The Blogging Journey

I have been fiddling about in the blogosphere since 2014. The blogging was initially inspired by school pals (I will not say old, but you get the drift – longstanding) who wanted to know how I cooked what was in the photographs that I shared. I also wanted to find out whether I had a voice other than my professional, formal voice – potentially to get other, different writing work. The only way to do that was to write.

It didn’t take me long to discover that —

just writing recipes was boring
I couldn’t just write about the recipes: I felt compelled to write the stories around them, their ingredients and, in some cases, where they came from – yes, it’s bad grammar – it’s not clear who they are…

I started writing about other stuff, and The Cat’s Mother emerged and the favourites became more than just food, but life’s happenings – including some “un” favourites

I started taking the odd photograph…

Fiona’s Favourites became reflections in, on and round about….with a lot of cooking on the side.

And then

In 2017 I was invited to join a social blockchain where, through blogging, I might earn crypto currency – just before the bull run ended. I fiddled about a bit, and two years later, I am still there, and post directly to the Hive blockchain using the Exxp WordPress plugin. I am part of a growing community that produces content . It’s not just the prospect of earning that keeps us there, it’s also, as is the case in the blogosphere, generally, the community of like-minded individuals one meets and the friendships that develop – in cyberspace – and which flow from the virtual into the real.

Fiona’s Favourites has evolved to the point that it covers a multitude of topics, musings and rants, ranging from my original focus – cooking – to life, and my participation in that crypto blogging world.

Writing

The urge (I hesitate to say inspiration) to write is one that I’d suppressed for years, but has been allowed to emerge thanks to the friends and strangers who read my blog (and look at the photographs) – and who want more.

For some, the topics are trivial and fluffy, for others, less so. Regardless, I have elected, in this space, to stay away (as far as possible) from politics, religion and bad wine… So, Fiona’s Favourites is mostly a happy place, although, from time to time, sadnesses happen: all part of the fabulous fabric of life.

There is more about my blogging journey here.

Blog folk (aka dramatis personae)

Out of respect for the privacy of friends and family, they are not mentioned by name. They are, in no particular order:

The Cats’ Father – my very longsuffering husband. Sometimes known as The Man-in-the-Skirt and, of course, The Husband

The Cats’ Mother – me, myself, and I. Sometimes called Gladys and Serenity (!)

Mr Mac – McGregor local, Scot, foodie, theatre, opera and movie buff (and member of the Grammar Police)

Menagerie Mum – longtime friend and colleague, currently living in Johannesburg, and who is mum to two very tall teenage boys and an assorted menagerie of cats, dogs and not least, Louise, the chicken, now in chicken heaven

Mark Maatjie – fellow stall holder and purveyor of vegetables and fruit at the McGregor pop-up market, not to mention, producer of the best chicken curry in the village

More, I am sure, will be added…

Read these, too

Blog pals with whom I share real (not virtual) friendship, i.e. they have been or are a part of my life or a past life….and with whom I still stay in touch.

Under the Milkwood Tree, like mine, is an evolving blog. Jeanette is a journalist and writer. Many moons ago, at Rhodes University, we lived in the same corridor. We lost touch, and through the passage of time, the social media and, more importantly, shared interests, we have reconnected.
American Soustannie: You can take someone away from Africa, but Africa never leaves her. Belladonna Took is one such now living in the USA. Our one meeting, over tea, will remain with me as a surprising meeting of kindred spirits. After a hiatus, I’m delighted she’s resumed writing and blogging. Funny, self deprecating and always real.
Navel-Gazing 101: Briony describes herself as a relentless people-watcher and eavesdropper with itchy feet and a predilection for adventure and stories. And then she chucks in the parenthetical comment that she’s in a wheelchair. Well, she’s another fellow old Rhodian, a prodigious blogger, brave woman who’s wheels are firmly on the ground. She has a zest for life that should be a lesson to us all. I am delighted to have had the opportunity of meeting her, and of serving a Sandbag House supper to her and GM.
Crow’s Feet is Michelle Frost’s award-winning blog. Michelle is school mate of mine, born in Africa, living in Scotland and who is an author and poet. Many parallels in our journeys to discovering who we are.

Then there are blogs I’ve discovered through my blogging journey, whose writers have become “blog pals”, and with whom I have the most fascinating virtual conversations. They are, in no particular order:

