Inspiration!

“Inspiration have I none/but to touch the flaming dove”

As I have the world’s best memory for song lyrics (sadly teamed with the voice of a half-mad donkey), I can tell you I dredged that up from the memory of an album I last heard maybe 25 years ago, Bowie’s “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars”. I think it’s track 2 or 3 and is called ‘Stone Love”.

What does it mean? Is Mr Bowie onto something, or just on something? We’ll never know.

What I have been thinking about is inspiration. There’s a lot in my life at the moment, developing new products, some writing projects: inspiration is abounding.

So, I’ll pour myself a Daintree tea and,  I thought, think a bit about the nature of  inspiration.

Slurp!

First let’s start with Jimmy Seervai. Here’s his picture on a flour container.

Jimmy was a contestant on Australian Masterchef. That is a completely different show to the brilliant UK head-to-head cooking show, except that the logo is the same.

He was on the show, then eliminated, then won a contest to come back. He got down to the top three.

He grew up in the area where I live. In fact, all three finalists that year were linked to Adelaide, which is the food capital of Australia, but the show portrayed Jimmy as being from his adopted city of Sydney. This was probably so those 5 or 6 million so Sydneysiders wouldn’t feel left out. They like to think they are important in Australian food circles, but they’re a minor player because they don’t take food as seriously as Adelaide or Melbourne.

So, Jimmy won many fans – and many detractors – by doggedly doing everything he was asked, and when given the chance, basically making curries.

I met him through another contestant once-  Richard Gunner.

Richard, who is a sometime-client of mine, had a brain freeze at the time and could not for the life of him remember my name, and so introduced me as “The Devotea” and as “PeopleMagicHR”.  Thanks, Twitter!

Richard runs a paddock-to-plate meat business, and he’s uncompromising, enthusiastic and, you guessed it- inspirational!

As a side note, I remember Richard telling me he thought Masterchef was a positive TV reality show; whereas so many are negative. I agreed with him then and I agree with him now. I’ll also just squeeze in a quick “Slurp” here before returning to the narrative.

Jimmy & I occasionally flash comments to each other on Twitter, usually about Parsee cooking.

If you’re unfamiliar with Parsees (often spelt Parsi), who they are and what they cook, try “Zoroastrianism” on Wikipedia and follow the links. Mind you, you can also link through from “Freddie Mercury”, which is easier to spell.

So, Jimmy now has his own range of atta flour, and I bought some when I saw it in a meat shop. Whose meat shop? The aforementioned Richard Gunner!

So, I was awaiting inspiration. Atta is a great flour, usually used to make Indian breads such as naan. In fact, I made roti with the last of my stocks the night before the day I am relating.

I’ll just pour another cup of this Daintree, then cast my mind back. Slurp!

I was still searching for inspiration when a Persian cookbook fell of the shelf. Right, I thought, as I picked it up, “Atta, Persian cookbook, there’s a previously unmentioned pomegranate in the fruit bowl and some walnuts in the cupboard, let’s go persian/parsi/mughal” , which, if you care to check your history, are inextricably linked.

There was also a requirement to eat in front of the TV that night, so that was the theme “Persian/Parsee/Mughal TV Dinner”.

A minutes later, a plan was hatched for rolled up paratha stuffed with a variation on Chicken Fesenjan, which is chicken cooked in a pomegranite syrup with walnuts, and a sort of spicy cabbage and chick pea accompaniment. And falooda for dessert.

Incidentally, I first heard of falooda in a book on the aforementioned Freddie Mercury: it was his favourite dessert.

Right; another slurp of Daintree, then I’m going to construct a sentence of incredible magnitude:

One this one occasion of inspirationI have cared to analyse;  whilst purchasing some nice chicken in the shop of the inspirational Richard Gunner I bought some of the inspirational Jimmy Seervai ‘s flour and, after being inspired by a falling cookbook and the fruit I had on hand, whipped up an inspired meal, followed by the super-inspirational Freddie Mercury’s favourite dessert.

Slurp!

It was a great meal, though probably not one that would normally be the subject of a way-too-long, convoluted blog entry.

Except that I’m thinking about inspiration.

You see, I’ve been inspired right now to make Lady Devotea a breakfast of Akoori (another Parsee dish of spiced eggs) with some smoky bacon and some salty, spiced mushrooms.

And where did the inspirataion for a salty, savoury, hearty, earthy breakfast come from?

Slurp! Ah, there it is.