MY LIFE AS A FOODIE
TEXT
CHARITY KEITA
FEAST
IN BED
How does
one surprise a
bedridden mother
who does not
expect to be
celebrated?
Charity Keita has something up her sleeve for this
year’s mother’s day as she decides to go for a comforting and light, surprise room service meal
M
other’s day can be
incredibly confusing
when you are used
to living between
cultures. In Mali, the
country my esteemed father hails
from, people follow the French
day which usually falls on the
last Sunday of May, while here in
Kenya, my mother’s native country,
we follow the US traditions and
celebrate it on the second Sunday
of the same month. To make matters
worse, when I was living in the
UK, I would always get a surge of
guilt some time in March when the
mother’s day reminders would start
popping up; I would at this point
hurry off to phone home, only to be
answered with chuckles as Mama
pointed out I was a month or so
early.
To be honest at a certain point I
all but gave up on the concept of
mother’s day and just focussed on
calling her on her birthday. This year,
however, I intend to mix things up a
bit as my Mama recently suffered a
minor incident at the gym which has
left her mostly bedridden. Instead of
her usual spritely self, she has been
confined to the tedium of daytime
tv and to reading books which seem
to always end up depressing her—
actually that’s probably my fault; I
should have guessed that now was
not a good time to insist she read
Chimamanda’s “Half of a Yellow Sun”.
How does one surprise a
bedridden mother who does not
expect to be celebrated? Easy of
course, cook her something yummy
and turn her bed into a veritable
feasting space. Light feasting though,
mind you, as she’s already been
complaining to me that all the carbs
she keeps on eating are making
her feel bloated. To make things
infinitely easy for myself, I am going
to make the same recipe I tested
out on my friend Amy just the other
day. This consisted in: goat cheese
cauliflower mash accompanied
by veal and asparagus rolls. Yes
there isn’t much else to it: boil the
cauliflower and mash it up with a
light fluffy goat’s cheese and salt and
pepper to taste.
For the rolls visit one of Nairobi’s
fancier butchers and ask them to
finely slice you some veal escalopes
(calculate about two each). Then
invest in some quality sliced cheese
(gouda or black danbo should work
fine), some unwaxed lemons for zest,
and a bunch of asparagus (steamed).
The idea is that you lay out your
piece of meat on a surface, put in
first your cheese, then some lemon
zest and finally two asparagus (cut in
half so there are four stalks coming
out of the wrap) on one of the ends.
Sprinkle some salt over the mixture
and then take the end with the
asparagus, tightly roll it and skewer it
with a toothpick to keep everything
in place. Put it in a tray and stick it in
a preheated oven (160 °C). Last time
I baked it all for about 20 minutes
and when the cheese started coming
out at the ends I took that as my cue
to remove it.
The only question remaining is
at this point: will it be ok if I give
my mother a glass of her favourite
Amarula on ice as dessert? The rest
of the family won’t approve but can
they argue on mother’s day?
17.