The Healthy Cooking Coach

Chinese Roast Duck with Spicy Duck Sauce

Many months ago two of my closest girl friends suggested I see the film Julie & Julia, a film about how two women looking for meaning and purpose in their lives find that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness, and butter, anything is possible.

The story focuses on how Julia Child began learning how to cook French food at the age of 37 while living in Paris, how she fell in love with the food, wanted to feed her husband, and didn’t know what else to do with her time while he worked, so she enrolled in the Cordon Blue School in Paris. It’s also about the Julie Powell, a much younger woman stuck in a secretarial job she abhors, who takes inspiration from the life and work of Julia Child, and decides to work her way through 524 of Julia Child’s recipes in 365 days, prepared in her tiny NYC apartment and blog about her experiences.

If you love to cook and you appreciate great food, especially fresh food prepared from scratch, check out this movie. One of my cooking students told me he thought it would be a chick flick, something he's not usually into...but Julie and Julia surprised him. He and his wife both enjoyed it immensely. You might want to check out the book, Julie and Julia along with the dvd if you're an avid reader and want to cherish all the little things that movies leave out of stories.

Lucky duck
A week ago Sunday I planned to roast a duck for dinner, something I hadn’t done in years, and have a friend over for dinner, something I do often, and watch the movie, Julie & Julie. Perfect choice! The duck turned out delicious using one of Mary’s (truly free ranging) Air Chilled Ducks from Whole Foods Market and a super easy recipe I found on Cooks.com. If you’re looking for some really delicious chicken, turkey, or duck, check out the website for Mary’s Air Chilled Chicken. You can also read my review of her chicken, which many Whole Foods Markets sell. If you live in California you’ll find even more outlets for her poultry.

Photo right: Copyright 2009 Rachel Albert-Matesz

Prep time was minimal, less than 30 minutes for seasoning the duck and making the duck sauce. The leftovers tasted delicious and I saved the duck fat for cooking eggs and roasting vegetables. I’ve heard French fries cooked in duck fat taste divine. I plan to use some of the fat to roast sweet potatoes this weekend.

Duck recipe redux
I would make the recipe again with a few minor adjustments. The recipe calls for seasoning the duck with sea salt, stuffing the cavity with chopped onion, and pouring a mixture of honey and warm water over the top, roasting it for 1 hour, pricking the skin with fork to drain off excess fat, roasting for another hour, then raising the heat and basting it with a spicy duck sauce comprised of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, dry sherry, honey, chili sauce, soy sauce, and garlic, and roasting it for another 5 minutes.

I made the mistake of using a medium size white onion rather than 4 green onions (scallions), something I discovered after the fact; not sure how I missed that detail. The sliced onion never got fully cooked. If I do that again (and I probably will), I will use scallions or put the sliced onion (or a cubed onion) in the bottom of the roasting pan so it absorbs the delicious pan juices. Luckily my friend brought caramelized roasted onion for flavoring the green salad we served with the duck. I love caramelized onions.

Photo right: Copyright 2009 Rachel Albert-Matesz

Subbing for sherry
The sauce called for dry sherry and I didn’t have any in the house. It’s not something I stock. A substitution chart I have magnetized to my refrigerator lists the following options for sherry: vanilla extract, orange or pineapple juice, and coffee. I opted for the orange juice. Next time I might try pineapple juice mixed with vanilla.

Sprucing up the duck
I recommend the air chilled duck. It was actually not as fat or fatty as duck I recall buying from an Asian Market when I lived in Seattle. This one seemed much leaner and wilder, perhaps because it got a lot more exercise. My point: It didn’t lose as much weight as some ducks I’ve cooked, but it also started out small, so we didn’t get many servings from it. I think the hot sauce I used was far too mild. I’ll try a spicier one next time.

My friend and I thought most of the flavor ended up in the pan juice. I agreed. Even though we spooned some of the pan juice over the salad and the sliced duck, we wondered how to add more flavor to the duck. Julia Child’s solution was to debone the duck, then wrap it en croute (in pastry dough), then roast, which Julie demonstrates in the movie. That way the dough absorbs the precious fat and flavor. Pastry crust doesn’t fit with my paleo-primal dietary leanings and my usual preference for low-starch meals. I eat grain occasionally–– usually once a week or less and when I do, I choose gluten free grains, such as quinoa, brown rice (brown rice crackers, brown or white rice flour, brown rice tortillas), millet flour, or sorghum flour. Making a pastry crust sounds like a lot of work that I’d rather invest in making vegetable side dishes and a grain-free dessert for Sunday dinner.

Seasoning the duck
How could I improve the recip?  I wondered about creating a marinade for the duck, maybe  brining it with sea salt honey, and spices. Another idea would be to loosen the skin of the duck, the way you would if you were stuffing butter and herbs under the skin, and squeeze the glaze between the skin and the flesh, then cook it or chill it all day or overnight to allow the juices to permeate the meat. I’ll let you know how my experiment(s) turns out when I roast another duck. I trussed it with toothpicks (right).

Leftover duck
I love leftovers. I served some of the duck for breakfast the next day, over a crisp green salad with some of the warm pan juices, some of the spicy duck sauce, and a side of fresh fruit.

Notes to know
In case you’ve never cooked a duck: they lose an enormous amount of weight in cooking. Ducks have a lot of insulation (read: fat); it’s what makes them float. The high proportion of fat that is rendered in cooking is not waste. Don’t throw discard it. You can refrigerate the pan juices, separate out the fat and then use it to sear or roast meat, fish, or poultry, fry or scramble eggs, make an omelet, or sauté or oven roast vegetables, etc.

How much duck do you need?
Figure at least 1 to 1 1/4 pounds of uncooked duck per person to account for the fat and the bones. Don’t discard the bones either. You can deposit them into a bag in the freezer and turn them into a delicious and nourishing Bone Building Broth for soups, stews, sauces, gravies, and other dishes. Store the duck bones by themselves or with bones from cooked or uncooked chicken or turkey. If you have beef bones stash those in a separate freezer bag. The broth takes mere minutes to assemble and can be left to cook all day or overnight. You simply strain it, chill it, then freeze what you don’t plan to consume with a week or two. You can save hundreds of dollars a year by making this amazing broth, which Julia would tell you is technically a stock because it’s made from bones rather than meat.
http://www.thehealthycookingcoach.com/2009/09/money-saving-tips-for-your-food-budget.html

CHINESE ROAST DUCK WITH SPICY DUCK SAUCE
     
Prep: 30 minutes or less    Cooking: 2 to 2 1/4 hours    Yield: 4 to 5 servings

1 duckling (about 5 pounds); I used a 4 pound Mary’s Air Chilled Duck
2 teaspoons salt; I used Redmond Real Salt
4 green onions
2 cups boiling water; I used filtered water rather than tap
2 tablespoos honey
Spicy duck sauce (see recipe below)

1. Rub duckling inside and out with salt; stuff onions inside of cavity and tie legs together. Place on rack in roasting pan. Mix boiling water and honey; pour over duckling, letting water run into pan. (Duckling should not be put down into the water, keep on rack.)
2. Roast in oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Prick skin to drain excess fat.
3. Continue roasting until deep brown and juices run clear, 1 to 1 1/4 hours longer. Remove from oven.
4. Increase oven temperatures to 400 degrees F. Brush duckling with spicy duck sauce; return to oven and roast 5 minutes.
5. Use remaining sauce as a dip for meat. Garnish with parsley and mandarin orange segments.

SPICY DUCK SAUCE:

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
2 tablespoon dry sherry
2 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon chili sauce (I used bottled hot sauce)
1 tablespoon soy sauce (I used wheat free tamari soy sauce)
1 clove garlic, minced

1. Combine Duck Sauce ingredients in a bowl or jar.
2. Cover and refrigerate any unused sauce.

Recipe source: Cooks.com

Have you tried this recipe? If so, how did you like it? How did you guests like it? What would you do differently next time? I would love to hear from you.

Say, Yes! To Cookies

Necessity fuels invention. Wheat, gluten, grain, dairy products, and sugar, aren’t essential to our health and well being but these foods have become so commonplace that going without them can seem like a stretch or even a sacrifice. And yet, giving up any or all of these foods can provide the impetus for discovering new foods and for coming up with new and better recipes.

