Vegging Out
My favorite vegetable vendor warned me once of her cauliflowers. Them being grown without pesticides, she told me they're best to be soaked in salted water first, in case of, you know, worms inhabiting the flower. The salt should send them scampering out of their hiding places, she said. I squirmed with the thought but thanked her for the warning.
Countless meals have passed and so far I have been blessed with clean, healthy vegetables. Actually, I have taken to cutting vegetables as one would to new-found zen. It's highly relaxing. I have mastered the art of paring and slicing each vegetable a certain way, so as to maximize the flavor (to my mind), and make them look pretty for eating.
Yesterday I had zucchinis, carrots and cauliflowers. I washed and cut the zucchini into lengthwise quarters, then sliced crosswise into 1 cm. pieces, with skin left on. I did similarly with the medium-sized carrots, only cutting into lengthwise halves, then slicing crosswise into 1 cm. semi-circles, this the whole time my cauliflower was soaked. Then I tossed them into the steamer.
You have to know that my favorite cutting mode is to chop. I love the randomness and irregularity of texture it gives to certain things, like garlic, onion, herbs, dill pickles for salad, cucumbers for tzaziki, mushrooms for pasta sauce, things like that. I love the way these tiny little veggies emit flavor while providing a better bite to things, making the eating a more sensory experience.
I got a few strands of chives to chop for a fabulous rice recipe and got so caught up in the exercise that I seemed to have morphed with the knife. I was just one continuous motion guided by quick but disciplined intervals, yet not following any particular direction. Wow, what a full-on high. Then ouch. Blood was gushing out of my left forefinger.
The cook's flesh and blood is usually not part of the recipe, but remains as a constant hazard in the kitchen. I tell you, any self-respecting kitchen whiz have got a couple of cut and burn marks to show for. And I, being one to faint at the sight of blood, had to do some quick thinking, mentally calculating that I didn't have the time to pass out on my bleeding finger. I was multi-tasking and had a few things going on the stove. Band-aid would be best for later, after everything is cooked and my hands are clean. Then, still dizzy from the cut, I remembered the cauliflower.
It is pointless to make this suspenseful and pretend there weren't any worms in the cauliflower. In fact there were three, and how quickly the soaking basin flew, all with the salted water and my worm-violated flower, landing on the kitchen floor. Worms. Ugh. How easily I forgot about the bleeding then.
Soon after, we sat down to dinner. Tenderloin steaks, fragrant rice, beautifully garlic, lemon-buttered carrots and zucchinis. It was all good, my finger cut, forgotten. Cauliflowers, well, I sure hope to eat them again sometime in this lifetime.
Filed Under: Flavors
Countless meals have passed and so far I have been blessed with clean, healthy vegetables. Actually, I have taken to cutting vegetables as one would to new-found zen. It's highly relaxing. I have mastered the art of paring and slicing each vegetable a certain way, so as to maximize the flavor (to my mind), and make them look pretty for eating.
Yesterday I had zucchinis, carrots and cauliflowers. I washed and cut the zucchini into lengthwise quarters, then sliced crosswise into 1 cm. pieces, with skin left on. I did similarly with the medium-sized carrots, only cutting into lengthwise halves, then slicing crosswise into 1 cm. semi-circles, this the whole time my cauliflower was soaked. Then I tossed them into the steamer.
You have to know that my favorite cutting mode is to chop. I love the randomness and irregularity of texture it gives to certain things, like garlic, onion, herbs, dill pickles for salad, cucumbers for tzaziki, mushrooms for pasta sauce, things like that. I love the way these tiny little veggies emit flavor while providing a better bite to things, making the eating a more sensory experience.
I got a few strands of chives to chop for a fabulous rice recipe and got so caught up in the exercise that I seemed to have morphed with the knife. I was just one continuous motion guided by quick but disciplined intervals, yet not following any particular direction. Wow, what a full-on high. Then ouch. Blood was gushing out of my left forefinger.
The cook's flesh and blood is usually not part of the recipe, but remains as a constant hazard in the kitchen. I tell you, any self-respecting kitchen whiz have got a couple of cut and burn marks to show for. And I, being one to faint at the sight of blood, had to do some quick thinking, mentally calculating that I didn't have the time to pass out on my bleeding finger. I was multi-tasking and had a few things going on the stove. Band-aid would be best for later, after everything is cooked and my hands are clean. Then, still dizzy from the cut, I remembered the cauliflower.
It is pointless to make this suspenseful and pretend there weren't any worms in the cauliflower. In fact there were three, and how quickly the soaking basin flew, all with the salted water and my worm-violated flower, landing on the kitchen floor. Worms. Ugh. How easily I forgot about the bleeding then.
Soon after, we sat down to dinner. Tenderloin steaks, fragrant rice, beautifully garlic, lemon-buttered carrots and zucchinis. It was all good, my finger cut, forgotten. Cauliflowers, well, I sure hope to eat them again sometime in this lifetime.
Filed Under: Flavors
Tags: pesticides, vegetables
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