The Flavor Bible - ok, I like it.

When my housemate's boyfriend came by with this heavy tome under arm - I had mixed feelings. The Flavor Bible is a compilation of foods, herbs and spices - pretty much anything you can imagine that is edible and has a taste - organized alphabetically with a listing of every flavour that complements it, as well as descriptions of the flavour characteristics, qualities and strengths.

My initial reaction was mild annoyance - I love being creative and relying on my senses in the kitchen. I think too many people are put off from cooking by thinking they have to follow recipes or techniques or that there is some magical law that basil goes with Italian cuisine, cumin with Indian, ginger with Asian etc. I didn't give the book much of a chance.

I cracked the pages a day later and realized what a wealth of information I had my hands on. This book is the result of the immense creativity of countless imaginative chefs. I'm a convert now. Instead of being a do this, not that manual to flavour combinations, it actually adds to the creative, intuitive nature of cooking I enjoy most by giving cooks a new way to look at flavours and new ideas for stepping outside their norms. It definitely reminded me to think outside what I've learned and try something new.

Yesterday I made a dinner salad that tasted so amazing I squeeled with glee on my first bite and forced my roommate to try a bite. She agreed it was incredibly delicious. It still felt like my own creation because it didn't come from a recipe, even though the Flavor Bible nudged me to try the additions I just couldn't see in my mind (note to self - not my senses, but my MIND couldn't imagine them).

Under the grapefruit entry, it nudged me to use up the mint I had on hand and add some hazelnuts too. I tentatively wrapped a tiny bit of mint, avocado and grapefruit in a spinach leave, dipped it in the dressing I had made and tasted it. I was sold. And this salad was born...


Grapefruit-Mint Quinoa Spinach Salad - serves 2

This salad is high in protein, iron and calcium due to the amazing little South American grain, quinoa. It has an amino acid profile equal to meat - i.e. it is a complete protein. It is also gluten free for those who are sensitive little flowers (like myself). However, I love quinoa for its flavour and versatility and for how it coats the spinach leaves and soaks up the tangy dressing in this salad.

Quinoa
1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed well and drained
3/4 cup boiling water
(makes 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa)

Shallot Vinaigrette - (warning this is from memory! I'll try to make it again soon to test out the proportions...)
1 small shallot, peeled and minced
about 1/4 cup sweet, fruity olive oil
about 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
about 1 tbsp. sherry vinegar
juice from 1 small lemon
2 tsp. dark, flavourful honey
sea salt - plenty to taste
black pepper

Salad
half a bunch of spinach, well washed, long or tough stems trimmed and discarded
1/2 an avocado, cut into small cubes
1/2 a pink grapefruit, supremed
2 tbsp. hazelnuts, toasted and chopped coursely
handful of fresh mint leaves, cut into thin ribbons (chiffonade)

Directions:
Quinoa
Place the quinoa in a small pot. Add the boiling water. Stir, add a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, cover with the lid, reduce heat to lowest setting and let cook for 15 minutes.

Do not lift the lid or stir while cooking. Little steam vents form that keep the grains separate, stirring disrupts them and causes it to become a gloopy mess.

After 15 minutes remove the lid and tilt the pan to the side. If you see water, cover and return to cook for another few minutes. Once no water appears, it is done. Let sit covered, off the heat for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

Dressing: While the quinoa is cooking, make the dressing. Whiz all the ingredients except the oil together with an immersion blender or regular blender. Drizzle in the olive oil while blending so that it emulsifies into the dressing. It should be creamy and slightly thick. Taste and adjust vinegar, oil, salt and pepper to taste. My dressing was slightly sweet but had a nice tangy, saltiness too.

Salad: Place the spinach in a bowl, spoon the quinoa (it can be still warm) over top, tossing it a little bit so the quinoa and spinach are mixed together.

Drizzle with some dressing.

Place the avocado and grapefruit over top, sprinkle with the sliced mint and chopped hazelnuts.

