Lunch Wraps

Like all patterns of behavior, you can change food habits, too.

Last October I went cold turkey on sugar. I didn’t intend to quit sweets permanently, but wanted to experiment what – if any – short-term benefits reduction of glucose has on my health. Little did I know how much it would affect my cooking, eating and well-being!

Up until I was 40, I had a healthy relationship with sugar, and honored a sweet treat usually on Sundays during a feast in the temple ashram. When my interest in cooking developed, I found desserts to please most people: serving a knock-out cake or fudge would patch whatever shortcoming the main course might’ve had. When I started to organize cookery courses, baking pies and cobblers along with preparing candies and puddings became everyone’s favorite class. To the degree I enjoyed inhaling the scent of caramel, cardamom and butter in the kitchen – who wouldn’t – my tongue acquired more and more sweet taste, and sooner than I realized, I was buying ice-cream, chocolate bars and vegan gummy bears from the shop – something I hadn’t done since my teens.

Within a couple of years an innocent pleasure transformed into sugar addiction. Instead of supplying energy for the body, the constant munching of confections made me chronically fatigue and contributed to all sorts of ailments from brain fog to eczema, hot-waves, insomnia, heartburn, over-weight and other endocrine complications. Finally, when a blood vessel in the wall of an ovarian cyst ruptured and caused me to bleed all September and the beginning of October last year, I was inspired to break up the love affair with sugar and carbohydrates. In fact, I was ready to do anything to alleviate the physical mayhem, hoping that paying a closer attention to nutrient intake would help my hormones to moderate energy reserves and balance out the metabolism.

Of course I had cravings at first. Every afternoon around 4 pm, when the blood glucose levels hit rock bottom, the mind knitted hypotheses to refute my new found sugar-free lifestyle, and statements like “you are seduced by righteous eating” and “you have orthorexia nervosa or abnormal attachment to health food”, and “eating is a social experience you are ruining by your fanatic attitude” ambushed my determination. At the same time, there were results that counteracted these arguments: the eczema I had battled with for six years cleared out; I regained a normal sleep rhythm; and all premenopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, heartburn, irregular periods and moodiness ceased. When I figured out, in two or three weeks, how to maintain a steady energy level by increasing fats and proteins in the morning, and consuming highly concentrated nutrients from items like raw beets, avocadoes and cruciferous greens on each meal, I no longer hankered after creamy tarts and pastries. My body started to burn fat instead of sugar and, as a bonus, I lost 12 kg (26lb) within six months. It seems that by replacing excess sugar and carbohydrates with more substantial elements, the body will gradually burn its fat supplies, and find its ideal state.

From the point of view of food-blogging, I’m facing identity crises. The most viewed posts on this site have been infused with sugar. Some of you may wonder if I’ve become a food-fascist that will  torment you by condemning all syrup-dripping desserts by uploading only vitamin-laced recipes from the platform of entitlement!

I haven’t worked it out yet how to proceed or whether I will ever cook with sugar again. Probably when time goes by, I might start adding a teaspoon of sweetness to cancel overly sour ingredients like tamarind or tomatoes, but for now I’m happy to stick to recipes that don’t require even that. My objective is to be stronger and more active in my 50’s than I ever was in my 40’s and, somehow or other, I hope this blog will reflect the mood, too.

Letting something go is never one dimensional. Omitting sugar from the diet bound me to fresh foods – salads, sprouts and all kinds of greens, and fruits – which I hardly ate before. In some ways I think I have been “a carbohydrian” or “a protenian” rather than a vegetarian, because grains and pulses covered my plate in a larger extent than vegetables. Now I find myself thinking of food in a different way, and couldn’t imagine a meal without an uncooked component that gives the instant burst of vitality. Instead of eating cooked beans and lentils daily, I prefer them three or four times a week in small portions. Unlike before, I can well skip rice and bread.

I’m developing new recipes every day. Here is one of them:

Butterbeans, cashews and oven dried cherry tomatoes wrapped in lettuce leaves

Ingredients:
250 - 500 ml (1 - 2 cups) butterbeans + water for soaking and cooking
Lettuce leaves
A bunch of watercress
A bunch of sage leaves
Oven dried tomatoes (recipe here)
2 Tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp hing powder
¼ tsp cayenne powder
250 ml (1 cup) cashew nuts
1 Tbsp desiccated coconut
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp dry roasted jeera (powder)
½ tsp amchoor powder (green mango powder)
1 tsp kala namak powder
1 ½ tsp Himalayan salt

Method:

Sort, wash and soak the beans overnight. Cook them in a pot or pressure cooker until they are soft but not mushy. Drain and set aside.

Wash the lettuce, watercress and sage. Set aside to dry.

Heat up the olive oil over a moderate heat and add the hing and cayenne powder, immediately followed by the cashews. Roast the nuts until they are light golden on all sides.

Add the coconut and toast until they change the hue and become fragrant.

Add the beans, tomatoes and sage leaves. Sprinkle everything with black pepper, jeera, amchoor and kala namak powder, and salt. Remove the pan from the stove.

Place a spoonful of beans in the middle of each lettuce leaves, and add a couple of stalks of watercress. Wrap up the leaves and secure them with cocktail sticks.