Traci York is my witchy blog pal from New Hampshire. I kid you not. In addition to her weekly and unmissable Tuesday Tarot readings, her blog is eclectic and as cheerful as the witch herself.
Plants to Planks – a blog and website about plant-based foods to fuel an active lifestyle. Katie Jensen is a personal trainer, nutrition coach and accidental vegan from Atlanta. Topping it all, she’s a downright nice person. In addition to having self-published her first recipe book, her blog is full of fabulous ideas for plant-based recipes. She and I have great fun exchanging ideas about plant-based cooking. One day, we hope, to share a kitchen – not just virtually.
Nicky Havey describes himself as a blogger, traveller and a producer of electronic liquid drum and bass music. His travel blogs are legend, and if you like electronic music (it’s growing on me), this is a fab place to begin. Oh, and he happens to be one of the punniest people I know! Another thing: he’s considering a visit to South Africa which could necessitate his blog moving from this list to the one above.
Where to next? Riding in cars with dogs and What’s cooking on page 32? Peggy’s husband is a former Australian diplomat and they love traveling which tells you about the first blog. The second is about cooking and has its own story – take a look.
The Drunken Cyclist is an erstwhile tour guide in France (not French) and has been noted as one of the top 100 wine bloggers in the US. In addition to writing knowledgeably (very) about wine (and being a cyclist), Jeff’s stories of his time in France are often both self-deprecating and hilarious. He’s being tempted (nagged) to visit South Africa where we have some of the best cycling … ahem … wine…. If he does, we shall sip good wine together, and this blog will also shift to the first list…
Notes from the UK: Ellen Hawley is an American author living in Cornwall. Her perspective on Brits and living in the UK can be both acerbic and screamingly funny. Having grown up with British parents, and in a society that harks back to Britain, I often see in it, them and myself.
Traci York is my witchy blog pal from New Hampshire. I kid you not. In addition to her weekly and unmissable Tuesday Tarot readings, her blog is eclectic and as cheerful as the witch herself.
Plants to Planks – a blog and website about plant-based foods to fuel an active lifestyle. Katie Jensen is a personal trainer, nutrition coach and accidental vegan from Atlanta. Topping it all, she’s a downright nice person. In addition to having self-published her first recipe book, her blog is full of fabulous ideas for plant-based recipes. She and I have great fun exchanging ideas about plant-based cooking. One day, we hope, to share a kitchen – not just virtually.
Nicky Havey describes himself as a blogger, traveller and a producer of electronic liquid drum and bass music. His travel blogs are legend, and if you like electronic music (it’s growing on me), this is a fab place to begin. Oh, and he happens to be one of the punniest people I know! Another thing: he’s considering a visit to South Africa which could necessitate his blog moving from this list to the one above.
Where to next? Riding in cars with dogs and What’s cooking on page 32? Peggy’s husband is a former Australian diplomat and they love traveling which tells you about the first blog. The second is about cooking and has its own story – take a look.
The Drunken Cyclist is an erstwhile tour guide in France (not French) and has been noted as one of the top 100 wine bloggers in the US. In addition to writing knowledgeably (very) about wine (and being a cyclist), Jeff’s stories of his time in France are often both self-deprecating and hilarious. He’s being tempted (nagged) to visit South Africa where we have some of the best cycling … ahem … wine…. If he does, we shall sip good wine together, and this blog will also shift to the first list…
Notes from the UK: Ellen Hawley is an American author living in Cornwall. Her perspective on Brits and living in the UK can be both acerbic and screamingly funny. Having grown up with British parents, and in a society that harks back to Britain, I often see in it, them and myself.

This list will grow (or shrink, as the case may be). My informal criteria for selecting blogs I like reading:

topics that interest me
people who write what they like
what they have to say is compelling – whether or not I agree with them

Windfalls and Wondrous Words

Peach Chutney - recipe - Fiona's Favourites

8 February 20169 January 2023 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

I have mentioned before that words fascinate me. With my recent foray into making chutney, when The Husband and I were discussing what should go on the label of Jan Boer’s special bottle, he asked if I was going to use the Afrikaans word for chutney, blatjang. What ultimately went on the label is not important, but it did set me wondering. Both English and Dutch, and therefore also Afrikaans, are Indo-European languages, so the roots of some words are common. Often, words are similar, like “day” and “dag”; “light” and “lig”; and “lemon” which, in Afrikaans is “suurlemoen” (direct translation: sour lemon).

I discovered, nearly 20 years ago, on a trip to Mallorca, that I could get by, in the Old City of Palma, with less than rudimentary Spanish and Afrikaans to buy spices, vegetables and fruit: “pomelo” is the Afrikaans word for grapefruit. I was very proud of myself when, as a thank you to my host, I was able to successfully shop for the necessary spices and other bits and bobs to make a traditional South African supper of bobotie, boereboontjies and geelrys with melktert for dessert*.

There were many Spanish words I could understand when I saw them written. For example, furniture shops: their names included “meubles” which is the same spelling as the Afrikaans word for furniture.

So where did “blatjang” come from?

Before I had satisfied my curiosity, and ending our week in the usual way, at the local pub, Jan Boer (yes, he of apricot fame), sent us home with another tray piled with fruit. This time, yellow cling peaches.

Windfalls. They really were. In every sense.

This summer, the weather has been badly out of kilter: very little wind in November and December, but some howling gales last month. With equally unseasonally high temperatures, the farmers haven’t been thrilled and when the harvest is underway, and the wind howls, it can wreak havoc with ripening fruit.

Too Scottish to look a gift-horse in the mouth (with no apologies for the mixed metaphors), something had to be done. Some were stewed: summer comfort food. Retro peaches and custard.

