Monday January 17, 2011

Zucchini in white sauce with mustard seeds and mixed herbs

Today's Food Diary

Breakfast: Missed

Lunch: Pasta with zucchini in white sauce, mustard seeds and mixed herbs

Dinner: Polenta with chickpeas, fried onions, garlic and mustard seeds, pasta and soybean soup

Baking/sweets: Oat sweets

The white sauce was made with milk, thickened with flour. The mustard seeds and herbs were a nice touch, and it made me forget that there was no real cream used. Using milk and flour instead of cream works well when there are other flavours involved, sort of filling in the gap left by cream!

The dinner polenta was nice, I will post a recipe sometime soon. It was one of the nicest savoury polentas I’ve eaten.

Today's Favourite Blog

eat and dust

I enjoyed the eat and dust blog for two reasons. Firstly there is a really nice fusion recipe called carrot halwa muffin. Carrot halwa is an Indian dessert which has been incorporated into a muffin. Best of both worlds I suppose.

The second reason the blog was my favourite today is because it raised the issue of buying local products. There is an international foodie movement called “locavores” that urges people to eat food produced “within a leisurely day’s drive of home”. Here’s my take on buying locally:

Eating food produced locally is more environmentally friendly as a general rule, but there are exceptions that should be mentioned. According to research, it is 4 times more environmentally friendly to import lamb from NZ to UK compared with lamb raised in UK. I live in Sweden and it makes sense to import tomatoes and other fruits/vegetables. Surely transportation causes pollution but the whole chain must be looked at, starting from production through to consumption. Much more energy is used to grow fruits and vegetables in green houses compared to natural growth in warmer climates.

The mode of transportation also needs to be considered. Transporting by cargo ships is probably 50-70 times more efficient compared with trucks.

I agree with the locavore concept though it may not always produce the desired outcome. It is a very complicated issue with no right answer! I grew up eating what is in season and its nice. You look forward to certain times of the year when certain produce is available. It makes it more special. Now the same stuff is available year round…sometimes takes the fun out of eating! Imagine having Christmas lunch and caviar everyday.

Today's Favourite Photo

Source: ladyironchef

A 'hamburger steak'