Novel Food hosted by Simona from Briciole is an online
book club with the following concept: Cook something that has been
inspired by a published literary work you've read, then create a post about it.
I love to read and I love to cook so there was no doubt that I would join Novel
Food as soon as I found out about it!
I had a month until the posting deadline, plenty of time to prepare, or
so I thought. Here I am, rushing to finish. Anyway, I've been reading
"Cleopatra, A Life," by Stacy Schiff. Although I am charmed by this book, thinking about it does not give me any culinary inspiration. But which
book and which author should I tackle for Novel Food? James Joyce came to mind, and in
particular Joyce's "Dubliners,"
which holds a special place in my heart. Published in 1914, "Dubliners," is a collection
of 15 short stories written in realistic detail and filled with everyday scenes of middle-class Dublin, Ireland. The characters live
ordinary lives, but as their stories unfold the reader becomes aware of
intensely personal and often tragic revelations about them. It’s the glimpse
into their emotional lives courtesy of Joyce and his poignant narrative that has always had a profound effect on me. One of
the short stories, in particular, moves me to tears every time I read it. The
title of that story is “A Painful Case.”
 |
| James
Joyce as photographed by Berenice Abbott in 1926 (National Portrait Gallery,
London). The author had problems with his eyesight throughout his life. |
“A Painful Case,”
is a story about isolation. It concerns the brief intermingling of the lives of
Mrs Sinico, a married woman who feels unfulfilled, and Mr Duffy, a bank
cashier who leads a solitary and meticulously orderly life. The two are acquaintances who eventually grow close and develop a deep
friendship. One day Mrs Sinico impulsively takes Mr Duffy’s hand and places it
on her cheek. He is taken aback by her action and ends their relationship. At a
farewell meeting, Mrs Sinico seems distraught and unwilling to say goodbye.
Four years go by, during which Mr Duffy resumes his previous orderly routine. One
evening, while eating a dinner of corned beef and cabbage at his usual
restaurant, he reads a newspaper article entitled “A Painful Case.” The article
details the death of Mrs Sinico, who was hit by a train at a Dublin station. A
coroner’s inquest revealed that Mrs Sinico had taken to drinking during her
last years, and it is inferred from the narrative that her death may have been
a suicide. Slowly, Mr Duffy begins to feel remorse. He believes that by having
rejected her he condemned her to loneliness and eventual death. He reflects on
his own solitary life which has been devoid of her companionship and realises
that he has lost his only chance for happiness. He will remain isolated from
"life’s feast" because he lacks the courage to pursue happiness.
Corned beef and cabbage—plain food, not something served at a feast—is briefly mentioned in "A Painful
Case," but it's mentioned at the moment when Mr Duffy is about
to undergo a significant psychological change. It's the moment when his
epiphany begins, that moment when he begins to realise how emotionally paralysed
he has become. Joyce's epiphanies are rare and momentous occasions during which
an awareness floods a character's conscience and he or she gains a profound understanding of a particular situation. Epiphanies are recurrent themes in
the "Dubliners." In part, Joyce uses them to symbolise the
colonisation of Ireland: A defeated and powerless nation as Ireland was at the
time, is juxtaposed with defeated and powerless individuals. Not much ever
changes in Joyce's Dublin, something which has a devastating effect on the
human spirit.
Well, we've covered food, literature, politics, emotional isolation ...
What should we tackle next? How about if we read some of Joyce's astonishingly beautiful and incisive language in the form of quotes from "A Painful Case?" Here are Mr
Duffy and Mrs Sinico together:
"Her companionship was like a warm soil about an exotic. Many times
she allowed the dark to fall upon them, refraining from lighting the lamp. The
dark discreet room, their isolation, the music that still vibrated in their
ears united them. This union exalted him, wore away the rough edges of his
character, emotionalised his mental life."
Mr Duffy reads of Mrs Sinico's Death:
"One evening as he was about to put a morsel of corned beef and
cabbage into his mouth his hand stopped. His eyes fixed themselves on a
paragraph in the evening paper which he had propped against the water-carafe.
He replaced the morsel of food on his plate and read the paragraph attentively.
Then he drank a glass of water, pushed his plate to one side, doubled the paper
down before him between his elbows and read the paragraph over and over again.
The cabbage began to deposit a cold white grease on his plate. The girl came
over to him to ask was his dinner not properly cooked. He said it was very good
and ate a few mouthfuls of it with difficulty. Then he paid his bill and went
out."
