Okra or Ladies Fingers

(Originally published on singlesfood.com)

Rituals often relate to the preparation of food as part of some other event but not many people seem to use cooking itself as a ritual.

When I’m getting ready for some serious work, though, that’s exactly what goes on. I have to know there’s enough food prepared for two or three days before I can settle down to the job. And the job today is editing a book about gems.

However, an uninvited ‘gem’ caught up with me today. I found myself cooking not only breakfast (mushrooms on toast with sour plum and shiso sauce, as it happens) but also preparing a South American gumbo (fresh corn, tomatoes, okra, spring onions, and peppers).

As if that wasn’t enough, I then moved on to a kind of Moroccan ratatouille (more peppers and tomato, this time with eggplant and courgettes, marinated in Tagine paste and olive oil and chucked in a bitch oven for a couple of hours).

Finally, I threw some avocado, watercress and cucumber together, drifting some favourite Japanese Furikake (seed and herb mixture) over it as a light lunch.

OK, I did get to the computer, and dealt with some urgent business, as well as dobbing myself in for more work in discussion with a journalist colleague.

The idea is to set up a friendly network of people around the world who can jump into action for disaster relief, i.e. a volcano blowing up Canada, or an illegal underground blast setting off a chain of earthquakes down the St Andreas fault line.

PS, I’ve changed my mind. I’m having chicken and rice for dinner… Sometimes a gal feels like something simple.