Please, Sir, Can I Have Some More?

Tiny Tim may have needed more, nutritionally; the rest of us, probably not so much.  The statistics on societal food waste are pretty astounding, and shameful.  Achieving that delicate balance of just enough, physiologically, nutritionally, and convincing the mind that there is, in fact, abundance, a supply of more, can be tricky.  On the macro level, in developed countries, we've veered too far the other way - creating a classic First World problem in search of a solution - leave it to the more enlightened parts of Europe to start figuring it out.  Although, not to give all credit to the Europeans, there's also Cake Scraps in a Sad Box - the Canadians repping the North American enlightened (wry smile).  Kudos to S-market, Too Good to Go, Loop, and Milk & Cookies Bakeshop for coming up with some solutions!  And in the nonprofit sector, City Harvest, Food Forward, Garden to Table, Fruit for All, among others.

But the relationship with food is complicated.  My experience, growing up poor, is to clean my plate - even to the point of oversatiation.  In middle age, seems it is catching up to me, and now requires some action to bring it all back to balance.

But the flip side is food waste is a no-no in the UTJ household.  Food gets eaten, even if on the cusp.  Cuspy milk has turned into flatbread for pizza.  Mold has gotten scraped off for application of the sniff test to determine meal viability.  Meat in the freezer from pre-vegetarian days has gotten consumed.  At work, there is a drawer of snacks from Firm events.  I am trying to move away from beginning tendencies toward food hoarding.

But in the jardin, gosh darn it, if the herbs can be eaten, they will get eaten - we want them to attain their highest and best purpose to nourish the body if they are going to die anyway.

All season long, it's been all about the shiso.  This past weekend yielded a tasty new salad combo using quick-pickled shiso - a good way to consume a decent quantity.

Raw beets, celery, baby favas beans, and soy sauce, mustard pickle juice, agave, and smoked paprika quick-pickled green shiso, all dressed in a combination of the shiso pickling liquid and tahini.  The subtle sweetness of the raw beets paired well with the salty shiso, and the tahini dressing was overall savory.  The crunch of the beets and celery contrasted nicely with the softer marinated shiso; the baby favas beans rounded out everything and were al dente, filling and fibrous.  Successful vegetarian salad recipe!

Saturday's first salad trial was paired with leftover torta and charred leeks from Friday's dinner with a friend at the restaurant at Little Spain.

Potato torta and charred leeks from Little Spain.

And the tasty shiso-using salad combo came at just the right time, because ... [dum dum dum - cliche suspense/dread musical notes] ... the shiso plants are flowering, so the seeds are not far behind.  Ack!  Help!!!

Shiso in bloom.