Preserving The Past

Spring cleaning this year came upon quite suddenly. My terrace had to be waterproofed which led to a chain of events which eventually led to the spring cleaning part.

It all started last month when the waterproofing work had to be undertaken for the terrace area, though it was done a couple of years back, hell hath no fury like water stormed. Every monsoon season, water decides to make its personal internal river through the crevices of our house walls and we have to wake up to automatic morning showers everyday (nothing like being in one with nature). Anyway, so the waterproofing needed to be done and since it involved a surgically precision procedure of sealing every hairline crack in the exterior walls, my brother decides take the opportunity to make some changes in the exterior area by extending a tiny window in his room, having a wonderful view of the garden, to a full length, French window extension complete with a protruding sit out parapet area, which he proudly christened a “hookah zone”. Quite the contrary to the romantic area a normal person would have assumed it to be.

So one thing leads to another and he lands up planning to do up the entire room including resizing the bathroom (which is the equivalent of his room) and that would mean moving the laundry area to near the kitchen, which eventually led us to renovate the kitchen to accommodate the laundry area. Well I am not complaining considering the kitchen is my zone and I wanted it done up anyway. Funny how these things turn out.

The one thing I did not realize was that this meant shifting everything from the other room into my room, and I was in for a surprise – the amount of stuff we uselessly preserve to be “used later” is a pathetic idea in the first place.

Redundant clothes – to be given away as charity but forgotten in old suitcases

Old Suitcases – forgotten because we thought something valuable was stored in them

Old curtains and sheets – to cover the furniture while painting or redoing rooms, hasn’t anyone ever heard of plastic sheets? And its not like we redo rooms every week

Outmoded Electronics – Video games, Floppy Discs, Cassettes, single digit PDA’s, Calculators, Dial-phones – what were we thinking, in the times of Wii, Xbox’s and Ipad’s, thought we’d show our kids old electronics or so called junk so that they would look up to us cause we were cool too?

Large Steel Utensils & Oversized Tins – In the times of Tupperware and daily food and ingredients being made easily available, I don’t understand why Indian families still have the habit of storing vast amounts of grains, flour, pulses, dals and other knick knacks in hoards as though food is going out of fashion. Though we stopped the so-called “stocking” a long time back, I wonder why we bothered to keep the oversized tins. Maybe we thought someday there would be a famine and wouldn’t have place to store the sudden surge of food we’d have to buy.

Wrapping Papers, Boxes, Gift Bags, Shopping Bags, and Greeting Cards – now this I never understood how many of these things do we actually re-use? In the age of virtual junk where we refuse to clean our mailboxes, this was just a waste of space and forgotten memories.

Last but not the least, the amount of apparel we have and never use is ridiculous, we constantly buy new clothes and footwear but if you look at the times we actually wear them compared to our daily wear, we could afford to wear a different combination every single day of a dog’s life span.

The list is quite endless, and this junking seems ceaseless every spring cleaning time.

Why do we hold on to our past like this, this is a clear cut case of possessive behavior. Is it not possible to throw out the junk in our possessions or do we really need some sort of motivational factors such as “renovations” to throw out the “redundant”? What does one really think of when actually storing these items? I doubt it’s a question one can answer easily.

All this spring cleaning and preserving brings me back to my kitchen. I do tend to draw inspiration from the happenings around me and channel them towards creating dishes. Being summer and the time for preserves, I landed up experimenting with a sweet and savory preserve. Sweet Onion Jam was on my mind and I landed up bottling and freezing a good number this season.

This jam is a delicious mix of sweet caramelized onions, pigmented with red wine and enveloped in an acidic balsamic base with a hint of spice, this goes best with grilled meats or veggies and I also love topping it on fresh crusty bread every morning with a side of brie or Pepper Boursin®

Ingredients:

• 8 large Red Onions
• 30gms Salted Butter
• ¾ cup Brown Sugar
• ½ cup Corn Syrup (I used Maple or Pancake Syrup in my last batch)
• ½ cup Red Wine
• ¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar
• ¼ tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1 crushed Star Anise

Peel and slice the onions thinly, melt the butter in a large non-stick pan and add the sliced onions. Cook by stirring frequently on a medium heat till they start browning. Add the sugar and caramelize the onions well.
Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to mix well. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer over very low heat till the jam starts to thicken. This should take anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. The syrup should be thick enough to lightly coat the back of your spoon (it should be runny) and that’s when you know it’s ready.

Remove from the heat and cool under a fan, the mixture should thicken further on cooling.

Transfer into sterilized jam jars once thoroughly cooled and refrigerate if using immediately, or alternately freeze in smaller jars and use when required.

This will be one preserve which will never go waste.