Delaware

Chi-Irish Bunny Shepherd's Pie and Get Your Goat Dessert

Roisin L. (original recipe)

Ground turkey! I've been waiting to explain this joke! You see, the kids like lean ground turkey, not quite as much as salmon, but it's a frequent ingredient across the Challenge winners. The problem is turkeys don't like to be ground up. For this reason, we replace it with TVP, but we don't stop there, for whatever reason we call it "bunny mince meat." I even have a special reconstitution recipe although I will forgo it in favor of custom formulations. I suppose you could read a message into this, equating eating turkey with grinding up and eating an adorable loveable bunny rabbit how could you? But I don't think a message is necessary. Here we are. Bunny shepherd's pie is on the menu!

So what's the challenge this time? I guess it's the specialty Chinese ingredients, combined with the fact that I messed up the mashed potatoes last time I made them so that's added pressure. Otherwise I am fairly confident it will be good. Irish vegan shepherd's pie is a classic, and I can see this Chinese twist working.

I've been using a lot of bouillon cubes because that's what I can buy locally but TVP really calls for un-chicken powder which you can buy on the Internet. Sadly I'm out and I don't have time to order more, so no-chicken bouillon must suffice.

I didn't think I had much impression of Delaware until it was brought to my attention that DuPont is pretty much the big deal about Delaware. Plastic is undeniably useful and for applications like treasured action figures imported from Japan maybe even appropriate given current technology. But it's also pretty evil stuff. I don't just mean plastic pollution. Even recycling plastic is a messy business. It's really not the way we want to be doing things. Bio-plastics (whatever that means) might be the answer (whatever that looks like) since eliminating plastics from society altogether sounds like a challenge. About a decade ago, DuPont was poised to transition toward bio-plastic products but it's hard to find much recent evidence this is really a priority for them.

Even an objective look at DuPont history is troubling. Standouts include inventing PFAS "forever" chemicals, doing business with Nazi Germany until 1943, and helping to get a ban on industrial hemp, which threatened to compete with its own synthetic fibers (hemp was temporarily unbanned during the Second World War because it was vital to the war effort).

I'm sure the people who work for DuPont are mostly not evil. But DuPont is essentially a stand-in for the chemicals industry, and generally corporations do not achieve such stature without displaying some emergent evil traits. I like to say, if an idea is complicated enough, you don't have it, it has you. I think this is probably what is happening over in Delaware. Vast amounts of human activity are organized around the idea of making as much money as possible from chemicals. What could go wrong?

Perhaps appropriately, some of you might avoid TVP because you've heard it's a toxic waste dump. This may be true, but it has many other desirable traits including nostalgic value. I like to say it is like my Japanese whale meat. What I've heard is that consumption of whale meat in Japan wasn't really a big deal until the Second World War and only then did it become a cultural tradition that (I have to believe a small minority of) people cling to despite obvious reasons to abandon it. So TVP is like that for me, and I'm not even hurting whales! But if you don't share my nostalgia, there are a variety of no doubt fine ground meat substitutes available on the market. I think TVP is cool though.

• Cheap
• Non-perishable
• Complete protein
• A byproduct of soybean oil production! If you think about it, that's cool!
• Readily available including in the co-op's bulk section
• Versatile - vegan chorizo crumbles may be good, but wouldn't work here!
• Hard to mess up

My favorite Biden gaffe is actually about Delaware. He said Delaware wanted to be a Confederate state but couldn't make it work geographically. Sadly I cannot find documentation of the exact quote. It's a gaffe even though it might be true because he was trying to impress the South by appearing sympathetic to slavery. As others have observed, slavery wasn't really Delaware's proudest historical moment. Perhaps I shouldn't be pointing it out here, but if gaffe-prone Biden can get elected President, presumably in part because it comes across as authentic, then I ain't gonna stop my brutal honesty just yet.

