On Vegan Bashing and Why I am what I am ....

A friend  of mine pointed me to this column from The Guardian newspaper - one of England's better, left-leaning broadsheets. Looks like it's time to rip the scabs off the festering vegetarian wound.

Those who think we should not eat meat because all life is sacred are naive. Would they be happy allowing mosquitoes to spread malaria, or having rats run loose in their home? Not all creatures are equal. There are natural hierarchies in the food chain.

No, I do not want to infect everyone with malaria because I dont like to kill mosquitoes. There are different degrees along the bloodthirst continuum from the strict carnivores, to vegetarians and vegans, all the way through to the Jains, who brush the ground they walk in front of them to avoid accidentally stepping on insects, and wear muslin cloth over their nose and mouth to avoid accidentally inhaling them. Admitedly, you occupy a somewhat ambivalent position when you're a vegetarian and these are issues I have to struggle with almost daily. But I try to work out a fairly consistent, coherent philosophy given my circumstances. Better to try than abandon the issue entirely as contradictory and doomed to failure.

I'm not a vegetarian because of what I hope to accomplish through being a vegetarian - it's more a principled stand against something I disagree with. It's the same as not shopping at Gap because you might disagee with their child labor policies, or not voting for a certain candidate because of their position on taxes. I don't recall so much vehement opposition to the idea of someone sticking up for their principles on these other subjects - why insist on putting vegetarians down for sticking up for theirs?

I suppose I take issue most with this point because probably my strongest reason for being vegetarian is the life angle. I like the  Buddhist  philosophy and one of the central tenets is indeed that all life is sacred. I don't think this makes me naive. Buddhist philosophy is based upon acting rationally based on what you see and observe in the world around you. I know from observation that most of the meat that ends up on our plates didn't want to be there and that a tremendous degree of suffering is involved in the process. It actually stumps me how anyone with an ounce of compassion could condone this sort of treatment, unless you're in the habit of naively turning a blind eye. Which leads me to the writer's next point:

People should be allowed to make their own choices and not be bullied or frightened into giving up meat. In the US recently, children in a secondary school were taken by their teachers to a slaughterhouse to show them how animals are killed for food. This tactic is a form of mind control, as unethical as discouraging young girls from having sex by making them watch a difficult childbirth.

You have every right to make your own choices, but only if those choices are well-informed. What took place isn't mind control. Mind control would imply that you're attempting to pervert the mind to believe in something that has little correlation with reality. To try to pretend there is no suffering, cruelty or bloodshed involved in eating meat is the height of naivety. Admitedly, we want to protect our children from some realities until they are old enough to understand the implications, but if you eat meat, at any time in your life, you should understand where it comes from because of the tremendous debt invovled. It doesn't just show up in shiny pink cubes at the supermarket - something had to suffer and then die for you to enjoy that filet mignon. And death is never pretty, no matter which way you dress it, or try to hide it out of view, no matter how old you are when you realize it. I've always said that if you can't raise and kill a cow yourself, you have no right eating it. In modern society where we have division of labor and butchers to carry out the killing for us, this doesn't make it right. 

 Many would take issue with putting pigs and people on a par. But finally this difference in outlook is behind most of the argument. I'm not suggesting that a pig's life is worth a human's life and strongly condemn animals activists who harm human beings in their struggles, after all, it goes against my principle of preventing suffering. However, where I might think that animals deserve to be treated with some measure of equality, dignity and respect, you might be pretty indifferent to their fate, as long as you can eat bacon. Which is fine by me - no amount of back and forth can change that because it's pretty fundamental. I'm not looking to convert, merely justify, while not coming across as one of those holier-than-thou, moral high ground hogging preachy types. 

The Joys of Homemade Vegetable Broth !!!

Making your own vegetable broth is wonderfully easy and blissfully imprecise.
There is only 20 minutes of active time, it doesn't really require a recipe, it uses up those veggies in your fridge you've been meaning to eat, it tastes great, it stores easily, and is highly customizable.
Still haven't convinced you?


Well let's talk for a moment about broths you find in the store.  Cook's Illustrated did a taste test of 10 veggie broths for their May/June 2008 issue and I found the results surprising. Only one brand was remotely acceptable. Five of their broths were certified organic; not one of those was the winner. Here's a quote that might get you thinking about making your own broth at home:
If the vegetables you start with are not top notch, or if you're using scraps and peels*, extended cooking can enhance and concentrate any undesirable flavors in the vegetables…. Sure enough, our testers noticed sour, bitter, even "rotten" notes in each of our so-called stocks in our lineup.
And the organic broths?
…moderate sodium content and the lack of flavor-enhancing additives helped land nearly all of the organic brands at the bottom of the rankings.  These broths shared lack-luster–even off-putting–flavours , that tasters likened variously to "weak V8," "musky socks," and "brackish celery water."