I found that true for myself and so did David J. Fulton. For years he watched his wife, a brittle diabetic, diligently try different diets, diabetic desserts, and artificial sweeteners to control her blood sugar. He desperately wanted to be able to make sweet treats for his sweetheart.

Starch and sugar always led to a rapid rise in blood sugar for his wife followed by a precipitous drop in blood sugar. He’d never heard of baking without starch but he wanted to give it a try. He thought of replacing starch with fiber.

David's cookie quest
David tested out his ideas in the kitchen and his wife willingly taste-tested every batch of cookies he made. She didn’t suffer from any blood sugar spikes or crashes so she was happy and he kept tinkering with the recipe. His goal? To create a delicious starch-free, sugar-free cookies using premium, natural ingredients with zero net carbs.

Say, No! To Yo-Yo Dieting and Yes! To Cookies
As the testing and tasting continued, David and his wife, on the advice of their physician, transitioned to a starch-free, sugar -free, paleo (short for Paleolithic) diet. Over a two-year period, David and his each lost 100 pounds! David’s blood pressure stabilized and with the help of his doctor he discontinued his blood pressure meds. His wife’s blood sugar stabilized. They both felt healthier following their starch-free, sugar-free diet and David’s cookie recipes continued to get better and better.

Whenever their sweet tooth called, they knew the answer was Yes! To Cookies––David’s cookies! Eventually, their friends started asking for samples and encouraging them to share their cookies commercially. They launched  Yes! To Cookies, the first cookies made from fiber and natural non-caloric sweeteners.

You can buy their ready-made cookies or purchase their cookie mixes (CocoaLicious and Strawberry Banana Blitz) to make the cookies at home. Each 1/2 ounce cookie contains about 1/3 of a gram of digestible carbohydrate. David’s ready-to-eat baked cookies contain 40 to 45 calories and 5 to 6 grams of fat each.

What’s not in these cookies?
Grain, gluten, starch, casein, sugar, and artificial sweeteners. Note: They do contain whey protein, a dairy product, so they're not part of a strict paleo diet. However, whey protein is less allergenic than casein, another kind of protein derived from milk.You'll have to be the judge of how they agree with you.
 
What’s in these cookies?
Cocoa-Licious flavor cookie mix contains:
Erythritol, Cereal Fiber Psyllium, Whey Protein Isolate, Cocoa Powder, Psyllium Husk, Organic Gum Acacia, Natural Vanilla flavor, Spices, Cellulose HP-SA, Sodium Bicarbonate, Rebaudioside A (as a sweetner) and Salt.

Strawberry-Banana Blitz flavor cookie mix contains:
Erythritol, Cereal Fiber Psyllium, Whey Protein Isolate, Psyllium Husk, Organic Gum Acacia, Natural Strawberry, Banana and Vanilla flavors, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Bicarbonate, Rebaudioside A (as a sweetner) and Salt.

Cocoa-Licious flavored ready to eat cookies contain: Erythritol, Cereal Fiber Psyllium*, Butter, Egg, Whey Protein Isolate, Cocoa Powder, Psyllium Husk, Organic Gum Acacia, Natural Vanilla flavor, Spices, Cellulose HP-SA, Sodium Bicarbonate, Rebaudioside A (as a sweetner) and Salt.

Strawberry-Banana Blitz flavored ready to eat cookies contain:

Erythritol, Cereal Fiber Psyllium, Butter, Egg, Whey Protein Isolate, Psyllium Husk, Organic Gum Acacia, Natural Strawberry, Banana and Vanilla flavors, CelluloseGum, Sodium Bicarbonate, Rebaudioside A (as a sweetner) and Salt.

How do they taste?
I think they’re pretty good for a zero car cookie but they do take some getting used to. They don't taste exactly like conventional cookies or even the typical gluten free cookies made from flour that you’d find in natural foods stores and the health food section of supermarkets.

They do have a slight after taste from the erythritol they contain. Some people describe the flavor of this zero calorie sweetener as cold or cool on the tongue. Xylitol often elicits the same reaction. I also think the kind of stevia used or David's cookies (the newly patended Reb A) may have a stronger flavor than the less refined, more natural form of stevia you'd get from buying pure stevia extract powder or clear stevia extract liquid.

However if you're committed to following a grain-free, starch-free, low-carb, or sugar-free diet, you may find that your fondness for them grows over time. I think adding more fat to David’s cookie mix and adding unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate to the CocoaLicious cookie mix reduces the aftertaste. They contain a lot of fiber (from the psyllium cereal fiber used as the base for the mix and packaged cookies). Eating them on a regular or daily basis could irritate the colon. I’m not totally sold on them.
You'll just have to try them for yourself and see what you think.

David sent me a sample package of each of the two cookie ready-to-eat cookie flavors and two sample boxes of each of his cookie mixes. Over a 5-week period, I made four half batches of Strawberry Banana Blitz Cookies and four  half batches of the CocoaLicious Cookies, experimenting with different variations.

Playing with cookie dough
I made a half batch of each flavor according to the package instructions. My taste-testers and I thought the chocolate cookie mix needed more sweetener and that both flavors might benefit from slightly more fat, which did indeed improve the texture. Adding more fat gave them a delicious crunchy texture.

I tinkered with other ideas, making 3 more half batches of each of the two mixes, making multiple changes in some batches and recording what I did. I sent some of them in to a nutrition class for taste testing, so I had plenty of help eating the cookies.

• I made a half batch of each flavor doubling the amount of eggs.
• I made a half batch of each mix increasing the fat from 6 tablespoon (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) for a half batch to 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup).
• I added 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon clear stevia extract liquid to one batch of chocolate cookies. 1 to 2 tablespoons of honey to another, adding 1 to 1.5 grams of net carbs to each cookie.
• I added 1/2 teaspoon almond extract to one batch of chocolate cookies.
• I added melted unsweetened baker’s chocolate to one batches and bittersweet dark chocolate in another, adding maybe 1 to 2 gram of net carbs per cookie.
• I added cinnamon to one batch and orange zest to another.
• I added mashed banana to one of the batches of Strawberry Banana Blitz cookie mix.

I have several suggestions for modifications in the cookie mix packaging.
1) The directions say to add “12 tablespoons soft butter or margarine,” I would change that to read:
3/4 cup soft butter (12 tablespoons) or 3/4 cup virgin coconut oil or palm shortening

I wouldn’t offer margarine as an option since it’s loaded with inflammation-producing polyunsatured omega 6 oils, even if it comes from a natural foods store. I suggest non-hydrogenated palm shortening or coconut oil for anyone who is sensitive to the trace amounts of casein or lactose found in butter.

How you measure matters!
Although sticks of butter often have incremental tablespoon markings, if you’re measuring out fat or oil (not cutting into a block of butter) or anything else, it’s more accurate to use the largest cup measurement you can. So use a 1/4 cup measure if you need 4 tablespoons of something. Use a 1/2 cup measure and a 1/4 cup measure if you need 12 tablespoons, which is equivalent to 3/4 cup. If you measure out fat or oil by the tablespoon then compare it to using measuring cups you’ll find a large discrepancy in the amounts you get. Try it! If you measure out 4 tablespoons of water or oil, then pour it into a 1/4 cup measure you’ll cup up short.

2) The directions say to combine cookie mix, eggs and butter or egg whites and margarine in a mixing  bowl and mix until dough forms a ball. I would say:
In a mixing bowl with electric beaters or the workbowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine the cookie mix, eggs and butter or egg whites and oil or shortening.  Beat or blend until dough comes together in a ball. 

I used a food processor, which I found fast and easy. I noticed on the web site that David used a stand mixer. I think mixing by hand would be cumbersome given the fibrous nature of the ingredients, and might not incorporate the ingredients as well.

3) The instructions say to bake at 375˚F for 15 minutes. I experimented with two baking temperatures and preferred the cookies baked at 350˚F until lightly golden on the bottom, about 8 to 10 minutes for some batches, 10 to 12 minutes for batches that included more eggs or more eggs plus mashed banana. I liked the results better from the cookies baked at the lower temperature for a shorter time. The cookies do firm up as they cool.

4) The package doesn’t say to do this, but I found it helpful to flatten each ball of dough using my fingers or the tines of a fork (like most peanut butter cookie recipes suggest) or with the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in water. The fork flattened cookies looked the prettiest.

