Love knows unexpected boundaries

Sometimes we fall in love with something (or someone), for no apparent reason, and want more and more of it (or them) in our lives. So it went, I gather, for Kirsty MacColl and the Latin-American rhythms that spice many of the songs on her album Tropical Brainstorm. What I love about this album is how MacColl's already-spicy personality and humor mix with these new beats. Songs from the albim aren't available on Youtube due to copyright issues, but you can hear part of my favorite, "Treachery," in this drawing tutorial.* Here are the complete lyrics to "Treachery." (The third verse is my absolute favorite.)

I'm stalking a fan
He lives in a high rise block
And here I am
He shouldn't have turned my rock
He's brushing his teeth
He doesn't look bad from this far
I'm hailing a cab
And I'm gonna follow his car
Wherever he goes
I won't be too far behind
Just hanging around
Driving him out of his mind

Treachery made a monster out of me
Treachery made a monster out of me

I'm stalking a fan
He used to write all the time
How lovely I am
He really made me feel fine
But how they forget
He needed a wake-up call
And he will regret
Having been so shallow
He made me believe
That I was some kind of myth
So here I am
How could he treat me like this?

Treachery made a monster out of me

Treachery made a monster out of me
Treachery made a monster out of me

Treachery made a monster out of me

Wherever he goes
I won't be too far behind
Just hanging around
Driving him out of his mind

I'm stalking a fan
He's gone to the record store
To buy a CD
By some other girl not me
He's taking her home
Getting her out of her box
And putting her on
And dancing around in his socks

Treachery made a monster out of me
Treachery made a monster out of me
Treachery made a monster out of me
Treachery made a monster out of me

Getting her out of her box
Treachery
And dancing around in his socks
Treachery
Treachery
And dancing around in his socks
Treachery
Driving him out of his mind

Sometimes we love something so much, we need to adopt it into our own traditions. For me, it was fresh turmeric. I ran into it in Russo's market one day, and have never been the same, since. Fresh turmeric doesn't taste anything like dried, powdered turmeric to me. It's in the ginger family, and something about its flavor does seem gingery. It also has the resin-y, peppery taste of fresh galangal (another member of the ginger family), and a kind of startling freshness all its own. That might not sound delicious, but I say, try it. You, too, might find it life-changingly delicious. In addition, its brilliant, saffron-robe orange makes powdered turmeric look dull. (It will color anything it touches that same brilliant orange, so be careful.)

For a few years, my love of fresh turmeric caused me to cook a lot of Indian food. Then I realized love has, maybe not no boundaries, but certainly different boundaries than that. (Love has plenty of boundaries--see MacColl's words of stalking--but they're often not where we expect them to be.) I started adding fresh turmeric to more and more kinds of food. In such an experiment, I decided to try it with fresh cranberries (another love of mine). I like the combination enough to make this dish regularly, when fresh cranberries are in season.

In this recipe, the combination of turmeric and cranberries turns the lighter-colored ingredients a deep orange-pink. The recipe is much, much less sweet than traditional American cranberry sauce. I put in the bare minimum of sugar because I like the natural tartness of the cranberries. For traditional-cranberry-sauce sweetness, you could double the sugar, to start. It's an effective side dish for milder-flavored things. It's good for breakfast, and also over vanilla ice cream.


Not exactly cranberry sauce:

about a 1-inch cube fresh ginger
about 1/2 inch fresh turmeric
1 cup cranberries
1 slightly unripe pear (I use bosc pears for this recipe, but you can experiment)
1 apple
2 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt

Grate or mince the ginger and turmeric. A ginger grater works best for this task. Dice the pear and the apple into more-or-less cranberry-sized pieces. Combine everything in a heavy-bottomed pot and cook over medium heat, suitrring frequently, for ten minutes. You want the cranberries to burst and soften, but the apple and pear to retain some of their crispness.

*Thank you to Marc Mancuso, for finding this video