The original title was Mushin’, just so the following makes sense.
Good food and tripping is bloody important, being comfortable is bloody important, relaxing and chilling into life is the experience underlying the experience.
Not actually mushin’ on this occasion, mescalinin’, important to have great snacks. Snacks that translate into fantastic beautiful shit that can be prepped in minutes but looks like one put all the care and time in the world.
Setting the scene, trust, respect, it is a precursor to many beautiful outcomes, food she does this well when you do her well.
Mushin’ food, and Fred’s general food shit looks something along the lines of;
The cooking she is back, just an absolute favourite part of life that I get to continue sharing with you.
Beat the meat
All the yelling and screaming over what we should or should not eat, why? Really, why? When we are built as omnivores, our longest written history shows extremely clearly that animal has been part of our diet before the time before time, Aussie Abo cave art of course, why?
Did you just get all twisted in the knickers because I used the word abo? Uh oh, I used it again you pathetic piece of shit.
It is Aboriginal shortened, context is what matters, context which you do not have the ability to apply to a situation, do you know how to use your own brain for its purpose?
Clearly I wrote the word for a reaction from the pathetic, the most pathetic, did you react? You, bud, are undeniably the pinnacle of pathetic cunts, jump off that high thing too please.
It is not what we consume that matters, it is how we consume, the relationship with it. We humans waste absolutely everything, over consume well beyond the reasonable point of over consumption, then we just chuck so much good shit away.
In Nepal, fancy restaurant, fairly full and just me by myself. One table has a group of 10 Russian dudes, I know they are Russian, have come across them, or some of them on the hiking. The table literally orders everything, or as close to, from the menu. The waiters are constantly bringing out food.
The group finish their meal, get up and leave, barely made a dent in the food on the table. This display of disgusting waste was a display of status and wealth.
Clearly, we are not all like this but any waste is waste, I cannot complain about those cunts wasting shitloads when I am wasting little, it is hypocrisy, I must remove the waste to direct others to make improvements. Otherwise, again, am being an ignorant hypocritical twat who offers no value to the conversation.
Not wasting does not mean there will be nothing left, not a scrap of waste at all. Instead, it simply means to do your best to waste less, start to consume less of the shit you don’t need so much because you have gained a mindfulness and understanding of what you consume and how you consume.
The photo, notice something?
It is meat free. In fact, it is vegan, maybe, not sure if the noodles contain eggs.
But Fred, vege food does not fill me up at all.
Incorrect, vegetables alone do not fill you up at all.
Look, too, have mentioned the personal meat requirement, if I ate this every day and no meat ever I would be as hungry as shit in three or four days too, hence every two or so days I eat meat. A variety of meat, mainly birds, but other stuff too, could add more fish. About 150 grams or so each occasion, it is enough animal protein for everybody unless you are a fulltime athlete or your job requires significant physical labour.
Learning and understanding basics helps to make stuff like this much more meal like and filing. For instance, cashew nuts, it has heaps, cashews are a fantastic source of proteins, good fats, fibre and heaps of good shit for the body. Most importantly, as we know some basics of cashews, fibre and protein already they are filling.
Tofu, again a great source of heaps of great crap the body needs including protein and fibre.
The other thing you might notice, all though I left the dish out cooked for 10 or so minutes before taking the photo so it kept cooking a little bit more than would have liked. The notice, how beautifully the colours from the vegetabbles are popping, it looks great and inviting. One knows they are going to feel awesome at the end of it.
Veges don’t and shouldn’t be cooked to the shithouse, to an absolute mush, this is yuck. They, especially in stir-fry, only want to be cooked for a little until they are glowing and their colour has intensified, they still maintain a crunch. This is veges at their best, stir-fry at its best, learn to cook basic stuff beautifully and you’ll understand, meat, especially excess meat will no longer be required, the planet starts to get better.
Over consumption of vegetables and fruits is a massive issue too, but lets start with the biggest problem and work from there.
Love in the kitchen
Love in the kitchen, it looks like this;
The base recipe am going to share because it is so damn easy. There are no special techniques or needing to cut shit small. The dish is as simple as can be, everyone will know they can cook afterwards. Thank you Nagi.
To be honest, I do it better than her recipe. Not saying that I’m a better cook or anything, just that I have taken the beautiful foundation she provided and tinkered with it. Tinkered to my own tastebuds. Took some stuff from her other recipes to do it, added a personal touch. It is what we are eating tonight, it will be phenomenal. It is all love.
