Room by Emma Donoghue with Recipe by Lee Majhen-Todd
Author
I’ve chosen books by Emma Donoghue for Foodie Book Club before and there’s a reason for that.
I won’t bore you with my meanderings about that until later in this post and there’s no reason to re-invent the wheel, so this short bio of Emma is from the post earlier in the year when Foodie Book club read was Learned By Heart.
The youngest of eight children, Emma Donoghue attended a catholic convent school in her home city of Dublin.
Born 1969, she worked hard and achieved an honours BA in English and French.
Going on to receive a PHD from Cambridge in 1997, Emma claims to have never had an ‘honest job’ after being sacked from a month working as a chamber made.
Since then, writing has been the thing which has paid her rent.
In 1998, Emma settled down in London Ontario with her partner and two children.
Room is the seventh book by Emma Donoghue.
Not just a best seller it was also made into a film released in 2015.
Over her 30 year career, her books have covered diverse subjects such as an island in Haven, a maternity ward in The Pull of the Stars to an 11ft by 11ft space in her bestseller Room.
Emma Donoghue
Book. - Room Emma Donahue
Released in 2010, this story is told from the viewpoint of Jack, a five year old boy who is being held captive along with his twenty six year old mother, ‘Ma’.
Held captive in ‘Room’ since her abduction when she was nineteen, by Old Nick. With mental and physical exercise, Ma tried to keep Jack heathy and happy in the fortified and secured room in an outbuilding.
The room, containing a small kitchen, bathroom, wardrobe, bed and TV set, was all that Jack had ever known and because of this, his reality is skewered. Ma let shim believe that only the room the things it contains and they two are real, and that the rest of the world only exist inside the television.
There is only one other person who comes into the Room, Old Nick, the person who abducted Ma, Jacks father.
Coming onto the Room to bring necessities such as food, and to regularly rape his mother, Jack isn’t aware that they are kept there by force.
After Jacks fifth birthday, Ma finds out that Old Nick hasn’t had a job for the last six months. She worries that the house will be reclaimed by the bank and instead of letting them go, he would kill them.
It’s up to Jack to set them free, and Ma comes up with a plan she hopes works. Pretending that Jack is dead, Old Nick takes him out side Room, wrapped in a rug. Jack escapes, and is able to give the police enough information for them to find the Room and release Ma.
Once to of Room, Ma has to learn how to re-enter the world and Jack beyond to learn what the real world Is and their place in it.
The book has been listed for many literary prizes and won many too. It has been adapted to a film and was nominated for four Academy Awards.
January Foodie Book Club Read
My Thoughts
I loved this book, even if at times it was a little harrowing to read and i found it a little rushed in places.
I must have been one of the only people in the UK who hadn’t heard of this book before choosing it for the Foodie Book Club, and I’m so glad I did.
I felt it was really well written, and writing from the perspective of a small child, was a genius idea. It has an innocence that is in perfect contrast with what is happening within the story.
Having the rapist, Old Nick, as a character who flits in and out of the room, left the two main character, Ma and Jack, able to use him as a source of unseen fear and conflict throughout the story.
Once Jack rescues Ma from the ‘Room’ they begin their journey together into their new life. Although I find the concept of the rescue needed to happen in that way to be able to move the story forward, and to keep the characters in the book down to a minimum, it still felt to me, a part of the book that felt rushed.
After the escape, I was interested to find out how Jack would fare in the real world, and I was a little disappointed how it read. I loved the time spent on re-immersing them back into the world, and would have liked to have more time spent on their journey. Maybe I just wanted the book to go on longer. A longer book would have solved this problem. Maybe a second book, following on from their last visit to ‘Room’ showing were they are a few years after that.
Because of Jacks lack of interactions, he must have personality traits which would have to be worked in throughout his life, his relationships with others, relationships with his mother especially if she pursues a relationship with a man.
I did like the fact that they revisited the ‘Room’. It felt as if it could lead to more insights into where they were emotionally, but it didn’t. Again, I felt as if this part of the book was rushed leading me to the same rushed criticism I had for other parts of the book. Meeting a deadline?
Overall, I loved the book, but would have loved more psychological insights into where Ma and Jack were during their time in the room, when they left and where they were going forward.
I give the book a 4 egg rating.
I give it a four egg rating
Chef
Thats me, so if you want to know more, go to the Who Am I page (Click the link) to find out more.
