My “patient” rice…
Today, I cooked “patient rice”… It was a beef curry coconut rice, and boy did this small meal take time and attention to cook, hence, patient rice! It was literally a test of patience!
It wasn’t because it was a necessarily difficult recipe, it was just that the conditions required to make a half decent meal were so volatile, that I needed to be extra careful and allow it to cook properly without burning.
I’m used to cooking with a gas burner, but this meal was cooked with an induction stove. I find induction stoves quite frustrating. Somehow, I felt that the regulating knob didn’t really differentiate between 1 or 9, 1 being the lowest heat and 9 being the highest, and I’d seen how easily simple plain rice could burn, the last time I took this stove for granted.
Also, I’m not used to cooking in small quantities. In my family, we always cook in bulk, freeze and store for later, so I’ve become used to that; it’s much trickier for me to cook smaller meals than larger ones. For instance, when I make jollof, waakye or some other rice dish at home, I’m usually cooking 9–10 cups, rather than this 1.5 cup meal I made here for just myself.
Because my plain rice disgracefully burnt the last time I used an ordinary steel saucepan, I decided this time that I would use a non-stick frying pan instead for the rice, and would keep the heat at 1.
So, initially I didn’t have in mind to make this rice meal. This morning, I just made a plain beef curry coconut sauce, which became too much stew (obviously from the problem stated above where I struggle to make small meals), so I decided to make some into a jollof style rice.
I have another problem; which further fueled my decision to make some rice of this stew… I am relatively salt intolerant now, thanks to my parents and my niece and nephew. My parents (because they are older) always request to reduce their salt intake, which reflects in how I cook. My niece and nephew also don’t like pepper, and would use any slight hint of excessive pepper as an opportunity to reject an entire meal when they are being fed, so we reduce the pepper too — it’s really a struggle because I like pepper and I like spice! Anyway, Happy Assistant Mother’s Day to me! I am an Assistant Mother to my siblings’ children!
When I eat out at restaurants, I often find their meals very salty, and I can barely enjoy it depending on the extremity.
The sauce I made seemed just a little on the salty side to me today (I told my sister-in-law this when we video called today, and she laughed, saying that it probably wasn’t that salty — she knows our family is more salt and pepper intolerant now, and whenever her family cooks for us, they adjust their ingredients for us). In fact, we have an inside joke about this!
So, (although probably fine by the standards of others), I thought to “get rid of some of it quickly” by using some of it to make rice.
I used basmati rice — that’s all I have at the moment, although I’d have preferred something else. Basmati rice can be tricky. It’s a hard rice, and requires water and yet, adding too much water too quickly can make it just a mushy, soggy, gloop!
I poured my already made sauce into the pan, washed my rice, and added water little by little, stirring constantly so that it wouldn’t burn (because any jollof style rice will want to disgrace you at the slightest opportunity)… It took a good while, with this low heat, just going through this patient process of constantly checking, stirring almost every few seconds, and adding water, and finally garnishing with some veges until voila! Patient rice is ready!
I had a virtual meeting as well, that I couldn’t miss so, this was me when I’d almost finished cooking and was taking my call. PS: next time you think I have an absolutely fab life, I want you to remember this picture… This is the “behind the scenes” of whatever chilling you think I am chilling somewhere. It’s a Sunday night at 9pm here. So yeah, this is also part of it.
I work hard; I work a lot. No one can do my job better than I can do it! I’m excellent, and I know it — it’s not bragging, it’s humble truth. I’m an absolute badass at what I do, but I wish that I didn’t have to go so hard all the time, you know… I am the last person to want to glorify overworking. Please I want a soft life…
As I cooked my food, I had the intimations and reflections of God ministering to my heart. A lot of us are like this patient rice. In so many ways, I too am like patient rice…
We may be “hard looking” or “perfect looking” to the ordinary eye, just like my Basmati rice, or sometimes the circumstances that surround our “becoming” or “success” can be volatile (like my stove and sauce pan). But God; God is the master chef. He knows just how to regulate these circumstances so that we come out looking amazing.
And sometimes things in our lives may look like a mistake — and everything that can possibly go wrong actually goes wrong; like my slightly salty beef curry coconut sauce. But God knows how to make great things come out of messy situations. He knows how to recycle our past and weave a beautiful present story from it — he knows how to make jollof style rice out of what was supposed to be an ordinary sauce. God knows how to reach into us, and make us multi-faceted.
Everyone who makes great jollof knows that you need a great sauce that’s also just borderline salty to have excellent jollof — so your mess is just perfect for the upgrade; that next level; when you hand it over to God.
And sometimes, our becoming requires low heat and staying on the fire for longer — it requires being stirred and churned by life constantly, which can seem like a painful pruning process. But it’s only because if the heat is high, we would burn so quickly that there would be nothing useful left of us.
And sometimes God doesn’t give us all the resources we need at once — like the water, he only supplies a little by little, until we plump up in size; until we are perfectly cooked through, but still holding our exterior shape well — not soggy, but perfect.
Also, every meal is different, so there’s no need to compare your process to another person’s process. You are different! Shine in your difference!
God knows how to cook you well — he has the recipe of your life figured out; and even in areas where we make mistakes, he knows how to turn them around and use them for his glory, if we allow him full reins over our lives.
I know this for a fact! I’ve seen this endlessly with my life when it comes to God. In the past, I have been stubborn, unwilling and unyielding to God’s plans for my life. I have fought God and his purpose; imagine your ingredients protesting when you want to make a meal with them!
But I am grateful that God did not desert me, that he patiently loved me to wholeness, and loved me until I loved him back. I am grateful that he did not give up on me; that he did not leave the kitchen.
I am grateful that he patiently stayed beside me as I went through the fire — that he turned me over and over again until I was properly cooked through. Did it hurt? Absolutely! I always speak about 2017 as possibly the worst year of my life — and I relate this entire story and cooking process to that time in my life, and many other challenging moments I’ve been through. But those experiences shaped me; pruned me; removed the dross and stubborn defiance in me when it came to truly submitting my life to God; made me better; and has made me a great woman that I myself can be super proud of.
When I was going through life in the most unpleasant ways, God was in the kitchen, stirring and chopping, until he made me the meal I am today. Surrendering to the master chef always secures a brilliant outcome.
And so, we are all patient rice in our own ways, and only when we submit to God, can we achieve purpose… Yield.
#robbiewrites #radiantrobbie 14.5.23
PS: Happy Mother’s Day to you all, this beautiful Sunday!
Also, I should just mention that I also have another problem. Most of the time when I cook (like this), for some strange reason, I can’t eat the food. I usually do not find it appealing until the next day. I can’t figure out why this is the case. And so, my patient rice will have to wait until tomorrow to be eaten. That alone is another test of patience — learning to delay gratification…
