Food is so many things…

It’s a way of preserving history. And a way of playing with history.
Each week for the last few months I’ve been doing one of my South African vegan pop up dinners – a series called Chakalaka Tuesdays. The idea is to create a metaphor of “The Rainbow Nation” (South Africa’s nickname). Desegration on a dinner table. Diners are invited to curate their own cultural melting pot, a post-apartheid “new South Africa” on their plates, where they can have Indian, Cape Malay, black South African, sometimes Chinese, often European (incl Dutch, French, Portuguese, British and Eastern European influences) all at the same time. This is the spirit of South Africa. A multi-layered soul which can be experienced in many ways, including through the senses – taste, touch and smell (at my dinners). More on that here…

It is medicine. It is drugs…
Not just in the sense that it affects your physical health but in that it affects your mind. One of the main reasons I started making food for people is because it’s the fastest way to make a roomful of people happy at the same time. And seeing people happy makes me happy, NOT in the hippy-dippy way, but in the real scientific way. In the dopamine-rushing-through-my-veins-like-a gambler-at-a-casino kind of way. It’s addictive. It’s a rush. And I’m interested in these drugged up natural states including the one we call happiness, and specifically the science of happiness. I love how neural pathways are created, leading to habits in behaviour and thinking. It’s possible to trick the brain, rewire it and control it… through food. We trigger the release of feel good brain chemicals not just by eating vitamin and mineral rich foods but also by eating foods that are “memory rich” – foods we associate with good times. We can trick the brain and fool ourselves into feeling loved, safe and happy. When you’re homesick, go in search of comfort foods made by your favourite people – the longing eases. Going through a break up – bandage your broken heart with ice-cream, chocolate and all the shit you ate at birthday parties when you were five. Happiness is all chemical. Food is drugs. When someone prepares food, they’re able to control or affect happiness (in other words control your mind). Instead of calling them a chef or a cook, it’d be better to call them a witch, a sorcerer or maybe a neuroscientist…

On that note, here’s a salad that is dear to my heart. Hope it transports you to a happy place. It’s a little taste of Durban, where South Africa meets India.

Ingredients:
6 carrots, grated
half cucumber, chopped
one tomato, chopped
4 radish, chopped
handful coriander, finely chopped
onion, finely chopped (optional)
a few swigs of vinegar
half cup lemon juice
2 tblsps mustard seeds
2 tsps salt

Method
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl.
Toss the salad and taste. It should have a bite.
If lacking in bite (acid), add more salt, lemon or vinegar.

Cheese rhymes with threes. People love cheese. People love threes.

In sport and school, only the top three matter. First, second and third place. 1,2,3 let’s go. In tennis: game, set, match. There are three divisions of time: past, present and future. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. There are three persons in grammar. The sum of human capacity is that of three: thought, word, and deed. We say: three’s company and three’s a crowd and we don’t want to be a third wheel.

It takes three weeks to form a new habit. There’s the superstition that “disasters come in threes”. Plato said, “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.”

There’s the sun, the moon and the stars. There are threesomes and love triangles. Third time lucky. The rule of thirds.  Alle guten dinge sind drei (German for – all good things come in threes). In screenwriting, there’s the “three-act structure”: the Setup, the Confrontation and the Resolution. We think of stories as having three parts: a beginning, a middle and an end. In art and literature there are trilogies and triptychs. Triads exist in music and Chinese secret society.

In Christianity there are three virtues: faith, hope and charity. There’s the holy trinity. A well-known Chinese proverb goes “The wisdom of three ordinary people exceeds that of the wisest individual.” Confucius said: “If three people are walking together; at least one of them is good enough to be my teacher.” In Buddhism there are the three jewels: Buddha (The Enlightened One), Dharma (The Teaching) and Sangha (The Community). For Muslims, there are the “Three Levels of Faith”: Islam (Submitting to God), Iman (Belief), and I’hsan (Perfection). We think of ourselves as made up of three elements: mind, body and soul.

We have a third eye.

