I have a kind of evening ritual. I get home from work, get out of the mumsy, work appropriate gear, get into jeans and pick a CD. Recent choices include: Antony and the Johnsons, I am a Bird Now, Peter, Bjorn and John's self-titled album and The Killers, Sawdust. Then, with a soundtrack established, I set to work on whatever recipe I've chosen for the evening with a glass of wine within easy reach. It's not much but I look forward to it. Tonight I went back to another rescued recipe: Prawns with rice noodles, lemongrass and ginger. One of the best parts of this dish - apart from the meditation-inducing need to chop a number of things very finely - is the smell. First the earthy, sweet smell of baby corn hitting the peanut oil, then the fresh little prawns, then chilli, lemongrass, garlic and ginger (plus baby bok choy) and finally the oyster sauce and soy. You wouldn't think the Las Vegas stylings of The Killers would be the right accompaniment for these flavours but it really works. I remember seeing a gift set for sale some years ago with crappy pasta-making tools and a CD of Italian opera - presumably on the grounds that you've got to match your meal to your music. I favour a more freestyle approach to this kind of thing with the exception that baking needs to take place to music that has a certain degree of lightness to it - it's in the same vein as the souffle/romance theory from Sabrina but you don't have to regulate your emotional state. I recommend Camille's Le Fil and the earlier tracks of Regina Spektor's Begin to Hope. After that, things get a little less hopeful and your cake may sink in the middle in an expression of sympathy.
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