Sweet Potato and Turmeric Tortilla

by Diana 

With the reopening of parks and gardens we have embraced the opportunity to escape to nature and to restore there all our lockdown wounds. I always reference nature’s containing quality, and the immediacy in which helps you reconnect with everything that goes beyond oneself. For me nature is the place where I feel held as it gives me perspective, reminding me that I am just a tiny element belonging to a much wider landscape. It's hopeful when offering me multiple routes ahead and inviting as there are other challenging mountains to climb out there. Hence nature gives me awareness, balance and tranquility. But peacefulness can’t be found in starvation and hence the need of  making wise choices when it comes to reflective picnicking. As we are not a sandwich fan type of family I have been committed to offer my love ones a cold food solution that will fulfil their tummies whilst nature does the rest. This tortilla was a complete success measured by every mouthful that my little nearly one-year-old food critic kept to himself!

© The Teaspoon

Carrot Cake

by Diana 

Anyone would have thought that carrot cake is just one of those basic, amateur recipes that could blindly be made. I remember it was possibly the first cake recipe that I followed as a child. It was a good recipe though, the one they used to make at my grandma's house. She lived in a place that translates from Spanish as 'The Paradise', and, funnily enough, it may well have been that it was just the abode of cake, baking heaven, where nothing could possibly go wrong in the oven. From a more objective perspective, my grandma had the most extraordinary cook living with her, an Ecuadorian lady blessed with talented skills- my brother even named one of his children after her- so you get an idea of how much we loved her carrot cake!  With the pass of time I lost my ‘little mermaid’ recipe notebook and with it the grace of carrot cake making. Years of carrot cake curse followed and I then gave up and was terrified to use the orange-coloured root to make anything other than bland soup. But the pandemic lockdown have empowered me with courage and I decided to break with the curse once and for all. Apologies in advance to any cream cheese icing fans out there, but I like my carrot cake just at it is, simple, spongy and a bit 'nuts' as I am,  but ‘paradisiac’ as this recipe turned out to be.  Enjoy it!

© The Teaspoon

Preserved Aubergines

by Diana

I am in the home stretch of what seems to has been a fugacious maternity leave. Time has always played a part - either a hero or a villain - and I always dread it one way or another as it represented a beginning and an end of moments where I wanted to stay still and forever capture. But time, as it is, was inevitably going to run out and hence, I raced against it.  Sometimes I wanted to be a sponge and I certainly achieved it by absorbing every possible second of the experiences I planned for me and my baby and, as much as I love my job, I knew these last 10 months were simply temporary. I know there is another journey to embark upon straight after this and I am excited about it but also conscious that the time curse will be looming wherever we go. 

Perhaps these preserved aubergines were just an excuse for me to offload some of these thoughts or possibly they are a way to project my desire of conserving such precious time but ultimately they are indeed a time saver and a delight to keep at hand when running out of moments or when rushing about in the kitchen when the only important thing is just to open the jar and remain still. 

© The Teaspoon