Exam

Today is the exam for my "Nutrition for Everyday Living" class that I have been taking for the last couple of months.  It is given at the College of Naturopathic Medicine so the whole bent is organic, natural, evils of the food industry kind of thing.  This suits me fine and so I was thinking, how long has it been since I became interested in organic food?  I think we have been trying to eat organic since 1989 when my daughter was born and we joined the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn.  I don't remember it being a conscious decision but I guess I didn't want to feed my baby pesticides. But I do think organic produce tastes better and with the various health related food restrictions I've had over the years, I've gotten pretty good about reading labels.  But I am not fanatical about it at all, I buy it when I can but when I can't I buy regular.  The four years we lived in Japan we mostly bought non organic since it was hard to find organic produce and meat.  If you are willing to live with a restricted selection, London is not bad.  You do get tired of eating the same veg.  Various people have suggested the organic food boxes they deliver to you but I am not a huge fan of surprise vegetables and prefer to buy what I need.  My cooking is improvisational as it is, so it doesn't need the added drama of mystery ingredients.  And so I find myself studying for my first exam in probably 30 years if you don't count driving or citizenship.  I'm hoping unlike my other endeavours, I don't forget all the information the second I leave the classroom but old habits die hard.

Here is the recipe for my kombu soy sauce which you will need to make the niku jaga from Sunday.
Kombu             30g cut into 2.5cm squares
Soy Sauce         2 cups
Sake                  1 cup

Put a heavy pot over a low flame and gently dry saute the kombu.  Let cool.  Pour the other ingredients into a jar, add the kombu.  Keeps in the fridge for 2 months.

That's all there is to it.  Couldn't be easier.

Wish me luck tonight.