A night of good food, friendship

Just home at lunch time, I was sitting in my kitchen when there was a knock at the front door. This is not usual – friends know to use the back. A large stranger stood there, with a slight stutter.
“I’m Chris,” he said, extending his hand, and told me that he had been sent to my house looking for a cottage to rent. It seemed unlikely and when he asked whether my neighbour had accommodation and what her name was, I got more suspicious. Then his cellphone rang – and as he hung up after a brief conversation – another guy appeared round the side of the house. Alarm bells were ringing for me by now and I ushered them down the driveway where their car was parked, blocking the gate.
Back inside, a hasty check revealed my handbag was still in the kitchen and my cellphone on the table. Everything looked in order and it was only the next morning when I checked my wallet before going out that I discovered it was empty of cash. My camera was also gone.
A clever modus operandi. Choose a quiet time and an almost believable story and while the householder is distracted by your stuttering buddy – nip through the open door and grab what you can. It all took less than five minutes.
Presume the phone call was from his partner out back saying let’s go now – wind it up. All unfortunately clear in hindsight. So be on the lookout for a non-descript white car cruising the suburbs – with two big guys, well-dressed and smooth talking – and I too will be more careful and alert.
In the meantime, I am taking comfort in memories of recent feasts prepared when cooking with friends. Favourite food writer, Edouard Pomiane, says that “to prepare a dinner for a friend is to put into the cooking pot all one’s affection and goodwill, all one’s gaiety and zest so that after three hours cooking a waft of happiness escapes from beneath the lid”.
A couple of weeks ago, I spent a weekend in Jo’burg with a close friend from Cape Town, an imaginative and talented cook and we had promised our host just this kind of dinner. I picked her up from the Gautrain, we stopped at a garage for ice to chill the champagne she was carrying – and so suitably prepared we metaphorically rolled up our sleeves, lit the fire (Jo’burg was freezing) and let ourselves loose in his kitchen. He is a busy bachelor who works long hours, breakfasts in his office and dines out, so his store cupboard was challenging to say the least. No garlic for example – how would we manage?
Luckily he is also a treat shopper so there were things like tapenade (olive paste fortified with anchovies and garlic – yes!), home-made chillie from the local food market, exotic jams and onion marmalade. After ransacking the store cupboard we tracked down the last stock cube and enjoyed ourselves combining flavours we might not otherwise have considered.
Wine is one of his passions so there was a good selection and we used the leftovers of a sweet dessert espresso port lurking in the fridge to deglaze and add flavour to the chillie prawns.
We served those with red snapper marinaded with herbs, lemon and oil on a bed of roasted potato and fennel. Delicious and kept us warm and glowing with good food and friendship on a winter night.
-g.jeke@yahoo.com