Occupy your mind #5

Image Credit : npmeijer

So I cooked up some vegan fare and this morning went down to St Paul’s Cathedral to try and offer nourishment to the be-weathered masses. Most of the placards and signs were gone, minimising the message, but the tent city was still there.

Signs of the global economic meltdown – the train I wanted to catch was cut short – probably by the theft of metal cabling. It’s wrong to make the transport system grind to a halt – so many people depend on it. But I can understand why people are press-ganged into stealing metals – poverty is on the rise.

It took me ages to reach St Paul’s Cathedral, and I went straight to the kitchen tent to unload lunch, and grab a coffea (tea mixed with coffee) and breakfast mini-croissant.

Cook wanted to be sure I’d cooked everything in separate pans because of allergy issues – I provided a list of ingredients (see below). Cook was very pleased to receive cling film from me.

Outside Grub Hall, I met a young woman journalist interviewing two Happy Campers. The Occupation woman was complaining about the mainstream news. “Why are we always either job-lazy scrounging scum or little rich kids with trust funds ?”, she asked. I interjected, “Why can’t people come from the middle ground ?”. The Occupation man was saying, “This is such a feminine space, it’s open for engagement”. I said, “Unlike other protests, which are so confrontational.”

I had a chat with some freshly-risen Occupyers, who were very grateful for the donations of sleeping bags (thank you, whoever brought them down, the temperature’s been sub-zero). While I was engaged in conversation with them, somebody holding a camera came up beside me. He wasn’t Police. He wasn’t an Occupation journalist. I don’t think he was a newspaper journalist… He was earwigging on what we were saying, so I picked a difference of opinion with one of the Occupyers and stayed on the City side of the chalk line. The Occupyer was viscerally charged about greedy bankers. “I don’t get the greed agenda”, I said; “most people are just earning a living. They are motivated by obligations, not greed. We’re all caught in the system.”

If you want to find out what the OccupyLSX want, here’s the political shopping list.

If you want to go and support the material needs of the Occupyers, here’s the practical shopping list :-

Shopping list from Cook :-
Eggs (for breakfast)
Mushrooms
Tomatoes
Bread
Spread

Useful items for Grub Hall :-
Food containers with lids
Cling film
Aluminium foil
Polystyrene trays
Wooden or plastic food cutlery
Paper or plastic food plates
Polystrene or paper cups

Shopping list from Occupyers :-
Socks, because people’s feet get wet and cold
Gaffer tape, to tape the tents down
Guy ropes, to tie the tents down
Woolly hats, because it can be sub-zero
Gloves, because it can be sub-zero

Occupy your body : recipes for change

1. Houmouss
Ingredients
Olive oil, virgin
Garlic, diced
Lemon juice, squeezed
Soaked sesame seeds (Fairly Traded, from a food cooperative)
Chickpeas, already cooked from a can (Fairly Traded)
White beans (Fasouli), already cooked from a can
Instructions
Whizz to a creamy paste with a handheld blender, and season to taste.
Serve with bread.

2. Couscous Satay
Ingredients
Onions, diced
Garlic, diced
Carrots, grated
Cabbage, chopped
Random green vegetables from the refrigerator, diced
Chili powder
Ginger powder
Sunflower oil
Dried couscous (Fairly Traded, from a food cooperative)
Peanut butter (organic, Fairly Traded)
Instructions
Fry everything except the peanut butter and couscous in the sunflower oil.
Meanwhile, boil some water and pour over the couscous in a bowl and cover.
In a second large bowl, mix sunflower oil and peanut butter and stir until a smooth liquid.
When the onions are cooked, mix everything together and season to taste.

3. Lentil Bolognese
Ingredients
Random pasta from the kitchen
Onions, diced
Garlic, diced
Herbs
Tomatoes, chopped from a can
Tomato puree/paste/passata
Green or black lentils
Spinach, homegrown, twice washed and chopped finely
Instructions
Soak the lentils, preferably overnight, in boiling water.
Cook up the lentils on a low heat, in their soaking water.
In a separate pan, cook the pasta in boiling water.
Meanwhile prepare the vegetables.
When the lentils are nearly cooked, add the tomatoes, tomato paste/passata/puree, vegetables and maybe some olive oil if you like.
Cook a little more, then turn off the heat, add the spinach and cover the pot.
Finally, serve together with the pasta.