TASTES LIKE MORE
Limiting trips to the fridge, strict day-drinking guidelines, and plenty of baking (reluctantly, at first) helped actress Kate Liquorish stay sane during lockdown
Kate Liquorish admits to bulk-buying wine prelockdown, but certainly not loo paper or canned goods.
Panic-buying. I used to associate it with Boxing Day and Black Friday, but now it has a whole new meaning. Pre-lockdown, Twitter was awash with brawls over loo paper and mile-long queues of antagonistic individuals clinging to trolleys mushrooming with canned goods. I read that one woman filled seven trolleys with supplies. Seven! The real culprits will be easily identified when they’re serving chickpea curry and lentil soup amid our first summer heatwave.
I will admit that I also panic bought, not food, but alcohol. Embarrassing amounts. But I’ve found comfort in the fact that, unlike food, it’s only going to get better with age. I haven’t wasted;
I’ve invested. However, having enough wine to sink the Titanic came with its own set of lockdown rules: no drinking before 7 pm during the week and 1 pm on weekends (even if the recipe called for wine). Sounds easy. But by day 13, it most definitely was not.
I also had to come up with some ground rules for the kitchen. Reducing my number of visits to the fridge started on day 2. It’s not that I would eat something on every visit. It’s just that I kept opening the door to see what was inside, as if something might have magically changed since I had last checked eight minutes before. To say that I struggle with meditation is an understatement, so this became my alternative practice: as if I’d find a mantra or the meaning of life cryptically lodged between the Cheddar and the wholegrain mustard.
Did you also notice that on about day 6, as a result of all the panic-buying, a lot of panic-baking ensued? Banana bread almost broke the internet. Along with their year’s supply of loo roll and chickpeas, it seems most people also stocked up on flour, bananas and eggs. What do you do with week-old bananas and screaming children? So many things come to mind. But the majority opted for the bread. A friend joked that, after this, no one will ever ask a stay-at-home mom what she does all day. True story.
I swore I’d avoid the baking thing.
I’m no lemming and I didn’t want to eventually emerge from my home looking like the Titanic that’s sunk all the booze.
But I did need to make something to go with the Cheddar … and all that wine.
To be honest, my personal journey with baking also began out of boredom. It became a countdown of sorts: a Corona advent calendar of baked goods paving the way to my freedom. Plus, it became the only thing that really stopped me from diving head-first into a bottle of gin by noon. So I did it. I made the banana bread. I made the rolls for our boerie rolls. I made focaccia. I even made sourdough from scratch (thank you, Abigail, I used your recipe).
And this is where one of the greatest positives of this whole thing lies: people are back in their kitchens. They’re cooking like never before, and they’re teaching their kids about different cuisines and ingredients. If you want a burger or a pizza you’re going to have to make it yourself! Bravo!
We’ve also been pushed to simplify things; to scale down and consider single ingredients and how to be creative with them. Seasonality has been nudged our way and we’re embracing it: what’s available is what will be on tonight’s menu.
We’re going to come out of this thing stronger, a little pudgier and far better cooks than ever before. I’d say that’s some rather delicious food for thought.
On that note, it’s 6:58 pm. I’m going to go to the kitchen to investigate which wine I can pair with my seed loaf.
We’re going to come out of this thing stronger, a little pudgier, and far better cooks than ever before”
Kate Liquorish is an actress ( Queen Sono on Netflix and Still Breathing on M-Net) and food writer.
Find her on Instagram: @kateliquorish and @smackyourlipspodcast