The winner of the taste test has the highest salt content, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, disodium inosinate, and other additives you probably don't want in your broth.   The lowest ranking broth, an organic brand, only has salt as a flavor enhancer, but was described as "terrible tasting," "tastes like dirt," "like musky socks in a patch of mushrooms," and "rotten."
How does making your own broth sound now?   Pretty good, huh?

 


As I said earlier, making vegetable broth is blissfully imprecise. I'll provide the recipe I made up, but please use it as just a guideline to get you started.  If you're part of a CSA and the fall harvest of veggies has you overwhelmed, simply put the veggies you can't figure out how to eat in your broth.  I would say there are only three required vegetables for your stock: onions, carrots, and celery.

 
Onions, carrots, and celery are known collectively as mirepoix, a classic part of french cuisine.  All of these vegetables are aromatics, and you'll realize that as soon as you start cooking them together; suddenly your kitchen smells like thanksgiving.
You can fancy it up a bit if you feel like it by using parsnips instead of carrots, leeks instead of onions, or celeriac instead of celery.
Mirepoix is a great culinary trick to keep up your sleeve; it's a great starting point for many many recipes, especially soups and sauces.  It's not called the holy trinity of French cuisine for nothing.

 
*Scraps and peels are fine to use when they're your own, fresh scraps and peels.  I think the article is referring to leftover vegetable reject pieces from other food manufacturing processes that aren't the best quality, or the freshest.  I think it's worthwhile to invest in fresh onions, carrots, and celery (none of which are all that expensive) for the broth, but other additions can be scraps from other meals you've prepared, or veggies that you don't have any better plans for.

 

 

 
Vegetable Broth
Makes about 10 Cups of Broth

Minimalist Broth 
2-3 Tbs Olive Oil
1-2 Large Onions, chopped
1 lb Celery, Chopped
1 lb Carrots, washed but unpeeled, chopped
3 Whole Cloves Garlic
1 Bay Leaf
10 Whole Black Peppercorns
2 tsp Salt
1/4 Cup Low Sodium Tamari
4 liters Water
I also added, because I could
2 Parsnips, chopped
2-3 Tbs Tomato Paste (or one or two tomatoes)
A few Sprigs Rosemary (parsley is more traditional, use a lot!)
1 Head Broccoli (a strange but decent choice)
1 Sweet Potato (another odd choice, whatever)
You might also have or want to use
Any fresh veggie scraps from other meals
Leeks
Mushrooms
Celery Root
Potatoes
Peppers
Turnips
Any Greens
Zucchini
Fennel
You see what I mean?  If it's clean and fits in the pot, it can go in.  Minimal chopping, no peeling, just in the pot it goes!
Heat a large stock pot with some olive oil in the bottom. I chop my way through the vegetable list as I'm cooking–so once the onion is chopped, add it to the pot, then do the celery, the carrots, etc, adding each thing once it's chopped up a bit. When you're out of stuff to add, pour in the water, turn up the heat and cover.  It should only take you about 20 minutes to chop everything and get it in the pot.  From then on out it's easy street.

 
Cook for 1 hour, turning the heat down a bit once the whole thing starts boiling
I finish my broth by adding salt/tamari/soy sauce to taste and letting it simmer uncovered for another 20-30 minutes to concentrate the flavours


Strain the veggies out into a large pot


I further strained it through cheesecloth into a pitcher


The pitcher makes it easy to pour some of the broth into ice cube trays for easy storage. Ice cubed size chunks of broth make for easy defrosting and easy recipe additions

The broth will keep about a week in your refrigerator, and two good months in your freezer.  If you cook for the holidays, it's a good time to make some veggie stock and put it up now to use for all your upcoming holiday meals.  You'll thank yourself for being prepared, and your food will be that much more delectable!

Easy cashew-macadamia Soba noodles

 This recipe is top-notch, easy and  low cost !!!  Blasting the japanese rockers ROBIN in the speakers  while doing this is a plus!!!

Ingredients
One package soba noodles
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 Teaspoon lime juice
1 Tbsp cashew -macadamia butter(peanut butter will do -wont be as good though!)
1 Tbsp water
1 tsp ginger, grated
1 small clove garlic, minced or pressed
1 head broccoli or one bunch kale steamed
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
sesame seeds, chopped nuts, cilantro & chopped green onion for garnish

Directions
Prepare noodles as directed on package.

