Faux Angst

Wow, I’m in India. Whoops, wrong visa!

fauxangst — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:51:51 +0000

Just under two weeks ago I arrived in India, I will be living here for three months doing my field placement as a part of my Bachelor of Social Work degree.

The organisation I am at at the moment is called Laya – Laya is a concept based on rhythm, it describes the simultaneous construction and destruction within community and nature. They work with the Adivasi (tribal) of North Andra Pradesh. These people are excluded from society in many ways, their land stolen, low education, poor health, minimal access to jobs and the death of many traditional cultural practice (sound familiar!?). Here Laya run many community development projects including local, community run media (video and radio), traditional herbal medicine training, capacity building, youth empowerment, women empowerment, legal action, micro credit and fiance, natural resource management (sustainable agricultural practice and climate change), and decentralised energy options (solar power, mini hyro-electricity plants. Yep, they do heaps!

I have gained a lot on my first two weeks, my favourite learning thus far is from a local man whose wise sayings captivate everyone at Laya. He taught us that “It is better to drink water while standing than to drink milk while running!” In a simple saying he has captured all the things I have come to know about community work. Many mistakes are made when people are over eager and do not allow time to get to know the community, develop relationships and let them lead. Also, it speaks of the human condition, so often we rush, only to spill our prized milk. In Indian culture this is especially poignant, with cows considered sacred, milk is incredibly precious.

I have experienced many wonderful things and many that make me wonder ‘what am I doing here?’

Unfortunately I will not get to spend my desired amount of time here as the police are on to us! We entered the country on a tourist visa as we are not eligible for student visas because we don’t study at an institution in India. The tourist visa has a clause that says that you cannot stay in one place for a pro-longed period of time. As this area has many terrorist cells active there is a strong police presence and two white girls in a small village is not going to go unnoticed, so we have to leave. In a weeks time we will board an overnight train to spend some time at an organisation called Grama Vikas, they do similar work, but with the Dalits, the lowest caste in India’s cruel caste system. These people are also very excluded from mainstream Indian society, however for different reasons. I will type more on the difference between the Adivasis and the Dalits in due time!

Anyway, here I am, happy that I am not being deported for entering a country on the wrong visa and looking forward to the three months ahead of me.

Community

fauxangst — Thu, 13 May 2010 07:00:48 +0000

“One man, one family driven from the land; this rusty car creaking along the highway to the west. I lost my land, a single tractor took my land. i am alone and I am bewildered. And in the night one family camps in a ditch and another family pulls in and tents come out. The two men squat on their hams and the women and children liste. Here is the node, you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep these two squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other. Here is the anlage of the thing you fear. This is the zygote. For here ‘I lost my land’ is changed; a cell is split and from its splitting grows the thing you hate – ‘we lost our land.’ The danger is here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one. And from this first ‘we’ grows a still more dangerous thing: ‘I have little food’ plus ‘I have none.’ If from this problem the sum is ‘we have a little food.’ the thing is on its way, the movement has direction. Only a little mulitplication now, and this land, this tractor are ours. The two men sit squatting in a ditch, the little fire, the side-meat stewing in a single pot, the silent, stone-eyed women; behind, the children listening with their souls to words their minds to do understand. The night draws down. The baby has a cold. Here, take this blanket. It’s wool. It was my mother’s blanket – take it for the baby. This is the thing to bomb. This is the begining – from ‘I’ to ‘we.’

If you who own the things people need must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin, were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into ‘I,’ and cuts you off forever from the ‘we’”

-John Steinback, The Grapes of Wrath.

Breakfast

fauxangst — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:26:42 +0000

Apple and cinnamon pancakes.

Stuffed Parathas

fauxangst — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:49:54 +0000

I veganised this recipe that I saw on the hairy bikers cooking show. I also added a touch of ‘Emily’ since I am incapable of following a recipe exactly.

Dough Ingredients:

2 cups of plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp no egg (egg substitute) mixed with a little water (you could use a real egg if you are so inclined)

220ml soy milk

Filling Ingredients:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

piece root ginger, finely chopped/grated (to taste)

1 onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 green chillies, finely chopped or chili flakes

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp garam masala

2 medium potatoes, boiled and mashed

1 carrot, boiled and mashed

some pumpkin, boiled and mashed

1 sweet potato, boiled and mashed

salt

2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

4-5 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:

To make the dough, chuck all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, then add the no egg (egg substitute) and mix it up. Slowly add the milk, stirring. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 10-12 minutes. Place back in the bowl, cover with cling film and set aside to rest for 15 minutes.

