COOKING BY PHONE..

It had to happen - son moves from res to digs at UCT and the inevitable phone call comes. "Mum, how do you cook mince?" Now this, as any self respecting cook will know, is a tricky question. After all having grown up on school lunches in the UK, until I was around 20 I thought all mince was grey... It turned out he was making his six housemates tacos, so at least he had some vague instructions on the box, together with a packet of herbs and some sauce. "Ok, Rob chop up three onions and cook them slowly 'til they're brown." "That's easy," came the confident reply. "Good - then when that's done add your mince, turn up the light and cook 'til it's brown and then add some chopped tomatoes, tomato puree".. and I gave him the rest of the recipe. An hour went by before my phone beeped with a 'please call me' - students don't actually make phone calls to their parents, just please call me's. "How do you know when mince is brown?" came the question. Now to most people this would be obvious, but unfortunately my son inherited my father's colour blindness. "How long have you been 'browning' boy?" "Quite a while," came the reply. I could almost see the greyness before me. I then advised him to immediately chuck everything else him, turn it down after it had come to the boil and hope for the best." A while went by before the next phone call "How do you know how much salt to put in". An emergency light went on in my mind with a vision of him adding it by the tablespoon - I quickly asked "You haven't put any in yet have you?" "No, not yet". He was quite surprised when I suggested adding it very slowly. A couple of hours later I got an sms "Dinner worked out well" luv yu, Rob." Can't wait for the next lesson - hope it's not curry.