We had made the GROSSEST TOFU EVER.
It was a day or so before news of the Upheaval, and we thought we’d experiment with sundried tomatoes and fresh basil in our tofu-style bean curd quiché-y thingy. We had a counter crammed with fresh vegetables from the CSA, and were washing and chopping and minding the stove — we thought. Turns out we got a little panicky when we saw how the acid from the tomatoes curdled the soy protein, and we added maybe a bit much in terms of coagulant. And then I had tucked it in the oven — and forgotten it.
It was foul. It wasn’t just the overbaking – there was still moisture under a fairly substantial crust, but the texture was off, the flavor was horrid — Oy, nasty, like shoe leather and bitter, and just awful. And I couldn’t understand it. We compared notes on seasoning, we discussed the relative acidity level of the tomatoes, and finally we simply looked at each other, said, “Oh, what a waste of calories,” scraped the mess off of our plates and made a salad.
There is a point to this little tale of tofu woe: that is, sometimes, Yeech! Happens. I find that as I peruse the countless food blogs out there, some of us have gotten so far into reading the airbrushed, sun-drenched, photo-op types of foodie pieces that we rarely, if ever, admit failure, defeat, disaster or distaste for our creations. Creating with food is a dicey art. Some things combine to create unexpected pleasures for the palette; others should never have been combined — but in many cases, you simply don’t know until you’ve tried. And trying and bombing? Is simply… well, maybe not part of the “fun” per se at the time, but part of the experience, anyway. And I’m not one for pruning away the unpleasant for the sake of looks.
I recently someone if they had been following the blog of a mutual friend of ours, and they replied, “I just can’t seem to …read it lately.” Well, again — the myriad perfectly staged photographs complete with starched white linens and sugar-dusted herbs and berries can actually get …a little depressing. I don’t know about you, but most of the time my life cannot be mistaken for a photo spread from O, or Martha Stewart Living, and while I am NOT against the display of perfection, I do wonder why so many allegedly amateur cooks, bakers and bloggers strive towards it.
A lot of this society’s entertainment is built upon the schadenfreude of others’ failure — I think of the stupid televised baking contests where people have to MOVE a decorated, six foot high cake (despite the fact that in their normal bakeries they would constructed it in, maybe, PIECES?!), or even (sur)Reality shows. I think sometimes we all have the idea that so many eyes are upon us that we don’t dare produce anything BUT PERFECTION. [EDIT: AND we also have such twisted and Puritanical notions of goodness and perfection that the automatic reaction also seems to be a need to punish both perfection AND imperfection – the hammer comes down on the nail if it stands too tall, and pounds in the short ones further – but that is a rant for another day.} But perfection …isn’t really all that interesting, not when life is so real, and we learn so much from mistakes and missteps. Not everything that is perfect is right; neither is everything that doesn’t turn out the way you intended an unparalleled disaster. Words to live by, I guess.
The creative process is wildly unpredictable, and I expect that we will have more MANY more exciting — and disturbing — incidents as we explore the foods and traditions of another place (I mean, skink? Cullen SKINK!? Er, isn’t a skink a LIZARD!?). You can certainly rest assured that we will continue to experience our share of culinary clashes, diet disasters and have less than House Beautiful style kitchens and lives. We’re real, after all.
The CSA has gone from us. Siiigh. Less than the newspaper, I regret having to cancel our CSA. In the height of the glorious summertime of plums and nectarines and white corn, we simply don’t have the time or the bandwidth or the space to process much fresh food – we’re simply grabbing and going. (Please check out A CSA if not ours at Riverdog — keep the link with the farmers and the land and the good pesticide free food that is out there. That’s my PSA for today.)Thusly is the deep freeze being shared out to a few well-loved friends, because it, too, has to go — it’s a chest-style deep freezer, and we can’t leave it in a rental where a parent less obsessive may leave it unlocked, and a child climb up and fall into it. Ach. We were so proud of our beautiful freezer and all our jars of put up fruits and veggies and bags of frozen goodness! But – adventure awaits.
You know what else awaits? WORK. Between waves of fever from this !@$*&&^!# inoculations (now approaching day three of pneumonia, diphtheria, meningitis, and whatever else I am pseudo-having), I really am doing my level best to finish my revision because NEXT WEEK the container shipping thingy will arrive and ALL of what is going aboard must get aboard. And so I must get MOVING. Light a candle for us – we have GOT to finish…
SO — ciao for now —
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Yay for imperfection! It’s really much more interesting.
Been running cooking workshops with kids this week, and so far one of the adults messed up cookies – they tasted good but looked awful and fell apart, and I made lumpy mashed potatoes with not enough butter and milk. (I helped make perfect cookies too though) Lots more fun and laughs than if everything had gone perfectly.
There’s a Farmers MArket near the University – it’s only once every two weeks but there is organic and heritage meat, vegetables and all sorts of yummy scrummy things….
India
Er, I would ask what ‘heritage meat’ might be, except you might… tell me. It sounds like my grandfather’s steak (!!!).
🙂
lmao – it means meat from ‘heritage’ breeds ie rare breeds ;0) And mighty tasty it is, too.
I’ve heard some things about the term’organic’ in the States, which I don’t the veracity of. In th UK the term’Organic’ is a legal term and has very specific meanings. There have been some rumblings recently about the possibility of the UK standard allowing GMO!!!! IF that is the case, and you want to avoid it, then The Soil Association Organic Standard will be the certification to look out for.
The Heritage breeds are not necessarily Organic, but are usually reared in v good conditions and fed properly.
The vendors are usually delighted to tell yo about their particular food chain – of course, one has to have a certain amount of trust…
Tea: I would love to hear more sometime about your work. Sounds really rewarding.
Midsummer night’s: Oh, NO, what the government of the USDA considers ‘organic’ is not what many of us will consider the same. It started out – before the USDA became involved with individual states having slightly different definitions, but with the same idea – no pesticides in the soil or water for a five year period of ‘clear’ and no growth hormones or GMO.
After the USDA became involved ‘organic’ did become a legal term, but the USDA allows a legally ‘organic’ crop to have a certain percentage of pesticides in the final product, AND in manufactured products the term ‘organic’ may be used if a certain percentage of your ingredients are organic, meaning that you could have 1% depleted uranium, 1% plutonium — and still be considered organic.
Most farms label their goods at Farmer’s Market as Pesticide Free and Local – avoiding the o-word altogether. It has not much meaning any longer.
that is what i love about the creative process, messy, exhilirating and fun all at the same time. congrats!