To make the filling, heat oil in a pan then reduce the heat to medium, add the onion and cook until tender. Next add all the spices, ginger and chili and cook for 3-5 minutes. Add the mashed vegetables and stir through the spice mix, take off the heat and stir through the fresh coriander. Divide into six equal portions and roll each portion into a ball (maybe let it cool a little first so you don’t burn yourself).

Next get your dough out again and put it on to a floured surface, roll into a sausage shape and cut into six equal(ish) pieces. Roll each piece out, make it fairly thin, but not too thin. Place one of the balls of mashed vegetable goodness in the middle of each piece of dough. Next you need to grab the sides of the piece of dough and pull them up so they meet at the top in the middle (so it looks like a dim sum). Pinch it together so it seals the vegetables inside and give it a little twist. Now you want to take your rolling pin and roll it out, very carefully, you want it flat but not too thin.

Heat some nuttelex or oil in a pan, with the flatest base you can find, make sure that the pan it hot and fry the parathas for about 5-6 minutes on each side. Next step; OM NOM NOM NOM!

Vegan Lasagna

fauxangst — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:29:42 +0000

So I have been wanting to suss a vegan lasagna for a while but also felt too scared or lazy to give it a go – I always thought vegan beschamel sauce was daunting! But is is easy and delicious.

I made this cheeky recipe up and I even have some measurements (where it counts)

bolognaise style sauce (cheats version)

Ingredients:

1 onion finely diced

2-4 cloves of garlic, finely diced or crushed

some mushrooms

some baby spinach

1 packet of vege mince – the brand is up to you. I really like the planet organic dehydrated one.

1 jar of some kind of tomato based pre-made pasta sauce. I love to do this when they are two for four dollars in the supermarket. Just double check the ingredient -they like to sneak cheese into a lot of them.

Some dried Italian herbs

You could also throw in some diced celery, carrot etc

tablespoon of olive oil

Method:

Heat olive oil in a pan, throw in the onion and garlic and cook until tender. Throw in the mixed, dried herbs and other fresh veges, cook for a few minutes, stirring. Add in the vegie mince and stir, making sure it gets all broken up. Cook for a few minutes. Add the pasta sauce and stir through – leave to simmer for a little while. Have a taste.

Beschamel (white) sauce

Ingredients:

60 grams ish of nuttelex

1/3 cup of plain flour

4 1/2 cups of soy milk

nutmeg to taste

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

Method:

Place a pan on somewhere around medium heat and melt the nuttelex. When the nuttelex starts to bubble a little chuck the flour in, stir wooden spoon for 1-2 minutes. Take that sucker off the heat and switch tools to a whisk – it helps if you have a friend so you can pretend to be an ER doctor by calling out ‘whisk!’ – have them echo it back to you, just for fun. Slowly pour the soy milk to the flour mix and whisk constantly – don’t stop (your pal can help you here by pouring while you whisk). When all of the milk is incorporated and the mixture is nice and smooth you will need to call out to your nurse for a wooden spoon and switch tools again. Put the pan back on the heat – medium(ish) and cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring constantly. You will feel the sauce start to thicken and you will know when it is done when it comes to the boil and/or when you can lift the spoon out of the sauce to find the sauce kinda sticks to it. Stir in your salt, pepper and nutmeg then pat yourself on the back, or turn to your assistant for a high five.

Now to assemble that pretty thing.

Cut some fairly thick slices of eggplant, salt them and set them aside. Get a rather big baking dish and give it a spray with that cooking oil spray stuff. Cover the bottom with lasagna pasta sheet (you’ll love coles brand is vegan). Next spoon on some ‘bolognaise’ sauce. On top of that place a few slices of eggplant then cover with sauce – continue this pattern until you have just a few centimetres left between the sauce and the top of the dish. Now spoon on lashings of beschamel sauce, get it right to the edges. Cover the top with slices of cheezly and bake for around 50 or so minute in a 200 degree oven then OM NOM NOM NOM!

