A JOURNEY IN G MAJOR AND A YOGURT AND RASPBERRY KUCHEN

Today I want to talk to you about a recipe and a movie that, in reality, is not a fiction film, but a documentary: The Journey in G Major and a yogurt and raspberry kuchen.

I came across it unexpectedly. A few days ago, I was organizing my hard drives when I found a file that some professors had given me during a documentary film workshop I took at the International Film and Television School of Cuba.

The documentary is called V ( Journey in G Major ), by director Giorgi Lazarevski. The film follows the director's journey to Morocco with his 91-year-old grandfather, Aimé. It's a trip the grandfather had dreamed of for decades and is finally able to take. Meanwhile, the grandmother stays home, waiting. I won't say much more because it deserves to be discovered without too many clues.

What moved me most was not only the tenderness of the relationship between the grandson and his grandfather, but the way in which the film speaks of those desires that we keep putting off because we believe there will still be time.

While watching the documentary, I couldn't help but wonder about my own relationship with my desires. And I thought that perhaps the question was even more interesting for those who have lived much longer than I have. If there are any older people reading this, I would love to know about their relationship with their dreams. Did they come true? Did they change over the years? Did they discover that some no longer mattered? Or are there still some patiently waiting for their moment?

Just last night I dreamt about my grandmother. In my dream, I was introducing her to my son—now a baby—who in the dream was older, about ten or twelve years old. That's impossible, because my grandmother passed away in 2017 at the age of 105.

About ten years before she passed away, I was fortunate enough to take a much smaller, but equally important, trip with my grandmother. We didn't travel through Morocco; we traveled through her memory. I asked her how she had met my grandfather, what her youth had been like, what decisions had shaped her life. She gave me stories that I treasure today and that, unfortunately, I never recorded.

And you might ask: what does all this have to do with a yogurt kuchen?

The truth is, apparently, nothing.

But when I started learning to bake cakes, it was partly because of my grandmother, long before I imagined I'd ever own a café. She was a wonderful baker. She had several unforgettable recipes, and above all, some peanut brittle that appeared every Christmas or on family birthdays inside an old metal cookie tin. It was part of the ritual.

I still haven't found the recipe written in her own hand. The day I find it, I promise to share it here.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with one of the first recipes that I truly felt I had made my own.

For a long time I tried different versions of the filling. Some had gelatin, others had too many ingredients. None had the flavor I was looking for. Until, after much trial and error, I came up with a simple recipe where the yogurt, lemon, and berries could speak for themselves.

The dough also changed completely when a pastry chef taught me a ratio I've never forgotten: 3-2-1. Three parts flour, two parts butter, and one part powdered sugar. Then, two egg yolks and a pinch of salt. He taught me to mix the butter into the flour as if I were squeezing damp sand between my hands. I never forgot it.

Over time I understood that cooking and memory work in a very similar way.

We can't always perfectly recreate a flavor. Nor can we relive certain moments. But we keep trying because, for a few seconds, we feel like those people are sitting at our table again.

A JOURNEY IN G MAJOR AND A YOGURT AND RASPBERRY KUCHEN

Dough

• 300 g of flour.

• 200g of cold butter.

• 100g of icing sugar.

• 2 egg yolks.

• 1 pinch of salt.

Mix the flour, icing sugar, and salt. Work in the butter with your hands, rubbing it in as if you were squeezing wet sand. Before it's fully incorporated, add the egg yolks and bring the dough together without kneading. Simply combine the ingredients until a ball of dough forms.

Spread it on a greased or parchment-lined baking pan and bake for 5-10 minutes at 200°C before adding the filling.

Stuffed

• 3 individual natural yogurts (or 500 ml of yogurt).

• A little more than half a can of condensed milk (or a whole can if you like it very sweet).

• The juice of half a lemon.

• 150g of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries or a mixture of red fruits.

Mix all the ingredients, pour the filling over the pre-baked base and bake for about 30 minutes at 200°C. Start checking it after 20 minutes.

It's ready when, upon slightly moving the mold, the center jiggles like jelly. It shouldn't be completely firm.

Let it cool and then put it in the refrigerator. It tastes much better cold.

Sometimes inherited

Sometimes we inherit recipes; other times we inherit the desire not to forget.

The director travels with his grandfather. I, from time to time, meet my grandmother again in my dreams.

We want the people we love to continue to be with us.

A TRIP IN G MAJOR AND A YOGURT AND RASPBERRY KUCHEN