Soul Food - Dining on the Wild Side

We hear these words and this phrase, Soul Food mentioned around seemingly good food or supposedly great comforting food yet do we use it too loosely? Might it mean something far more, much deeper then the connection we make between feeding ourselves rich foods?

Perhaps when it comes to food, eating and diet in general this term goes back to a distant time when we were more in touch with who we are and what the consequences of eating a poor diet would be. What if this really has to do less with the type of food and relates to the place the food comes from?

When I think of a spiritual connection to my food, these days I seem to gravitate towards wild game, herbs, vegetables and berries I grow in the garden and meat I raise myself. All of this would be organic in that no chemical would knowingly be supplied to anything.

Our food is something that has gotten away from us. We have been taken down a path of resistance to real, earth grown produce towards trusting and placing faith in clean, 'safe' (sterile) foods manufactured, treated and processed in some way.

This alone destroys the intended meaning of our food - it is meant to build strong healthy bodies, also contributing to strong willed minds. But, we must also take this one step further because we are spiritual creatures, our food is meant to maintain this connection we have with the earth and all her forces.

For me, this has come to mean keeping the cleanest diet possible, and seeking out wild natural sources of basic foods that are alive with nature vibrating inside of it. I have mentioned how the first time I ate venison (after many years) I dreamed of the foods the animal had been eating - wild apples, grasses, trees - as if I was becoming a part of some hidden landscape.

But then again, I was not becoming anything - this wild animal was now leading me inward, towards an ancient original aspect of myself - my soul. They have not forgotten who we are....

April

Roast Venison cooked in clay pot

Refining Our Tastes...

Yesterday was the second day off the Master Cleanse for us, so we are still getting back to eating regular meals and filling up on good food. When I came into the kitchen to get lunch ready there was a already a plan in place as the children were asking for sushi. 

This is one of our favorite  meals or snacks that takes little time to prepare and is very versatile, it also travels fairly well for small kids. Of course, we don't make this with raw fish - but nearly anything else goes when it comes to sushi in our house.

Usually we make sushi rolls with guacamole, tuna, cucumber and grated carrot. However, yesterday everyone was in the mood for other flavours, so I rooted around to see what we had on hand. I found local crab meat and locally hot smoked tuna -- when mixed together this was a very nice combination.

For the meal I made a vegetable stir-fry and then realized that -- with virtually no processed foods remaining in the house, we did not have a mayonnaise or sauce for dipping. This brought me back to the drawing board and cooking/creating something from scratch.

I have tried my hand at making mayonnaise several times, with some success. However, for small children, I did not necessarily want to use raw duck eggs as part of a recipe. Thus, the sauce needed to be cooked so this was moving into new territory for me.

In the end, I separated the egg yolk and cooked it together with some water, spelt flour and butter. Then added in mustard and spices, vinegar and kept stirring until it was thickening up. After taking it off the stove I pureed it and slowly added some oil. 

To be honest, I thought that it was lovely and smelled nice, but it looked more like hollandaise sauce then mayo, at least not the white stuff you will find in the shops. The one thing I was certain of was that the children would not eat it - but they were the ones who surprised me. Everyone loved it and I don't think there was much left over!

Now, I just want to play around with the recipe a bit more to get it where I really like it and then find a way to preserve it for a couple weeks at a time or perhaps even longer. I mean, we can buy something off of a shelf and it has a date indicating that it can last for quite awhile - how do they do that with such highly perishable food items?

The only method is to use chemical additives, stabilizers or preservatives and so forth. When not using these, perhaps the best way to enjoy mayonnaise sauce is freshly made. The wonderful thing here is it was very quick to put together with just making it up as I went from a vague idea of what should be found in a white sauce that I wanted to become a mayonnaise. 

Perhaps, this is the simplicity of all cooking and preparing meals - they can be tasty, wholesome and easy to assemble and we have somehow been stupified into thinking otherwise. Clever marketing, yes?

Have a great day,

April

Sushi roller, sheet of nori seaweed and lunch!