Vegan Taquitos

It's been said that going vegan, or at least vegetarian, is difficult because the food is boring, or just awful.  It is, according to popular belief, also healthier.

Not necessarily.  We at the Fuzzy Wups keep corn tortillas (made from vegetable oil), a few cans of black beans and flour handy for nights when we're down to a few leftover vegetables and we don't want to go out.   Oh, and peanut oil.

Vegan != Healthy

 The recipe is a bit involved, and not compatible with a future pie-maker crawling around in the kitchen.

Ingredients:
 Leftover veggies (We recently used two heads of bok choy and about 1/4lb of cabbage.  The point here is texture and depth of flavor.)
 Soy Sauce
 Garlic Powder (You can use fresh, but should save that for a dish that shows it off better.)
  Onion Power (It's a sweetener that's required if you've got greens in the mix and no onions)
  Other Spices (Make your kitchen smell really good.  Then the food will taste good and everyone will be happy.)
  15oz can of black beans (Don't drain, any style will do.)
   1/4 Cup flour (I use a 50%/50% mix of whole wheat and all purpose, but experiment by using up your oldest stuff.)

 Preparation:
(*) Stir fry the leftover veggies until they are nice and soft, like you might feed to a teething baby.  Add soy sauce, garlic powder and onion powder while heating to ensure they get mixed in properly.  Add other spices as needed to make the kitchen smell very good.  Do not add too much chili unless you call the fire department first.

(*) Mix the vegetables and can of beans in a bowl.  Stir in the flour(s).  Add flour until the mix reaches the consistency of crepe batter.

(*) Heat tortillas, roughly 6 at a time, in a microwave for 30-45s until easy to roll

(*) Pour enough oil into a wok to submerge a rolled taquito.  Heat the oil until it reaches 350F.  Extra points if you can rig something to automatically control your burner's flame. 

(*) Spoon 2-3T of filling into each tortilla and roll it up.  This takes practice and your pie maker considers 75%-80% success to be pretty good.  Mistakes = vegan nachos, a future pie-maker's favorite.

(*)  Using good tongs, place the taquitos, up to three at a time, in the hot oil, wait about 45s-1min, flip, wait another 30-45s, and remove when golden brown.  It may be necessary to hold onto a taquito for 10-20s after putting it in the oil to prevent it from unrolling. 

(*) Serve with your favorite sauce.  We typically use sour cream because we're not vegans. 

Of Values, Interests and Policy

Foreign Policy's blog ran a great piece last year describing policy as "The Opposite of Thinking."  The author's point is that the purpose of policy is to do all of the difficult thinking about policy in advance, such that the people tasked with carrying it out don't make rushed decisions.  Or, for that matter, any decisions.

Your pie maker has been chewing on this idea for a while, and recently came to see it in terms of the "Interests vs. Values" theme of this blog.  Policy is derived from perceived interests of the polity, a set of rules believed to advance the prosperity, power and identity of the decision makers.  Values are rules that help define the identity and meaning of prosperity of the decision makers and shape how they view the use of power.

Because of their connection to identity, values are difficult to discuss and largely impossible to change through dialogue.  However, people of conflicting values can often find common interests, and the US system of government assumes that we will make policy based on that common ground. The prescribed path, in other words, is to go from values to interests to policy. 

However, this idea breaks down when a policy becomes a value unto itself.  If "Lower Taxes" or "Universal Health Insurance" or any policy position replaces the value which lead to the interest from which the policy was derived, discussion is over, the interest involved will be compromised and the original values ill served.