Masala Lesson
Mmmm… doesn’t it smell good? We love our upstairs apartment, but one of the downsides of living above an Indian family is the scent of masala that drifts up the stairwell each afternoon as dinner is prepared! Our mouths start watering, and then whatever simple dish I’m throwing together in my own kitchen just isn’t as satisfying. One of my local favorites is a dish Indians call “tomato paneer.” Since we will soon be leaving here to return to California, I asked our landlord’s wife, Raja, to show me how to make it.
Paneer is a locally-made cheese with a mild flavor, similar to ricotta, only stiffer.
The first step is to cut it into pieces and fry it in oil to a light golden-brown. Then Raja set it aside and collected her spices. She sautéed chopped onion and garlic in oil and then added the assorted spices—her own masala blend. One of the secrets to Indian-style cooking is to let the spices mix and sizzle in the oil for quite a while until their full flavor is released. She added water and chopped tomatoes, and while the tomatoes were cooking, she mashed them with her wooden spoon and let the whole mixture boil down to a thick, aromatic sauce. The last step was to add the paneer and a little salt.
We all ate together, spooning the paneer and sauce onto plates heaped with rice. We’ve learned pretty well how to mix the rice and sauce together with our fingers and plop it into our mouths with only a little mess. So tasty! I’ll bring this recipe back to California, and see if I can find an Indian shop that sells paneer. Would you like to come over and try it, sitting on the floor with us and eating with our hands? Along with the recipe, I’m bringing back fragrant memories of the friendship of Raja and her family, packed safely in my heart.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged cooking by Lisa
I Want to Catch Fire
I’d never seen a kingfisher until this spring. 
These waterbirds can be spotted in our area during the warm months, near the lake where they can keep an eye open for fish. Someday I may get to see one “catch fire.” This is what Gerard Manley Hopkins writes about in one of my favorite poems, below. His image is of the bird, which is mostly blue with a red-orange breast, diving for a fish, and as it does, the sun flashing brilliantly from its feathers. The bird is doing what it was created to do, and as it does, we witness an instant of transcendent beauty.
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes its self; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me; for that I came.
I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
As birds, bells, and dragonflies do what they were created for, they display brief but heavenly beauty and joy. I have had this experience, too—have you? There have been times when I have done work, sometimes extremely challenging work, that I sense “speaks and spells myself.” At those times in the midst of my toil, I sense in my heart that this is what I was uniquely made for, this is my vocation, this is why I came.
Moments like that have come for me when I’ve been teaching English, or writing, or ministering to women. The story about Shahaz from a few weeks ago was one such moment. At those times, Christ plays in this particular place through me, and I feel special joy. The kingfisher is a decorative motif we see around here, often painted on boats on the lake. It reminds me to keep watching, like that sharp-eyed bird, for my particular moment to dive, to speak, to ring, to catch fire.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged kingfisher by Lisa