5) The package says that it yields approximately 18 to 22 cookies. I actually got 16 to 20 banana cookies to 18 to 22 chocolate cookies from each half batch forming the cookies into tablespoon-size size balls, about 1-inch in diameter, then flattening them to a thickness of about 1/3 to 1/2-inch.

Of the combinatio of ingredients I tried, I liked these best.

Almond Cococa-Licious Yes to Cookies

Prep: 20 minutes    Cooking: 10 minutes        Yield: 23 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 egg white or 1/2 egg (tricky to measure, but do-able) or 1 whole egg
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons soft butter, palm shortening or liquefied virgin coconut oil
• 1/4 cup roasted, unsalted almond butter (mix well before measuring)
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, optional
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon pure stevia extract powder or 1 to 2 tablspoons powdered erythritol
• 1/2 package Yes! To CookieCocoa-LIicious Cookie Mix

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly oil a large baking sheet or line with unbleached parchment paper.
2. Combine egg, shortening or butter, almond butter, stevia or erythritol, and 1/2 package Yes to Cookies Cocoa-Licious Cookie Mix in a mixing bowl with electric beaters or the workbowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Beat or blend until the dough comes together to form a ball.
3. Form dough into tablespoon size balls (about 1-inch in diameter). Arrange on prepared baking tray about 2-inches apart. Flatten with the tines of a fork.
4. Bake for approximately 10 minutes until barely golden on the bottom.
5.  Remove from oven. Wait 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a cooling rack. When cool, cover and store at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Double Cococa-Licious Yes to Cookies

Prep: 20 minutes    Cooking: 12 to 15 minutes        Yield: 22 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 egg white or 1/2 egg (tricky to divvy up but possible!)
• 1/2 cup soft butter, palm shortening or liquefied virgin coconut oil
• 1 1/2 ounces (by weight) unsweetened baker’s chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, optional
• 1/2 package Yes! To CookieCocoa-LIicious Cookie Mix

1. Melt chocolate over very low heat in a saucepan or in the top of a double boiler and allow to cool slightly.
2. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly oil a large baking sheet or line with unbleached parchment paper.
3. Combine egg, shortening or butter, melted chocolate, honey, and 1/2 package Yes to Cookies Cocoa-Licious Cookie Mix in a mixing bowl with electric beaters or the workbowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Beat or blend until the dough comes together to form a ball.
4. Form dough into tablespoon size balls (about 1-inch in diameter). Arrange on prepared baking tray about 2-inches apart. Flatten with the tines of a fork.
5. Bake for approximately 12 to 15 minutes until barely golden on the bottom.
6. Remove from oven. Wait 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a cooling rack. When cool, cover and store at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Variation:

• Increase to 1 whole egg above; replace unsweetened baker's chocolate with a 3.5 oz. bar of bittersweet dark chocolate; and use 1 to 2 tablespoons of honey agove. Each cookie will contain about 2.5 grams of sugar.

Buttery Banana Blitz Yes to Cookies

Prep: 20 minutes    Cooking: 10 minutes        Yield: 20 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 egg white or 1/2 egg (a bit tricky to measure)
• 1/2 cup soft butter, palm shortening or liquefied virgin coconut oil
• 11/4 to teaspoon almond extract (double if desired)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried orange zest or 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh orange zest, optional
• 1/2 package Yes! To Cookie Strawberry Banana Blitz Cookie Mix

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly oil a large baking sheet or line with unbleached parchment paper.
2. Combine egg, shortening or butter, vanilla, optional orange zest, and 1/2 package Yes to Cookies Strawberry Banana Blitz Cookie Mix in a mixing bowl with electric beaters or the workbowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Beat or blend until the dough comes together to form a ball.
3. Form dough into tablespoon size balls (about 1-inch in diameter). Arrange on prepared baking tray about 2-inches apart. Flatten with the tines of a fork.
4. Bake for approximately 12 to 14 minutes until barely golden on the bottom.
5. Remove from oven. Wait 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a cooling rack. When cool, cover and store at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

To learn more about and order Yes! To Cookies and Yes! To Cookies Mixes you can check out the links below on Amazon. If they don't have all of his products in stock visit David's web site

Turkey Any Time

So many people relegate turkey to the holidays. I like to eat it throughout the year. Sometimes I cook a whole turkey a few times during the fall and winter so I can have leftovers for the freezer. At other times of the year, I like to roast a whole turkey breast and freeze whatever I don’t plan to eat within a few days. It adds variety to my diet and I like the convenience of ready to eat meat in the freezer.

What do I like to do with turkey leftovers?
    * Add to a green salad with colorful sliced, diced, or grated veggies
    * Make a turkey taco salad with guacamole and salsa, minus the tortilla
    * Add to an omelet; top with Cranberry Apricot Chutney or Better Barbecue Sauce
    * Scramble with eggs and herbs
    * Turn into Curried Turkey Salad or Turkey Waldorf
    * Make turkey-vegetable soup
    * Make Quick Smoky Turkey (below)
    * Serve with fried or poached eggs and vegetables
    * Top with homemade barbecue sauce
    * Top turkey with guacamole
    * Top turkey with Mango-Ginger Chutney (see The Garden of Eating for recipe)
    * Toss turkey with blanched vegetables and vinaigrette
    * Coat with mayo and mustard and roll in lettuce leaves; secure with a tooth pick

Beyond Thanksgiving
This year, like last year, I had a turkey-less Thanksgiving dinner (see my previous post for our menu), then cooked a turkey at home the next day. I kept a few days worth of turkey in the fridge and froze the leftovers for future meals. 

This year I brined a turkey for the first time. I’ve read it about doing it, heard people talk about it, just never did it. This year, I did it. I used one of Mary’s Air Chilled Turkeys from Whole Foods Market, a recipe from The Grain and Salt Society, a turkey baking bag (for marinating only), and a stock pot a managed to stuff into the bottom of the refrigerator. The results were good and I really liked the flavor of Mary’s Air Chilled Turkey. If you haven’t tried her chicken, turkey, or duck, check your local natural foods meat market to see if they carry it. It’s worth paying extra for this delicious, humanely raised, air-chilled meat. Next year I plan to allow enough time to brine the turkey for at least 24 hours (8 hours didn’t make the flavors pop the way I’ve heard it can).

I served the brined turkey without gravy (I didn’t feel like making it). I topped it with my reduced carb Cranberry, Apricot Chutney (you can flavor it with chipotle or ginger; I used ginger this year), and served it with a side cooked collard greens one day and a green salad the next. I like the juicy flavor of turkey backs, so I actually made a meal of them on one day and had the wings the next.

The leftover bones went into the crock pot for and all day simmer with a few special ingredients to make my money-saving, Bone Building Broth. Once that chilled, I froze what I didn’t plan to use within the next week or two.

What do you like to do with leftover turkey? I welcome your ideas.

Quick Smoky Turkey 

Prep: 5 minutes/ Cooking: 6 minutes/ Yield: 3 servings       
               
Don Matesz, my co-author for The Garden of Eating, devised this recipe about 10 years ago, to enhance Thanksgiving leftovers. It’s delicious with sautéed greens, steamed broccoli, parboiled vegetables, or a tossed green salad. For a substantial side dish, I serve Basic Baked Sweet Potatoes, Silver Dollar Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Sweet Potato with Lime, or Basic Baked Squash Consider topping the turkey withCranberry Apricot Chutney or Better Barbecue Sauce.

Note: Double recipe if you want leftovers for main dish salads, scrambles, omelets, or a bacon alternative for breakfast.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (about 12 ounces) cooked, skinless turkey, shredded or diced
1/3 cup poultry Bone-Building Broth (see The Garden of Eating) or preservative-free chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon Wright’s Natural Liquid Hickory Smoke Seasoning
1/4 to 1/3 teaspoon ground chipotle or black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder

1/2 cup Better Barbecue Sauce, optional

1. Combine broth or stock, liquid smoke, pepper, and mustard in 10-inch skillet. Stir to dissolve; Add turkey. Cover and bring to low boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat and simmer 5 to 6 minutes, until warm, and juicy.
2. Remove lid and cook away excess. Pass Better Barbecue Sauce at the table or sprinkle with toasted and crumbled dulse, if desired.
3. Refrigerate leftovers and use within 2 days

4-ounces skinless breast: 198 calories, 35 g protein, 6 g fat, 23 mg calcium, 75 mg sodium
4-ounces skinless dark meat: 217 calories, 34 g protein, 9 g fat, 38 mg calcium, 94 mg sodium

Variation:

• Quick Smoky Chicken: Replace turkey with leftover poached or roasted chicken.

