The New...
We're aiming, as a family, to eat less meat...at least during the weekdays. The ultimate goal is to not eat anything with a face during the week, and paint the town red (meat) at the weekends if we feel like it. Even this small adjustment to our diet should have some nice pay-offs.
It should improve the state of our health (and waistlines) for a start and then there's the additional benefit to the environment. So how did this all come about? From watching another episode of TED talks, of course. Graham Hill makes a good case for weekday vegetarianism, but we're not game enough to go the whole-hog just yet (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/graham_hill_weekday_vegetarian.html). So we're doing this in small increments. We figure we can manage not eating red meat during the week. We could even manage without poultry or pork, but we need something. So what's our solution? Seafood.
Seems simple, doesn't it? The problem is, I have one child who doesn't like shellfish particularly (I'm convinced there's probably a food intolerance at play there). That limits the seafood options. So faced with the prospect of fish every week night for dinner, I've been plumbing the depths of my, admittedly shallow, repertoire of culinary knowledge. So what's my epiphany? Return to my roots.
And the Old...
My father's family comes from Ponani, one of the oldest ports in Kerala, a tiny town and an important fishing centre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponnani). They lived and breathed fish. My memories of holidays at his home include eating fish at every meal... every meal...even breakfast. We're not talking smoked kippers here, we're talking serious fish curries...and hot. My sister remembers eating a fish curry for breakfast on the first day of her six week stay at my Grandmother's house and then having a stomach upset as a result of the chilli for the remainder of the six weeks! This is not cooking for the faint-hearted, or tender-stomached.
It is, however, a tidy solution to my week-day meat-free dilemma - eat fish and introduce the children to an important part of their cultural heritage and my childhood at the same time. It also doesn't hurt that it's a good way to acclimatise them to higher levels of chilli before an impending trip to India. So the recipes I'll be posting for the next little while will draw on my rich cultural heritage and reflect the cuisine of my father's family. I hope I do them justice...
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