Habas con Jamon, by Yaiza
My parents grew Broad Beans out in the garden of my childhood but never did we make anything as interesting as Habas con Jamon with those beans ...
Today Yaiza had to use water for the final part of the preparation. That would be instead of beer or white wine but still ... it was delicious.
Thank you to Yaiza who patiently taught me these recipes, and put up with my camera, and with my constant note-taking too. Details were recorded and my big hope is that I can recreate tonight's dishes next week.
Learning to Cook Spanish Food
Today I learned how to cook 3 different Spanish dishes ...
Yaiza came over, armed with the ingredients I didn't have, and showed me how to create a delicious Tortilla. And an Aioli sauce that is so divine I'm not sure how it won't be on the menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Or that's what everyone was saying as they handed the pot of it round the table.
Then there was the Habas con Jamon ... and I was left wondering how it was that New Zealanders could have failed to create that dish with their Broad Beans and ham??? Then, as the final touch, Picaillo. A divine salad, small pieces of boiled potato and eggs, cherry tomatoes, green beans, and tuna.
And oil.
So much oil but it was truly divine.
Tonight I'm realising how much I missed in life due to my mother not knowing to send us out into the world - to the beach, the forest, or simply 'out', with a package of cold Tortilla to save us from hunger and associated horrors. Ithink my childhood might have been that much happier if my mother had copied the Spanish mothers and done this simple thing.
Oh my ...it was all so good. Here is a close-up of the two Tortilla's created here in my kitchen. More of this Spanish cooking is planned.
Impulse and Whimsy ...
I can rarely rely on myself not to need to take actions that would test my dignity were I not constantly wearing trousers of some kind however ... today I was tempted to buy a skirt. It's the first in years.
It was all about the colours.
Tim Heatherington, War Photographer
Really my works are narratives, I am really interested in stories. I find different visual ways to talk about narratives, political narratives. My work is about conflicts and politics, but it links in very kind of intimacy like soldier sleeping. I am interested in getting very close to my subjects, and I live how they live, or share things with them.
Tim Heatherington, extracted from an interview on Periscope.
I have read war photographer Robert Capa's book and more than a few books about him. Over the years I have collected and read the stories of war journalists John Simpson, Christina Lamb, Frank Gardener, Kevin Sites, Kate Adie ... and more. I have the dvd titled War Photographer, about the work of James Nachtwey too.
There is something I have been trying to understand.
Tonight I watched 'Which Way to the Frontline - The Life and Time of Tim Heatherington'. It is a documentary created by Sebastian Junger ('The Perfect Storm', 'War') and in it he seems to take the whole 'conversation' about motivations and understanding war to a level I've never really found before.
In tracing Tim's career back through the years, Junger's intention seemed to be about honouring, remembering, and revealing the truly fascinating man who was a war photographer.
Tim Hetherington was killed while covering the front lines in the besieged city of Misrata, Libya, during the 2011 Libyan civil war.
I Had Mail ...
Sebastian Junger's documentary about Tim Heatherington arrived in the post today ... Which Way Is The Front Line from Here? It joins my collection of dvds and books about war photographers and journalists, mountaineers too. People who fascinate, or who have fascinated, me.
Director Sebastian Junger gracefully weaves together footage of Hetherington at work and moving interviews with his family, friends, and colleagues to capture his compatriot and friend’s unique perspective, compassion, and intense curiosity about the human spirit. The Sundance Institute.
Also in the package, randomly selected from my Amazon wishlist by Gert as a surprise, was Bright Star. Jane Campion directed this one and it looks rather marvelous, an antidote to that time spent studying Keats work in dusty old university rooms back in New Zealand.
And the final delight came in the form of Dani Shapiro's book, Still Writing - The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life. This one appeared on my radar via Terri Windling's blog, Myth & Moor. She wrote a series of posts about this book over days ...
It's another deliciously warm April day here in Antwerp, we're up over 20 celsius and my clothes-line is heavy with laundry drying. Winter seems to have been so much less painful this time, perhaps to make up for the one before ... the one which traumatised everyone here.
And now, to work.