Creative Acts - Part Six

"Any Cooking, when you put your heart into it, will not taste bad."

This line was my inspiration for this week's act. I thought about those words and realised, that is how I cook. I have no real clue about the theory. I have no idea what spice goes with this spice, what dish compliments another... I know nothing of it.

But regardless of that, I put feeling into it. I am basically throwing food at heat and hoping something good will come out of it. More than once I have found myself thinking;

"ooh, that looks tasty. I wonder if that'll work."

And I commence to throw that bit of food into the mix.

After thinking on the aforementioned line, I went into my kitchen and grabbed a bag of rice. I went to prepare it, grabbing twice the water for the amount of rice I had. I put the mix on to boil, and that's when I had a thought.

I went back to my cupboard and grabbed a teabag. Candy Cane Lane. It was holiday tea. When properly done, It tastes like a candy cane, hence the name "Candy Cane Lane". The rice had not yet reached a boil, so I threw the teabag in.

The water around the rice slowly turned that characteristically brown colour. I waited untill I thought the tea was well incorporated, and I took the teabag out, leaving the rice for the alotted time on the back of the rice package.

I came back and checked on the rice from time to time. By the time it was done, the tea had been completely soaked up by the rice, and it looked as if it was finished.

I got out a frying pan, and set it to medium heat. When it heated up I drizzled the pan with olive oil, and poured in the rice. It immediately started sizzling, filling the kitchen with the smell of candy cane lane.

On the spot I decided that this would be a pudding. I fried the rice a little, and got out some sugar, some flour, and some soy milk. I poured a liberal amount of the soy milk into the pan, and mixed it into the rice. I added sugar, and kept the flour on standby in case I needed some thickener. In a random burst of inspiration I poured in the starch from the rice, and added some flour. I waited for it to look like pudding, and when I was satisfied, I took it off the heat.

The end result was delicious.


Like I have said in the past, My creative works are based more on feeling than anything else. A random inspiration, a burst of creative energy, I have little clue where it comes from.

This time, my act was based on the line;

"Any cooking, when you put your heart into it, will not taste bad."

In the end, that was kind of right. I made this dish with some kind of heart, and it turned out rather excellently.

Perhaps you'll hear more about my cooking in future "Creative Acts" entries.

Keep an eye out.