The temple of earthly delights
Just hanging out here on a saturday night at home, contemplating some of the small mysteries. Why is it that just tomato and garlic together in a pan roasting can smell so good? How exactly do weavils get into everything - and if they chew through plastic to get into bags of polenta (just for example) do they spit or swallow the plastic on the way through? How do you know when your spice collection is stale? Will I really reuse that empty glass maple syrup bottle that I've just washed out and take it to a food co-op for refilling with something else?
As you may or may not have pieced together, I am in fact cooking, and celaning out my shelf in the pantry. Which, with music and flowers, and nice smells, colourful clutter, a cold beer, and thoughts of the day, is rather lovely.
Have been thinking about food choices, as I grabbed my housemates 'vegan cookbook', looking for something exciting to do with cabbage, and then had a moment of thinking 'ooh, lookee here - my vegan housemate is away and nonetheless I'm cooking vegan by choice' - which was interesting. That moment when something you had been doing for one reason you now wonder if you do for another reason. which is not to say that I think vegan is the answer to all the ethical food woes a modern diet faces, as per a converstaion with a friend last week about his concerns about monocultures of soy being a horror habitat-wise, but I personally am happy to eat less dairy, and to cut down on eggs to the few-times-a-year 6-pack. And what I mean by happy, is 'happier'. As in, feeling more satisfied that my life reflects what I think and my values, and is not driven just by habit and convention. (Not to go into an anti-dairy rave here, I love marinated fetta and blue cheese as much as the next gal, and continue to eat them, but in a nutshell also do kind of think that drinking something made for baby animals all your life through adulthood is kind of weird. And I don't like knowing that I contribute to large scale factory farming).
Other food musings relates to the vegie box I've been getting delivered. Is not quite the same as walking, basket in hand, to the local farmers market a few times a week for freshly picked, dew-studded produce, or cycling to the food co-op to to have social contact and be part of the locall community (as my fantasy life would have it) but is miles better than the real life zombie excursions to supermarkets I'd do randomly through the week after long days at work, only to lug it all home on the bus or on foot. Better food miles-wise, as is all Sydney grown, is in season so mega fresh and tasty, is organic so better for soil and human health (I reckon), and tres convenient as arrives on my doorstep. I think its encouraging me to cook more regularly, as I feel a sense of responsibility to each ear of corn and bunch of spinach to appreciate it and not have it end up as fridge sludge and compost-fodder. So hence the 'what will I make with cabbage?' musings. (Any recipe ideas greatfully accepted!!) It costs me $35 week, which I don't think is too bad? Thats just for fruit and vegies.
Oh, one other strange thing to share, on the topic of foood - how lovely does silken tofu feel? I have only just started to buy it (good as general mystery 'creamy' ingredient in all manner of savoury foods, most recently in a large zucchinni stuffed with silken tofu, rice, basil and peas and served with a fresh toato sauce. Was great, maybe add lemon zest too to the filling next time). Anyway, it feels like creme caramel, and I reckon deserves a little stroke before you chop it and stir it through your dinner (not to get all Tampoppo on you there).
Oop, think the tomatoes are done.
3 Comments:
I think weevils or their eggs are sometimes in the thing before it gets packaged, so they just hatch out and eat, blissfully unaware that there is a life outside the cellophane.
Not sure about the spices though.
Here is my favourite cabbage thing - a bit wintry but a good way to use up the vege box cabbage (do they give you heaps of potatoes too?)
Spiced cabbage
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 tbsp mustard seeds
500g cabbage, thinly sliced
125 ml of red wine
Heat the oil is a deep frying pan over medium heat and add the fennel and mustard seeds and the garlic. As the mustard seeds begin to pop, add the cabbage and saute for a minute. Add the red wine, cover and lower the heat and simmer for half an hour (during which you can drink the rest of the bottle of wine or make the rest of your dinner).
(recipe from Michelle Cranston's Fresh)
I have been thinking along similar lines regarding the silken tofu - could be very handy as a binder and moistener in stuffings etc. Vege box sounds good - only wonder if they'd have issues delivering to my place.
I read/heard somewhere (and have been meaning to follow up with questions to someone who knows about this stuff) also that Soy milk is not a traditional part of chinese - they have tended to eat soy in fermented form. Drinking soy as milk apparently could be contributing to reduced fertility levels in women due to high phyto oestrogen levels in unfermented soy. Tofu Ok though. I know this is true of Japanese diets.
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