Food for thought: Of Goats, Bread and Sriracha
Break bread with us as we mull climate change, food shortages and share a favourite recipe
On days when climate anxiety is running high, I hold on tight to my coffee mug. I wonder what days without coffee and chocolate would be like, immediately check my privilege and go down a bleaker path. News of food shortages are becoming a lot more common, but I didn't anticipate stories on 'How to survive the Sriracha shortage…'
I purchased the fiery chilli paste by accident a few years back. It led to a search for recipes, a few tries, a lot of tweaks and pruning and finally a recipe that made its place in my arsenal. It didn't take long, had both sweet and spicy overtones, and the family loved it. Only a few recipes you try actually make the cut. So I wasn't looking to sacrifice one more comfort food in the coming years.
As it turned out, the shortage was restricted to Huy Fong, which grows peppers in southern US and northern Mexico, both of which had been impacted by a mega drought last year. According to the IPCC, climate change-induced droughts are already a major driver of food insecurity. Millets, which are being promoted as a climate resilient solution, are facing problems of their own.
Coming back to Sriracha, I was simply unaware of its popularity around the globe. Turns out that Huy Fong, founded by Vietnamese-American immigrant David Tran, was single-handedly responsible for the clout of Sriracha in the US. It's the third biggest hot sauce after Tabasco and RedHot there. The origins of the sauce, of course, are far off, in the sea side city of Si Racha. Ironically, the US brand is now being exported to Thailand.
The reason I'm talking about this now is that I'm back in the kitchen after a long absence. In my hand is a bowl of steaming rice, topped with Sriracha chicken. For now, all is good. However, before we lose all things hot and sweet, here's the recipe, shared in public interest.
Recipe: Sriracha chicken
Ingredients
250 g boneless chicken
3-4 tbsp Sriracha sauce
3 tsp sugar
6-7 cloves of garlic, chopped
Assorted veggies (capsicum, onion, baby corn, mushroom etc)
1 cup water
1 tsp pepper
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
Salt to taste
Cornflour
Spring onion greens
Method
Marinate the chicken with salt, pepper and cornflour for 20 mins. Shallow fry in a pan and set aside.
Add olive oil to a dish. Now add garlic, veggies and saute for a bit.
Add soy sauce, sriracha, sugar and water and let it simmer. Once, the curry thickens, add the fried chicken pieces.
Mix 2 tsps of cornflour in water and add to the pan. Cook till you get the desired consistency. Garnish with spring onion greens.
Serve with burnt garlic rice or steamed rice.
Ps: I prefer Pantai to Huy Fong and Real Thai, but it's not always available.
Poetry: I Am Not Done Yet – Lucille Clifton
as possible as yeast
as imminent as bread
a collection of safe habits
a collection of cares
less certain than i seem
more certain than i was
a changed changer
i continue to continue
where i have been
most of my lives is
where i’m going
Books: The Goat Thief by Perumal Murugan
This collection of short stories from the Tamilian writer takes you into the villages, where both the children and adults make a beeline for the well, hoping to escape into its depth every chance they get. There’s the consternation of the housewife who doesn’t know what to do with the accumulating rice water, usually fed to cattle. Trapped in a flat in the city, with no one to talk to, she fears the gluttony of the toilet bowl. A chair becomes the reason of domestic dispute and the battle of the sexes. You have a child wailing all night for something as simple as the salt bowl.
In each of the stories, you get to see a facet of human nature. The writer shows that it’s the same everywhere. Jealousy sprouts quicker than weed as in case of the old man who can’t sleep because his neighbour is building a house. Caste bias lays exposed as the septic tank breaks down. The language and detail of the subsequent cleanup gets up your nose, as you put yourself in place of the protagonist. The stories of the young and the old, thieves and guards, are somehow reminiscent of older, simpler times, even as the the mystical raises itself more than once in the collection. As a whole, The Goat Thief is rather underwhelming. None of the stories capture your imagination or give pause barring ‘Shit’, they simply pass on as you move to the next.
Don’t miss:
The Dropout isn't new and chances are you have already seen it. It's an interesting human study - of how a bright Stanford dropout with a gem of an idea loses her way to become a con artist, crossing all moral boundaries and putting the health of millions at risk. While it's not the most gripping series, what's scary about it is that it's based on real events. Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes did pull off a long con for years, raising billions of dollars from investors, till she was convicted of fraud last year. It’s playing on Disney-Hotstar in India.
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