Fruits and nuts: sense and nonsense about the meaning of food

Like most people who like to cook, I enjoy watching food and cooking programs on television. And I do have my favorites. Two Fat Ladies top my list. They are real cooks, no pretensions, just cooking traditional food. On their motorbike with side-car, a vintage Triumph Thunderbird, they toured the UK rediscovering traditional home cooking with fresh ingredients, with a special liking for clotted cream, lard, and fatty meats. And with a strong dislike for vegetarians and vegans, speaking quite disparagingly about them in a humorous vein.

And it was the Two Fat Ladies, I quoted in one of my lectures at university when one of my students asked if (or rather stated that)  vegetarians and vegans in particular are morally better persons than meat-eaters because they do not kill and do not eat the pain, fear, aggression, etc. of slaughtered animals. Before sketching a more nuanced picture, my first remark was ‘Hitler was a veggie’, one of the many remarks the Two Fat Ladies made to show their aversion to vegetarians.

Yes, every food product has its own capacities, and generally speaking, there are healthy and less healthy diets. Food has a great influence on the well-being of a person, but we should make a distinction between physical (and mental) well-being and morality. Which nevertheless brings me to the ethical questions ‘Should the relatively trivial human preference for eating meat and fish be satisfied at the expense of the animal's vital interest to stay alive?’ Should one refuse to support an essentially cruel practice, if an alternative is available?

Why bring up a quote by the Two Fat Ladies? It is enough to remember the old maxim Judge not lest ye be judged!

 

Soft Brownies with orange peel and walnuts

 

Ingredients:

225 gr. dark brown caster sugar

150 gr. extra dark chocolate

150 gr. vegan butter, soft

4 tablespoon brown ground flaxseed plus 12 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon psyllium

125 gr. candied orange peel

125 gr. walnuts

100 gr. flour

1 teaspoon baking powder 

pinch of salt

Powdered sugar to decorate

Preparation:

Mix the 4 tablespoons of ground flaxseed with the12 tablespoons of water. Stir together until thick and gelatinous and let rest for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Grease and flour a square 19x19 cm or round 22 cm diameter baking pan.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave or au-bain-marie. Mix with the vegan butter and sugar. Add flaxseed and mix well, add flour and mix well. Add baking powder and mix. Mix the orange peels and walnuts into the batter.

Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Let the brownies cool and decorate with powdered sugar.

Meaning of food 2: Nutmeg-date pie

Coronary heart disease is the most common heart disease and one of the leading causes of death in the world in both men and women. Treatment includes lifestyle changes, in particular in diet. Perhaps it’s karma, one shouldn’t eat ‘red meat’ (such as beef) because it is not good for your health in the long run. Well, in the short run it is not good for the health of, for instance, the cow. Maltreated during life and then slaughtered for the pleasure of the meat-eater.

In this context it intrigues me how different the reactions of people are if you say that you don’t eat meat. If it’s for your health or because you have allergies, it is ok. But, when you say you don’t eat meat and fish because you are a vegetarian or, even worse, vegan, it is, obviously, not ok and suddenly one has to explain oneself.  Food for thought.

I admit, this is Nepal, somewhere in the Himalayas

When it comes to karma, Indic tradition offers interesting ideas about food. Every form of food has certain qualities (guna), namely the qualities of light (sattva), of passion or energy (raja), and of darkness or inertia (tamas). These qualities are very important in Hindu thought and when it comes to food, I think we could learn something from this. These qualities, along with our physical constitution, may influence our mental state. The categories are ‘cool/creative/clear’ (sattva), ‘hot/activity’ (rajas) and ‘dullness/inertia’ (tamas). Everyone and everything contains all of these qualities in varying degrees. Excessive rajas and tamas have a disturbing influence on the mind, so one can aim to reduce these and increase sattva. It is assumed that through diet and lifestyle one can influence the balance between the different categories.

Happy yak in the Himalayas

To increase sattva with its qualities such as harmony, peace, truth, and love, one should eat predominantly sattvic food, easy to digest and light such as organic vegetables, ripe fruit, nuts and seeds, and a number of spices and herbs. Also, milk and clarified butter are considered sattvic if the cows are raised in a peaceful environment. In sattvic food onions and garlic are avoided as these increase rajas.

Note: as I’m talking here about food, I’ll not get into this too far as the term guna in classical Sanskrit literature in general is the term for the five elements, as well as the five senses, and five associated body parts.

As you are now expecting a sattvic recipe, I will give you a more tamasic kind of sweet, just because it is cold outside and the tamasic nutmeg will warm the body and mind. Be happy!

Nutmeg-date pie

Ingredients

375 gr dark brown caster sugar

250 gr flour

2 teaspoons baking powder 

125 gr vegan butter, very cold in small cubes

2 dl soy milk

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoon brown ground flaxseed + 6 tablespoon water

1½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

350 gr dates coarsely chopped

Powdered sugar for decoration

Preparation

Mix the 2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds with 6 tablespoons water.Stir together until thick and gelatinous and rest for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

 Grease and flour a 22 round baking pan.

 Mix in a kitchen machine the flour, baking powder and sugar for 10 seconds, mix the cubes cold vegan butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Take half of the mixture and press it on the bottom of the baking pan.

 Mix soy milk, nutmeg, cinnamon and flaxseed-water mixture until creamy; add the other half of the flour/sugar/butter mixture and mix well;  add baking soda, mix.

Pour into the greased baking pan and divide half of the dates on top.

Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick or skewer inserted in centre comes out clean.

Divide de rest of dates on the pie and two tablespoons, put for 1 minute under a hot grill or until the sugar has melted. Let the pie cool and decorate with powdered sugar.