21 April 2020
GENEROSITY IN ABUNDANCE
Love in the Time of Cholera was a fantastic book. Every time I think of that I imagine writing a new book, Food in the Time of Corona. But there are too many interesting novels out there, hundreds of great cookery books and what’s more important most of the publishing houses wouldn’t bet on me, and sadly won’t be accepting any new work for a while.
We have all learned a lot about ourselves in the Time of Corona, and even more about many folk we know. I don’t want to dwell on the dark side (mostly occurs on Twitter or facebook.) I would rather celebrate the amazing generosity that everyone has shown in our little country at the far end of the world. Especially in the food world. Folks in foodbanks have been overworked but keep on feeding and worrying about the hungry, and it’s been easy, locked safely away to donate online to help them out.
Personally I have been sent some special tasty treats, had neighbours offer to do shopping, had a tasty lamb dinner left at the door, flowers and herbs have arrived and there’s been a steady of lovely phone calls from foodie friends and family. At times it’s overwhelming.
When I have been cooking something nice, I make sure there’s enough to slip a little plate to my next door neighbour who lives alone and has no-one in her bubble. Food is comfort, food people are without exception generous and there’s so much pleasure in every bite of lovely baking, in tasty savoury food and in fresh food cooked with love.
This week the lovely people at Cloudy Bay clams generously sent me a box of their clams. Like many other small producers they mostly supply the hospitality industry so their business must be suffering. One of the generous things we can all do is to support the small artisans and growers like them and where we can buy from them directly online.
The dinner I made with those clams was truly delicious. I chopped a carrot, an onion and a courgette into fine dice and cooked them until soft in some good olive oil. I then added a can of chopped tomatoes and let that bubble away with fresh herbs. At the same time I boiled a handful of linguine in salty water, and placed some green beans in a steamer over the top.
Once the tomato sauce was thick and scented, I added the washed clams in their shells and immediately they opened I added the drained pasta and beans and tossed everything well. Served up with extra parsley and some black pepper it was perfect. Enjoy!