Soup is Monstrous Food

boing
121

Like I said, different people have different personalities. That’s all we can understand about people who live differently than we choose to live.

People who have different personalities than you don’t have to “just make excuses” in order to not to eat the way you prefer to eat. They simply eat the way they prefer to eat. Maybe it’s less healthy, maybe it’s not. Maybe they work out more than you do (and mistakenly consider you to be “lazy” for not working out as much as they do). Who knows?

All I’m saying is that we all make decisions about our lifestyles that are less healthy than someone else’s lifestyle, and that doesn’t necessarily make anyone lazy.

3 Likes
122

I’ve seen somewhat bigger ones than those in that video at the street market here in the Netherlands. The big ones are called winterpeen and aren’t sweet like the skinny ones which are called bospeen.

The big ones aren’t really good for shredding into salad or eating raw etc. The big ones are best for making things like mash, but the skinny ones are also good in soups and mash. I end up buying the small ones more.

The big ones do keep way better though. I’m always having to cut large bits off of the tips of the skinny ones when the get too dried out.

1 Like
123

OK, this has got to be one of the strangest paragraphs I’ve ever read on BoingBoing:

Brown labels the recipe as “intermediate,” and even if you’re up to the task, it takes just under an hour and a half to make. It’s probably not all that cheap, either, given the number of ingredients—especially if you’re cooking for one person. These are the problems with homemade soup! You have to plan ahead, it takes time, and may or may not be cheaper than store-bought.

It’s like it comes from a press release from the prepared food industry! Look, it’s true: all home cooking, not just soup, takes planning, time, and money.

Let’s do the easy one first: planning. If you make acquisition of fresh ingredients from local producers (whom you have a relationship with) part of your weekly routine, planning takes care of itself: you cook what’s possible with what’s on hand. A weekly vege box subscription is an easy way to support a local farm cooperative and to let them show you what’s in season.

Cost: Many dishes, when prepared at home, cost more than store bought. That’s not because cooking at home is artificially expensive, that’s because industrial food production is artificially cheap. Your food matters. Don’t let a company’s profit margins decide what it’s going to be. But why are we even discussing this point about vegetable soup, which has to be to most humble of dishes. (Think of Willy Wonka, when the grandmother says, “Nothing goes better with cabbage than cabbage, I always say!”)

And finally time: Making soup for one is a once a week activity. Put in 1.5 hours on sunday, and you’ve got dinner that night and frozen soup for 2 lunches and 2 dinners that week. Put the time you save to use doing something constructive like… complaining on the Internet about industrial food. :smile:

Bon appetit,
-jeff

PS: The author also seems to have forgotten that the other reason industrial food does not taste like home is that it’s got too much salt in it. One more good reason to cook eat like your grandma used to…

4 Likes
124

Sprouts the right way:

Cut the sprouts in half. Lay the flat side down in the pan and fry with butter over high heat. You are looking for quite a bit of brown; this is where the flavor is going to come from, so take your time and do it right. When the browning is done, stop it in it’s tracks by throwing in a splash of white wine. The cloud of alcohol and steam coming off is what’s stopping your Nasa Hot pan from burning your poor sprouts. Add a bit more water, cover and simmer for a few minutes to steam the rest of the sprout (because at this point only the flat face is cooked). The water will lift up some of the browned flavor from the bottom too. Yumm. Hit it with salt, nutmeg, and cream right before serving (use the heat in the sprouts to warm up the cream; don’t cook it more because hte nutmeg and cream are fragile and don’t want to be heated).

-jeff

3 Likes
125

This message brought to you by The Corn and Soy Subsidy Association of America and the Michael Pollan is an Elitist Nonsense Spouting Jerk Foundation.

Never Forget: Store Bought Is Freedom™

126

Michael Pollan talking about how we were deceived into believing that prepared foods were easier. This is a great talk.

2 Likes
127

I try not to be judgmental, but any soup recipe which lists a can of soup among the ingredients is totally cheating. For anyone with rudimentary cooking skills, it’s like a singer getting caught lip-syncing on Saturday Night Live.

4 Likes
128

Hmm. Perhaps you are meant to use homemade mushroom soup.

