What are the simplest meals you've ever tried?
During the Covid19 outbreak, many of us might cut our money to the bones and cut up our grocery budget, which brings me back to one of the toughest times in old-time flood seasons in the 2000s.
Unlike those occurs in the Southwest region, floods in the middle appear to be sudden and severe. Tropical storms entered continuously and brought torrential rains, caused rivers flooded out. Banks were nothing to them. Strong water flows struck and destroyed many parts of banks. All families in neighboring areas were forced to evacuated to higher land. Located in the center of a small plain, our village was not surrounded by any such fast-flowing rivers, but the low land was separated by hundreds of ditches, channels and ponds.
The alarmingly rising level of water forced local authorities to let a very great amount of water stored in reservoirs out due to the fact they were not big enough to stop water from flowing out. Any attempt could damage to dams. Soon our rice field was soaked in water. Good luck didn't smile at some families who owned unharvested paddies.
Thanks to a wealth of experience, the elder turned out calm and seemly predicted what was going on at the time." It's a law of nature, a cycle of weather". Refrigerators or freezers were never in our dictionary. What we could store and preserve were dried foods and rice of which qualities were kept by traditional storage methods.
Rice, sesame seeds, fish sauce and other spices were included in our menus those days. What could you make with these ingredients? Rice became a main food in our daily meals. So, what would be the best match? Perhaps good lessons from our old generations brought us some solutions. As an old saying: "Adversity brings wisdom", sesame salt was regarded as a creative product that we might be proud of 😆. Called as "sesame salt", the name reveals some necessary ingredients to you: sesame seeds and salt. In addition, a spoonful of sugar is added to make it better in flavor. Here's the way I make this food:
First, roast sesame seeds. Heat a pan with a moderate temperature (90°C ).
Then, add sesame seeds and stir them well. Remember, turn down the fire on the stove.
(In the past, clay stoves, charcoal, dried sticks and rice straws were popular. My face were always worn some make-ups with ash.😂)
When sesame seeds turn lightly golden (or honey-like color), put them into a small wooden mortar or pounder before adding a tablespoon of salt and two of sugar. Now, pound the mix with a pestle until sesame seeds are completely crushed.
Sesame salt served with cooked rice is a perfect combination of five different flavors which hold full of great charm.
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Rice with sesame salt (right) |
For longer flood seasons, we were still unable to get to market. What's more, our sesame was eventually used up. We took a look at our current spices and ended up creating something with peanut oil and fish sauce. Oiled fish sauce was chosen as a must-do alternative. Traditional fish sauce smells strong and tastes roundly briny. A perfect blend of fish sauce, oil and black pepper heighten the flavor that mixes well with hot steamed rice. Black pepper plays a key role in keep our body warm because it was biting cold outside; meanwhile, oiled fish sauce flavors rice which provides us a source of energy.
To begin with, heat the peanut oil in a small cooking pot.
A spoonful of chopped shallots dipped in hot oil would bring a good scent right before pouring fish sauce carefully in.
To reduce the salty taste, add water and boil the liquid.
Finally, sprinkle ground black pepper and take the pot down out of the heating stove. Some spicy chili will enhance the color and add flavor to the dish.
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