Last Night's Dinner 3

A gentle steamed rice (very far from what I was intending).

Today’s post is definitely not what I intended and I almost didn’t write it, but in the end thought I would. It is the reality of my week and it is also a little bit about what to eat when we are feeling unwell. It is a topic I really love - I have a whole collection of books, mainly from the 19th/early 20th century about Invalid Cookery and a load more which include sections on it - it used to be the norm for cookery books to include a chapter on the subject. I honestly used to fantasise about things like beef tea and frumenty and after my first pressure cooker book was published, tried to get a book away about it - not, I hasten to add, all anachronistic recipes, but very much a modern version. It may have had Chicken Soup and Apple Snow in the title. It was not to be, although a couple of publishers came close. The next book I actually did was my Chicken one, which was definitely the tricky second album.

Anyway. August is such a good month for local seasonal food. On Saturday I went shopping as usual, touring my favourite stalls at the farmers market, lugging home all the seasonal fruits and vegetables including the first of the apples (Discoveries of course, hooray!), but also greengages and damsons, raspberries and apricots, beans (green, runner, broad), courgettes, beetroot, various salady things and new potatoes, so many tomatoes. Shiso leaves to hold and wrap the chicken larb I was planning. Then fresh goat cheeses and curd, buttermilk, eggs and honey, chicken carcasses, venison steaks and bacon….I went home and made the chicken stock to soothe my throat and cooked the greengages into a compote as I could see they were already close to turning (stone, put in the pressure cooker with sugar, stir on a low heat to dissolve the sugar and create a bit of steam, put the lid on, zero minutes and fast release. That’s all it takes). and made a perfect blackberry-hazelnut-rose- buttermilk streusel cake with fruit from blackberrying early that morning and spent the afternoon reading.

And by Saturday evening the summer cold had morphed into some kind of stomach bug giving me constant nausea and now all the food I haven’t been able to freeze is still in the fridge and I have been living on salt and vinegar Crack a Jack rice cakes (which according to my 14 yr old “taste like sad”), bananas (which I don’t particularly like but find strangely palatable when nauseous) and fizzy water with various bitters for the past 3 days. I would say that I have been staring mournfully at the contents of the fridge, but I haven’t; whenever I open it to replenish my glass of fizzy water, I avert my eyes. It all makes me feel queasy.

Until last night when I thought I’d try some rice, always the first meal I eat when I have had a delicate stomach. I was taught this at university by the bursar in my halls of residence, who told me that it was absolutely the best thing as it was the easiest and most palatable carb to eat without fat. I think she was right. I know some people go for potatoes (my mind turns to Nora Ephron and Heartburn), but I don’t want to taint my love of potatoes with sickness and a potato without butter is a missed opportunity and would make me feel sad. Ditto bread and toast. The thought of nibbling on a bit of dry toast? Even with a scraping of marmite? No, too miserable to contemplate.

But my love of rice does not run so strong so while it is of course much better with butter, I can cook it fat free. I add flavours and a very little vegetable which feels gentle and non threatening and makes me feel as though I am managing a proper, OK tasting meal. It is not going to change the world, but it will be relatively sustaining. What I normally do is grate in a little ginger and perhaps garlic depending on what my stomach is telling me, then either a bit of cinnamon and turmeric or some 5 spice - again, nice gentle spicing - and then I can add soy as I eat it. I threw in some peas too.

And it was exactly what I knew it was going to be and exactly what I needed. I made enough for 4 portions, thinking I could make a bland rice salad with leftovers today. But Adam nicked it and turned it into fried rice instead which put paid to that. So just now I have made another batch, just 1 portion this time. No peas, but I grated in a carrot for sweetness and added just grated ginger and cinnamon. And then put an egg in the steamer basket on top to steam. This, some chopped cucumber and coriander and a little sesame oil along with the soy sauce was also just right. Hopefully by tomorrow I can have a more interesting meal.

I realise my inclusion of vegetables is arbitrary here - anything that doesn’t make you feel queasy will work. My children would choose sweetcorn over peas, none of us want anything oniony, or anything that needs oil or fat to make it palatable. Nothing too acidic, so no tomato or citrus. I know this to be the case as I contemplated both and specifically thought about ponzu in place of soy. Nope. Oh, and if you have a bit of cooked chicken you can add that, or steam chicken over the rice in place of the chicken and/or use chicken stock in place of water for extra nutrition. The one other thing I can add a bit of on perhaps the 3rd outing of the rice is either a bit of yogurt or buttermilk. Especially if I am adding ingredients like cucumber.

I am sure you all know how to steam rice in the pressure cooker, but a refresher - rinsing is vital. I vacillate between 2 to 3 minutes at high pressure. It does depend on the quality of rice. I am currently using a bog standard basmati from Waitrose - last night 3 minutes was too much, today 2 minutes was just right.

Steamed Rice with Eggs

For 1 generous portion (increase as you like):

100g basmati rice, well rinsed

1 small carrot, coarsely grated

A tiny bit of ginger (5g max), grated

1 small garlic clove, grated (optional)

A pinch of cinnamon or 5 spice

1 egg

A chunk of cucumber, finely chopped

A few sprigs coriander, finely chopped

soy sauce to taste

A few drops sesame oil, to taste

Sesame seeds