Source: The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook by Rachel Albert-Matesz & Don Matesz (Planetary Press, 2004). Click here for more info, to view more sample recipes, and to order and receive prompt delivery and a FREE shopping list to accompany the Sample Month of Menus found in the book.
 

Post Thanksgiving and Beyond

I had another unconventional Thanksgiving meal this year. I didn't stuff myself. I ate a comfortable and satisfying amount. I did a 24 hour fast preceding the meal. To learn about the benefits of IF (Intermittent Fasting), click here and here then ate a generous plate full of food followed by 2 pieces of my crust free pie with real whipped cream. I also had a snack consisting of several  handfuls grapes that day, then resumed my normal eating the following day. Here's a picture of my plate before I had a second helping of beef roast.

Photos: Rachel Albert Matesz ©Copyright 2009

The menu:
Smoked & Roasted Grassfed Beef
Spot Prawns with butter
Steamed Broccoli & Carrots with butter
Sauteed Collards w/Onion, Celery, & Walnuts
Homemade Sauerkraut
Magic Millet Skillet Bread with Whipped Honey-Butter
Squash Pudding Pie with Real Whipped Cream

I didn’t have to make every dish. My friends Kenny & Brenna (known as The Fish Huggers to people in the Phoenix, AZ, area for their wild Alaskan Salmon, pasture-raised beef, and raw honey), their three kids (Zane, Kaleb, and Murphy), and my good friend Don (an acupuncturist, herbalist, nutrition prof, and paleo-primal diet blogger based in Phoenix).

Kenny prepared a Pike's Peak (sirloin) beef roast, raised on his parent's farm in New Mexico, seasoned with FishHugger New Mexico Spice Rub, seared in and then smoked with mesquite wood at 200˚F for 4 hours. He cooked wild spot prawns he traded for in Alaska, sustainably harvested and caught in baited, stacking traps that have a door that only shrimp can get into. 

Compared to Gulf of Mexico shrimp with a by-catch of 90% unwanted fish that get thrown overboard because the shrimp fishermen don't have licenses to catch them, the by catch for these cage-caught shrimp (sold as Spot Prawns) is only 10%. You pay more for these select shrimp from Feel Good Fisheries because they're more labor intensive to catch, but the upside is that you're supporting more ecological and species sustainable operations with an extraordinarily low by-catch ratio. Brenna also prepared steamed veggies. They shared sauerkraut Kenny's mother made. Don made the collard greens dish, one of my favorite greens dishes.

I made the gluten free, dairy-free, corn-bread alternative (Don created it 20 years ago: i've been tinkering with it ever since). I whipped pastured butter with raw honey, cinnamon, and vanilla extract in my food processor. I made Squash Pudding Pie (recipe found in both of my books and below), my traditional take on pumpkin pie without wheat, gluten, dairy products, refined sugar, or crust. I whipped cream with honey and stevia, making a lower sugar, lower calorie, lower-carb topping. Photo: Rachel Albert Matesz ©Copyright 2009

The kids devoured the Millet Skillet Bread and had seconds; so if you've wondered whether you can make moist and delicious gluten free bread that kids will enjoy, the answer is YES!

For my pudding pie, I bake and use fresh winter squash (not canned.). This makes the pie naturally sweeter than if I’d used pumpkin and tastier than if I’d used puree from a can. Baking also makes the squash sweeter than steaming or microwaving. Sugar pie pumpkin isn’t even sweet (who named it that?). I use canned, unsweetened full-fat coconut milk in place of cream (regular coconut milk has half the fat and calories of cream); it adds lauric acid, one of the same fatty acids found in human mothers milk. It has anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-microbial properties. I sweeten the pie with a mix of honey or maple syrup and stevia, which cuts the amount of sugar calories by at least 50%.

I skip the crust for several reasons: a) it saves a lot of time; b) it cuts out common allergens, such as wheat and other gluten grains, which promote inflammation and autoimmune disorders; c) it cuts out excess starch and calories (who is starving for carbs at a thanksgiving meal?); d) no one ever complains; the pie still looks and cuts into slices as you’d expect it to; e) people love this pie! In fact, I usually make it a few times a year between Halloween and Spring time. Try it. It’s full of flavor and health-enhancing nutrients and it’s low enough in calories to fit into any diet and fitness plan. 

Squash or Pumpkin Pudding Pie        

Hands-on: 30 minutes  Cooking: 1 hour  Yield: 1 (10-inch) pie; 8 servings
                                                
I have been making and sharing this recipe for at least 10 years. Not just for Thanksgiving, this delicious dairy-free, low-sugar twist on the classic pumpkin pie makes an impressive dessert or snack throughout the fall and winter. It has a taste and texture like pie but contains a fraction of the carbs and fat grams. It takes less time to assemble than pie with a crust. For a fancy presentation, serve a scoop of Vanilla, Cinnamon, or Ginger Ice Dream on top or next to each serving of pie. Try Basil Ice Dream if you’re feeling adventurous (Kenny's kids loved that two years ago when my friend Heather tested the recipe from my Ice Dream Cookbook, when it was still in the works).

I recommend baking fresh winter squash—don’t steam, boil, or microwave as it won’t have much flavor. Use frozen squash as a second option or canned pumpkin as a last resort. If you use sweet winter squash rather than pumpkin, you’ll enjoy a sweeter taste with less added sweetener.

Shopping for winter squash: Look for Hokkaido pumpkin, kabocha, buttercup, honey delight, or butternut squash that feels heavy for its size. Kabocha, Hokkaido, and buttercup squash should have dark green skins, and any spots should be bright orange—not pale or yellow.  A ripe butternut squash will be orange all over with no hint of green.  Store all hard winter squashes at room temperature.

To cut and cook hard winter squash: Cut off the stem. Place a folded dish towel on a cutting board (this will keep the squash from slipping).  Lay the squash on the towel.  Cut in half from top to bottom, rocking the knife back and forth.  Scoop out and discard the seeds.  Bake squash halves cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet, uncovered, in a 400° F oven for 35 to 50 minutes until fork tender and juicy.  Scoop out the flesh and discard the skin.  Puree the flesh in a food processor, or force it through a medium-mesh sieve or the medium disk of a food mill.  Freeze what you don’t plan to use within 3 days.  

Note: If apple or pumpkin pie spice is not available, substitute ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon dried ginger (powder), ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon dried orange zest, and 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves.
           
Ingredients: 

• 3 cups baked or simmered winter squash, scooped from the skin and mashed: butternut, buttercup, sweet dumpling, delicata, kabocha, sweet mama or Hokkaido
• 3/4 cup blended, preservative-free (full fat, not lite) unsweetened, coconut milk
• 1/4 cup honey; additional 1 or 2 tablespoons as needed
• 3 whole eggs or 6 egg whites
• 1 1/2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
• 2 teaspoons apple pie spice or pumpkin pie spice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or natural vanilla flavoring or maple extract or flavoring
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground, unrefined sea salt
• ¼ to ½ teaspoon pure stevia extract powder or ½ to 1 teaspoon clear stevia extract liquid (start with less; add more only if needed)
• 1 recipe (1 to 1 1/2 quarts) Vanilla Ice Dream, or Cinnamon, Cocoa, Dark Chocolate, Rum Raisin, or Basil Ice Dream (see The Ice Dream Cookbook for recipes) or Real Whipped Cream, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ F.
2. Purée all of the ingredients in a blender, Vita-Mix, food processor, or food mill, or in a bowl with an electric mixer. If using a blender or small processor, blend in 2 batches, then combine in a bowl. Mixture should be thick. If too stiff to blend, add 1/4 cup water and blend again. For a sweeter taste, add 1/4 teaspoon additional stevia and/or 1 tablespoon honey. Blend, taste, and repeat if needed. Note: Pie will become sweeter and more concentrated as it bakes.
3. Pour into an oiled 10-inch deep-dish pie plate. Smooth with a spatula. Bake in the center of the oven until firm, slightly golden, and dry around the edges, about 60 minutes. Allow pie to cool for ½ hour. Refrigerate until completely cool and firm, several hours or overnight, before serving
4. Cut into 8 slices and serve. Use within 4 days.

