Thinking of Food

I’m making miso soup for breakfast again today. I made a rather disappointing batch two days ago. Not nearly enough miso paste, I think, and perhaps not enough tofu and mushrooms. I will try to rectify those deficiencies this morning.

Ideally, I would accompany the miso soup with a bit of fresh salmon and, perhaps, a few slices of cucumber. Unfortunately, I did not think of the salmon and cucumber until this morning; we don’t keep such stuff around unless we have an immediate plan to use them. Well, that’s not entirely true. I suspect we have a few salmon fillets in the freezer, but I’d have to thaw an entire fillet; that’s too much for breakfast. So, we’ll make do with the soup. Maybe I’ll jazz mine up with a spoonful of sambal oelek. And I might splash a little soy sauce to mix in with my bowl of soup. I realize my additions might render my soup inauthentic. So be it. All food today is fusion food; we just have to get over the idea that my fusion is inferior to or superior to anyone else’s food.

This morning’s miso soup is in sharp contrast to last night’s dinner of New York strip steak—cooked on the grill—and potato, broccoli, and cauliflower. And we accompanied dinner last night with a bottle of very good mourvedre (AKA monastrell) wine. The wine was an especially night treat. Miso soup may be just what I need to lower my cholesterol after an eight-ounce steak.

I’m getting in the mood to make hearty meals that also are healthy. I think that will take the form of more seafood, more vegetarian, and more soups in general. Last winter, when I was out of commission in the kitchen for the most part, I did not engage in my usual winter ritual of making lots and lots of lentil soups, each one spiced differently so as to make essentially the same soup taste radically different from one another. I missed that. So, I think I’ll plan on doing it this year. My wife mentioned it the other day; she missed the lentil soup fests, too. The only downside to making those soups is the amount of cutting and chopping required. I use so many veggies of so many types that my hands get stiff from all the knife work.

It’s almost 7:15. My wife usually would be up by 7:30 (and lately much earlier), but she was awake for a couple of hours last night, so she may be late to rise this morning. But just in case, I’d better get to work on the miso soup.

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes
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