There are times, when I am in the kitchen, that remember being 3, and learning to kneed dough, roll, flatten, cut and add the cinnamon. This was out of her pie crust dough, and she could not provide measurements of flour, water, salt, soda or anything. She did it by feel and a long memory of practice. My memories are that of a 3 year old, full of wonderment and curiosity, and so easy to please. My mother could make so many shapes, animals, trees and the like, with her ladle and pancake dough. I never came close, but then, I never came close to the number of pancakes she served up in life. Life on the farm with her 7 siblings and life with her own 5 children. No shame in my self reflection.
As a two worker family in the 60's, my sister would make dinner 5 nights a week, and she was very good, later, becoming a very, very good cook. Again, number of meals, time in years, and taking encouragement and advice from other culinary sources. My mother would give me a pre-college tutorial on how to make some of my favorite dishes. Casserole's stir-fry, Mexican, Italian, Tabouli, and ye-old pot-roast and deep dish potato's, carrots and onions. Within the first year of college I would start making fresh vegetable juice to go with the blender power shakes that I used in athletic conditioning. I would shop primarily at co-opt's, making my own tortilla's, chip's, guac, and freeze a half dozen bean and cheese burritos for the school week.I would give demonstration's at Whole Earth Expo's and later take international culinary courses, gravitating to Middle Eastern and Indian, still my absolute favorites. I would write book's, lecture to thousands, and end up being part of the annual presenter's at a national raw food conference.
Today, my bartered IT friend comes by to add another feature to the evolving trial run of my live pod cast's. She has a treat in store. We met at a local food share, and waiting for our random number's to come up, we found each other to be quite interesting, with no rough edges. I have never had an IT person before her, that neither pushed my "computer phobia's", nor made me feel daft and inadequate. Today, she gets her first ever taste of gauranga potato's, a Krishna sacred dish, that allures like no other. It is my single favorite recipe. I hadn't made any for over a year, because I had been unable to source the key spice, possibly, again, a COVID supply issue. Last week, out of the blue, I got random number 3, (usually 40's to 80's), and there was a donated 1.3 pounds of Assafoetida.
This is a really unique spice, that is intentionally avoided by so many cooks. Why, you might ask? It's common name is "fetid gum", and it smells very bad, to almost every human nose. Ferula assafoetida was also named "Devil's dung", by the Brit's as they colonized India. The key, is that assafoetida has to be toasted before it can be used. The toasting (I use a cast iron pan) completely changes the chemistry, qualities and properties. Once toasted you can add it to foods that are not cooked, or you can cook with it with astonishing results. Gauranga means yellow gold, due to the curcumin and curry that colors the all white ingredients. Heavy cream joins the cooked potato's with the toasted assafoetida. It is most often then baked, but I just go from pan to plate. It re-heats very well, and is an awesome cold potato salad.
From both culinary and scientific perspective's, assafoetida has the following properties. It stimulates and pleases the nose and taste buds, adding natural support for digestion, properties that were labeled carminative and stomatic by the Eclectic Herbalists. It increases appetite, and has a lingering appetite stimulation: however, the dense caloric nature of these potato's makes you choose more wisely what you next consume. for me this is a main dish, and salad, flat bread and chutney are all you need for a feast, and a day of living well.
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