1 serving (with eggs): 154 calories, 3 grams protein, 21 grams carbohydrate (3 grams fiber), 6 grams fat, 23 milligrams calcium, 30 milligrams sodium

1 serving (egg whites only): 139 calories, 4 grams protein, 20 grams carbohydrate (3 grams fiber), 5 grams fat, 15 milligrams calcium, 48 milligrams sodium

Variations:

• Replace 1/4 cup honey  with 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup. For a sweeter taste, add an additional 1/4 teaspoon stevia and/or 1 tablespoon maple syrup. Blend, taste, and repeat if needed. Add another 2 teaspoons arrowroot in step #2.
• For a gingery flavor, replace pie spice with 1 1/2 tablespoons peeled and finely grated fresh gingerroot plus 1/2 teaspoon dried ground ginger (powder). If desired, add the finely grated zest of 1 fresh orange or tangerine. 

Source: The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Dream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes and Sauces (Planetary Press, October, 2008). Recipe also found in The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook (Planetary Press, 2004). To learn more or to order the books and receive a FREE shopping list with the Garden of Eating, click here:

Btw: These books makes excellent holiday gifts for the food, fitness and health lovers on your list.

 

Mary’s Marvelous Air Chilled Chicken

A chicken is not just a chicken. How the meat looks and tastes depends on the breed, how the bird was raised, what it was fed, and how it was handled after it was butchered. Factory farmed chickens are debeaked, given an artificial diet, and denied fresh air, sunlight, and the opportunity to roam around, pecking at and eating bugs, worms, and grubs (not my favorite food, but one of theirs!). These chickens have flabbier flesh, higher bacteria counts, and less flavor than truly free range or pasture-raised birds. PHOTO RIGHT: Mary's Air Chilled Chicken

One of my associates recently raved about Mary’s Air Chilled Chicken. She gave me a link to their web site and encouraged me to try it. Turns out Whole Foods Markets sell her chicken, so I picked up a chicken the week before Thanksgiving. I also picked up a duck and a turkey, which I’ll tell you about in a couple of upcoming posts.

What’s different about Mary’s farm?
Mary's Free-Range Chickens are produced by Pitman Farms a family owned business outside of Fresno, CA, that has been raising poultry for three generations. Don Pitman began raising free-range turkeys and chickens in 1954.  His son, Rick, continued to raise turkeys and named them after his wife, Mary. Their son, David, continued the family tradition of raising chickens. Our turkeys and chickens are named after Mary because she ahs studied nutrition and read labels for 25 years, looking for pure products in an effort to regain her health. Mary's Chickens are chickens that Mary would buy for her family. PHOTO RIGHT: Mary's Air Chilled Chicken

 What’s different about Mary’s poultry?
Her name is on every package of poultry that leaves the farm. You don’t see that with commercial factory farmed chicken raised by anonymous people who have no vested interest in the health of the chickens or their consumers. Their chickens, turkeys and ducks are named after Mary because she’s been studying nutrition and reading labels for 25 years, looking for pure products in an effort to regain her health. Mary's Chickens are chickens that Mary would buy for her family.

Mary’s chicken, turkeys, and ducks run around outdoors. They’re grown naturally with plenty of open space on a ranch in sunny California. These chickens are raised in a humane manner by allowing them to roam in a stress-free environment that is four times the size of the average commercial ranch. Because of cleaner living quarters, a healthier and happier turkey is produced having a better taste.

 Mary’s chickens are fed a vegetarian diet consisting of grains and vegetable proteins, plus the bugs, worms, and grubs the chickens forage for. They never receive animal by-products or hormones and they meat is never treated with any preservatives or additives. PHOTO BELOW: Mary's Air Chilled Chicken

Mary’s ranches have three varieties of chicken: natural, organic, and pasture raised.The difference between the natural and the organic is the feed. The organic birds get USDA certified organic feed. Their  pasture-raised chickens, which they sell as Heritage Bronze Chickens, are a slow growing breed from France known as Rhode Island Red. They're outside all the time with a movable open trailer with an awning that's moved every three days to give them new grass and ground to roam and feed on. If you're familiar with the pioneering work of farmer Joel Saliton, you've probably read about these movable chicken roosts.

Mary's Air Chilled Chickens are never debeaked. Debeaking is a standard process in factory farming operations, where distorted behavior patterns such as cannibalism, vent picking, feather pulling, toe picking, and head picking arise because chickens are overcrowded, packed indoors, and denied the opportunity to peck and forage the way they would on traditional, sustainable, and humane farms.

Air chilling makes the difference
Mary’s Chickens are air chilled, a process that inhibit the spread of bacteria by keeping all of the chickens independent. This process also saves 30,000 gallons of chlorinated water every day, making these chickens more eco friendly than the chickens sold in the majority of markets. The folks at Mary’s farm explain,  “The air chilled method produces a better tasting chicken. With no water added, the air chilled method keeps the real chicken flavor and juices. No water is absorbed, so you get the natural flavor of chicken.” PHOTO RIGHT: Mary's Air Chilled Chicken

Chlorine in your chicken?
According to an article in the Los Angeles, “Air-chilling is fairly new in the United States and is used by a limited number of producers, though it has been fairly common in Western Europe for almost 50 years.

Most American chickens are water-chilled, meaning a slaughtered chicken is cooled in a large, cold communal bath shared with (usually a large number of) other chickens. The baths are heavily chlorinated, as required by the USDA, and each bird can absorb 2% to 12% of its weight in this water as it cools. The liquid you see as you open the package of a conventionally processed chicken is often drainage from the water bath.

In contrast, air-chilled chickens are chilled on racks in a room using cold air. Each chicken is still sprayed inside and out with a chlorine rinse as required by the USDA, but air-chilled chickens do not absorb water as water-chilled chickens do, and when packaged can be labeled with the statement, ‘No water added.’” To watch a video about life on Mary’s farm, click here

My verdict?
Yummy! I’m impressed. From the moment I opened the package, I knew I had a good chicken. Conventional chicken from supermarkets and natural foods stores often look wet, feel flabby and slightly slimy, and have liquid in the package. I purchased one of Mary’s Air Chilled Chickens from my local Whole Foods Market. I bought a whole bird. When I opened the package, I noticed that the skin was firm, dry, and smooth. It looked healthy like the pasture-raised chickens I’ve gotten from a farmers in San Simone, Arizona, and in Toledo, Ohio. The liver and kidneys inside looked healthy. I chopped them up and gave them (raw) to my cats. My youngest (8 months old) devoured them, a good sign.

To cook the chicken I used a recipe I’ve prepared several times before, Jody Adams's Balsamic-Marinated Chicken Stuffed With Green Olives (a.k.a. Roxanne's Roast Chicken) from an article dated December 13, 2007 in the Digital Journal, about Umami, (pronounced "oo-MA-mee"), a term coined in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University. Umami means "savory" or "meaty," but it’s more that that. The term define the taste of glutamates found in meat, cheese, and protein heavy foods. Umami has been added to the list of the four most common taste sensations: salty, sour, sweet, and bitter. Those familiar with Chinese medicine have seen the tastes defined as sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and pungent. In this case, Umami would be the sixth taste. PHOTO RIGHT: Rachel Albert Matesz, 2009

What is Umami? For a visual of the taste buds and flavors click here

I’ve made this recipe with other chickens from natural foods stores, with a 100% pasture raised chicken, and a few weeks ago with a Mary’s Air Chilled Chicken. Incidentally, Mary’s also sells pasture raised chickens. My friend Don concurred with me that this was a great chicken. He thought it far surpassed the highly touted Rocky the Range Chickens. When I pulled leftovers out of the fridge this week I was still impressed. Really delicious chicken. I will buy this again. Mary’s Air Chilled Chicken is also available in cut up fryer parts and boneless pieces. If your local natural foods store doesn’t carry this chicken, you can have them contact Mary’s farm to order.

