Warning: this post has nothing to do with the recipe I’m about to present, but I feel like the dish is tasty enough to speak for itself, so I’m gonna use this post as an opportunity to talk about my favorite part of the human body…
You will often hear med students describe the first time they see a beating heart as this quintessential moment in their medical education, and in many ways this makes sense. The heart is recognized as being the epicenter of all living creatures. We need oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood to live, so therefore we need the heart to deliver that blood to all the things that make us human, right? Well what about the lungs that allow us to capture that oxygen? What about the gut that delivers the nutrients to the blood? What about the kidneys that filters said nutrients? When do they get their 15 minutes of fame? Maybe the reason I don’t like the heart is because it steals the limelight from all the other organs in the body (or maybe it’s because I can’t ever remember the stupid coronary arteries). Seriously, heart, maybe you need to be taken down a few pegs. I’ll admit that you’re pretty important, but quite honestly, I’d rather spend my time focusing on my favorite part of the human body – the GI tract.
I’ll admit that seeing a beating heart for the first time was pretty cool, but it was nothing comparing to bowel. I’m obviously biased when it comes to my interest (obsession?) with the digestive system (food is my passion after all!), but is that really an issue? Life is all about finding your passion…and I’ve certainly found mine. For me, there are few things as fascinating as watching the peristaltic motions of the gut. I find the rhythmic wave almost soothing. I love the consistency with which it functions in a “healthy” individual as well as the problems that can arise when something goes wrong. The (stupid) heart has multiple chambers with which to confuse the frustrated medical student, whereas the gut is just one long, glorious, food digesting tube. Yes, each segment of this tube has it’s designated function, anatomy, digestive enzymes, etc., but the transitions between each make sense – they all work in succession to breakdown the nutrients into gradually smaller, more “useable” pieces….
To be honest, I’m not totally sure where I’m going with all of this, but after spending the majority of my last two weeks staring at this magnificent structure, I’m not totally surprised that I can think of nothing else (you wouldn’t believe the number of times I’ve spelled “bowl” as “bowel”). Oh well. At least I’m enjoying myself! Now, on to the food…
(Adapted from Journey Kitchen’s Utterly Butterly Gingery Peas)
What you need:
- 2 cups frozen peas
- 10 oz frozen chopped spinach
- 3 tbs butter
- 4 tbs minced ginger
- 3 tsp chili powder
- 3 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbs lemon juice
What you need to do:
- In a wok, melt 2 tbs butter at medium heat.
- Add the peas and defrosted spinach and turn the heat up to high. Let cook for about 1 minute.
- Remove the peas and spinach from the wok and set aside for later.
- Melt the remaining 1 tbs butter in the wok and add the ginger.
- Once the ginger is fried, add the chili powder and salt. Stir to combine.
- Add the peas and spinach back to the wok along with the garam masala. Stir to combine.
- Turn off the heat then add the lemon juice.
- Eat as is or serve on the side of some other dish.
