The Requisite List
For many carnivores, 2009 was a year to celebrate. Restaurants and food mags were replete with tongue, cheek, trotter, and terrine. Good Egg sold scads of The River Cottage Meat Book, in fact it was one of our bestsellers.
My own taste for flesh tends toward the bone category: ribs, shanks, tails. I might be part dog. But in the spirit of health and balance (and to be contrary), I’m focusing my requisite “Best o’ the Year” list elsewhere.
BEST VEGETABLES OF 2009:
SCALLIONS are always in my crisper. I add them to noodle soups, curries, chili. They’re also my filling of choice for eggs because of their silky texture.
TATSOI is a mild Asian green. The stalks cook in the same time as the leaves which stay very green. Works well as a side, wilted with fried garlic and ginger, or thrown into a steaming hot bowl of soup.
PARSNIP may not sound sexy, but I beg to differ. Roasted, mashed, tossed into a stew – it puts the “win” in winter.
CAULIFLOWER remains my favourite since childhood. It’s the first thing I grab from the crudite plate, and is equally excellent roasted. Plus there is little to no waste – the whole vegetable is edible cooked or raw.
SHITAKES top my list. I eat them the way some people eat cookies – compulsively and defying the laws of diminishing returns. My chef roasts them whole, or cuts them into wedges for the saute pan. They replace meat better than any hunk of tofu. By the way, my chef is me.
Looks like I may be part rabbit too.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EGG-HEADS.