From the interior counter, I look out onto the side window of our local flower shop which, from the beginning of February, the owner had decorated with big, sensuous, red hearts and cuddly white bears, drawing people’s attention to the fact that Valentine’s Day was only two weeks’ away.
This window is a stopping-off point for one of our local figures who lives alone in his riverside home, and who loves to tell me a story when I can take some time out to listen. Sometimes his story will have begun as he leans against the wall, hoping to attract my attention. I give him a wave and smile in acknowledgement. I’ve come to realise this is his warm-up routine to get rid of his shyness before he does his shopping. He knows I can’t possibly hear what he is saying, but very cleverly, when he comes in, he will ask me a question, such as ‘Do you know the difference between Greek Olive Oil and Italian Olive Oil?’, or ‘What kind of music do you like?’, and I am hooked.
Pre-Valentine’s, his line of questioning was around my enjoyment of the theatre and movies. As there was no one else shopping at the time, I came out from behind the counter to engage more fully, and asked him did he watch movies on the tv. ‘I love the old movies’, he told me. ‘Sure, I am in love with Katharine Hepburn.’ Before I had time to pursue this revelation, he turned and walked out. This wasn’t unusual, because he often does this to signal he has reached an end to what he is comfortable with at any particular time. Five minutes’ later, he returned, and positioning himself where he was the one looking out, and I was the one looking in, he presented me with a single red rose, saying ‘Thank you for receiving me’. ‘I hope this is ok.’ ‘You are always very kind to me when I don’t know what it is that I have come in for.’ I could feel my heart melting as I looked at this courageous man with his shaggy grey beard, and tousled, greying hair, his gift for story-telling his vital contribution to human existence. I regarded his whole being while I thanked him and told him that he had touched my heart. I wanted to return to his earlier questions about going to the theatre or the movies, and tell him I had little need, that my senses were constantly engaged with the unfolding of my everyday experiences. But taking my cue from his body language, I knew that he had finished, and could now do his shopping.
I am grateful to Ann, who knows me nearly as well as I know myself, for starting the recipe ball rolling with her request. As my blog develops, I will punctuate the stories with some recipes which I have found to work well for me.
I have mentioned Quinoa, that nutritious, protein-packed, South American seed which is very popular with vegetarians, with those who need to cut down on wheat or remove it altogether from their diet, and as a low-GL food which can assist with keeping our blood sugars balanced. Nowadays, we are asked more and more for gluten-, wheat-, and dairy-free foods, and I find the following recipe a good, delicious-tasting, all-rounder. It comes from nutritionist, Patrick Holford, in The Holford Low-GL Diet Cookbook. I like to read through recipe books and combine tips for one recipe into another, adapt them to my own taste or improvise from what is available in my store cupboard. However, I believe the most important ingredient is love, and all else follows.
For this recipe, I depart from the original a little by toasting the quinoa in a heated frying-pan for a couple of minutes, shaking the seeds around to begin releasing their nutty flavour. When you smell their aroma, this is a sign to stop toasting. Then I mix the bouillon powder with hot water, add it to the quinoa, giving it a good stir, bring it to the boil and continue with the recipe.
Cashew and Sesame Quinoa
Serves 2
140g quinoa
360ml water
1 tsp Marigold reduced salt vegetable bouillon powder
3-4 tbsp fresh or frozen petits pois
2 tbsp cashew nuts
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp tamari (a wheat-free soy sauce), or use soy sauce
2 tsp lemon juice
1 large carrot, julienned
6 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal
Freshly ground black pepper
- Add the quinoa, water and bouillon powder to a saucepan and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for around 13 minutes, or until all the water has been absorbed and the quinoa grains are soft and fluffy.
- Add the petits pois and stir through, then remove from the heat. They will cook or soften slightly in the residual warmth.
- Combine with all the other ingredients, tossing through to mix all the flavours and allow the quinoa to absorb the liquid seasonings.
Nestling into an old stone wall off the busy main street of Donnybrook in South Dublin is the gourmet food market where I have been working for the last 12 years’. It is a place to delight the senses as colours contrast and harmonise in the fruit and vegetable displays, where the aroma of freshly-baked bread draws you in further, and the fresh herbs and spices entice you to add that little bit of extra magic to a meal.
There is great satisfaction in being able to fulfil people’s daily and weekly shopping lists or supply all of the ingredients for a new recipe which they are trying out at the weekend, whether these are for Indian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Middle Eastern, North African, European or South American cooking.
“Would you have harissa, turmeric, hing, rice vinegar, lemongrass, Jerusalem artichokes, pak choi, horseradish, fresh figs, pomegranates, quinoa …………..”, I am asked in any one day, and the list goes on.
It is fitting that this Aladdin’s Cave of food treasures, drawing people from all over the world as well as the local community and its hinterland, tucks into a corner of an ancient site dating back to the 8th century when a church was established here by a Holy Woman named St Broc, after whom Donnybrook took its name. What remains in the present day is a graveyard where Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Huguenot people were buried together, and it is this sense of unity which expresses itself to me everyday as I and my co-workers provide a service which forms a modern-day pillar of this ever-evolving, dynamic business with its roots in the soil of the area’s spiritual beginnings.
