To
counteract this, my grandfather had learned from a man, who had been
out in Singapore during the war, how to palm coins. This man had
learned how to manipulate objects so they could seemingly disappear
before your eyes. This also kept his fingers and wrists supple.
Granddad
would sit on an evening with an old penny, moving it between his
fingers. It would often disappear, and reappear in his other hand. As
small children, my brother John and I would watch him in fascination.
He would hold a coin between two fingers and seemingly throw it at
you, which made you wince in fear, only for nothing to happen. He
would then ask one of us to pass his coin back. We would stare at him
in confusion as there was no coin in sight, only for him to remove it
from our ears, nose, mouth etc.
We all
know this as simple palming, simple magic. He once asked if we were
hungry, and we said yes. He then asked John to pass him Nonna's headscarf
which he laid over his hand, then lifted the scarf to reveal a punnet
of strawberries. Both John and I have talked about this many times
and still cannot work out how he did it.
But the
real magician of the family was Nonna. She was from a family that
knew what it was like to be poor, and I'm talking real poverty. People
think of Italian food as being fancy cream or pasta dishes, but it's not true.
Where her family came from, the staple diet was beans of all varieties
and I don't mean the Heinz type either. Just like the working class
women of Britain of her generation, she had learned to feed a family
for next to nothing, but when you tasted her food it was as if she
had magicked up a banquet from a single tomato.
Lots of
my friends had egg and chips as their Wednesday night meal. Younger
people don't realise that not that long ago people got paid in cash,
usually on a Thursday, as this was so people could get the shopping in
for the weekend. By Wednesday nights, most families were out of money
so the evening meal usually reflected this, hence the egg and chips.
Many years ago, when my son was quite young, we went to Turkey for a
holiday: we were off the beaten track, but there were quite a few Brits
where we were staying. After a week of kebabs, one of the Brits asked
the chef if he knew how to cook egg and chips. The chef then received
a lesson from the customer on how to cook this British
gastronomic delicacy. When the rest of the Brits saw this man eating his meal,
they all ordered it, and the next day it was on the menu. I have had egg
and chips once in my life and I have to say it doesn't work! Sorry,
but it just doesn't go together.
I know
I'm leaving myself open to criticism here, but our Wednesday night
meal was the same as egg and chips, only cooked differently. And it is a
meal I still eat on a regular basis.
This is
a meal for one: just up the portions if you have more mouths to feed
Take
one medium sized potato, wash and peel and slice it width ways into
scallops about two or three millimetres thick.
Take a
small onion, cut it in half, and slice one half into fine strips. Save
the other half in the fridge.
Put a
couple of tbsps of olive oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan on a
low heat.
Then
place the potatoes in the pan and coat them with the oil, place the
onions on top of the potatoes and cover with a lid or, as Nonna did, a
plate. Then let it cook on a low heat for about twenty minutes, just
turning the potatoes after about fifteen minutes.
When
cooked, take off the lid/plate and prod the potatoes with a fork to
make sure they are cooked.
If they
are soft, take one egg and beat it in a dish, adding salt and pepper, then
turn up the heat under the pan and pour the egg over the scallops,
letting it coat each slice. Don't let it over cook.
You can
empty the contents onto a warm plate and eat it at this stage, which is
what my brother does, and, trust me, its lovely. But because I'm a Parmesan
cheese freak, I lightly grate Parmesan over the potatoes after pouring
the egg in. I then Then I put it under a very hot grill, until it turns light
brown.
Serve
it with lots of bread and butter and a large mug of hot tea. This is
not family sharing food, this is on-your-lap-in-front-of-the-TV food,
and for me it beats egg and chips any day,
Buon Appetito!
No comments:
Post a Comment