Voodoo Cooking

[purejuice]

panjianlien has posted, in a locked entry, about an epic bout with a Chinese dumpling project that she and her hero of the revolution, perigee, have undertaken, which entailed chopping about 40 pounds of veg into exquisite julienne, during which she also had the fortitude to expatiate on the labor-intensive nature of Chinese fud, there being so little fuel and cooking oil you need to cook it fast, there being so little meat you need to make it stretch by chopping it finely, and there being so many extra hands to do so. We discussed briefly, the ditto nature of middle Eastern fuds in which hareems spend hours husking chick peas and rolling kibbeh.

My labors are nowhere near so intense, but I am proud to announce that I am galloping down the home stretch of a contemplated loaf of Pompe a l'Huile that I have been thinking about since October.

I am, in short, sugaring the orange peels I candied yesterday. Labor intensive doesn't even begin to describe it.*

In the end I shall have one of the great (sacramental!!) winter breads, said to be for Jesus' birthday but actually for Apollo.

For the sun shall return. As soon as I get these orange peels put by. I know you're grateful.

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*First, I had to eat a bag of oranges. Which, I have to say, with Wheatines and egg salad is truly a repast of the gods. Then I had to beat the saguaros to locate orange flower water, not as easy as you'd think in a former Spanish Moorish colony -- evidenced by the three pound bags of anise seed which is the only size you can purchase at the supermercado. Biscochitos, don't you know.