Enjoy!

Rhubarb Revisted...

Guess what - (on again about last few posts on rhubarb...) strawberries are high in oxalates too -- but amazingly... hazelnuts are a good source of calcium, second only to almonds... so enjoy a slice of balance : )

My mom emailed me three variations of her infamous tart. I imagine her pulling the hand scrawled papers and yellowed newspaper clippings from her blue rubber banded bible... "The McCormick's Spice Islands Cookbook".

Deciphering which one was "Mom's original strawberry rhubarb hazelnut flan" was mostly based on the degree of strawberry staining they'd each accumulated. In the end, we decided that it was likely a hybrid of them all - as she, as most great cooks, took the best elements from each recipe, and combined them into perfection. Here is a hybrid that incorporates all the elements I remember- however, I have not tested it yet...

Strawberry-Rhubarb Flan with Crisp Hazelnut Crust

Pastry
1/2 cup Hazelnuts, toasted
3 tbsp Sugar (for a less refined version try Sucanat or Rapadura)
1 1/4 cups All-purpose flour (try replacing half with whole wheat or spelt pastry flour)
1/2 tsp Salt
6 tbsp Chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1 Large egg, beaten

Filling
3 cups Rhubarb, chopped (in 1/2 inch pieces)
1 cup Sugar (or Sucanat or Rapadura)
2 tbsp Cornstarch
2 tbsp Melted butter
2 cups Fresh strawberries
1/4 cups Apricot or red currant jelly

Pastry:
In a food processor, pulse toasted hazelnuts and sugar until nuts are finely ground.
Add flour and salt, process until well combined. Transfer to large bowl.

Using fingertips, work butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Stir in egg with a fork. Do not over work - mixture should be crumbly.

Press into 10 inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Refrigerate for 30 min.
Prick bottom and sides with a fork. Line with foil and fill with dried beans.
Bake at 350 f (180c) for 15 minutes. Remove foil and beans.

Bake an additional 10 minutes or until golden. Place on rack to cool completely.

Filling:
Combine rhubarb, sugar, cornstarch and melted butter. Mix thoroughly. Spoon into pie shell and spread out evenly.

Bake in lower half of oven at 425F for 10 minutes.

Reduce oven to 350F and bake for about 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and rhubarb is tender.

Let cool thoroughly at room temperature.

Hull strawberries, cut in half and arrange, cut side down on top of cooled pie. Melt jelly in a small saucepan over low-medium heat and brush over strawberries to glaze. Let cool thoroughly before serving.


Recipe, with love added by Carol Bathgate

Rhubarb: How I became a Fear Monger

I wrote about rhubarb and its high oxalic acid content last week. Even though I tried to keep to my views on balance and moderation, something felt off for me after writing that post. It came to me loud and clear today with the realization:

I have developed a slight fear of rhubarb.

My week's grocery money was getting pretty low and again I remembered the backyard supply of rhubarb just waiting to be my breakfast addition. But a pang of concern halted my free-rhubarb elation:

Oxalic acid.

I had no idea that the startling tang of rhubarb came from these compounds prior to that post. In fact, before coming to Bastyr University I had no idea what oxalic acid was.

Until last week, my connection with rhubarb was via my mom's amazing strawberry rhubarb flan with the light, crisp hazelnut crust (the hazelnuts from our back yard tree cracked during my many hours of TV watching). The strawberries were left fresh and layered over the golden baked, sweetened rhubarb filled crust; then glazed with molten sunshine (or melted apricot jelly). You can't ask for a more perfect balance of tart, sweet, soft and crisp.

The thought of fresh rhubarb with its cheek sucking tartness has always made my saliva glands hurt in a good way. Taste, not health consequences, have guided my rhubarb eating decisions.

But now I was deciding based on fear, and in my experience, fear is not a good place to make decisions from.