The brain is made of three main parts: the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. Freud divided human consciousness into three levels of awareness: “the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious”. And there’s id, ego and superego.

Pregnancy is divided into three stages (trimesters).

Triangles are used to display warning signs and are connected to mysticism. The Egyptian pyramids are three-dimensional triangles. And, there are only three dimensions.

In numerology, three signifies a “powerful need to express feelings, ideas and visions of the imagination… Another unique quality of three is its tendency to be “lucky,” or rather, to be in the right place at the right time.”

So, here we are celebrating the love of threes: three year Berlin anniversary and being 33 – the same age as Jesus. Celebrating with cheese (and more about threes on page 3).

Vegan Ricotta

Ingredients
1 cup raw cashews (soaked overnight)
2 cups soya milk
2 tsps salt
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tblsp agave nectar
4 teaspoons agar agar
half cup water

Method
Place the raw cashews in blender. Process until fine.
Excluding the agar, add the remaining ingredients.
Process until the mixture is completely smooth.
Pour the contents into a saucepan.
Separately, in another saucepan, mix agar with water.
Heat and stir continuously.
Once smooth, add to the cashew mix.
Cook on low heat, stirring continually.
Once the mixture starts to bubble, remove from heat.
Place in oiled container and refrigerate overnight

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“If we analyze our processes of living, we find that, I imagine, at least 50 percent of our life is spent in the universe of language. We are like icebergs, floating in a sea of immediate experience but projecting into the air of language. Icebergs are about four-fifths under water and one-fifth above. But, I would say, we are considerably more than that above. I should say, we are the best part of 50 percent — and, I suspect, some people are about 80 percent above in the world of language. They virtually never have a direct experience; they live entirely in terms of concepts.” (Aldous Huxley)

Eating experiences are about so much more than the food. Even the food is more than food. It’s a cocktail of neurological triggers – memories, nostalgia, happiness, comfort, joy… it’s about being together, happy, laughing, drinking, and a sense of belonging, of love and abundance.

Cheese was always one of my favourite things. Enjoyed in chunks, at night standing the light of the fridge or accompanied by generous goblets of red wine with jams, pickles and friends. Besides the context, there is the definite flavour, the mysterious hard-to-describe umami. It’s to blame for cheese being so addictive, for the flavour and bundle of psychological connections that go along with it. Insidiously, it’s been there from the beginning, in our first culinary experience (our mother’s breast milk), cooked up inside a warm, comforting body.

And bacon. Even though I would never eat it again, I love the smell of it, frying. That smoky smell. The crunch, the taste. I thought the allure was all about the meat. The poor piggy’s ass. But then I discovered liquid smoke and tamari. That smell and that taste can be applied to other things… Like a mask, you can use it as a disguise, transforming coconut flakes into bacon. Trick your brain, trigger good vibrations…

Vegan Strong Cheddar Recipe:

Ingredients
2 cups raw cashew, soaked overnight
3 tblsp nutritional yeast
1-2 tblsp white miso paste
1 tblsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp mustard
half tsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
pinch cayenne pepper
pinch salt
4 tblsp coconut oil
2 tblsp agar
half cup water

Method
Place cashews in food processor and blitz to forma paste.
Add the seasonings and pulse until thoroughly combined.
Add coconut oil. Blend until the mixture is completely smooth.
Heat a pan with hot water. Add agar. Mix until smooth.
Add to the cheese mix. Blend again.
Place mix in a container or roll into a ball and cover.
Leave in fridge for minimum 4 hours to set.

Walnut Cheddar Recipe:

Follow the Vegan Strong Cheddar Recipe
Then add 2 cups of chopped walnuts before the agar stage.

Coconut Bacon Recipe:

Ingredients
200g unsweetened coconut flakes
3 tblsps tamari soy sauce
3 tblsps liquid smoke
2 tblsps agarve syrup

Method
Preheat oven to 100 °C.
Line an oven tray with baking parchment paper.
Plaze the coconut flakes in a bowl.
Drizzle over the tamari, liquid smoke and agarve. Mix well.
Spread the flakes over the lined baking tray.
Bake for 10 minutes. Toss them around. Bake for another 5-10 mins.
Be careful not to burn the flakes. They should be golden.
Remove from heat once dry. Eat immediately or store in a jar.

