Homemade Movies, Homemade Cooking
Dumplings, Aloo Paratha, Huevito con Cátsup, and Other Isolation Foods
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*Note: If you haven’t watched “Homemade” in Netflix (a series of shorts filmed by different directors during Isolation), I’m afraid I’m going to spoil a few details on some of the stories in this series. Nonetheless, whatever I tell you, does not change the experience and relevance of watching this brilliant compilation of cinematographic insights about the times we’re living (I’ve personally watched a few of them more than once).
(Part 1 of 3)
MOTHER’S DUMPLINGS
Johnny Ma, San Sebastián del Oeste, Jalisco.
In a video-letter to his mother, that she most likely won’t see (because, as the author points out, she doesn’t watch Netflix), Chinese-Canadian director Johnny Ma, reflects on his distant relationship with his mother on Mother’s Day, while isolating in San Sebastián del Oeste, Jalisco.
“I remember every Chinese New Year, we’d all go to grandmas for dumplings. During that time, the entire kitchen would be covered in flour, and the aromas of garlic and scallions”, he narrates. In the mind of the filmmaker, the image of the kitchen, the flour, and the aromas, have the ability to erase time and distance. The act of cooking and eating as a celebration can turn what is meaningful into a continuous line that not only flattens time, but it also serves as an ephemeral passage between faraway places, and between life and death: it makes what is distant seem closer, and those who are absent become present: it nurtures a sense of permanency and belonging.
Food and cooking can also open temporary windows into the emotional fabric of people: “You told me that because your dumpling-making skill was so poor, Grandma didn’t even let you in the kitchen” continues Johnny Ma. We know from the beginning of his monologue that the director’s mother was not so present while he was growing up (“How ironic”, he adds “I grew up to be the same. I’m the son that is never there.”), but the fact that she’s not allowed in the kitchen by her own mother, also reveals to us that she was never trusted in what was expected of her as a matriarchal figure.
Nonetheless, it is also through this iconic food (which symbolizes prosperity and good fortune in Chinese culture) that the director and his mother always manage to find a way back to each other: “The day we got to make dumplings at our house, you were so happy, and you told me that dumplings were not only my favorite but also yours.” It is thanks to this intimate food-connection that Johnny’s mother can transform self-contained emotions into half-spoken, but penetrating words. And it is also by making them himself, and sharing this tradition with his new Mexican family on Mother’s Day, that the author finds space for his mother in his present life, and that of the people that surround it, hoping that “like a message in a bottle” his own contained sentiments find a way back to her shore: “I told them dumplings are not only my favorite but my mom’s too. And now, it is also theirs”, he concludes.
What is also interesting about the coming together of this two families from two different cultures, is that Chinese dumplings carry exactly the same unifying quality as Mexican tamales (and other traditional organically packaged foods): they not only bring people together around a table, they also serve to protect beautiful food and delicious memories.
PORK AND CABBAGE DUMPLINGS
(Makes 16 dumplings)
For the wrappers (you can also use pre-made):
Mix 1½ cups of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ¾ cup of warm water (add it little by little, you might not need it all). Knead until you get a smooth and flexible dough. Leave to rest while you...
Make the filling:
Combine 300 g of ground pork, 1 ½ cups of shredded cabbage, 1 thumb-size piece of minced ginger, 2 smashed cloves of garlic, a handful of chopped scallions (save some for decoration), 3 tablespoons soya, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, and one egg. Mix well and seasonings.
Assemble:
Shape the dough into a semi-thin stripe, and cut into halves until you get 16 small pieces. Roll the pieces into thin circles, and fill with about a teaspoon of the cabbage and ground pork mix. Press the edges (if they don’t hold together you can use your fingers to sightly water the edges), and then fold into small zig-zags like on the image below. Put a tablespoon of oil on a pan (with a lid) at medium heat. Cook the dumplings until they are slightly browned on the bottom. Add a couple of centimeters of water, lower the flame, cover, and let cook around 12 minutes.
I served them with a dipping sauce made with soya sauce, chili oil, sesame oil, and some drops of lemon juice (to taste).
You can also top with sliced scallions.
ESPACIOS
Natalia Beristaín, Ciudad de México.
Knowing how to cook a proper breakfast is being able to make sense of an abruptly transformed reality: it is creating order out of chaos.
“Jacinta” makes putting together a delicious and healthy breakfast look easy in Natalia Beristain’s short (filmed while isolating with her daughter in Mexico City). But before she managed to perfect her own cooking narrative, Jacinta had to take important decisions and invent all sorts of alternative solutions; she had to design a plan that would fit her size and adapt to her needs, that could provide comfort (when no one else is looking), inspire security to afront failure, and most of all, that could offer a safe routine to hold on to, if things around her stopped making sense.
That is how this witty and tenacious little girl resolves to find her way around the kitchen aided by a small colorful chair, it is how she learns to slice fruit without cutting her fingers, to keep calm if she messes up craking the eggs or a banana peel falls out of the table, and to carefully handle a gas stove like a responsible adult.
Knowing how to cook a proper breakfast is not as easy as it looks (I’ve always thought it is the most tricky meal to get right), it requires self-agency, coordination, and the ability to make the best we can with what little we have available. It involves knowing how a proper breakfast looks like and understanding why it is so indispensable to start the day well, it is the first step to becoming a free and independent human being.
PAPAYA, BANANAS, AND HUEVITO CON CÁTSUP
(For one person)
Ingredients:
1 small size papaya.
1 banana.
1 or 2 eggs.
Salt to taste.
Ketchup.
Preparation:
Cut the fruit, eat it (with or without a plate). Crack the eggs into a bowl, whisk them with a fork. Turn on the stove. Put the egg mix on a pan and shake well until the cook. Serve with ketchup on the side.