Slow, Nutritious Food
A book, a movie and a meal. This entry is about how three items came together a few days ago to further convince me that the world needs to change and, happily, seems to be changing. And how each of us can make a difference. You may not care about changing the world but at least make an effort to change what you can directly control - your diet. Make this your resolution.
Food Inc. - the movie - rent it.
In Praise of Slowness - the book - read it.
Red Cabbage Risotto - the meal - eat it.
I consider that we are a lucky family. We can afford healthy foods, we have the time to cook up those foods into delicious meals and then we sit down, together, to enjoy it. Three times a day we do this. One of our favorite meals is a risotto recipe by Marcella Hazan (fantastic cook books - get some!). It is far from fast to make but is worth the two to two-and-a-half hours it takes to prepare. Shred 4 cups of red cabbage. Then chop up some pancetta and onions. Fry these two in a large kettle with some olive oil. When the onions are yellowed, add the garlic and then the cabbage. Turn it over with some salt and considerable black pepper. Add some water and reduce to low and let cook at low heat for about an hour or until the cabbage is soft. Add some water if it starts sticking. Add the arborio rice, turn the heat to medium and then slowly add 5 cups of vegetable stock (1/2 cup at a time). Don't add the next 1/2 cup until the previous has evaporated. Stir constantly. Taste the rice...should be firm, but have no crunch left. Add butter and parmesan and serve. Yummy!
Sounds like a lot of work eh? Well you have alternatives. Flip to Food Inc. and In Praise of Slowness.
Raise a chicken in 48 days, a hog in six months rather than five years. Eat cows that have walked and fallen in their own shit. Chickens that can't even carry their own weight. Eat hamburgers that have the meat of fifty to one hundred DIFFERENT cows in them. Eat cereals that have twenty ingredients, twelve of which you can't pronounce or even identify.
You also have alternatives to spending time cooking.
Inhale your meal in eleven minutes. Don't taste your food. Watch a movie or the news while you ingest calories. Zap it in five minutes via the microwave. Open the canned sauce. Slice open the packaged meat. Eat a tomato that has been ripened artificially during shipment or a pineapple that has travelled six thousand kilometres.
For those of you that have worked hard to have some disposable income I am asking that you spend the extra .20 cents a pound on organic bananas rather than $4.50 on a latte you don't need. You can make a difference in the world, voting three times day by eating healthy. Spend extra money to feed yourself with fresh, organic, local foods. Why not put that at the top of your priority list?
After all of this you will still have money left over to buy yourself all the toys you need.
Slow down. Eat well. Cook. Talk to each other. Value it all. Appreciate it.
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