Love is doing the basics beautiful, taking the time to brown the meat, not crowding the pan in the process. Being sure to keep the burnt and black at the bottom of the pan palatable (edible), so not too hot either. Too much black and burning creates a char taste, it is not nice, but the right amount adds a beautiful richness that only comes with patience and time. It only comes with love.
Love is knowing all four of us are tired, we are dealing with different things together, it would be really nice not to think about cleaning up later. We don’t need to, the cook took the situation into account, the dishes are already done. He loves enough to listen.
Love is taking the time to yourself, the waiting while baking time allows one who loves to get roasted to roast. Fred, well, he was sitting out roasting when Rachel and Maeve came along. Time to clean the tail pocket.
British Bulldogs have a common issue, tail pocket infections. One case the tail wound up and around so tight that it started to become ingrown into the dog. Awful.
Just awful. As was the terrible noise that came from Maeve when she was being held by Freddy, Rachel cleaning the pocket. It was a heart piercing noise, the pain she must have felt. The pain coming from this thing that is nothing but love, is impossible not to love, is the definition of the word.
It was not done yet, the job needed to be completed, short-term pain for quicker healing, less inflammation, significant reduction in ongoing pain.
The cream was next, even when she wasn’t this uncomfortable it still hurt her. Today, the squeal was like something from an alien horror movie, that of the victim in unthinkable excruciating pain. Hearts broke all around her, hearts broke for, hearts did the job they needed to do. Love even dominated this space.
It is simply caring enough to care, to give attention, to listen, to do things right for fuck sake.
Really, it is all love is, it is much more simple that we are all making it.
Love is telling your niece she is boring when she is being boring and watching her eyes light up when help is offered from an unexpected source. A source that enables her to continue riding a horse. Love is just doing what needs to be done. Doing it while dining on delight, living in joy.
Love is joy.
Actually roasting
The day following the stew came a lamb roast. Rachel was going to cook it but was running later so the Uncle of the house took over.
Stupidly good, perfect medium-rare. Both soft and crunchy vegetables: carrot, sweet potato, potato and broccolini. All perfect, no photo, imagine it.
Stupidly easy. Cooking a roast is just stupidly easy.
Roast lamb with the bone in, about 1.5 kilograms, feed four of us with heaps left over for lunches, a couple of days of lunches. It was on sale, $15, the veges all together cost $10, $25 for a family of four to eat super healthy. The stew above, about $30 for everything, the spaghetti sauce that is advertised elsewhere, $20 for a a few days of meat sauce.
It is not cheaper to eat out, you just do not know how to cook. Learn and things immediately get better for you in all aspects of life: bank account, personal accountability, the way you feel, the waistline.
Back to the roast. Preheat the oven to 230 degrees if you have a fan, 250 or as high as it will go if not. While that is happening combine a couple of teaspoons of crushed or minced garlic, about half a teaspoon of fresh or dry thyme if you have it, two tablespoons of olive oil or whatever you have and a pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix it together.
Get a whole onion bulb and cut it into three horizontally, you will end up with three flat looking discs. Stick them garlic face up on a baking tray. Do the same with an onion but this time cut it into quarters, that’s four even triangle looking things. Chuck them in too, skin and all for both the onion and garlic
Next, after washing your hands, rub about half the oil mix onto the meat. Place the meat in the baking tray on top of the onion and garlic. Creates better heat flow and allows the juices to drip through the garlic and onion for the next beautifully important part.
Grab a bunch of veges, whatever you like, stuff like potato, pumpkin, carrot are great, and cut them how you like, not too big. A few good handfuls all together, put them in a big bowl and massage the rest of the garlic and oil mix onto them. Scatter them around the meat in the baking tray, trying to keep to one layer.
Stick the whole thing in the over. Bake for 20 minutes and remove it. Turn the oven down to 200 with a fan, or 220 odd without.
Without touching the meat, stir the vegetables and put it back in the oven, the oven does not need to be down to 200 or 220 yet, it will get there. Bake for 35 more minutes. In my experience this will get you to medium-rare or thereabouts, another four or five minutes will be more medium, less blood in the middle.
Take the tray out of the oven, turn the oven up 10 more degrees.
Remove the meat from the tray and leave it to sit on a plate, cover loosely in tin foil or an alternative. Stir the veges and return them to the oven.
Cook the veges for another 20 minutes or so. This is also a good stage to add other vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, broccolini, asparagus and many more, things that take less cooking time.
Remove, salt and pepper to taste, and have a bloody good time eating knowing you bloody well can cook.
Larger cuts of meat need more time, refer to the guidelines on the internet.