If you cook the beans and roast the tomatoes in advance, it takes only couple of minutes to assemble a quick lunch or snack.

I sprinkled the tomatoes with olive oil, cayenne powder and Himalayan salt before roasting them. You can use other spices and herbs for variety.

Thank you.

Breakfast

Many of us grew up thinking breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it provides fuel to the brain and body after an overnight fast (thus the name: “breaking the fast”). There is, however, an ongoing debate about good food habits, and some studies indicate that skipping a cereal, toast and jam may not – metabolically speaking – be as noxious as believed. It would be interesting to know how many of these researches are done with a weight loss rather than a healthy and balanced lifestyle in mind.

Arguments aside, my personal experience is that more regular way I live, hungrier I feel in orderly intervals. Every three or four hours the acoustic signals of my stomach are pounding like a heavy metal band, making me cranky and disoriented, if I don’t turn down the volume by eating a wholesome snack or meal. Such sensation of hunger is the body’s way to communicate the need for energy and, despite of being a nuisance, it is a healthy sign. When the metabolism becomes too weak to send out a distress call, the belly no longer growls in the absence of protein, carbohydrates and fats. By then, there are probably other silent malfunctions related to the liver, hormones and glands, too.

An ideal breakfast depends on a person; there is not only one way to start a day. I approach it as the most exciting and nutritious meal of the day because I have a ferocious appetite, and I also see how much strength and vitality it gives. Actually, I “break the fast” already upon waking up by drinking two cups of hot water with lemon juice as a liver and kidney tonic. Then, after my morning duties and meditation, I eat an apple or two. Apples are high in malic acid, pectin, dietary fiber and potassium, and tend to kick stagnant bile, increase digestive flow and slow down insulin response. For the main breakfast, around 8 or 9am, I choose homemade dairy, vegetables, seeds, nuts, legumes and gluten-free grains such as buckwheat, quinoa or basmati rice.

I recently – and finally – bought a pressure cooker which makes it so effortless to prepare chickpeas and other beans and lentils in a jiffy! Instead of boiling the legumes for an hour, it takes from five to ten minutes, and saves energy. I recommend it to every vegetarian.

To make seeds and nuts more digestible, soak them overnight in clean water because, like legumes, they have enzyme inhibitors that otherwise force the pancreas to work overtime and use its own enzyme reserve, causing bloating and heaviness in the abdomen. In a long run, “un-sprouted” nuts may weaken digestion. Germination will increase the availability of additional enzymes, vitamins and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc.

To activate the enzymes:

• Soak the seeds for 12 hours
• Rinse the seeds several times to remove any liquid containing enzyme inhibitors
• Eat the seeds immediately or store in the refrigerator for a couple of days. It may be a good idea to aerate or dry them before storing because, as wet, they are more susceptible to spoiling.

BREAKFAST (serves 2 to 4)

Ingredients

125 ml (1/2 cup) chickpeas

500 ml (1 cup) different nuts: almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, Brazil nuts

1 liter milk for paneer + lemon juice

2 avocadoes

100 g (4 oz) baby spinach and other greens (2 – 3 generous handfuls)

2 handfuls of sprouts (alfa alfa, mung, broccoli)

Coconut slivers

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Black pepper powder

Hing powder

Cayenne powder

Kala namak powder

Himalayan salt

Cooking method

Wash and soak the chickpeas for 8 to 12 hours. Rinse and cook them in fresh water until soft but not mushy.

Wash and soak the nuts for 8 to 12 hours. Rinse and chop them coarsely.

Make paneer from 1 liter of milk and lemon juice. Strain it for 10 to 15 minutes and break it into chunks. Save the whey for a later use.

Mix the cooked chickpeas, nuts, paneer, peeled and cut avocadoes, baby spinach, sprouts and coconut slivers in a bowl.

Mix the olive oil, lemon juice, spices and salt in a separate bowl or jar, and add it to the salad just before serving.

Thank you.

Warm Buckwheat & Butternut squash Salad

Despite the bewildering name, buckwheat is related sorrel, knotweed, and rhubarb, and has played an important role in diets around the world – mainly in the Balkan Peninsula, Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia – for thousands of years. You may be familiar with Japanese soba-noodles, Russian blini, north Indian kuttu pakora and puri, and even French galette - all made of buckwheat flour.

As pseudo-cereal, it is technically non-grain, and therefore gluten-free and easy to digest. I have experienced this first hand when having used buckwheat, quinoa and millet for a month and then suddenly consuming Basmati rice. As much as I’m accustomed to eating rice, and love it, it dries up the body more, and may cause constipation. If you want to let your alimentary tract to rest for a while, choose buckwheat. However, I wouldn’t recommend it daily because it increases the fire element and passion of the body. Unlike rice that cools down, buckwheat supplies heat.

Buckwheat contains high levels of calcium, magnesium, potassium, selenium, zink, and iron, and provides more well-balanced protein than grains in general. In fact, the amino-acid score of buckwheat’s protein is one of the highest among plant sources. Combined with pulses, it will give you more than enough fuel to live and prosper. In addition, buckwheat has niacin and folate, which are B-group vitamins.