This, btw, is a walktapus

Walktapus_by_Scravagghiupilusu959.jpg480×742 160 KB

129

I found this article super weird. The aseptic boxes of tomato and squash soup are pretty good really. Soup is easy to make, definately doesn’t take over an hour. My go to soup is Cullen Skink, which you have to love just because of the name.

Saute some onion in some butter till at least soft, or some golden brown spots show depending on if you prefer a whiter or browner soup. Add several diced potatoes and stir to coat with butter. Put in some salt, but don’t go crazy. Add water just to cover and boil till potatoes are done. Add cream or milk till it gets the opacity and broth to solid ratio you like. Taste and carefully adjust salt level. Add pepper, and possibly if you want to be fancy, some fresh dill or parsley. Throw in some flaked local smoked fish avoiding any skin or bones. (We use trout because that’s what is affordable here, or sometimes smoked lake superior whitefish.) Bring the soup to just under a boil and then serve immediately. I can make this from start to finish in about 15-20 minutes. If you start by preheating the oven, mix the dough for drop whole meal scones/soda bread and pop them in the oven, make the soup, and serve with apple slices and cheese you have a great full meal in about 30 minutes.

3 Likes
130

Next up on Boing Boing an entire featured column about how nothing in the fridge looks good but we can’t afford to eat out but nothing in the fridge looks good whiiiiiine.

1 Like
131

Among my group of friends, we don’t have a disagreement about beans/no-beans. We’re all OK either way, it’s cool. Vegetarian, white bean, all-beef Texas style, hippie chili with corn, spicy, bland, no worries.

But, the argument about cinnamon in chili is good versus cinnamon in chili is an abomination has been going for several years, and no one has changed their mind.

1 Like
132

Cinnamon and cilantro are the secret ingredients to making a decent bowl of chili.

133

Don’t forget dark brown sugar. Cook the onions, garlic, freshly ground spices, and sugar as if you’re making a sambal, then add the tomatoes slowly to keep from watering down the base. Anything you add after that is fine.

134

For my personal survey on the issue, by any chance, are you from somewhere East of Kansas City? My totally unscientific survey seems to break down on East/West, though I don’t know why.

135

I threw the cilantro in for a laugh. My chile recipe has no beans- cumin coriander, cinnamon, chile powder, peppers of various sorts, tomatoes, onion garlic, and beer (usually Guinness, because Guinness).

I was born in California, but the recipe was developed by Mom, possibly while in either Connecticut or Virginia—after she had grown up in Washington and California.

136

I’d be making parma ham out of those legs, not wasting it on stew…

2 Likes
137

The cry of hungry adolescents everywhere: ‘There’s no FOOD, just ingredients…’

5 Likes
138

Wolf brand chili (w/out beans) comes close to real chili as far as cans go.

Ticks me off I can’t get it in Canada except by mail I suppose. Every single canned chili here has beans n such in it, so I’m forced to make my own on occasion.

The Wolf brand no beans version was some extremely fine bachelor chow, mix in some cooked rice and eat it over the sink, mmm mmmmm mmmm good.

139

Honestly Wolf is OK, we occasionally run into it in NY. While its way better than something like Hormel, it doesn’t strike me as particularly high quality or at all close to home made of any sort. It is however pretty much exactly what I want for chili dogs, or any chili based dip. So I’ll grab it up when I can. But frankly most of the canned chilis on the market are pretty crap. Though a few years ago there were a number of good ones I don’t tend to see any more. Like Stagg, and this one that came in a carton like pre-made stock. All available with or without beans. I’m curious as to why those more upscale/quality brands disappeared from my area. They were popular enough when I was college that they actually served as barter items for a while. I traded a few cans of Stagg for a 40 of Old English once.

140

We have Stagg here in Canada, it’s now a Hormel product, don’t know if that is recent, but it’s been that way at least a decade I think. Their one meatless version either uses more tomato than chilis or uses bland chilis. Wolf if it is as I remember it from 20 years ago in tx ( unlikely I suppose) was best as cans go. Mixes are always better, & slightly more effort, then it follows that with a good recipe do-it-yo self is best

Edit - if you have Hormel locally then they might have pulled the Stagg I guess