Simple Dinner

Tonight we had a very simple dinner - some kidney beans cooked with onions, garlic and a few peppercorns, with some kombu added for the last 15 minutes - I removed the additions when the beans were done - some steamed and mashed sweet potatoes, some sauteed chard with a squeeze of lemon juice and some brown rice done using the pasta method of cooking. Beautiful colors!

Book Review: Eating Animals

I just finished reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I've always thought of Foer as a fiction writer - an excellent one (his prior novels are Everything is Illuminated, which I read and enjoyed immensely, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which I want to read). I can now say that he is also an excellent, and thoughtful, writer of non-fiction. The book is a detailed, nuanced examination of our human propensity to eat animals and arguments for and against the practice. In contrast to The Face On Your Plate, which I would describe as a polemic that emphasizes sentiment over fact, Eating Animals is grounded in facts, most of which were obtained from industry or government sources to be more "conservative". Much of the book asks questions about the place of food in our homes and our society and examines the radical changes that have occurred in how meat, and fish, are produced for consumption.

I would describe this book as devastating in its portrayal of the betrayal of our humanity by the practices of industrial meat production. Despite our agrarian images of happy cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys, the vast majority of the meat in the supermarket comes from animals that are factory farmed. Factory farming is just what it sounds like - animals are cogs in an industrial process the sole purpose of which is to maximize profit for its owners. Animal welfare is the last concern of the owners of these facilities, whatever the marketing image they project. Factory farms are the cause of daily, routine, inhumane treatment of animals, and that's before they reach the slaughterhouse, where abusive treatment is not the exception but the norm. He goes into explicit detail about the practices in poultry and pig farming. There's a reason factory farms and slaughterhouses don't allow visitors - if there walls were transparent their practices wouldn't be able to continue. It's easy to ignore how the meat in the supermarket is produced when it's neatly wrapped in plastic. Foer presents damning evidence of not only the abuse of the animals in these operations, but the brutalization of mostly minimum wage workers that occurs when working in these high-pressure environments, which leads directly to more animal abuse. The voices of some of the people he speaks to are haunting.

And then there's the huge and increasing environmental costs of factory farming, both in terms of contamination of water sources and streams and rivers with sewage, and in terms of production of greenhouse gases - animal agriculture produces more greenhouse gases than all means of transport - cars, trucks, busses, airplanes, etc. - put together. And the bulk of our production of grain now goes to feed animals in factory farming situations, not to human consumption. And how about the systematic misuse of antibiotics in factory farming - which leads directly to the development of antibiotic-resistant bugs?

He also goes into detail about the depredations of the commercial fishing industry - the waste and environmental devastation, both of fish stocks and the marine environment, is truly amazing in its scope. But is aquaculture any improvement? Sadly, the answer is no. Aquaculture as practiced worldwide is factory farming under water, with all the environmental costs and treatment of animals as things rather than living beings.

And how about organic? It is better in some ways, but in many ways organic meat is largely raised and slaughtered under the same factory conditions as regular meat. Organic is no guarantee of animal treatment or environmental protection.

His conclusion is that he is now a confirmed vegetarian, because he cannot be a participant in the systematic abuse of animals and environmental damage caused by factory farming. He has great sympathy for the traditional husbandry practices being attempted by a number of small farmers, but even they, due to the continuing consolidation in the slaughterhouse business, rarely have control over how their animals are treated when slaughtered. This keeps Foer from being able to support them to the extent of consuming their meat.

This book is a must-read for anyone who eats meat, or anyone who doesn't. It is thoughtful, nuanced and acknowledges the complexity of the issue as well as the differing viewpoints of the participants. The one point which is clearest is that the practices of factory farming of animals are without question inhumane, and in many cases clearly abusive of animals. Read this book - it may open your eyes.

Thanksgiving Dinner

The vegetarian Thanksgiving was a smashing success - even the usual meat-eaters had to agree! There were many tasty things to eat, including home-made cranberry sauce - take whole cranberries, add about a cup of water and sugar to taste - I used 1/2 plus 1/3 cup sugar for a small package of cranberries - and cook until cooked down.

There was Cabbage with Tomatoes and Sour Cream from How To Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman - this uses onion, garlic, cabbage, chopped tomatoes, caraway or cumin seeds and sour cream. There were roasted vegetables - this time a mix of parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes and onions (I often add potatoes but we were having potatoes separately), tossed with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and some sprigs of thyme - other herbs work as well - and roasted at 400 degrees until carmelized, turning and mixing the vegetables every 10 to 15 minutes:

There were mashed potatoes, some mashed with olive oil and some with butter and milk, topped with a splendid Thyme and Mushroom Gravy from New Vegetarian by Celia Brooks Brown. This is a fabulous and easy-to-make recipe which includes sliced onions, thyme and bay leaf, chopped mushrooms, a little flour, some port or other fortified wine, vegetable stock and a bit of soy sauce. Some had this with vegetarian sausages, some without.

