This Year's Best Movies Are All Secretly About Food

Oscars appetizer. February 28, 2018 Top Food News [These Popular Pesticides Are Really Bad for the Birds and the Bees]( As spring approaches, US farmers are gearing up to plant about 180 million acres of corn and soybeans, mostly with seeds coated in neonicotinoid pesticides—synthetic chemicals that mess with wildlife in terrible ways. ([Mother Jones]() Invisible, toxic oil "almost certainly" just invaded some of the world's most bountiful fisheries. Here's what we still don't know. ([Mother Jones]() Chicken choke. Why Tyson Poultry was fined $2 million yesterday for violating the Clean Water Act. ([The United States Department of Justice]() Edible tech. The pros of printing a barcode directly on our food. ([Fast Company]() Hog wild. The horrific conditions at some US meat plants. ([The Guardian]() Russia is trying to sway US opinion on GMOs. That's according to new research from Iowa State University. ([The Des Moines Register]() —ADVERTISEMENT— Support hard-hitting journalism. If you value what you read from Mother Jones and want to see more of it, please make a tax-deductible [one-time]( or [monthly donation]( today and help fund our unrelenting, nonprofit journalism. This Week in Podcasts The New Yorker's Helen Rosner persuaded Tom to see Phantom Thread and several of 2017’s bumper crop of excellent films with new eyes: as meditations on the complex and not always appetizing role food plays in life. In the latest episode of Bite podcast, Rosner riffs beautifully on the topic. Hear it on Mother Jones' Bite, episode 50: "[This Year's Best Movies Are All Secretly About Food](" Roquefort cheese economics. Reporters duel to find the best story at the intersection of money and fancy foods. ([Planet Money]() Flavored with smoke. An inside look at the fast-paced job of feeding fire crews. ([The Sporkful]() Exclusive to Newsletter Subscribers "It wasn’t long before I was busy in my own kitchen, contriving my own #normcore stir fry." Throwback alert: In 2014, #normcore was a meme and the San Francisco hipster haunt Mission Chinese was still all the rage. Tom Philpott wrote about it in his food diary of a trip to the West Coast: "A vegetarian was among the guests, so I had to come up with a non-meat alternative protein. Tofu would have been the straight-ahead #normcore move, but all I had in the fridge was a block of tempeh, so I went with it. Here’s what I came up with. Enjoy with canned beer—Bud Light if you want to go full-on you-know-what, or a new-wave canned craft brew like Dale’s Pale Ale if you want a twist." Stir-Fried Beef With Vegetables (Serves four, with leftovers.) 4 spring onions 2 cloves of garlic, crushed and peeled 1 knuckle-sized nob of fresh ginger, peeled with the edge of a spoon 1 tablespoon (organic) corn starch 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon of crushed red chili flakes Freshly ground black pepper 3 tablespoons of good soy sauce (my favorite is the Japanese brand Ohsawa Nama Shoyu) 1 tablespoon rice vinegar 1 pound of flank steak 2 stalks of celery 2 carrots 1 bulb of kohlrabi A few kohlrabi leaves (optional; kale will do as well). Peanut oil for stir frying More soy sauce, rice vinegar, and black pepper to taste First, make the beef marinade. Cut the spring onions to separate the white and green parts. Slice the green parts into two-inch sections, set aside. Coarsely chop the white parts, and place them in the bowl of a mortar-and-pestle (a small food processor will also work). Chop the ginger and garlic and add it to the mortar. Top with the corn starch, sugar, chili flakes, and a good grind of black pepper. Crush everything vigorously together into a paste. Add the soy sauce and vinegar, and mix it with the pestle. Dump the marinade into a medium-sized bowl. Cut the steak, against the grain, into quarter-inch strips about two inches long. Add the beef to the marinade, along with the green onion tops, and toss to coat well. Set aside. Now prep the vegetables. Slice the carrots, kohlrabi, and celery into two-inch match sticks. (Here’s a great [Jamie Oliver video]( that explains how to do that better than I ever could in words). Set the carrots and kohlrabi aside in one bowl, and the celery in another. Slice the kohlrabi or kale leaves, if using, into thin strips, and set aside. Now the stir fry begins. Set a bowl large enough to incorporate all the ingredients by the stovetop. Put your biggest, heaviest skillet—or wok—over high heat and add enough oil to cover the bottom. When the oil shimmers, add the celery sticks and sautée, using two spatulas to keep them constantly moving. Continue until they’re just cooked—they should retain a little crunch. Place them in the large bowl. Put a little more oil in the pan—still over high heat—and add the carrot and kohlrabi sticks. Cook them as you did the celery sticks, and then dump them in the same bowl when they’re done. Repeat with the kale leaves, if using. Again, add a bit of oil to the hot pan. Dump in the meat, onion greens, and the marinade. Spread the meat out across the pan’s bottom, so it forms a single layer. Let it sizzle for a minute—this will allow it to caramelize a bit—and then toss with the two spatulas as with the vegetables, until the meat is cooked through. Add the meat to the big bowl, and toss everything together—the glaze that coats the meat will also coat the veggies. Add a bit more soy, pepper, and vinegar to taste. Serve over brown rice—or white. If there’s a vegetarian coming to dinner: Before you start the vegetables for the main dish—in a medium-sized bowl, mix two tablespoons of olive oil, two of soy sauce, and a dash of maple syrup. Take a block of tempeh and cut it lengthwise into quarter-inch strips. Add the tempeh to the bowl and toss. letting it marinate for at least 5 minutes. (This is a twist on the tempeh technique from Heidi Swanson’s great cookbook [Super Natural Every Day](.) Put a separate skillet over medium heat, add a little peanut or coconut oil. When the oil shimmers, remove the tempeh from its marinade with a slotted spoon and stir fry until it’s cooked through. Place it in a bowl. Then, as each round of veggies comes off the main skillet, add a portion to the tempeh. When done, toss together, along with a bit of the marinade. That's all, folks! We'll be back next Wednesday with more. —[Maddie]( and [Kiera]( Questions/concerns/feedback? Email [newsletters@motherjones.com](. Hungry for more food news? 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