Since I feel like I've been a little harsh on you, I'll conclude by saying I've heard mostly good things about Delaware. For instance, they say you have miles of beautiful beaches! And you are ranked #5 in Opportunity, whatever that is! If I don't seem more enamored, it's probably because you (and Florida) canceled your Democratic primary. Thanks a lot, pull up the welcome mat, close down the process, don't give the progressive Democrats of Delaware a voice, I can see that Biden is your man even though he sells you under for Pennsylvania votes every time he gets the chance! Whatever. My house smells like Five-Spice because of you. Print me a recipe and I'll show up.

This was written before Biden dropped out of the race.

Ingredients

• Oil

• 1 Tbs. fresh Ginger, finely chopped

• 4 clove Garlic, finely chopped

• 1/2 cu. TVP

• 3/4 cu. Water

• 1/2 cube No-chicken bouillon

• Dandelion greens (optional)

• 2 Tbs. Soy sauce

• 2 Tbs. Hoisin sauce

• 1 Tbs. Chinese five-spice powder

• 1/2 cu. frozen Mixed vegetables (e.g., peas, corn, carrots)

• 2 cu. Yukon Gold potatoes, coarsely chopped

• 2 Tbs. Oat milk

• 1 Tbs. vegan Butter

• Salt and Pepper

Get Your Goat Dessert

• Vegan vanilla Yogurt

• Granola

• Blueberries

Preparation

First add 3/4 cu. boiling water to TVP in a small bowl and allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Then heat oil in a large pan and add ginger and garlic. Cook for 1 minute, then add TVP, soy sauce, hoisin (rhymes with Roisin?) sauce, and five-spice powder and cook until TVP is browned. Add the frozen mixed vegetables and dandelion greens if using and cook, covered, for 3-10 more minutes.

Boil the potatoes covered until tender, about 10-15 minutes. Drain and mash with oat milk, vegan butter, salt and pepper.

Assemble the shepherd's pie in a baking pan or ramekins, layering bunny mince meat filling under mashed potatoes, smoothing with a fork, then baking 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

For Get your Goat dessert, simply top yogurt with granola and blueberries!

Discussion

I meant to buy dandelion greens or something similar at the store but I was shopping off the recipes pdf file rather than a prepared list and forgot. I am kicking myself but you should totally experiment with such an addition if you have more wherewithal than I did at the store.

I made this a long time ago but I remember it being pretty good. Bunny shepherd's pie, no matter its persuasion, is pretty much a vegan lunchtime winner! China gets a lot of hate these days but I for one am grateful for your cultural contributions including the seasoning of this dish. Not to ignore Roisin's Irish heritage! I read The Poor Mouth in college and it is a provocative entry point into a troubling but important history. However you've gotten there, Ireland is now a nation I associate with compassion for the suffering of others, which obviously I respect quite a lot, so continue your good work, Ireland! I used to listen to an astronomy podcast from Dublin but I can't find it anymore.

Roisin's recipe is a platform to advocate international cooperation and the blurring of borders. One of my favorite books/series is The Once and Future King but two caveats if you want to read it.

First, if you buy all in one volume, for whatever reason it omits the best part of volume 1, The Sword in the Stone. So you need to get The Sword in the Stone stand-alone (I gave my childhood copy to a girl who later ghosted me), read that, then get The Once and Future King and skip ahead to where you left off. It's complicated but worth it.

Turns out, (and this is why I bring up the topic) they also removed a portion of one of the other books in the series, but this one is a lot harder to find as a stand-alone volume (I bought mine online but gifted to a now-ex girlfriend, apparently I am generous and unlucky), so I'll just tell you what you missed as best I can remember. My understanding (you can research it yourself if you care to) is that Merlyn turns young Arthur into a goose and he flies high above the countryside and looks down to realize that borders are completely made up. We are reminded that borders are arbitrary and while there is certainly something to ideas like indigenous sovereignty and independence movements and things like that, John Lennon isn't necessarily calling for the end of countries, he wants you to imagine no countries because this can be a useful exercise to remind ourselves of the humanity of all peoples, following the example of the people of Ireland.

Connecticut

Delaware Lots to choose from, let's go with.... Birthplace of Henry Heimlich, inventor of the Heimlich maneuver

New York