For desert, later, there was Sweet Potato Buttermilk Pie from Smitten Kitchen - the pie crust did not come out as well as the rest as I prebaked it too far in advance:

A feast indeed! Hope yours was good as well!

Book Review: The Face on Your Plate

I just finished reading The Face on Your Plate by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. It is an impassioned polemic against eating animals as well as animal products such as dairy and eggs - he's a vegan. I agree with the basic premise of the book - that animals are sentient beings and that our use of them for food, and to produce food, causes them suffering. But I also thought he over-argued - he seems to think that for this argument to be effective, it must be buttressed with arguments about the emotional equivalence of animals to humans. I find the basic argument sufficient - if we cause animals to suffer in order for us to eat, and we have other (in fact more healthy) ways to eat, then that suffering is wrong. I'm not a vegan (yet) but did find his arguments about what happens to dairy cows and egg-laying hens very persuasive.

There were also a couple of additional things I liked about the book. I found his descriptions of the devastation wrought by over-fishing, and the additional environmental and health disasters in the making from fish farming very informative and telling. I also agreed with his assessment that, although animals suffer less on a non-industrial farm practicing more animal-friendly husbandry methods, they still suffer and that is sufficient for the treatment of the animals still to be unacceptable. He also makes a strong argument that meat-eating requires continuous denial of the reality of animal suffering, and often requires the premise that humans are superior to other sentient beings and therefore entitled to use them even if suffering occurs (a premise with which I disagree).

I found the chapter on his diet a bit of a throw-away and not particularly useful for someone contemplating a change to vegetarianism or being a vegan. I am a bit more skeptical about processed foods than he is.

So, all in all, a bit of mixed bag.

Thanksgiving Preparations and Hermit Soup

This morning, I spent some hours doing work to get ready for Thanksgiving. I peeled, chopped and steamed the sweet potatoes for the Sweet Potato Buttermilk Pie - I'll make the pie crust later on today so it can chill in the refrigerator overnight. I prepared the parsnips, carrots, rutabaga and a few extra sweet potatoes for Roasted Vegetables - I'll add the onion and thyme, and mix with some olive oil, just before I roast them tomorrow. I shredded the savoy cabbage and drained, seeded and chopped the canned tomatoes for the Cabbage With Tomatoes and Sour Cream. I chopped the mushrooms for the Mushroom-Thyme Gravy that will accompany the mashed potatoes. And finally, I made cranberry sauce using fresh cranberries, sugar and some water - it's fun to hear the cranberries pop as they cook. Tomorrow will now be much easier!

Then, for lunch, I had leftover Hermit Soup from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette. It's a simple soup involving potato, turnip or rutabaga, carrot and onion with a pinch of thyme. The recipe uses water, but we used vegetable stock for added flavor. His cookbooks are easy to use and many of the recipes are quite good - they tend to be on the less spicy side and make large quantities - we cut many of the recipes down. I also made a side salad out of left-over chickpeas, sliced cherry tomatoes, some extra sliced mushrooms, a chopped shallot and some oil and vinegar. And there was a nice glass of the tomato juice that drained from the canned tomatoes. A nice lunch for a chilly, drizzly day:

Pancakes and Vegetable Pie

This morning there was some leftover pancake batter, so I had beautiful pancakes for breakfast, topped with excellent Grade B (the best, I think) maple syrup. The recipe we used is Mixed Grain Pancakes from Simple Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin.

Dinner was from another Jeanne Lemlin cookbook - Main-Course Vegetarian Pleasures. It was a Broccoli and Red Bell Pepper Pie, which uses bread crumbs (I used Panko crumbs) in a buttered pie dish to make the "crust" - it's very effective - you get a nice browned thin crust and don't have to make a pie crust with all the associated fat and calories. This recipe also included some Parmesan and Muenster cheese, eggs and some chickpeas. I love her cookbooks, but have found them badly edited - the chickpeas were listed in the ingredients but showed up nowhere in the instructions - I just added them at an obvious place in the recipe - this sort of error is pretty common in her cookbooks.

Here are some of the ingredients - I liked the reflection of the onions in the cleaver:

A close-up of the gorgeous broccoli head, with its beads of water from washing:

Here are the vegetables sauteing:

Here's the finished pie:

And - my seed catalog from Seed Savers Exchange came! Now I can dream about next year's gardening, and make up endless lists of vegetable and flower seeds. I'm a big fan of Seed Savers - most of the seeds in their catalog are open-pollinated and many are heirlooms from many different countries. I rarely have to buy seeds from any other source.

