http://www.freep.com/article/20110604/NEWS07/106040326/Germany-s-E-coli-outbreak-spreads-11-more-countries
Many questions have to be asked and answered, not only in this latest outbreak of dangerous things dealing with one of our most pleasurable and basic occupations.....buying, preparing and consuming..........FOOD.........!
Without question, the German Authorities were too quick to find a guilty party, but the fact does remain that we must find out - where, why, when and how these things happen.
Often the reasons are simple......greed, and not greed in the sense of over-eating, but greed in over-producing, too quickly, in an un-natural way, using chemicals and other materials we don't understand sufficiently, to satisfy our greed for money.
Image by MattersMind.com via FlickrNow - these people in the image do not produce in the unbelievably high quantities we produce in "the civilized world".
They produce sufficiently to nourish themselves, their families and if possible to be able to sell something to satisfy other needs.
In our "civilized world" we over produce everything, and often end up still having the highest prices world wide, the most dangerous products worldwide, and always end up destroying vast quantities as "unsellable" because the products don't meet our mental image of what we want,
I recall, many years ago now, visiting Croatia and other "Eastern" countries where vegetable, fruits - even animals - were produced in the basic fashion, no funds were available to purchase the fertilizers and other aids. Strange things did happen - fruit and vegetables were invariably much smaller and more often deformed than in the Western world, but strangely - they tasted of what they were supposed to be!
Of course, the basic rules must be applied, nowadays even more strictly, washing, peeling - if in doubt - throw away - longer cooking, but all these precautions take their toll on the usage, taste and nutritional value of the item, and badly cooked non nutritional foods almost always lead to this
Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, most fruits and many other standard items were created to be eaten raw! Cooked cucumber...?
Well, yes, it CAN be done, very carefully and generally very quickly, one of the nicest actually is cucumber cooked in butter, lightly so it doesn't brown or lose too much of its value, then incorporated into a cream and chilled to give a quite delicious summer soup.
Of course, there is still the little problem of the "garnish" - normally raw diced or chopped cucumber and herbs....with the e-coli present? The famous "Gazpacho" (chilled tomato soup) is, quite frankly a total delice, particularly in summer, but the last time I made it, the French left it on one side - wasn't French and looked like a soup - too hot to eat!
On the other hand...cooked lettuce is not quite as simple. I do use any left overs when I prepare small garden peas "French style"
in actual fact, the addition of normal green strips of raw lettuce into the preparation actually brings out strongly the true taste of the peas - try it, you'll be surprised!
At the end of the day, there are many dishes these "possibly infested with deadly bugs" salad items can be safely used for.
The problem is that most of us can't imagine a Summer without "salads" prepared in the normal way - with raw ingredients,
and I agree wholeheartedly!
Well in this case, we must accept the minimal risks, do the maximum
In fact, I think that the amateur chefs who trot out their summer Barbecues and impress us (and our stomachs) with "burnt on the outside - raw on the inside" - meat and fish, are probably responsible for most of these "summer attacks" - particularly fascinating are those plates of meat and fish lying around in the hot sun, being verociously attacked by flies and other beasties....A real appetizer!
Now I know it's almost lunch time, so I'll close this article now and wish you "Bonne Appétit" - if you're invited to a Barbecue, make sure you get a "digestif" (a little cognac or other high powered alcoholical drink) after the meal....Our ancestors weren't stupid,
**********
iwmpop(mrlemarquis) - Vauvert, France - Juin 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment