The Grand Feast
One day, Uncle Ken said that he was going to make dinner. Granny, not wanting to upset Uncle Ken, agreed. Then she beckoned me closer and muttered ‘Don’t let Ken make the food, I would rather if you made it.’ And I could not help but agree with Granny.
When I asked him about the menu, he said, ‘We will make chilli and garlic fritters with onion sauce. People do like spice, don’t they? Then, for the main course, we will have kangni daal-’ But I interrupted, saying ‘But isn’t kangni for birds?’ Uncle Ken replied, ‘If the birds can eat it, so can we. Now, for the main course, kangni daal and roti.’ ‘And finally, for dessert, ice cream, with a walnut, cashew and almond brownie.’
For the fritters, I chopped chilli and garlic while uncle added chilli paste to the besan. Then I added the chilli and garlic pieces to the mixture and we fried the fritters. For the daal, Uncle Ken collected kangni from the garden, which we had scattered for the birds. Several grains had mud stuck to them. ‘For the authentic mud flavor’ Uncle Ken told me. He crushed the grains and added water and cooked it with spices to make the daal. For the ice cream, Uncle Ken took some shaving cream and added crushed ice to it. As for the brownie, Uncle Ken added whole walnuts, cashews and almonds (with their shells) to a mixture of flour, sugar and cocoa powder and set it to bake.
Granny and Grandfather, with their experience of Uncle Ken’s cooking, Decided that they would fast that day.