Dreaming of spring!

Thinking About Thanksgiving, and Review of Beyond the Great Wall

We'll be having a vegetarian Thanksgiving this Thursday, so no turkey for us. I'm just starting to put together my list of what we'll be having - there are some old favorites, as well as a couple of new things to try.

So far, it looks like there will be:

Mashed potatoes - I love mashing these with olive oil - it makes them very silky and delicious.

Mushroom/thyme gravy - this is a rich, tasty gravy that I do every year.

My daughters insist on peas and corn (usually separately), which they like with butter.

Some vegetables roasted with olive oil and herbs until carmelized - probably onions, carrots, parsnips, and perhaps some potatoes as well.

A Russian cabbage dish that involves tomatoes and sour cream - very decadent!

Some homemade cranberry sauce.

And I'm thinking a buttermilk/sweet potato pie - this is a new recipe for me so we'll see.

Just writing it down makes me hungry! Now for the shopping list. I'll post the recipes as we go on.

I just finished reading a fascinating and beautiful cookbook - but more than a cookbook - called Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. These same authors also wrote Hot Sour Salty Sweet, which is also very interesting.

Beyond the Great Wall is about the peoples who live in China who are not the majority Han Chinese, and about their cooking and lives. There is a lot of information about the authors' many trips to all parts of China, and a lot of information about the various ethnic groups and their history and culture, together with stunning photography.

There were also many recipes. Many of the recipes involve meat and some involve fish, and looked interesting for those who do eat it. There were a number of vegetarian recipes I intend to try, including some salsas and vegetable salads, a Tibetan ratatouille, some noodle dishes, many interesting breads and a Tibetan barley staple called tsampa, which uses whole-grain barley berries to start. I learned from the book that barley is the only grain crop which will reliably grow at high elevations or where the growing season is very short. This book is certainly worth a look, even if you don't cook from it. I got mine from the library, as it is an expensive book.

Parsnip Soup For Lunch

I often make my main meal for lunch - I'm a morning person so it's easy for me, and it also leaves more time in the afternoon for other things, such as riding my horses. Today I made a parsnip soup - I love the sweet nuttiness of parsnips, and also like them as part of a roasted vegetable medley.

This recipe is adapted from the Parsnip-Soffritto Soup found in The Victory Garden Cookbook by Marian Morash.

Parsnip Soup

1 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped finely

2 Tb olive oil

1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes, drained, seeded and chopped (save the juice for drinking later if you like), or use fresh tomatoes - about 2 cups after chopping

Salt

1 lb parsnips, peeled and very thinly sliced

2 carrots, peeled and very thinly sliced

6 cups vegetable stock or broth

freshly ground pepper

chopped parsley for garnish if you wish

Heat oil in a medium soup pot, heat at medium until oil is hot and add onion and cook until wilted but not browned - about 5 minutes.

Add garlic and tomatoes, sprinkle with salt and cook until liquid has evaporated and mixture has thickened - about 15 minutes depending on how juicy the tomatoes are.

Add broth and parsnips and carrots, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until vegetables are tender - about 10-15 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with parsley if you like.

Here's today's lunch, include a small green salad with some shaved Parmesan cheese and an oil and vinegar dressing:

Planting Garlic

I've been neglecting my community garden plot - I still need to finish cleaning it up and getting it ready for the winter. This morning I went over and planted my garlic - it's getting late to do this but our weather's still not too cold, so I'm hopeful. I planted two varieties - Siberian, which is a white garlic, and Shvelisi-Chesnok Red, both obtained from Seed Savers Exchange. Garlic from Russia should love our winters! I was delighted last year when I discovered how easy garlic is to grow - just break apart the heads, plant the cloves, cover and wait - they're ready around the 4th of July. We're still using the garlic I harvested last summer - I've been storing it in my garage.

Red Lentil Soup For Lunch

Today, I got around to making the Red Lentil Soup recipe from 101 Cookbooks. It was a perfect day for it - blustery and cloudy out - comfort food beckoned. I love the color of the lentils - I expect you could substitute regular brown lentils, but the final color wouldn't be as nice and the consistency of the soup would be different - which might work out fine.

I made some changes to the recipe - I substituted a leek for the shallots, added a squeeze of lemon juice in the bowl to brighten the flavor, and left out the chopped toasted almonds in the garnish. With a side salad simply dressed with good olive oil and red wine vinegar, the soup made a delicious, easy meal:

I would definitely recommend the recipe, even if you can't find red lentils.