Jody Adams's Balsamic-Marinated Chicken Stuffed With Green Olives ( Roxanne's Roast Chicken)
Yield: Serves 4
Prep time: 10 minutes +  the time to bring chicken to room temp
Cooking time: about 1 1⁄2 hours (mostly inactive aside from turning the chicken)
Resting time: 10 minutes

Chef Jody Adams has served a duck dish using the same marinade and technique at Rialto in Boston for about 20 years, she says. Five years ago, while attending a culinary lecture about umami, she realized why this dish is a customer favorite: The soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, olives and poultry are all rich in umami compounds. A long marinade and slow roasting magnifies those flavors.
[roast chicken]

Ingredients
1⁄2 cup balsamic vinegar
1⁄4 cup soy sauce
1⁄4 cup Dijon mustard
1 1⁄2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 1⁄2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 1⁄2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1⁄2 small white onion, chopped into 1⁄4 inch dice
1 (4-pound) roasting chicken
12 large pitted Sicilian green olives

1. Mix the vinegar, soy sauce, mustard, mustard seeds, rosemary, pepper and onion together in a bowl large enough to hold the chicken, and set aside.
2. Remove the package from the cavity of the chicken; reserve for another use or discard it. Taking care to work directly over a sink, and not spray chicken juices around the kitchen, rinse the chicken inside and out and then dry thoroughly with paper towels. Roll the chicken all around in the marinade, making sure plenty of marinade flows inside the cavity. Cover and marinate 8 hours to overnight in the fridge. Alternatively, put the chicken into a large resealable plastic bag, pour the marinade over the chicken and into the cavity, seal, and refrigerate.
3.  Prior to cooking, bring the chicken to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
4. Remove the chicken from the marinade, allowing any that clings to the chicken to remain. Save the marinade in the bowl. Put the olives in the cavity of the chicken. Set the chicken, breast side down, on a non-stick rack, or a rack sprayed with cooking oil, in a roasting pan. Add 1⁄2 inch water to the roasting pan to prevent the juices from burning. Roast for 50 minutes. Flip the bird, taking care not to lose the olives; pour the reserved marinade over the bird; tuck the wingtips underneath and continue roasting for 40 minutes or until the chicken is done. If the skin begins to get too brown, tent the breast with a piece of foil and continue roasting until the bird is done. The chicken is done when the leg bones have a little play in the socket when you try to wiggle them. A thermometer inserted into the thicket part of the thigh should read 170 degrees.
5. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board or serving platter and let the chicken rest 10 minutes before carving.
6. My Note: Cover and refrigerate leftovers. Once chilled freeze what you don't plant to use within 3 days. Reheat leftovers in a heatproof dish in a toaster oven at 250 to 300 degrees F.

More recipies and information about Umami can be found at the Umami Information Center.

My thanks to Mary Budinger for sharing her favorite brand of chicken with me. I’ll blog about Mary’s Air Chilled Turkey and Duck later this month and share more recipes. I'm having some of the leftover turkey for dinner tonight and plan to defrost and cook the duck before Christmas. I hope you try this amazing chicken.

What do you think? Have you tried this chicken? This recipe? Let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

In Defense of Bacon

Bacon has gotten a bum rap. It’s been blamed for causing increased incidences of cancer, heart disease, strokes, and other degenerative diseases. For years I believed the anti-bacon, anti-pork propaganda. However, the more I’ve studied traditional foods and Paleolithic nutrition and learned about the holes in the diet-heart disease hypothesis the more I’ve questioned the need to limit or eliminate bacon and other cured meats from my diet, even the nitrite cured varieties.

Have we been fed a lot of bologna?
Looks like it to me. And we swallowed it… At least I did, for years. ! If you haven’t already seen the movie Fat Head to find out how we’ve been fed a lot of bologna about the alleged evils of saturated fat and cholesterol, check out this funny and factual movie by comedian and former health writer, Tom Naughton. Click here to watch the trailers. You’ll be amazed at how the big fat lies got started.

The smear campaign
Clever marketers set out to discredit naturally saturated fats like butter, lard, beef tallow, and tropical oils (coconut and palm oils) in the 1970s so they could sell us refined vegetable oils, margarine, and shortening. Many people still think it’s better to use fake butter made from polyunsaturated vegetable oil and mock meats made from wheat and soy than to eat the real things. Maybe bacon’s bad boy image was the result of a similar smear campaign.

Never mind that consumption of butter, lard, and beef tallow has plummeted since 1910 and few Americans have never eaten significant amounts of coconut or palm oil. Meanwhile, rates of cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other diseases have skyrocketed. Most Americans are getting the bulk of their fat calories from refined polyunsaturated vegetable oils made from corn, canola, cottonseed, soy, safflower, sunflower, and other oils––not from coconut oil, palm oil, butter, or bacon fat. How could the fats we’re eating less of be responsible for the diseases we’re experiencing more of?

Saturated fat fears unfounded
Here are some excerpts from chapter 5: Fat Primer of The Garden of Eating A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookbook.Nutrition professor, philosopher, primal diet blogger, and licensed acupuncturist, Don Matesz has the references to back up these claims. (You’ll find them in the appendix of the book.)

As animals, we produce saturated animal fats. On a fat-free diet, or whenever the body synthesizes fats from excess carbohydrate or protein, it produces saturated and monounsaturated, but not polyunsaturated, fatty acids. According to Dr. Germain J. Brisson, Ph.D., former professor of nutrition at Laval University (Quebec, Canada) and author of Lipids in Human Nutrition, when we eat large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids, enzymatic processes in the intestines will, as much as possible, convert them into saturated fatty acids before absorption.

The body makes saturated fats because they are essential to health. They are used to make cell walls resistant to penetration by parasites, viruses, and bacteria. The fat pads that protect bony surfaces (palms, soles, sitting bones) and fat deposits that cushion the internal organs are made up largely of saturated fat. 
   
Saturated fats are also very important in the nervous system and brain. The gray matter of the nervous system is made up largely of sphingomyelin, a compound that incorporates 1 fatty acid, most commonly saturated stearic acid or palmitic acid (the same as in palm oil). The white matter of the brain is composed largely of phospholipids incorporating palmitic or stearic acids. All told, about a third of the brain’s fat is saturated.      

Praise for pork fat
How does human body fat stack up against common dietary animal and vegetable fats?”
“Surprise! Forty-three percent of the fat produced and stored by our bodies is saturated! Beef tallow, butter, lard, and human fat are all quite similar. Lard is most like human fat. Palm oil also is very similar to human fat; but most vegetable oils are a world apart. Fats much like our own are loudly denounced; fats most unlike our own are most loudly praised. What’s up?

Lard (pork fat, bacon fat) compared with our stored body fat

                    Saturated fat           Monounsatured fats    Polyunsatured fats
Lard                            40%               50%                                10%
Human fat                   43%               47%                                10%    

Bacon fears unfounded
I’m not advocating a steady diet of bacon and other cured meats for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I think bacon, sausage, and other cured meats can be an integral part of a healthy omnivorous, produce- and protein-rich diet. Think of it as a tertiary food, a condiment or side dish, not your primary sustenance.

So what about those nitrates?
It turns out the studies released in the 1970s linking nitrates in bacon, sausage, and other cured meats to lymphatic cancer, colon cancer, and leukemia in rats were flawed. According to Sandy Szwarc, BSN, RN, CCP, author of the JunkFood Science blog, “In 1981, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed the scientific literature and found no link between nitrates or nitrites and human cancers, or evidence to even suggest that they’re carcinogenic. Since then, more than 50 studies and multiple international scientific bodies have investigated a possible link between nitrates and cancers and mortality in humans and found no association.” You can read more about the nitrate scare and bad science on her blog by clicking here.

What’s the largest dietary source of nitrate?
Vegetables! “Nitrates occur naturally in vegetables and plants as a result of the nitrogen cycle where nitrogen is fixed by bacteria. Dietary studies around the world have found 70% (in UK) to over 97% (New Zealand) of human consumption of nitrates and nitrites comes from vegetables alone, regardless of organic or conventionally grown. On average, about 93% of the nitrites we get each day comes from the nitrates in vegetables.” Says Szwarc. Figures on her blog suggest that we get more nitrates from a single serving of arugula, 2 servings of butterhead lettuce, 4 servings of celery or beets, or our own saliva than from 467 servings of hot dogs. For more on this check out her blog post from July 29, 2008.