The peaches provided The Husband with something sweet while I was away…

The rest were mostly made into chutney – in some ways a very different process from apricot chutney because of the nature of the fruit: peaches are furry; their pips are not easy to liberate and I had decided two other things: a recipe that didn’t necessitate a visit to the shops meant no dried fruit. Secondly, it should not have the same spice profile as the apricot chutney.

“Un-furring” the peaches

The first task was to try to “un-fur” the peaches. Standard instructions for doing this is very similar to those for skinning tomatoes with the added step of blanching them in iced water after their boiling plunge.

Well, as my old Dad would have said, that was a good game, played slow: even with The Husband’s help, those skins were not very obliging. It wasn’t only the pips that clung to those peaches! Contrary to all the “destructions” contained on websites and in recipe books, the skins did not just slip off.

After cogitating on this, I came to the conclusion that if the skin clung to that extent, the chutney wouldn’t be contaminated by awful bits of stringy epidermal tissue, and the worst that could happen was that the peach bits would have a bit of extra texture.

Skinning abandoned, the peaches were “segmented” and added to the pot with the other ingredients.

And cooked. And cooked.

Peach chutney

For this batch:

2kg peaches, pipped (only half were peeled)
800g sugar
800ml wine vinegar (combination of red and mostly white because that’s what I had)
35g fresh ginger, chopped
6 onions (white), halved and thinly sliced
12 cardamom pods, lightly cracked
6 jalapeño chillies, thinly sliced

Put all the ingredients in a large, non-reactive pot (stainless steel or enamel) over a medium heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and simmer, stirring from time to time until the peaches are soft and translucent. This will take an hour to an hour and a half. After about half of the time, keep an eye on it and stir more frequently so that the chutney doesn’t catch and burn. Pot in sterilised jars.

In addition to the different flavour profile from the apricot chutney, peach chutney is chunkier and sweeter which is offset by the chillies.

Oh, and If you’d like a printable version of the recipe, you can download it here. When you do, buy me a coffee?

Back to the words

Chutney bottled, I returned to my word search. It turns out that in 19th century South Africa, “blatjang” (pronounced blut–chung) had two meanings: a condiment and a specific dish (sadly, none of my research revealed what that specific dish might have been unless it was merely an idiomatic expression). The condiment blatjang is described as a relish made from dried chillies and dried apricots, stewed in vinegar.

Regardless of these two meanings, the sources all agree that the word crept into the Dutch and therefore, also Afrikaans, via Malaysia and Indonesia.

As I worked through the various sources, thinking about the spice trade and the rise (or fall) of the Dutch and English as colonial powers, it all fell into place. The Dutch East India Company centred on Indonesia and had a presence in Cape Town to supply passing ships with essential vittles. It all makes sense, especially with the strong influence in the Cape from the Malay slaves who not only brought their cuisine, but also their language to the Cape, profoundly influencing the development of Afrikaans from the original Dutch.

Chutney, on the other hand, is an Anglicisation of a Hindi word: “chatni”, which means “to lick”, and which referred to side dishes made of fruit. These, of course, included spices. The word also seems to have emerged in English in the 19th century and as the English so often do, they made these dishes their own by “pickling” the relishes with vinegar, and calling them “chutney”.

In Afrikaans, blatjang is now accepted as what we now understand in English as chutney, which is as I discovered when I was looking for a recipe for the apricot chutney, is a relish made with fruit, spices and vinegar – with or without chillies and/or onions.

Similarly, with the British Empire, the Indian Raj, and curry having become, in the minds of some, England’s national dish, makes the etymology of chutney absurdly obvious.

If you’re interested

Here is a list of some of the websites I visited in this wondrous word search.

http://sesquiotic.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/blatjang/
http://www.etymonline.com
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com
http://www.dsae.co.za

* bobotie is a spiced mince with an egg custard topping
boereboontjies – literal translation is “farmer’s beans” and consists of a stew of tomatoes, onion and green beans and, traditionally with a couple of shin bones thrown in. Among the party that evening were vegetarians, so the meat was omitted
geelrys or yellow rice is cooked with turmeric, cinnamon and sultanas
melktert – a baked custard tart

Until next time, be well
Fiona
The Sandbag House
McGregor, South Africa

Post script
If this post might seem familiar, it’s because I’m doing two things:

re-vamping old recipes. As I do this, I am adding them in a file format that you can download and print. If you download recipes, buy me a coffee. Or better yet, a glass of wine….?
and “re-capturing” nearly two years’ worth of posts.

I blog to the Hive blockchain using a number of decentralised applications.

- From WordPress, I use the Exxp WordPress plugin. If this rocks your socks, click here or on on the image below to sign up.

- Join Hive using this link and then join us in the Silver Bloggers’ community by clicking on the logo.

- I also share my ~~occasional~~ Instagram posts to the crypto blockchain using the new, and really nifty phone app, Dapplr. On your phone, click here or on the icon, and give it a go.