Veganism and meditation

I think I accidentally ate a piece of bacon this morning.
I am not a vegetarian or a vegan. Though I like both styles of food.
One of the curiosities of the forthcoming Retreat is that we will eat only a little food (some people even report that they lose weight... could drop a couple of kilos quite happily)
The food will only be vegetarian and erring on the vegan side. The difference is that vegans don't eat any animal products. No milk, butter or eggs. No cheese, yoghourt . You cannot eat most lollies (they have gelatine...made from calves hooves) and you can't have honey. Some vegetarians eat fish but vegans don't, and certainly not poultry.
Having been the principal chef for a vegan child I have learned what to do to get a balanced diet. and to get protein into the diet, and (probably more importantly) flavour.
So I can make a good lentil burger.

And have made a couple of dozen in the last few days. And taken time to cook rice properly, with herbs and spices.

This week in preparation for Boot Camp I have been addressing the Vegan Calculus (that is, reducing the intake so that animal products tend to zero...mathematicians might get this not very funny joke) 
Of course Asian food embraces plant foods. The lentil, the Soy Bean, Coriander, garlic, ginger, cumin, Bok Choy. I don't imagine our retreat food will look quite as exotic as the picture above.
But our focus is not on food...it is on meditation.
In truth Westerners are horrified that we might not eat bulk meat. We are terrified that we might have to eat a little food rather than enormous quantities...All you can eat...has become the catch-cry of the obese generations that look to be a serious threat to Western life.
So I did what I normally do, ate a piece of bacon that was just there, without any intention, reflection or indeed thought!

Carrots extraordinary

Did think I needed to do something with the carrots that needed to do more than just go black.

So I have peeled them!
Cut them into long segments
and am now marinating them in

brown sugar,
balsamic vinegar
& liquid (home made ) yoghourt [you could use butter or oil]

Am planning to roast the carrots for dinner....and promise to post an actual photo of what they look like!!!

Cooking up a storm

For a variety of reasons I experienced a Christmas present and a birthday present this week. Even though it was neither my birthday nor, for that matter, Christmas.
By coincidence both presents were similar.
The Christmas present a postponement of a cooking course that the only non-S Clark gave me. An Indian Cooking experience which had transmogrified into "Tasty Asian".
It was great to spend a full and fun evening with daughter number one
The birthday present a Moroccan Cooking course with the great pleasure of my fine son-in-law. Much hilarity and staring at poor unfortunate on the side of the road who was sculling a can...which we assumed was alcoholic beverage, but was actually Fanta!
He was indignant about our attention, and quite rightly so. But it was an hilarious event. Great bonding

Just thought you may be interested to know how cooking courses work, and what benefit they are.
The photo alongside is a great trad recipe from Morocco. Bestella. A pigeon pie...which we had demonstrated  as a chicken pie..and which the pic alongside is actually in fully Vegan form! (see here for why that might be so!)
Now the hilarious part of this is that Chef du Maison of Adelaide's Marrakech Restaurant, Mohamad Bartaouch demonstrated four beautiful recipes with wit and charm.
And I have made said Bestella twice since we had the class a couple of days ago.
Mohamad finished his pie with the traditional sweet sugar recipe, criss crossed with cinnamon . I said to the lovely D...you can see his expertise. A perfect criss cross applied by hand.
My version is above. D noted that my criss-cross pattern was in the best tradition of abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock. Rude b#$%er. But perceptive!
But!!! I think that a good sign of a successful cooking class is that you cook the courses. And I have

I am writing this as I have just returned from Sticky Rice's Tasty Asian cooking course. Stuffed Prawns, Moreton Bay Bugs, Massaman Curry, Lemon Chicken.
All seem eminently possible. Though I don't think vegan!!
Both were complemented with fine SA wines. We are so fortunate.
I will blog more about wine a little later.
Someone said at tonight's course and dinner (the best part of a cooking course...you celebrate your learning by eating the product in the companionship of others)
"So many people at work love eating food! And cooking food, a great way to get together."

A great way indeed

Father of the vegan

The youngest S Clark  has been a vegan for some time. And although it has taken some time to get used to it by now it has become almost second-nature
Hence the picture of the vegan pumpkin scones I 'knocked up' this afternoon.
This means there is no butter, no milk and no egg. Unlike the famous Bjelke-Petersen scones.
Most people are horrified by the idea of ideological veganism.  
But it has about it a certain consistency and logic, we don't eat anything that doesn't "belong to us".
The deepest shock I had was when S announced that she shouldn't eat honey. At the time it seemed that this was the last straw. Eggs and even milk and butter I could understand, but I had never even thought about honey.
But now I am so used to buying food that does not contain gelatine (made from cows) and checking to see that there are no hidden milk solids, that honey is a minor distraction
In fact, I even toyed with the idea today of starting a blog of all the highly successful recipes we have discovered and invented. Like these easy scones!
It's not really too hard, and although I am not a vegan myself...probably 4 out of 7 days I am...though I eat eggs and I just have to eat bacon! No I am not a vegan.
But I know how to make it work!