What about nitrate-free bacon?
Are you buying expensive allegedly nitrate-free bacon and sausasage from natural foods stores? You may be surprised to learn that the health food store brands of bacon that say “no added nitrates” actually contain nitrates. The nitrates they contain are derived from celery and beet juice and sea salt. Same chemical, just a different source! “A chemical is still the same chemical, regardless of where it comes from. NO3 = NO3. They are no more free from nitrates and nitrites than conventional hotdogs,” says Szwarc. So it looks like you’re not avoiding nitrates and nitrites by purchasing those brands, you’re just buying meat cured with a more expensive form of sodium nitrate. If you want to pay more for bacon from animals raised without hormones or antibiotics or from pigs raised on small family farms on pasture and forego factory farmed pig products, then by all means do it. But I wouldn't make the deciding factor to buy it be the "no nitrate" label.

The sunny side of nitrates
Contrary to what was previously thought, recent research has been publishes showing that nitrates appear to have beneficial effects on health, particularly cardiovascular and immune health, and that our bodies produce nitrates and nitrite in greater amounts than we get from food. Nitrites appear so beneficial, that they’re being studied for their potential for treating health problems, including high blood pressure, heart attacks, and circulatory problems.

Bacon redemption?
An experimental study showed that the animals that ate the most bacon actually had the least colon cancer. Granted I wouldn’t place all my bets on a single study, but this one certainly casts doubt on the case against crisply cooked pork fat. This was from a study on the effect of meat (beef, chicken, and bacon) on rat colon carcinogenesis.

Average nitrate levels of common vegetables vs. hot dogs
arugula                             4,677 ppm
basil                                  2,292 ppm
butterhead lettuce             2,026 ppm
beets                                 1,279 ppm
celery                                1,103 ppm
spinach                              1,066 ppm
pumpkin                               874 ppm
standard hotdogs                    10 ppm
standard processed meats       10 ppm

Source: June, 2008 issue of EFSA Journal

Now doesn’t that make you want to rush out and buy some bacon and find something good to make with it? Check my most recent posts. I'll add more soon.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates

Looking for a wow-your-friends holiday (or anytime) appetizer? I think I found it! Bacon-Wrapped Dates! I found the recipe on the Cheeseslave blog (April 6, 2009). It’s a super easy recipe to make and so far the people I’ve shared it with absolutely loved it. I made a half recipe twice. I like serving the dates warm or at room temperature for dessert or the finale to a breakfast of eggs and vegetables.

The recipe, once prepared, will keep for days in the fridge,. It reheats easily in the toaster oven (although some of the people I shared it with admitted to eating and enjoying the bacon-wrapped dates straight from the refrigerator). They also freeze well.

This appetizer is easy to assemble. It’s also great for breakfast. It takes about 10 minutes to prep — plus 20 to 25 minutes to bake. You can have them on the table in half an hour.

Is nitrate free bacon better?
Ann Marie, the author of the Cheesesalve blog recommends nitrate-free bacon, ideally from a farm or producer you trust. She likes bacon from Rocky Canyon Farm in Los Angeles because they don’t feed their pigs soy, it’s not genetically modified, and they don’t use hormones or antibiotics. She says their bacon and sausage is nitrate free, but I think she means “cured with vegetable-based nitrates” based on what I’ve read about this issue. She also recommends Nieman Ranch bacon and bacon from US Wellness Meats. I’m sure these brands of bacon are tasty and I think she has, like most of us, been misled about the nitrate content of bacon from the natural foods store. Bacon sporting the no-nitrate label actually does contain nitrates, they’re just derived from vegetable and mineral sources: usually beet juice, celery, and sea salt.

She mentions research linking cured meats to cancer and that  purposed that“Processed meat consumption results in 67% increase in pancreatic cancer risk.” I’ve also heard people cite a 59% increased risk of developing cancer from eating processed meat. However, these figures are flawed in two ways. However there are serious flaws in these frequently cited stats.

Flawed data leads to unreliable reports
These stats are based on correlation not causation; they’re not based on actual studies  showing that rats developed more cancers on bacon rich diets. They’re just surveys of food consumption data in which researchers tried to figure out which foods were correlated with the highest risk of cancer (or some other disease).

“Correlation doesn’t mean causation, “ says Don Matesz, an adjunct nutrition professor at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe, AZ, and co-author of The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookbook. “It could be that the people who eat cured meat eat or do something else that’s the actual cause.”

“Many people, including virtually all of the medical and nutrition science professions, are confused about the difference between absolute and relative risk,” says Don Matesz. “Correlational studies almost always report relative risk.”

Relative vs. absolute risk & statistical manipulation
“Relative risk refers to the percent increase of incidence of the disease in question in the high consumption vs. low consumption group. So if in the  low consumption group two out of every hundred get the disease and in the high consumption group, 3 out of every 100 people get the disease, the relative risk of the high group is 50% greater than in the low group because 3 is 50% greater than 2. But the absolute risk in the low group is only 2% while the absolute risk in the high group is only 3%. So the absolute difference in risk is only 1%. Meaning in the low group 98% of the people didn’t get the disease and in the high group, 97% of the people didn’t get the disease.

“So the researchers get to report it as a 50% greater risk in the high group which sounds impressive and they get grant money to study the question further. But from a consumer’s point of view there’s essentially no difference between the two groups. Relative risk is used to inflate the perceived risk so ask to make it look worthy of increased study. From a consumer’s point of view, very few people would be willing to completely remove a food from their diet to reduce the risk of getting a disease by an absolute risk of 1 percent,” says Mr. Matesz.

Logic man to the rescue
Don Matesz is a former professor of philosophy with expertise in logic. That paired with his extensive study of the science of western and eastern nutrition and medicine makes him my favorite go-to person for nutrition questions. He’s great at simplifying complex nutrition data and theories and explaining them in such as way that people without backgrounds in science or medicine can understand. If you want to learn more check out nutrition and health, visit his blog: Primal Wisdom where he explores food, fitness, pharmacy, freedom, and philosophy using an evolutionary paradigm. Primal Wisdom refers to the accumulated wisdom of our pre-agricultural ancestors as well as the innate wisdom built into the modern human organism through millions of years of evolution.

And now for those delicious dates you’ve been waiting for. If you live in Phoenix, AZ, look for Arizona or California grown dates. Check your local farmers' market or natural foods store. My favorite place to buy dates in the valley is Arnie's Health Foods at 52nd St & Thomas. Dates should not look dry or brittle. Slightly soft is best.

This is just one in a series of posts I'll be making In Defense of Bacon. You can subscribe to receive updates when I make new posts.

FYI: I am not getting kickbacks from the Pork Producers of America, nor the Bacon Board (if there is one) or any other organizations or association affiliated with the production, sale, or promotion of bacon. I am writing about this for my own enjoyment (and yours) and to shatter some of the myths make people afraid of eating perfectly nutritious foods and that encourage people to eat junky foods. So, go ahead, have some bacon....just eat it with a generous amount of vegetables and/or fruits.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates

Prep: 10 minutes    Cooking: 30 minutes        Yield: varies with thickness of bacon

My notes: All I can say is YUM! Oh, if you find these too sweet (the dates), try eating bites of the bacon wrapped dates with toasted walnut or pecan halves. The bitterness of the nuts balances the extreme sweetness of the dates. Alternatively, you could try wrapping each date with a whole slice of bacon rather than just half a slice. Don't try to pour off some of the bacon fat during cooking or the dates won't cook in the requisite time and they won't become as soft or juicy. Wait to pour the fat off until after cooking.

Ingredients:
1 package (8 oz) nitrate-free bacon
1 pound dates (organic if possible); I like Medjools or Black Sphinx dates best

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
2. Cut the bacon slices in half. (I used kitchen shears.)
3.  Pit the dates with your fingers or with a paring knife.
4. Wrap each date with a half a slice of bacon. Use toothpicks if necessary. (If you wrap bacon tightly the dates you won’t need toothpicks.)
5. Set on a baking dish, ideally one with high sides, so the bacon grease doesn’t spill all over your oven when it melts. Try a 12x9x2 pan or 10x12x1-inch toaster oven tray. You want at least a 1-inch deep pan.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the bacon gets crispy. I found it took 25 to 30 minutes for the bacon to crisp in my oven and my toaster oven. I tried it both ways.
7. Remove pan rom oven and transfer the bacon-wrapped dates to a serving platter.
8. Make sure you save that perfectly good bacon grease. I pour it into a custard cup or small widemouth canning jar, then cover and refrigerate it. I use it to cook eggs, burgers, or to roast potatoes to make oven fries or hash browns.
9. Refrigerate leftover bacon wrapped dates. Reheat briefly in a heatproof custard cup or on a baking tray in a 250 to 300˚F toaster oven.

