Posted by Loulou on Jun 9, 2014 | 2 comments

You know, I was watching mama cook tonight and she was making a risotto with those good-smelling mushrooms called porcini that you find in the fall and the spring if you happen to be out wandering around where they grow, but she had the dried ones in her pantry and I said, “Mama, why don’t you make that nice rice thing tonight since you and papa had a pretty late lunch (and, unfortunately, mine with it!), and it was abundant, so a nice little rice dish would be perfect. A little sprinkle of parmesan over the top? (And a piece for me on the side, heh, heh.)

And so I watch her stirring the porcini broth into the rice and then I smell something really good and mama runs to the oven and (just in time) pulls out her walnuts, all caramelized with sugar and a little salt, to use in salads, and some of the walnuts have stuck to the pan—just a few shards—and then mama puts the whole walnuts into a storage bag and dumps the rest of the fragments into the risotto!

(This is scallop risotto–but you get the picture!)

Now THIS is a risotto with porcini (and walnut crumbs…)

Well, that’s how mama cooks.

Everything becomes something else or becomes whatever mama thinks might work well with this or that. If she has made a butterflied roasted lamb (pounded flat and stuck with garlic and anchovies), for example, then the leftovers will turn into a curry with little bits of cooked potatoes and maybe a chopped zucchine thrown in and part of a mango that looks a bit long in the tooth. It’s fun to watch what’s going to happen next!

I’m just waiting for her to open my package of chopped cod in gelatin and think, “Oh, Loulou, this is almost like brandade—a codfish, potato and garlic purée—so why don’t I add a little garlic to it?” No way, Jose. I draw the line at garlic for CATS!

Watching something take shape is different from EATING it.

But mama’s going to teach the visiting kids how to make pizza and one of them is going to have anchovies on it. The pizza, not the kid. And I LOVE anchovies….

I’m puttin’ on my toque right now.

No, I’m NOT!!! Whaddaya, NUTS?