Dino Sarma Weierman - Alternative Vegan: International Vegan Fare Straight from the Produce Aisle

Alternative Vegan: International Vegan Fare Straight from the Produce Aisle

by Dino Sarma Weierman

ISBN: 978-1-60486-508-0

LCCN: 2009901382

This edition copyright 2012 PM Press

All Rights Reserved

PM Press

PO Box 23912

Oakland, CA 94623

www.pmpress.org

Layout by Daniel Meltzer

Cover art by John Yates

Printed on recycled paper by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan.

www.thomsonshore.com

An Introduction
Into My World

Chapter 1:
Meals in One Pot

Chapter 2:
Back to the Basics

Chapter 3:
More Complex

Chapter 4:
Sauce

Chapter 5:
Dished to Impress

Chapter 6:
Easy Peasy

Wed have cook-ins at the houses of mutual friends. Dinos instructions: Bring over whatever vegetarian foods you like, and well cook it up. So wed bring over all kinds of things: cabbage, root veggies, legumes, beans. One time we even barbequed fruit! BBQ pineapple was the best! And it would be a feast; were talking 10 courses at some of them! The common denominator was always Dinos magic touch, and his encouragement to us to try new things, and justtry!

John Casbarro, Cooper City, FL

Whenever I get hold of a new cooking thing of any sort, I, like a gamer with the latest console and stack of new games, feel the need to use it as soon as it has been brought home. The day I bought myself a mortar and pestle, I came home that night, bashed up some coriander seeds, poured the little shards of flavor into a bowl, and then ground up some ginger and garlic with a few lumps of rock salt. Then, I heated up my much-loved old wok, which my mother had since she got married over thirty-five years ago and has seen the sharp side of a stirring spoon more times than I can count. When it was screaming hot, I poured in some oil, threw in some spices, and watched them pop and dance in their hot bath. I flung in the coriander seeds (now beautiful and ready to give the oil their all) and some sesame seeds and waited to hear the calls of the sesame seeds, exploding all over the inside of the wok and onto my freshly clean stove. I stirred in a can of beans and let it get to a full boil. Then I stirred in some cooked rice and indulged myself in my newly crafted dish, which I could not have made quite this way without my brand-new marble mortar and pestle.

She will see the seductive wafts of perfume that the spices wear. She will make even the most haughty garlic a smooth, creamy, salty paste. She will demand that the ginger cut her long, stringy hair so that my soup doesnt have little strings of ginger. Like a best friend, she will improve with the amount of time that we spend together, teaching me, giving selflessly of herself whenever I ask. She will joyfully sing to me as I respectfully run the spices through her relentless stones. And when the two of us are finished playing in our exuberant dance of joy, she will then go back to her beloved corner of my utensil shelf, to lie in repose for the next time we speak.

This is what I want cooking to become for you. I want you to look at the recipes presented here and be as excited as a kid with a new toy. I want your heart to race, your mouth to water, and your pots and pans to sing to you as they bring together the elements of a good dining experience. I want you ready to plunge into a recipe headfirst, mouth wide open and ready to go. I want you to approach your food with the exuberance we reserve for eating outside. Their food will never be as good as yours, because only you know your palate.

When you get my book homeinto your kitchen or onto your nightstand at home so you can pore over its pages before sleep and have beautiful, savory dreams while you sleepI want you to imagine ways of changing what I have to suit your palate. Decide what you would like to tweak, and how it would be good-tasting to you.

Once youve got a good idea of where youd like it all to go, get out there and do it! Theres no need to worry, because all of these recipes have been tested many times over by different people of different skill levels. This is our labor of love to you, so that you may explore the gifts of natures bounty. Now get that knife sharpened, your oven preheated, and that cutting board washed. Its time to cook.

For more information about my life, cooking and to listen to my podcast, please visit my personal blog at:

altveg.blogspot.com

To get in touch you can reach me at:

When Bob Torres first approached me about writing a book, I was a newly minted vegan and wasnt too sure of myself when it came to explaining my ethics. I just wanted to make delicious food and be left alone. I feel like Ive learned a lot from him, and from the enormous community of vegans out there. I would cheerfully call these people my friends, and Im privileged to have stood alongside them for as long as I have. Since I first wrote this book, I have understood more strongly what it means to be a vegan.

Veganism is a moral stance. Its a political statement. At its core, it states unabashedly that the exploitation of animals is wrong. It demands to know, What is it about being human that elevates our needs above the need of animals? Veganism is not a diet. It is not an environmental movement, although many vegans do care deeply for the environment. It is not about personal choice, as Ive heard so many times. Its understanding that your choice to use animals means that you deny the animals choice in their own lives.

Its not whether the animals are given cage-free scenarios or allowed to roam about before their bodies are used. Its about taking a stand and saying that the use of animals is unethical. Its also not about singleissue campaigns, such as those of people who boycott furriers but wear leather shoes. Its about being ethically consistent and living a life based on your ethics.

Funny how when you make a reasoned, ethical stance, people question your sanity, but when you follow a religion, based on blind faith, they consider you admirable. Id sooner follow my morals, that Ive taken time to reason out than follow someone elses morals about a deity that may or may not have anything to do with my life. I would ask you to think it over, if nothing else.

But dont plants have feelings?

Try an experiment. Take a stick, and poke a tree. See what the tree does. Is it yelling and screaming? No. Try that on yourself now. Poke yourself (not someone else). Watch how that part of you reacts to it. You move away. You may (depending on how hard you poked yourself with a stick) even yell or make a noise of discomfort. Thats how you can tell, empirically, that you feel pain, and the tree doesnt.

Furthermore, if you are so concerned about the plants welfare, lets perform a little thought experiment. For that animal product that youre eating, theres something to the tune of 16 pounds of plants that need to go into the animal to produce 1 pound of flesh. Whos eating more plants now?

As a vegan, I frequently get statements such as, But it would be too hard! or I hate tofu! as if that is a valid excuse to continue the mass murder and mutilation of animals. Its not difficult. The sheer volume of food that exists in the plant kingdom would make you dizzy. Even if you have allergies, even if you hate tofu, even if you cant consume gluten, there are so many things out there for you to eat, that to list them off would take me volumes more books to even nick the surface. Eat all of that and then get back to me about hating tofu, or it being difficult.