten eggs and salt. Fry thoroughly. Now add the cooked rice with it. Add little salt again and mix thoroughly. Finally decorate with corriander leaves.

Fish Dish

/ Food

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Carp with Sour Cream

1 kg carp
75 ml oil
500 g sour cream
100 g tomato paste
50 g flour
some thyme
500 g tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
chopped parsley
salt and pepper

Wash, clean and remove the scales from the carp. Cut in length and condiment it inside and outside with salt, pepper, thyme and garlic sauce (squash garlic and mix it with little water). Place the fish in a mixture of water and oil and shove it in the oven. When it is close to ready, put on top of the fish tomato slices and a sauce made out of tomato paste, flour, sour-cream and parsley and little water. Cook for 15 more minutes. Serve with well-chilled white wine.

What Is a Borek?

/ Food

“A borek is made from yufka, which is like phyllo, made by hand. The dough is rolled out with a wooden pin, and usually there’s a filling of cheese, meat, spinach, swiss chard, string beans, zucchini, eggplant, etc. It’s either baked or fried. Our most famous borek is su borek, boiled in water and spread on a tray with layers of butter, white cheese and parsely, and cooked on a stove so it’s crisp outside and creamy inside. Another very famous one is puf borek — blown up — it’s fried and it puffs up as it fries. It’s hollow inside and very crisp outside. It’s delicious. We have maybe more than 100 different kinds of borek. The thinner the yufka, the better it is, and Turkish ladies take pride in making very thin sheets of yufka. It’s a dish for all people.”