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Rice Culture,
Aunt Gertie's Red Rice
Red
Rice, a spicy dish with onions, bell peppers and bacon.
Like every other child in her community, Gertrude Prunella Dash learned
the basics of rice preparation early. A ritual of scrubbing the grain,
boiling, but never stirring (you shake the pot) and steaming till each
kernel " stood on it's own . " Gertrude was taught to never,
ever, use a colander to steam rice--she learned to do it by measurement.
The ratio is--as it's always been--2:1; two parts water to one part rice.
To grow up a Geechee is to grow up tossed around the school of hard knocks.
Their was a lot of love in my family, on weekends we would all get together
for big family meals. My family loved to eat good food, take photographs,
smoke cigarettes with one eye closed, tell wild stories and argue. Everyone
could cook, the men, women and children. It was unheard of not to be able
to "throw down" in the kitchen.
You never wanted to make any mistakes around my family because they would
never let you forget it. I made a mistake when I was about 10. They never
let me forget it. I tried to stir a pot of Red Rice after it had started
boiling! To make matters worse, it happened on a Sunday. As far as Aunt
Gertie was concerned, I was "...Too old for that kind of nonsense..."
A dozen Geechees, family members, rushed into the kitchen to take a look
at me. I was still standing there with a big spoon in my hand. Looking
like a fool. Laughing, some of my Uncles wanted me to re-enact the scene.
Why hadn't my mother warned me? It was then that I remember that everyone
always laughed at my mother's rice. Now they were laughing at me. I was
forgiven because I had been born in New York and my mother had been born
in the Peidmont section of South Carolina so that probably had something
to do with my recklessness. Learning through humiliation and fear is certainly
not the best way to acquire knowledge--but you damn sure never forget
it! To this day I can not put a spoon in a pot of rice that cooking.
Like so many born of a South Carolina heritage, rice was more than just
a staple food for Aunt Gertie. Rice was a way of life. Rice had been in
her family for more than 300 years--it was a science and art form. Aunt
G ertie had a vested interest in a boiling pot of rice, and she taught
us all that she knew, all that she recollected.
Before cooking, Aunt Gertie would wash her rice, really scrub it in a
bowl of water until all the water was clear. Sometimes she would change
the scrubbing water up to ten times! That's if you want each kernel to
absorb her special red sauce! Every kern el of rice was scrubbed to a
shinny translucence. When she was a child, they would use the cloudy rice
water to starch their clothes.
Today as I stand over a bowl of cold water and rice, scrubbing, I feeling
Aunt Gertie watching me. Checking on me. Perhaps behind her the old souls
are watching all of us, checking on the seeds that they have planted.
Copyright ©1995 Julie Dash, for Through The Kitchen Window.
All materials ©2001 by Geechee Girls Productions, Inc unless
otherwise credited. For more information about Geechee Girls Productions
contact Geechee Girl. |