Would I be less healthy if I didn't know what oxalic acid was? Would I eat mountains of rhubarb, make chutneys from it to slather on all my meals, pickle it as a side dish, add it to my pilafs and down sweetened bowls of it for dessert? Would I bind every molecule of calcium I consumed and end up with rhubarb-induced osteoporosis? I highly doubt it.

I guess there may be some importance in knowing that rhubarb has that mineral binding potential... but really I think it would give me, or anyone else, a wicked stomach ache long before it was a problem, and more so who wouldn't very quickly grow sick of eating rhubarb after more than a serving or two...? It's not exactly Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge Coconut Bliss...

I think that what's more important than knowing about the exact content of each food product we eat, is learning how to select and prepare a wide variety of whole foods. Again it's the "little bit of this, little bit of that" approach.

A little more learning might go into exploring how you feel when you eat those foods and maybe what you're body is asking for now, today.

I have written about the known benefits of certain foods every now and then in this blog - in my attempt to create some interest in eating whole foods. But, really the foods speak for themselves, and pleasure and enjoyment are a more sustainable approach in my opinion than a fear-based attempt to gain control over health - so... I'll consider this a nudge to myself to include more recipes and tips on how to enjoy whole foods!

And the email is already out to my mom for her Strawberry Rhubarb Flan recipe - it just so happens to be strawberry, (and rhubarb) season.

The Piglet

Yesterday I pulled the last 3 crumbled bills from my pocket and I bought one precious Porcini mushroom. I couldn't resist the King of Mushrooms - or "the piglet" as the Italians so affectionately call it. What a great name. I cooked the sizable beauty tonight and as I sat on my front steps, the evening soft on my bare arms, I was fully present and ready for that first mouthful. At $2.50 for my locally, wild-foraged fungus, I decided it was to be enjoyed accordingly.

Deep breath and first bite.... meaty, savoury, woody, earthy, slightly nutty with a creamy ever so slightly chewy texture... and a whole lot more than my vocabulary stores can articulate (I'm collecting though!). How similar it was to the distinctive savoury flavour of meat... and there is a reason for that. Like meat, mushrooms contain glutamic acid. This term might sound familiar if you know what the acronym MSG stands for: mono-sodium glutamate. That's right - mushrooms (and also tomatoes and seaweed) are sources of this natural flavour enhancer. In this form and in these naturally occurring amounts, their action spells culinary magic rather than trouble for the MSG sensitive - so you can set aside the flash backs to flushed faces, wheezing lungs or headaches from your last visit to Happiness Imperial Gardens... (I'll resist the temptation to go on about the obvious effects of isolating natural compounds and taking them in unnatural amounts...).

Glutamic acid is sensed by our 5th flavour receptor- umami. Yes our tongues have 5 taste receptors... sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. Umami is more of a unifier than a "taste"- it amplifies and synergizes the flavor of the rest. It is what you might call "savoury". It is what I call delicious.

Not only do mushrooms have the ability to pump up the flavour in your kitchen creations - they have similar beefing effects on your immune system. The most studied for these immune modulating and anti-cancer effects are Maitake, Shitake and Reishi mushrooms but even the 3 most common supermarket varieties - the lowly button mushroom, Crimini and it's older sibling Portabello - have these polysaccharides (i.e. carbohydrates - poly = many/ saccharides = sugars) and beta-glucans (a soluble fiber made of medium chained polysaccharides that are indigestible by humans). These compounds have the incredible ability to modulate the immune system by activating it without the risk of over-stimulation (which is not a good idea in people with allergies or auto-immune diseases). They can increase production of white blood cells and then activate them, especially the "Natural Killer Cells" and "Cytotoxic T Cells" - two kinds of white blood cell that can attack tumor cells directly. Imagine that.

I love mushrooms, so I don't need much encouragement to eat them, but it helps my wallet to know they have potent anti-cancer and immune boosting properties that equal an excellent long-term health investment. That definitely encourages me to indulge a little more often.