Recipe
Spicy Chinese Pork Belly
I made this for a new year get together with my daughter along with my beef and broccoli dish - Click the link to be taken to the recipe page.
We decided to make a Chinese fake away dinner which also included home made egg fried rice with onions and red pepper, and some paprika mushrooms, and it was all worth it, and with some left over for the next day too. I do love next day food.
This pork belly recipe is one that’s perfect to make ahead. In fact, because it needs to be eaten at room temperature, it works so well as a make ahead dish to go along with other dishes that need to be cooked a little closer to the time of eating.
Basically, it’s a case of shoving the belly pork in the oven and letting it cook away until the skin is crispy and the meat is juicy.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
On a serving plate and sprinkled with chopped spring onions.
What You Need
Pork Belly
3kg Pork Belly - See Tip Box
3 tbsp Runny Honey
Malden Sea Salt
Fish Ground Black Pepper
3 Large Spring Onions - Roots removed and chopped into rough pieces.
Sauce
500g Dark Muscovado Sugar
200ml Dark Soy Sauce - See Tip Box
20ml Sesame Oil
150ml Rice Wine
50ml Ponzo Ouzo
6 Garlic Cloves - Minced
3 Heaped White Miso Paste
2 Heaped tsp Five Spice Powder
2 tbsp Runny Honey
2 tbsp Ground Red Chilli Peppers Paste - See Tip Box
How It’s Done
Pork Belly
Turn the oven to 350c and let it het up
While the oven is heating, use paper towels to thoroughly dry the pork belly skin
Using a very sharp knife and cut through the skin of the belly pork, making sure to cut right through the skin and through the fat.
When cutting, make sure the cuts are at an angle and are in sections of around two inch squares - See Tip Box
Dry the skin again with kitchen paper
Sprinkle the skin with the sea salt and grind fresh black pepper over the skin.
Place the prepared pork belly into a roasting tin and into the hot oven.
Cook the pork belly in the very hot oven for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, turn the oven down to 200 c and let the pork belly cook for at least 3 hours.
After 3 hours, remove the pork belly from the oven and drizzle over 3 tbsp of the runny honey, brushing the honey all over the skin and in the cuts.
Replace the pork back into the oven for 3 more minutes and then remove the pork belly and let it rest while yo make the sauce.
Sauce
Place all the sauce ingredients into a sauce pan
Mix everything together thoroughly.
Heat the sauce gently until it comes to a boil, making sure to occasionally stir so the sauce doesn’t stick to the bottom of the saucepan.
Let the sauce boil for around two minutes so all the sugar melts and everything is melted into everything else.
Pour the sauce into a large bowl.
Remove the rested belly pork from the roasting tin onto a chopping board.
Use a very sharp knife, follow the the already cut skin and cut through the skin, the fat and the meat of the belly pork cutting he belly pork into pieces.
If the belly pork has ribs (bones) attached, use the sharp knife to remove them before cutting the meat up and separate them with a knife.
While the meat is still warm, place all the pieces of meat into the the sauce and use some tongs to mix the meat into the sauce.
Let the warm meat sit in the warm sauce for a couple of hours. Don't put the bowl in the fridge, it needs to cool completely in the sauce.
Every thirty minutes or so, use tongs to mix the meat into the sauce so that all the pieces get a good coating.
When ready to serve the pork, use tongs to remove the pieces of belly pork onto a serving plate and sprinkle over the cut spring onions.
Pour the sauce into a serving jug and serve along side the pork belly.
Tip Box
Size of Pork Belly - The size of the pork belly obviously depends on how many you are catering for, but this dish is delicious eaten at room temperature the next day. Also, the amount of sauce is perfect for the size of the belly pork in this recipe.
Ground Red Chilli Pepper Paste - I’m a bit in love with this paste so I have it to hand and use it in p[lace of fresh chillies a lot. So, if you don’t have this paste, and I would recommend that if given the chance, you grab a jar, use fresh chillies instead. Make sure the chillies are grated so they are minced and not in any sizeable pieces.
Cutting through the skin - When cutting the pork belly before cooking, it makes it so much easier to cut after cooking, if the pork belly is cut right the way through the thick pork skin and into the flesh of the pork.
Soy Sauce - If you want other cut down on your salt intake, use a less salty soy sauce, but the recipe really needs to be a dark soy sauce.