The phrase "the cabbage began to deposit a cold grease on his
plate." is rather startling. It prepares one for the upcoming chilling
events. Here is the quote where Mr Duffy realizes what Mrs Sinico's death means
for him:
"Why had he withheld life from her? Why had he sentenced her to
death? He felt his moral nature falling to pieces... He gnawed the rectitude of
his life; he felt that he had been outcast from life's feast. One human being
had seemed to love him and he had denied her life and happiness: he had
sentenced her to ignominy, a death of shame... No one wanted him; he was
outcast from life's feast. He turned his eyes to the grey gleaming river,
winding along towards Dublin ... He waited for some minutes listening. He could
hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly
silent. He felt that he was alone."
Chilling. Insightful. Powerful. Masterful. James Joyce!
Besides the connection with Joyce, why did I decide on corned beef and
cabbage? Well, St. Patrick's Day is around the corner, and I have lots of Irish
neighbours. Corned beef and cabbage will be on many dinner tables around here.
I've never made it, but I have always wanted to. This way I can brag about it
to my Irish friends, and especially to Leslie, who lives across the street. No doubt
about it, corned beef and cabbage is comfort food and like all such food, it's delicious!
I made corned beef and cabbage with a recipe based on one I found on the
Food Network website. It includes beets served alongside the corned beef, and because
I am Greek, and considering that beets are kind of popular in Greek cooking, I thought the beets would introduce a Greek twist to an Irish dish!
Ingredients:
- A 3-pound
piece of corned beef
- 4 bay leaves
- 25 black
peppercorns
- 9 garlic
cloves peeled
- 1/2 teaspoon
ground cloves
- 1-quart
chicken broth
- 5 carrots,
peeled and cut into 3" pieces
- 2 small
turnips peeled and quartered
- 4
shallots peeled and left whole. Ouch! We are having such a bad winter
here that shallots cost one shallot for $1.99!
- 4 potatoes,
peeled and quartered
- 1/2 head
cabbage, cut into wedges
- 3 beets,
peeled and sliced
- chopped
parsley for garnish
- a little salt
and pepper, a little lemon juice, a little olive oil and a negligible
amount of oregano and garlic powder
Directions:
- Corned beef is
made by brining beef brisket in a mixture of spices. It comes with a thick fat layer that should be trimmed and discarded. Once that job is done, the corned beef should be washed really well so as to remove some of the brine. For this recipe, discard the spice packet that comes with the corned beef.
- In a large
heavy pot, combine the corned beef, 2 bay leaves, 15 peppercorns, 6 garlic
cloves cut in half, and a pinch of ground cloves.
- Add water to
cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 hours, low and
slow as they say. Remove the meat from the pot and reserve it on a plate,
keeping it warm.
- While the meat
is cooking, prepare the beets: Line an ovenproof pot with
aluminium foil and place the beets inside. Season them with salt and
pepper, a slight amount of olive oil, some lemon juice and just a bit of
garlic powder and oregano. Close the aluminium foil around the beets and
bake them in a 350° F oven for about 45 minutes, until they are soft.
- You can also
boil the beets, but remember not to add them in with the corned beef or
vegetables, because they will turn everything red.
- Let's get back
to the pot where the meat was cooked: I tasted the liquid and I found that
it was very salty. Extremely salty. Now, most recipes call for boiling the
vegetables in that liquid, but I couldn't in good conscience submerge my
vegetables in what was essentially a brine. So I discarded the liquid,
washed the pot and started over. I added a quart of low sodium chicken broth.
I added seasonings: 3 garlic cloves cut in half, about 10 peppercorns, 1
bay leaf, and a pinch of ground cloves.
- When the broth
came to a boil I added the turnips and carrots, lowered the heat and
simmered for 20 minutes.
- Then I added
the onions and potatoes. By now I had a layer of vegetables covering the
whole surface of the pot. I placed the cabbage on top of the vegetables,
covered the pot and cooked for an additional 30 minutes.
- The cabbage
was steamed by the aromatic broth, and the turnips absorbed so much
flavour that they were the best turnips I had ever tasted. That's saying a
lot, because I am not the world's greatest turnip fan!
- If the meat is
cold, put it back in the pot next to the cabbage and give it a steam bath
until it warms up.
- And that's it.
Mission accomplished. Slice the meat and serve warm, accompanied
by the broth which is really tasty, and the vegetables.
- You can serve
the beets alongside the other vegetables, or better yet, you can present
them separately as a salad.
