What to cook for a Womad band
Womad’s Taste the World feature has flowed into a New Plymouth home. Virginia Winder writes about Kiwi hospitality, a French translator and cooking on the hop.
This food tale begins with a young French woman called Camille Cesbron. She came to our home in 2006 as a 16-year-old exchange student. She became our ‘‘French daughter’’ and still is.
In late 2011, she returned, was again embraced by our family and volunteered as a translator for Womad in March the next year.
Her first foray was to interpret for Dobet Gnahore, from Cote d’Ivoire. As part of the community programme Cesbron headed out to schools with the powerful singer and dancer, then translated for her on the Nova Energy Taste the World stage, making audiences laugh with her amusing explanations.
At this year’s Womad, from March 16 to 18, there will be 10 sessions in Taste the World, hosted by the effervescent Jax Hamilton. And out in the festival grounds, the Global Village will feature a huge variety of New Zealand and international food.
During Cesbron’s translation duties, her relationship with Gnahore grew until she asked if the singer and her band could come home for dinner. It was short notice, but her Kiwi dad Warren Smart took it all in his long-legged stride.
‘‘I suppose I’m used to cooking a BBQ for a lot of people, so it wasn’t as daunting as it may sound,’’ he says. ‘‘Having a good repertoire of recipes and having great local produce also makes it easier.’’
Naturally he chose lamb. The primary school teacher bought a leg, boned it out, stuffed the flesh with cloves of garlic, and rubbed it with oil and salt. Then he cooked it at a medium-low heat on the BBQ in a nest of fresh rosemary from the garden.
This BBQ didn’t just feature the flavours of Aotearoa. There was a Greek salad, feta infused with garlic and olive oil, tabbouleh, an aubergine dish, roasted beetroot and a salad of broad beans.
In our Womad-loving home (we’ve been to all those held in New Plymouth), our festival reach goes further. As the host for the Kiwiana Show on The MOST FM, Smart has been a stage
MC for many years, and he even introduced Gnahore.
Last year, as part of the World of Words, he interviewed New
Zealand writer Elizabeth Knox. This year, he will question Apirana Taylor after the poet’s performance at 1pm, Saturday, on the Pinetum Stage.
It’s unlikely we’ll have another impromptu BBQ this year – our
French daughter is thriving in her homeland.
But she didn’t just invite one band home for dinner.
In 2014, Cesbron volunteered to translate for singer-songwriter Emel Mathlouthi of Tunisia.
Another last-minute dinner request came and that year our household hosted the protest singer and her band. They were also served lamb with a variety of global dishes featuring local produce.
If another Womad band comes to dinner, Smart says he’d make a new aubergine dish. ‘‘It’s a Mediterranean variation of a Chinese recipe that I have adapted myself.’’
On reflection, these golden moments have been low-key affairs. There have been no social media status updates; just gatherings of people sharing the good things in life – with help from a damn handy translator.
‘‘It’s about showing Kiwi hospitality and we don’t have photos of the occasions, except in our memories,’’ Smart says.
But there’s one comment that sticks with him: ‘‘One of the guys in Dobet’s band said they get nervous about going to people’s houses for dinner because they don’t know what they’re going to get. He said, ‘But this has been fantastic’,’’ Smart says.
‘‘To me that’s the greatest compliment.’’
‘‘I suppose I’m used to cooking a BBQ for a lot of people, so it wasn’t as daunting as it may sound. Having a good repertoire of recipes and having great local produce also makes it easier.’’
BBQ Lamb
1 boned-out leg of lamb
2 tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper Rosemary sticks
3 or 4 garlic cloves
Peel garlic cloves, slice them and insert into lamb. Rub the lamb with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Heat BBQ plate on low to medium. Put half the rosemary sticks on the hot plate followed by the lamb. Put the rest of the rosemary on top of the lamb. Cook the lamb to your liking turning a couple of times. If it is getting too burnt on the outside, it can be finished off by placing in a warm oven.
Smoked Aubergine
1-2 large aubergines
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp chipotle salt Olive oil
Few leaves of fresh basil Few sprigs fresh parsley Few sprigs fresh oregano
Heat BBQ on medium low. Slice the aubergines in half lengthways. With a sharp knife, score the flesh in a crisscross pattern. Drizzle olive oil into each of the aubergine halves. Peel and thinly slice the garlic cloves and place in gaps in aubergines. Sprinkle chipotle salt (available from Vetro) over each half. Place aubergines, skin down, on the BBQ, and cook for 20 to 25 minutes. When the flesh is extremely soft, remove the aubergines from the BBQ and allow to cool. Scoop cooled flesh into a bowl being careful not to get any of the burnt skin. Chop fresh herbs and, using a fork, stir into the aubergine flesh. Serve with BBQ lamb and Mediterranean dishes.