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Let the sun shine down on your soul!

It’s summer! So here’s some summer and soul, and summer roll inspiration:

‘People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants.
But a true soul mate is a mirror, a person who shows you everything that is holding you back, a person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. Soul mates are the most important people you’ll ever meet because they tear down your walls and smack you awake…’ There’s that idea that people come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Soul mates come and some may go.

To health and hedonism. To love and luckiness.

Last week I was in Barcelona for Sonar, my first festival experience, days of dancing to electronic music around the city, meeting amazing people, and then doing a pop up dinner too. Have a look. It was a post-party recovery meal which included these healing summer rolls. Mushrooms and dates are mood boosters, almonds, coconut and colourful veg too. Try dipping them in chilli or soya sauce, or for a alkalising kick/better digestion, use apple cider vinegar. The rolls are moist but not juicy, eat them straight or dip in sauce if you find them too dry.

There’s a bit of everything here: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami, soft, crunchy, acid and atleast five different textures.

Date & Mushroom Summer Rolls
vegan and gluten free

Makes 8

Ingredients

4 rice paper sheets
a bowlful of rice noodles
2 tblsp desiccated coconut
turmeric and beetroot juice (optional)
coriander, few leaves
mint, few leaves

1 small tray mushrooms
a few splashes soya sauce

1 beetroot, cut into fine strips
1-2 carrot, cut into fine strips
6cm of a cucumber, cut into fine strips
1 red pepper, cut into fine strips
1 yellow, cut into fine strips
4 radish, cut into fine medallions
1 big handful almonds
1 big handful berries of your choice

Method

Rip the mushrooms into small pieces and toss in a hot pan with soya sauce.
Allow to cool.

If you want to colour the coconut, take a baking sheet and sprinkle the coconut over it. On one half, sprinkle beetroot juice and coat coconut pink. On the other half, sprinkle turmeric and a little water, coating the coconut yellow. Allow to dry in oven on low heat or in sunshine.

Assemble each summer roll like this:
Place one rice paper sheet in a plate full of water.
Once soaked and soft, remove carefully and lay on a flat surface.
Smooth out all wrinkles quickly.
Place the leaves on the surface of the rice paper sheet.
Be creative as the first things you put own on the rice paper are what you see when it’s finished. Sprinkle coconut over and in the spaces between the leaves.
Next, place a selection of colourful veg in the centre of the sheet.
Add the rice noodles. Add mushrooms and dates on top of noodle stack.
Repeat.

Least effort most reward. I read that somewhere when I was a child and it sort of became my motto in life. Follow the path of least resistance. With everything. Because life is short and you need to enjoy it. It’s easy to forget goals like these but it’s always possible to return to them.

Cooking allows you to manifest your life philosophies. Your approach to life perhaps. Observe people cooking. It’s a fun way to do some layman’s psychology. Try and figure them out. Psychoanalysis through food. See who’s ordered and precise, who’s messy and chaotic, who’s carefree and easy-going, who’s creative or spontaneous, who’s more rigid and rule-abiding, poetic or practical. I may be totally wrong about it all. But nevertheless, it’s fun.

This pesto recipe is quick and easy. Enjoy it with zucchini pasta, raw in summer or warm in winter.

Walnut chilli pesto recipe
(vegan)

Ingredients

1 bunch of basil
a big handful walnuts
half a handful hazelnuts
a sprinkle of almonds
1 tsp chilli flakes
half cup olive oil
a few swigs of lemon juice
salt and pepper
sprinkle of nutritional yeast (optional)

Method

Toast all the nuts.
Stick everything into a blender and blitz until smooth.
The nutritional yeast gives it the parmesan flavour so add it if desired.
And enjoy.