Civility, the very thing President Obama once called for, has been in short supply these days. Maybe the problem is the word itself. Civility does not mean timidity. It does not mean you drink your tea with your pinkie extended (unless that's the way you normally drink your tea). Civility does not mean, as Rush Limbaugh asserts, that "we shut up." What civility really means is Hillary Clinton gets to say what she believes and is heard without being called a nasty woman. Or threatened. It means we can all sit down at the table together without throwing plates and stabbing each other.
Sitting down at the table was where civility was taught once. I mean plain old table manners -- being able to eat and talk together, to operate within the politics of a family or of other social groups, to be tolerant of others.
I'm a vegan who wants to invite everyone to the table. Call me naive, (I've been called worse -- and right here by some readers -- and you know who you are), but the Us versus Them mentality I just don't get. We are more alike than we are different. At the very least, we all eat. Nothing brings us together like food. Food is a delicious lesson in sociology and cultural anthopology.
We may differ on the issue of meat versus meatless, but there's nothing more global than grain. It's sustained mankind since we learned to cultivate it. In many parts of Asia, the word rice means to eat. Rice is the basis of qabuli pulaw, one of the oldest recipes in recorded history. It's the national dish of Afghanistan and serving it is a sign of hospitality. Of civility.
Pulaw has travelled around the world, morphing in Iran, India, Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean, each place reflecting its own tastes and local ingredients. It's known as pilou, perloo, polo, pilau or as we call it here, pilaf. It can mean a simple bowl of cooked rice or an elaborate array of grains, nuts, beans, raisins, saffron, vegetables and yes, even meat.
You call it pilaf, I call it pulaw, it still seems like something we can all agree on. But maybe not. Rice itself can be controversial. Some environmentalists oppose rice on the grounds that it requires too much water to grow, using up valuable natural resources. So does producing livestock.
I say bring on the controversy. Let's talk it out. How else are we going to resolve differences of opinion? And while you're at it, bring on the rice, too -- white, brown, red, black, rare Carolina gold, wild, cultivated, glutinous, there's rice for all of us. And for those who take issue with rice, pilafs can be made with all kinds of grains -- chewy wheat berries, nutty buckwheat, tiny calcium-rich amaranth and protein-packed pearls of quinoa.
Food itself can convince where rhetoric and bombast cannot. Cooking vegan lets me make and share food aligned with what I believe in -- more compassion, less carbon. It lets me be the change I want to see in the world, to quote Gandhi (a vegetarian). When I feed others, it encourages them to be that way, too. Or least allows the possibility of discourse over dinner.
These days, being able to talk freely about issues where we as a society disagree, reaching across the aisle -- or across the dinner table -- may be the boldest act we can do.
Dialogue is good. Even when it seems like there's a line in the sand between meat-eaters and vegans, Republicans and Democrats. We may not always agree with each other, but frankly, we don't have anywhere else to go. The fact is, whatever you eat or believe, we're all on this planet together.
Civility Pulaw/Perlou/Pilaf
While I love a one-pot wonder, this dish pays homage to your classic pilafs and pulaws. It's done in stages, with the rice and sauce cooked separately. They're layered then baked together. It's amazing how the vegetables perfume and permeate the rice. Like Hillary Clinton's campaign slogan, they're stronger together. So are we. I still believe that.
The pilaf keeps well, and its flavors are even headier the next day. Nice, by the way, for Thanksgiving, a time when America comes together with gratitude (or something like it).
3 cups water or vegetable broth, divided use
1 cup rice of your choosing -- I used a blend of brown basmati and wild rice
2 tablespoon olive oil
1-1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 onion, chopped
2 cups green beans, chopped
1 cup broccoli or cauliflower, chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 large tomato, chopped or 1 cup grape tomatoes
juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons raisins
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Bring 2 cups water or broth to boil in a large pot. Pour in rice. Cover and reduce heat to low. Let rice cook for 25 minutes or until the grains become plump and tender and absorb all the liquid.
Remove lid from pot and let the rice cool May be done a day ahead before proceeding.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add turmeric, cinnamon and allspice and stir for a minute or until spices darken and turn fragrant. Add chopped onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 4 minutes, until onion mellows and softens.
Add green beans and broccoli or caulifower and continue cooking, stirring to give the vegetables a luster from the spiced oil.
Add tomato paste, chopped tomatoes and water. Stir to combine. Squeeze in lime juice. Add raisins, season with sea salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a large casserole.
Lay down half the rice. Top with half of the tomato mixture, repeat with the rice and end by covering with the tomatoes and vegetables.
Bake, tightly covered, for 30 minutes.
Serves 4.
The original version of this post ran on January 24, 2011.
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