Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant working in New York as a cook. She was also an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever. She didn't wash her hands before preparing food, so unsurprisingly her employers got sick. At that point she would vanish and find work elsewhere. When a doctor tracked her down, she refused to admit the possibility that she was infected and responsible for infecting others. She was quarantined for three years, then was released on condition that she would find a different line of work and start washing her hands. She did neither thing, infected more people, and was quarantined a second time, on March 27, 1915. She lived her last 33 years in confinement.
Please, wash your hands before cooking.
serves: 2
prep. time: approx. 30 mins.
INGREDIENTS:
3 small leek, chopped
1 large handful of Baby Bella mushrooms, chopped
1 large Yukon Gold potato, peeled and cubed
1 cucumber, peeled and chopped (I know it seems weird, but it kind of works!)
1 can of pinto beans
oil
water
turmeric
cumin
paprika
miso paste
DIRECTIONS:
1. Sauté leek and mushrooms on a pot over medium-high heat.
2. When it starts to smell good, add potato and enough water to cover it all. Toss in seasoning, but not too much.
3. Add cucumber and beans toward the end. You want the cucumber to get soft but not too soft.
4. Stir in miso paste after you turn off the heat and the water's no longer boiling.
Happy 84th, Edward Albee! Thanks for writing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
At the end of the week I'll be selecting the recipient of a free copy of Veganissimo A to Z. Will I have to select a ghost or other supernatural entity? You decide!
I've been totally winging amounts of things when I cook, so unfortunately I can't provide any measurement guidelines.
serves: 3?
prep. time: approx. 40 mins.
INGREDIENTS:
sweet brown rice
red lentils
half a large eggplant, peeled and cubed
half a clove of garlic, diced
1 large tomato, chopped
water
oil
salt
tumeric
cardamom
cumin
coriander
cayenne
DIRECTIONS:
1. Simmer the rice until tender.
2. Sauté the eggplant in oil in a medium-sized pot over medium heat. When it starts to brown, add garlic.
3. After a couple of minutes, add lentils, water, and seasonings.
4. When the dal starts to thicken, add the tomato. I like it to get soft but not totally disintegrate.
That's all, friends! ♥
[Contest update: I misused the word "flaunt" at the end of my last post. If you comment on this post with the word I should have used—I still can't think of what it is—I'll consider that a bid for the book. Unless the situation undergoes a rapid alteration, you'll practically be a shoe-in.]
A slew of notable events and births and deaths fall on March 6, but the one that struck me hardest tonight was that on this day in 1967, Stalin's only daughter defected to the U.S., one year after her would-have-been husband, Brajesh Singh, died. Judging by her Wikipedia entry, Alliluyeva had a tumultuous, eventful, less-than-happy life. Sounds like she might not have found what she was looking for after Singh's death. May we not all be unlucky.
Давайте выпьем за то, чтобы мы испытали столько горя, сколько капель вина останется в наших бокалах!
serves: 2
prep. time: 30 mins.
INGREDIENTS:
green lentils
spinach
green onion, chopped
2 jalapeños, diced
basil, sliced
coriander
1 lime, juiced
two spoonfuls of miso
DIRECTIONS:
1. Simmer the lentils in a pot of water. (Use a big pot. Mine was too small,which is why my soup turned out too crowded.)
2. Add the jalapeños and coriander after 10 mins. or so.
3. Add the spinach, onion, and basil 5 mins. or so before the lentils are tender.
4. Turn off the heat and add the lime juice and miso.