I didn’t take a picture of this one, cause it wan’t very sexy looking but it tasted amazing! I will upload a picture next time I make it

Vegan Burgers.

fauxangst — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:37:59 +0000

A colleague of a friend of mine made up this killer burger recipe. I gave it a shot and it worked out really well – I added a few things of my own – this is a very impressive meal to make for your friends

Now, as we have discussed before I have a terrible habit of not measuring anything when I cook, so you will just have to cope with the lack of accurate measurement!
It is something like this:

1 large sweet potato

1 small piece of pumpkin

1 tin of chickpeas

1-2 handfuls of chopped mushrooms

1 zucchini finely grated

any other vegies you have lying around (eg, finely diced onion, grated carrot- oh the possibilites are endless!)

a couple of tablespoons of ‘all purpose’ spice (do this to taste)

a couple of teaspoons of cummin (also to taste)

a bit of chilli (also to taste)

3 cloves of fresh garlic, finely diced or crushed

4-5 weet bix crushed to smithereens

Peel then steam or boil or roast the sweet potato and pumpkin until tender. Mash all the ingredients together, except the weetbix. Allow to cool slightly – I didn’t do this the first time around and burnt the shit out of my hand, such an idiot! Handshape the burgers (with your clean hands) try and make them fairly flat. Place your crushed up weetbix in a seperate bowl and roll your burgers in it – make sure they get a good coating of weetbix.

Place a little oil in a pan and turn on the stove, when this is hot place your burgers in there and cook them until the outside gets all crispy and yummy. Be careful when you flip them cause I am impatient one of mine broke a little – it still tasted goo though!

You can eat them as is or do as I chose to do and assemble them into a burger like formation on a bun, complete with salad and sauce. Serve to attractive strangers and they will soon become your new best friends

Here is a picture:

…And so this is christmas!

fauxangst — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:13:39 +0000

I think I stopped getting excited by Christmas a long time ago, when I was a child. All the wonder and awe is gone! Santa was just made up to trick you into spending far too much money on everyone you love, because, you know, it is necessary to spend over $200 per child and ensure they have at least 12 presents under the tree or they might think you stopped loving them!

It is also essential that you have ‘all the trimmings’ at Christmas – factory farm raised pigs, freshly slaughtered from a life of misery and suffering on your plate in the form of ham, seafood stolen from the bottom of the ocean devastating vast eco-systems and almost wiping out species and of course the various varieties of bird stuffed and roasted!

Yeah, you might have guessed, I’m not a big fan. That being said, this year I got into the spirit a little more than normal. I actually wrapped gifts rather than just handing them over, I even made my own wrapping paper out of old picture books. Everyone got dinosaur wrapping paper this year, factual and cool to look at! Most of my loved ones are getting my favourite books and my most loved one is getting a donation to NAFA (Nepal Australia Friendship Association).

I got great gifts – Jonathan Safran Foer’s book ‘Eating Animals’ and a trip to Melbounre to go on a vegan feeding frenzy!

Anyway – season’s greetings, see you in the new year where I’ll hopefully be a more plump version of myself from all the Lord of the Fries I will comsume next week!

Inspiration

fauxangst — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:08:40 +0000

I was reading and old copy of Frankie magazine which belongs to my housemate and came across this quote from a social worker from Sydney called Matt Noffs, when asked ‘What is your life motto” he replied:

“‘Mors omina vincit’ – death conquers all. We are all just dust. So do what you need to do while you can. Fear and doubt are part of every journey, but are not reason enough not to try. At the end of the day, thoughts without action don’t count for much at all”

check out what he gets up to at: http://www.streetuniversity.com.au/ they do good things with young people from diverse backgrounds.

Home town

fauxangst — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:10:59 +0000

My Dad paid off his mortgage and to celebrate he threw a little party. We went down to attend said party and found that Lismore has acquired itself a bunch of cheeky vegan propaganda graffiti and a vicious rivalry between meat-eaters and non-meat eaters.

I feel the following graffiti sums up Lismore up perfectly, poor spelling, pentagrams, aggression, evidence of bogans and sun damaged posters for bands that suck. Feat. Me – Lismore ex-pat.

All in all, I had a pretty good weekend.

Happy World Vegan Day!!

fauxangst — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:47:04 +0000