Skip to main content

Dream: Dishes Dreamt

This is a dish I imagined and saw in a dream. I saw the layers of colour and couldn't believe how gorgeous it all was. The white rice with the pink salmon coloured shrimp which swim in a gorgeous yellow sauce that has slices of avocado which hold two shades of exquisite green. The colours woke me up but it was the ingredients which I was sure would esthetically work. I had to close my eyes to stay in dream state to remember the ingredients though.

Gather together what you need:

1 Large Spanish onion
Uncooked White or Basmati rice (enough for 4)
1 Avocado
1 Chicken bouillon cube (Better Than Bouillon is better)
20 fresh uncooked shrimp (as large as you can afford)
A thickening agent such as cornstarch
Water
Black pepper (Black was seen in the dream but white pepper works better)

A saucepan for the rice and a frying pan for everything else. I did not use cast iron in the dream.

Slice the onion from pole to pole. Slice the onion again so that you are left with the natural bands - layers resulting in 1/4 inch thick pieces. The onion in this dish is meant to be seen when you are done and not merely an ingredient that fades to the background.

Cook your rice. If it's done never worry everything else is done quickly.

In your large frying pan add water and toss in the onions and the chicken bouillon cube which you have broken into pieces. Your flame is on low. Simmer for about two minutes. Add your shrimp laying them flat. After cooking for three minutes on one side turn the shrimp over and at the same time add your avocado which you have already cut in half, removed the pit, and sliced from pole to pole allowing for approximately five slices from each half. Have mixed your cornstarch slurry and add it now. If it gets too thick add more water. The time from shrimp turning to cornstarch being added should be about one minutes or less. Serve this over your rice. It should be visually stunning, orally sensual and incredibly tasty. The white pepper is for a kick and can be on the table or added when the shrimp are cooking. You don't need to stir anything you just want to make sure the onions stay chunky, the shrimp aren't overcooked and the avocados are intact. The avocados don't even have to be cooked in the pan - instead placing them decoratively around the rice.

I forgot. I suggest that you listen to this when you cook. It goes with the dream and I am sure my dream was inspired by this film. O Que Sera sung by Simone from the film Doña Flor and Her Two Husbands.











Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Diane Tose 1942-2020

  In part, Diane’s passing marks the end of an era. The end of a time in history when the work in HIV research was experimental and run by mavericks. Diane was a ‘maverick’ in the truest sense of the word. We all were no matter the discipline we worked in. We were trailblazers. Diane was a complex woman. If you didn’t come to know her she was just a tall British woman who put the fear of God in you. She was pragmatic, demanding, and proudly British, even though she confided in me that she felt much more American than British. Diane liked things just so. An inch either way would be enough for her to voice a strong opinion. Opinionated women can often be alarming, but in Diane I found a heroine. I admired and looked up to Diane. She was no-nonsense. I can remember her calling patients into her office for pelvic examinations with a loudly overheard: Let’s have a look-see, or a get those feet up in the stirrups. I am sure that had she been a man she’d have been reported into oblivion, ...

My Plantation Sown With Sorrow

  I recently found this academic paper while going through things in my home. It is a book review of Dorothy West's novel, The Wedding. It was written sometime between 1994-97 when I was working with the Dean of Empire State College,  James H. Case , who served as my mentor. I do not know how to put footnotes in Blogger so I will be using asterisks with an associated number which can be found at the end of the piece.  Two days ago I closed Dorothy West's book, The Wedding, and fell straight to sleep. I had a dream. I was out shopping but had an appointment with E's therapist later in the day. I was supposed to meet E there.  I called twice to say I would be late and finally arrived when the session was over. When I arrive, E and the therapist are friendly. The therapist tells us of a party we might be interested in going to later that very evening. E and I agree to go. We arrived at the party and I immediately split to go sit with the gay men and begin to yuck it up...

Mnemonics For Antiquity: Part Two

A boy can learn a lot from a dog:  obedience, loyalty and the  importance of turning around  three times before lying down --Robert Benchley The bottom line in a Christian life is obedience And most people don't even like the word --Charles Stanley Obedience is detachment from the self.  This is the most radical detachment of all.  But what is the self? The self is the principle of reason  and responsibility in us, it is what makes us men --Bede Griffiths In part one of this essay I explored a theme which runs through the apocalyptic film genre, which often parallels the Old Testament. We looked at Greek mythology as a precursor to the Old Testament, canons in literature and cycles which are not always seen in a lifetime. I also explored what it means to be human. What I have begun to notice in the Old Testament is how much of it parallels the societies we have built for ourselves, going along with our faith, never no...