My Broccoli and Black Pepper Soup

I just enjoyed this tasty Broccoli and Black Pepper Soup that I put together on the spur of the moment. It is really easy to make; here's how I did it:

Ingredients:

Four medium sized potatoes
Half a head of broccoli
Some salt, fresh black pepper, lemon thyme and cream

Cook the potatoes until soft. Add the broccoli and cook for about five minutes with the potatoes. Put the potatoes (you may need to cut it into smaller pieces), broccoli and about a cup of the broth in a blender and blend until smooth. Add lots of freshly ground black pepper, fresh lemon thyme, and salt to taste. (If you do not have lemon thyme you can use regular thyme and add a little lemon zest instead.) Dish into bowls. Stir in a little cream and garnish with black pepper and fresh thyme. (If you want to make it healthier, you can omit the cream and drizzle a little olive oil -- about a teaspoon per bowl -- instead.)

It can be a tasty appetiser for about four to six people, or a light dinner for two if served with good bread, like baguette (French loaf) and garlic butter.

Home-Made Tahini

For dinner I had tahini on wavers with strawberries. I made the tahini myself, following the instructions by Dede's Mediterranean Kitchen -- see the YouTube video below.

I had tahini for the first time last month when I visited my friend Jaco in Polokwane. He came back from Israel recently and brought some tahini with him, which he gave me a taste of. I very much liked the taste and was adament that once I'm back at my place (i.e. back in Korea), I'm going to try and make it, since sesame seed (the main ingredient) is so easily accessible here. 



Seeing as I don't own a food processor I made it in my blender. It took much longer and didn't come out as runny as the tahini in the video, but is still pretty smooth. The Israeli tahini that I tasted was much sweeter. I'm not sure how they sweeten it. I decided to add a little honey to mine.

It's a pretty good spread (similar to peanut butter) which I put on water wafers and topped with fresh strawberries. A delicious, and surprisingly filling, snack!

To Copy or Not to Copy

Is it wrong to copy? The video below asserts that copying is not wrong because it differs from stealing. With stealing I'm taking something away. With copying I'm multiplying something.



I've complained about the problem of plagiarism amongst my students before on this blog and am obviously against plagiarism. However, as an artist I'm fully aware of the fact that art is cumulative -- building on the ideas of what came before; that creativity is about using some already existing thing and presenting it in a new or novel way. The video below illustrates this wonderfully:



Artworks do not have lists of references and technically speaking often commit "plagiarism." Such "copying" in artwork is not considered plagiarism, but instead a type of iconic referencing and is sometimes even considered a compliment towards the original artist.

Probably the person that have considered this dilemma the most thoroughly is Professor Lawrence Lessig, author of Free Culture. It is an excellent book, well worth reading, and best of all, it is free and legal to copy it from the Internet. You can also listen to it as an audio book.

I teach a class on Shakespeare Film. Imagine my surprise when some of the films I want to show my students are not available in Korea on DVD. One would think it quite easy -- I just order it online from a country where it is available. It sounds great in theory, until you realise that the only DVDs you can get of this particular film is not in a DVD region that's compatible with local DVD-players. The solution? Download the film (illegally) from the Internet, convert it into a compatible format, and then show it.

Or . . . don't show the film and so deprive my students of one of the best Shakespeare films ever made.

What would you do?