Drain noodles. In a small bowl combine soy sauce, sesame oil, lime juice, cashew-macadamia butter, water, grated ginger and garlic. Add to noodles and toss thoroughly to coat. If the sauce seems a little too thick, add some pasta water a tablespoon at a time until it looks like it will blend nicely with the noodles and not glop.

Top generously with chopped nuts, cilantro, scallions, sesame seeds, and steamed broccoli or kale

For a spicier version I add 1 teaspoon of thai  green curry paste !

Not eating animals = Domestic terrorists?? WTF ?..Let's talk politics ...

This is deeply disturbing. It’s the US government’s “Domestic Extremism Lexicon,” Here’s the government’s write-up on “Animal Rights Supporters”:

A movement of groups or individuals who ascribe equal value to all living organisms and seek to end the perceived abuse and suffering of animals. They believe animals are sentient creatures that experience emotional, physical, and mental awareness and deserve many of the same rights as human beings; for example, the right to life and freedom to engage in normal, instinctive animal behavior. These groups have been known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence and terrorism in an attempt to advance their extremist goals. They have targeted industries, businesses, and government entities that they perceive abuse or exploit animals, including those that use animals for testing, human services, food production, or consumption.

Even  canadian Senator Hervieux Payette is ranting against  vegetarians
“The vegetarian lobbies have turned into extremists. They do not respect our democratic institutions and use savage tactics to achieve their goals, which greatly discredits their cause,” said Senator Hervieux-Payette. :

How about a passage noting that the top animal protection groups have publicly condemned every sort of action listed above, and that the movement overwhelmingly embraces nonviolence as a guiding principle?
The point of this writing seems to be to fabricate an excuse to put peaceful and dedicated animal protection activists on a government watchlist. And there’s more; look who animal protectionists are lumped together with: Aryan prison gangs, the militia movement, Neo-nazis, and white supremacists. When I think about how many Jewish people occupy influential positions within the animal protection movement ,this categorization disgusts me more than I can say.

Meanwhile, the industries that brutalize and slaughter ten billion animals a year, while worsening climate change and creating grave risks to public health, are somehow left off this “extremism” list. No doubt because they had a say in its creation.

So , according to them , when I eat my roasted squash with braised tempeh on quinoa pilaf  and talk about it or promote healthy living, I'm a threat to national security ?   WOW!  It makes me feel warm inside ....

Vegan Cook book

Im not a recipe  follower , not at all actually , but I like to  get some inspirations from good chefs once in a while ... This book rocks!
The Veganomicon !

This book is very good .. lotsa cool and refreshing ideas  !!

From their website :
Veganomicon intends to fully prepare you for the vegan revolution. Besides just giving you 250 recipes we've also included lots of basic stuff. Maybe you already know how to roast pumpkin, soak beans and toast millet. In that case - awesome! Then you can just be like "Shut up Isa and Terry!" and move on to an adventurous casserole. But we also had the beginner cook in mind, or maybe just the forgetful cook who can't be bothered to memorize grain to water cooking ratios or the roasting time for sweet potatoes. So we've included prep information and simple preparation guides for beans, grains and veggies.

We've also made Veganomicon as kitchen friendly as possible, including icons at the top of each page to indicate which items are gluten-free, low-fat, under 45 minutes, soy-free and supermarket friendly. Of course there are also the usual suspects, peruse the sections below and try out some recipes.

Franckobrains is Back to the kitchen !!

Back to the kitchen, the same kitchen I used to own when I had my Vegan restaurant in 2005. When I closed it I hade many requests from old customers and regulars to re open something asap....


For me the restaurant life was over ! But after 4 years of cooking for friends and family , the natural urge to share my tasty recipes came back at the same time as the availability of my old kitchen !!! Coincidence ? I think not !

Next week will re-introduce the Psychobilly Vegan chef into his old kingdom of raw,real and vegan food !! The concept  will be a bit different :  I will offer ready to eat vegan and organic meals .. .that way you can bring a little bit of Franckobrains into your own home . Isn't that amazing ?

I will also  share some of my recipes and will post my reviews of cool places I'll visit when on the road with my band THE BRAINS...


I will also write some posts in french, occasionally , for my fellows french quebecois!

And the return of my vegetarian cooking classes will be in full effect soon !!! more to come !

My kitchen is located at the BIOTERRE health food store in the Mile End area in Beautiful Montreal, come and say hi ! (and buy my food!)