A homeless cooking pigeon recipe from artist Braam Kruger, who believed there was no reason for the homeless not to live as aesthetes. As unemployment rises above 35% with the financial crisis and banks come knocking, maybe it is time to brush up on the homeless cooking skills you will need if you ever find yourself on the street.
Flamboyant Artist
The bearded, long-haired Braam Kruger – with red varnished fingernails and wearing a flowing robe and gold-painted velskoene with red laces – took more than colour out of South African life when he died.
He was a flamboyant artist, ceramist, fondling foodie, provocative restaurateur, radio personality, outrageous television presenter, bit-part actor, wacky food critic, designer sauce manufacturer and erotic cookbook author. It was a circle in which the only constants were hedonism, passion, love and beautiful women.
Vibrant Colours
Kruger’s vivid art is a carnival of vibrant colours; horrid greens, ghastly pinks and improbable imagery where good and bad, real and fantastic, sacred and profane, and vulgar and beautiful exist side by side. It is the meeting place of the aesthetic, the mythological and the kitsch – Venus with a vibrator, Batman with a nude. Running through it all is a witty, satirical, tempt-the-devil streak of fun that is not for sissies.
‘Art is for enjoying and it should be fun for both the artist and the viewer,’ he said.
Art of Cooking
It was the same for food. When painting became too easy he increasingly focused his creative energy on the art of cooking. ‘Yes, I’ve done many things,’ he reflected. ‘If I had it all over I would do many things again. There’s no challenge to life by merely concentrating on the things we’re good at. We only develop by continuously reinventing ourselves through tackling things we can’t do. All you need is faith in yourself.’
For a short time he owned a restaurant in Troyeville, Kitchenboy – once described ‘as a mix between a milk parlour and a
Homeless Cooking
Cooking was a passion that began when he was struggling for recognition and was forced to trap pigeons on his windowsill. Though sashimi became his favourite food, he was continually experimenting with ways in which the poor, especially the homeless, could live like gods. It was incomprehensible to him that simply because you lived on the street precluded you from being an aesthete.
In Kitchenboy for the Homeless, which he worked on in the latter part of his life, pigeons were his favourite ingredient for those living inland and shellfish for coastal dwellers. Fresh herbs can be obtained by making forays into the suburbs where these are often grown in street-side decorative beds; salt and pepper sachets can be found at most fast food outlets; and all else can be got in a clean bin near you, especially those outside restaurants.
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Homeless Cooking Pigeon Recipe What you will need:
Ingredients (for two)
Method o Make the chicken stock by bringing the chicken bones and leftovers to boil in two tins of water on the grating above the brazier. Reduce to a third. o Chop the giblets and cook in a tin with the onions, salt and pepper. Stir occasionally until the giblets are browned. Stir in bread crumbs and mint. o Rub the cavities of the birds with salt and pepper and stuff with half the giblet mixture. Pull loose skin over the cavity and secure with wire. o Bring two large tins of water to boil and add birds for about a half hour. Remove birds, skewer and cook over the open flames until browned, turning regularly. o While the birds are barbequing bring the chicken stock and remaining stuffing to boil then simmer. |
