They say that necessity is the mother of all invention and to be fair the evidence is pretty compelling. Take the caveman as an example:
One day our hairy litttle friend decides he's had enough of sashimi, rubs a couple of sticks together and kazzam you have fire.
With a new world of culinary choice open to him though the daily commute for groceries becomes a real hassle - enter stage right... the wheel.
Of course during the Flinstone years the Citizens Advice Bureau wasn't up to full speed and our Neanderthal friend never got his patent application filed. His ancestors now live in a 2 bed semi in Dagenham.
Skip to the modern age and we are still bending our minds to solve all of life's little problems. One that I'm usually up against is arriving home to discover I have no food in the fridge. This has led to the invention of dishes ranging from the sublime to the extreme. Pasta with Scraps (or 'alla scrap' if I'm entertaining) has always been a favourite and my carrot carbonara was always a big hit at university.
I look at some food combinations and can only assume they were borne of similar scarcity because how else could you explain peanut butter and 'jelly' sandwiches or cottage cheese mixed with chocolate powder and a Haribo garnish (thanks to Sofia for this enigma)...
My latest creative challenge recently took the guise of a few random vegetables and a lonely looking tin of chickpeas at the back of the cupboard. The first thing that sprang to mind was the Indian dish Chana Massala so it was into the blitzer with a classic combination of garlic, onion and fresh ginger. Fry this off until fragrant and add stir fried aubergine, courgette and mushrooms then throw in some turmeric, ground coriander, garam massala and chili seeds. A tin of chickpeas and a tin of tomatoes, bubble it down and it was done !
I love this dish for its clean flavours, kick of spice and the fact that I can actually imagine eating it in a tandoori - there's something quite satisfying about recreating that taste in your own home...
Trust me this dish is so more-ish the whole pan will disappear before you can say poppadom.
Monday 2 August 2010
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