Source for recipe: The Cheese Slave blog

My trip to Utah and Fried Bacon, Potatoes & Eggs

Week before last I flew to Salt Lake City, Utah, to help lead a 2-day cooking intensive with two naturopathic doctors from Healing Solutions Pediatric & Family Centers. We made recipes from my two books, The Garden of Eating and The Ice Dream Cookbook. We cooked in a spacious Viking Cooking School that had almost everything you could want in a kitchen: multiples of most things, from measuring cups and spoons to mixing bowls, and from wire whisks and spatulas, baking dishes and half sheet pans.

Healing cooking
The theme was wheat-free, gluten-free, dairy free diets to help people with food allergies and intolerances, people with celiac disease, yeast overgrowth, kids on the autism spectrum or with other developmental problems. We taught participants about the whole foods philosophy, how to cook with multiple meals in mind, how to cook more how to eat well on a budget, and about some of the best kitchen tools and techniques. They learned about the benefits of three healing diets and how to follow them. They included The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), The Yeast-Free Diet (aka candida diet), and the GFCF Diet (gluten-free, dairy-free diet). We had 30 participants plus a few volunteers who helped in the kitchen.

I stayed with Mary, a former cooking assistant of mine, and her husband, Steve, who used to live in Gilbert, AZ. I met them when they were students at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, AZ, and we’ve stayed in contact by phone and email in the time since they graduated and moved to Draper, UT, a suburb of Salt Lake City.

Good time and good food
We had a good time and good food. My first morning there, Steve made a yummy breakfast of bacon cooked in a cast iron skillet with diced potatoes and bell peppers. When the bacon and potatoes were crisp, he transferred them to plates and cooked the eggs in the bacon fat (mmm! my favorite ways to cook eggs). It’s not like I’ve never had bacon, eggs cooked in bacon fat, or potatoes in the same meal! I just never thought of cooking the bacon and potatoes in the same skillet at the same time.

Steve served me 2 fried eggs (I like them sunny side up) on top of the potatoes with 2 pieces of bacon on the side. I added a garnish of minced scallions (my favorite table toppings), freshly ground black pepper, and leftover cooked broccoli foraged from the refrigerator (from the previous night’s leftovers)

We had fun listening to one of their favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan, who talks a lot about food. He's actually known as the Bacon Comedian. To check out his stuff click here. He's great to listen to while you eat, after you eat, in the car, or anywhere, any time. Can't wait to hear more of his material. (Thank you, Steve! Veggies vegetables for breakfast?

I like eating leafy green vegetables for breakfast. I know it may sound strange to the uninitiated, but I’ve  been doing it at almost every meal, including breakfast, for about 20 years, so it actually seems strange not to have them on my plate. I’ve had cooking students who adopted this practice and after a week or two or three told me they actually craved vegetables at breakfast. At first you may have to use your mind to convince yourself to eat them every day. Leftovers definitely make it easy but freshly cooked greens are great too. Leftover salad also works for breakfast. Sometimes I have that.

To get you started and keep you going, thing of the bacon, eggs, sausage or meat as the condiment for the veggies! Eat a bit of the eggs or meat with a bite of the veggies. You can do that at any meal to make the veggies more appealing, to tone done bitter flavors, and help your taste buds adjust to eating more vegetables. Almost anything tastes better with some fat and bacon and bacon fat are actually good for you, despite what you may have been told more. (More on this in some upcoming posts!)

So anyway, when I got home, I wanted to make what Steve made so I could give you the step by step instructions and get some good pictures. And yes, I wanted to enjoy the crispy goodness of bacon and fried potatoes. Luckily I had some farm-fresh, pasture-raised eggs waiting for my in my fridge when I got home. If you live in the greater Phoenix area, check out the local farmers' markets to get the best eggs or contact Anya Owen at A bar H Farm, my favorite source!

Check out the bright orange yolks from truly pasture-raised eggs. They contain more carotenes, vitamin E and omega 3s than the omega-3 eggs from natural foods stores and the expensive organic and free range eggs sold in stores. >>>>>>>>

Where’s the bacon fat?
Don’t eve think of using turkey bacon here. You need the fat in regular bacon to thoroughly cook the potatoes. Too little fat and the potatoes will burn on the outside and the inside will remain raw and will take much longer to cook. Oh, whenever you cook bacon, save the pan drippings, they’re great for cooking eggs (scrambled, fried, or made into an omelet) and for roasting potatoes in the oven, among other applications.

Potato Warning!
Potatoes contain Solanine, a toxic glyco-alkaloid. Sublethal doses can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Higher doses can cause low blood pressure, fever, rapid weak pulse, hallucinations, delirium, coma, and death. Exposure to light increases the content of this toxin. Store uncooked potatoes in the dark––e.g., a closed paper bag or shoebox in the kitchen or pantry. Avoid buying or eating potatoes with green-colored skins or sprouts longer than 1/8-inch.

Stay tuned, I plan to blog more about the many benefits of bacon and bacon fat and some utterly unusual and delicious dishes to make from them! You’ll learn about some of the myths we’ve been force fed by the popular press about this traditional food.

Better Bacon, Eggs & Potatoes

Prep: 15 minutes    Cooking: 30 minutes    Yield: Serves 2

This recipes serves 2. If you’re cooking for one. Make the full recipe, but cook only enough eggs for 1 meal. You can serve the leftovers potatoes and bacon the next day and cook the eggs fresh for that meal. If you have leftover cooked leafy greens you can serve them the next day, just take them out of the fridge first thing in the morning to allow them to come to room temp.

Ingredients:
4 strips of bacon
1 medium (4 to 5 ounce) potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice, about 1 1/4 cups
1/4 cup minced red, yellow, or green bell pepper, optional
4 medium eggs (preferably pasture-raised or omega-3 variety)*
1 tablespoon finely minced minced scallions, chives, or cilantro
2 cups blanched broccoli or sautéed kale, collards, mustard, or turnip greens

1. Place bacon in a 10- to 12-inch skillet without overlapping the pieces. Cook over medium to medium-high heat. You can use a round or square pan. Cast iron’s the best, but you can use a heavy gauge stainless steel pan. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes. When the bacon has released some of its fat, add the potatoes and optional bell pepper to the pan and reduce the heat to medium.
2. Continue to cook uncovered until bacon and potatoes crisp up. Once bacon gets crispy, you can place it on top of the potatoes, stirring them periodically with a metal spatula (pancake turner).
3. While bacon and potatoes cook you can steam, blanch, or sauté some dark leafy greens and/or slice some fruit to go with the bacon, eggs, and potatoes. Spinach, chard and broccoli cook the fastest. If you have leftover blanched veggies you can dip them briefly into lightly salted boiling water or sauté them for a couple of minutes in extra virgin coconut oil, ghee, clarified butter, or bacon fat (you save this whenever you cook bacon, right?).
4. Divide the bacon and potatoes between 2 serving plates (or stash half of each in a heat-proof Pyrex container for the next day if you’re cooking for 1). Leave the rendered fat in the skillet. Crack 4 eggs into a bowl and add them to the hot skillet. Cook until the whites set up and the yolks are barely set. (I like them sunny side up; flip them if you prefer over easy, but don’t overcook them. Runny yolks are more digestible.)
5. Transfer 2 to 3 eggs to each serving plates and add a serving of cooked greens. Garnish the eggs with minced scallions, chives, or cilantro and serve.

Variations:

•  If you’re eating only twice a day, very active, or trying to gain weight, you might need to figure 3 eggs per person or 3 strips of bacon and have fresh fruit on the side.
•  Replace the potatoes with peeled and diced red garnet or jewel yams or white sweet potatoes. (I made this for dinner a few hours ago and thought was delicious.)