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Slow food for your family by Kornelia Santoro
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Rated "G" by the Author.
Introducing myself, my situation and my philosophy about cooking
Do you remember the childhood days when our mothers used to cook for the family? Wasn’t it wonderful? Lovely smells, wafting from the kitchen through the house, were tantalizing our appetites until it was finally time to sit down at the dinner table. Everybody was talking, eating and sharing the experiences of the day. My Italian husband and I, a German woman, were lucky enough to grow up in healthy families. We were used to the family tradition of gathering for dinner and it continues to be one of the highlights of our days.
The days of our childhood are long gone…but we still enjoy, together with our son, the familiar meals we have become used to. We love European food although we are living in India – in the sunny state of Goa to be precise. Although I had always enjoyed traveling, I had never dreamed about living in such an exotic country. After having worked a decade as a journalist for a German newspaper I had taken a two year sabbatical. While driving with an Enfield Bullet motorbike through India I had met my husband in Goa. We got married in Milano, Italy and decided to settle here and start a family. Over the years we have built a beautiful house with a lovely view of green rice fields, palm and mango trees. From our terrace we can watch the farmers and their water buffaloes, cultivating the earth. Many people who visit us think we lead a wonderful life, far away from the pressures of a traditional career.
Indeed, we very much enjoy our lifestyle, especially the Indian climate with sunshine almost all year round. Our taste buds though cannot deny their European origin. And while we appreciate an Indian meal, we prefer on a daily basis the dishes of the Italian and occasionally Greek kitchen, mingled with some other regional influences. I strongly believe we are what we eat. Home cooked meals full of healthy ingredients help us not only to avoid a lot of chemical additives contained in commercial and restaurant fare, but also keep us slim and trim without any diet. None of us, my husband, myself or our son, have weight problems - and we eat, what we like.
In this time of fast living and high speed internet connections I believe we must take time out from the pace of our busy lives, slow down and enjoy nutritious slow food. The movement of slow food – as opposed to fast food from restaurant-chains – evolved in Italy. The organization was formed in 1986 to resist the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant close to the Spanish Steps in Rome. Slow Food, comprising 83 000 members in over 122 countries, spreads awareness about the devastating effects of large-scale, commercial food production. According to their philosophy, slow food is good, clean and fair food. The members of the organization believe that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or the health of people. They believe further home cooked meals should be the focus of the social life of families.
One of the most important tasks of a homemaker is providing a healthy diet for the family. Although this is an honorable undertaking, cooking every day can turn into a bothersome duty. Here in Goa many housewives refrain from doing any work themselves and are happy with placing orders, which a cook executes. I have tried to train several girls in my way of cooking – to no avail. It just never tasted right to me. My energy and the love for my family flows into the dishes I am cooking and I believe this makes a big difference to the result.
I love cooking but when you have to do it daily it can turn into an annoying task. There are some happy natures around who truly enjoy giving up everything to serve their families. Unfortunately though, I don’t belong to them. I’d rather enjoy using my brain cells for the purpose of writing. I take pleasure in painting and working out in the gym and I love to spend hours on my sofa reading books. To avoid getting bored out of my wits by domestic duties, I try to cook only when I am in the mood and manage the other days with the help of my freezer. Thus the approach I have taken in the collection of recipes www.mediterraneancooking.in is to include many meals that you can freeze easily. If scientists are right freezing doesn’t damage the nutritional value of the food. I can assure you, it doesn’t damage the taste.
To render reading this cookbook more instructive I have added information about the nutritional value of many ingredients. Cooking European style poses a certain challenge in India as many of the ingredients are not available here. So although I use as much as possible local products, it is necessary to buy some imported goods as well. Generally I believe shipping food thousands of miles around the globe does a lot of damage to our environment. For example I don’t see a reason why I should buy butter from New Zealand, when India is producing perfectly acceptable butter. On the other hand, you cannot cook Italian dishes without olive oil or Parmiggiano. Maybe, like most times in life, the golden way lies in the middle – buy imported products only when there is no local alternative available.
Another challenge is the quality of the meat which differs markedly from European products, especially when it comes to beef and pork. We have been living in India since 1994 and what is on offer has dramatically picked up over the years. Still, shopping for food is a lot more difficult here than in Europe. Supermarkets are still rare and quality control is left to the consumer. When shopping in India it is wise to check the manufacturing date of the product. Time and again I had to throw food away because I had forgotten my glasses and could not read the manufacturing date while shopping. I also rely strongly on my sense of smell when buying fresh produce and particularly meat: I always stick my nose into the package – if it smells strange, I don’t take it.
Many times I have read European recipes in Indian magazines and newspapers which are simply not possible to prepare if you don’t live in Mumbai or Delhi. Or I’ve watched cooking shows on television that make me salivate but I know that I cannot get the necessary ingredients here.
After hearing my constant complaints, my husband suggested I write my own cookbook, which I have now published as the website www.mediterraneancooking.in: I assure you, you can prepare any recipe in this book almost anywhere in India – or other exotic places in the world. If you live in rural India, it might require a trip to the nearest big town - but in general, there are no fancy ingredients required in my dishes. I strictly use what I can buy in Goa – an attitude which fits nicely into the slow food movement mentioned before.
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