Being whole-food, there is plenty of soluble fiber to slow down the rate of glucose absorption; insoluble fiber to speed intestinal transit time; and resistant starch, which is sometimes mentioned as the third type of dietary fiber, advantageous to overall colon health.

You might be interested to know that buckwheat is the best source of bioflavonoid rutin or citrus flavonoid glycoside, which is an antioxidant. It strengthens capillaries and can help people who bruise or bleed easily. Rutin has also anti-inflammatory, preventive and healing effects, and there are indications that it can inhibit some cancerous and pre-cancerous conditions.

Buckwheat grows so readily that it hardly requires pesticides and chemicals.

As for the taste, it is nutty and robust, and makes a statement. You can’t confuse it with any other grain or grain-like flavor. Neither can you hide it! I would say that it takes a while to get used to, especially if you want it to substitute rice or other neutral side-dishes.

I like to use roasted buckwheat groats, known as kasha. It is easier to cook and doesn’t mash together like the raw version. I also think the aroma is more delicate. For breads, I use both flakes and flour.

In my today’s recipe buckwheat makes a warm salad with black beans, roasted butternut squash, micro-greens and capers. I planned to add salty fresh cheese and toasted cashews to it, but forgot!

Thank you.

Cones With Roasted Chickpeas

A straight forward recipe, for a change, I was thinking while making cranberry milk fudge a friend of mine, Ratirupa, used to serve over 20 years ago as her “trademark”. I haven’t had it since. In the meanwhile, I moved abroad for a decade and she got a stroke that partially paralysed her. Although she is doing great, considering the physical challenge and the fact she is over 70-years old, she doesn’t make the sweet anymore.

I tried to re-create it by my taste-memory but was unsuccessful! Either I’m under a spell (lately nothing seems to come out as supposed to in my kitchen) or the sweet tasted better at another time, place and circumstance. The sticky combination of sugary milk and sour berries was a culinary highlight during my early years in an ashram. I still remember even the tiniest details about Ratirupa's visits which ensured her inspiring association and trays of fudge that lightened up the austerities we were performing.

Since the recipe had lost its’ glamour, I concluded not to post it. Instead, I started to develop a cheat puff pastry! Needless to say, what a doomed idea! Puff pastry is a labour of love because it is buttered, folded and refrigerated painstakingly many times. Even blitz or rough puff pastry shortcut requires rather a long procedure. It took me a dozen of pear filled hand-pies to notice I had gone astray somewhere in the borderland between phyllo and butter pastry. It wasn’t a bad destination though! As a matter fact, I returned with a recipe for cones!

During the past week I’ve made cones from refined wheat, unbleached spelt, wholegrain spelt and their combinations. Some of them were paper-thin, others were cookie-like and, yes, there were also flaky and buttery ones! The texture depends on flour and the thickness of dough. The cones go either with a sweet or savoury filling. Both ways, they are fun!

Chickpeas are a good source of zinc, folate and protein. They are high in dietary fibre and a healthy source of carbohydrates. However, they may cause indigestion, like gas or headache, for those with a slower metabolism. I find them easier to digest when soaked, boiled and roasted. Crunchy and absorbed with piquant spices, they make a delicious snack. In fact, if they weren’t so filling, it would be impossible to stop munching them!

Among other things, I served the cones with a salad made of cucumber, fava beans and roasted chickpeas with a yogurt dressing. Next I will try them with vegetarian kofta!

How would you fill the cones?

Thank you.

Stuffed Blackcurrant leaves

Your comments on the previous post about developing the blog content are appreciated! I’m contemplating ways to satisfy your interest. There is, however, an obstacle I bump into all the time: to talk about myself is hard. It is a matter of identity.

Blogging and photographing are activities I do, not who I am. I’m doing them out of necessity at the moment. I was pushed by the cycle of life, some years ago, into an emotional rollercoaster called perimenopause. Overnight, figuratively speaking, I watched the youthful energy whistling out of my physical and mental body like a pillar of steam from a kettle. Bygone was the socially interactive and driven lifestyle. I had spent the adult years in counselling, helping and teaching others but became, suddenly, deaf to anyone’s needs. I was too tired to listen.

Everyone has to do something, no matter the situation. I bought a camera and started to photograph. It found a comfortable spot in my isolation and, quickly, became a small window through which I could associate with the world again.

Photographing is a facility. I define myself in other terms than an artist or photographer. I am a spirit soul – a sparkle of eternity, knowledge and bliss – on an unending journey wearing a dress of a middle aged woman at the moment. Camera is an accessory that came along the new, age-appropriate wardrobe.

I’m encouraged but cautious about the attention the pictures are receiving. The way I see it, I’m not the only factor that carries out the activities I call mine. In fact, the power of spirit lies in desiring only. The rest of doing is executed by nature and sanctioned by God. How could I take credit for something I’m such a small part of?

Art history may be a sequence of virtuosity but, foremost, it is an account of mentality. As we understand it today, art is, undoubtedly, an ego-based field. It has converted from a transcendental revelation to an expression of a personal feeling, message or mood. A modern man calls it progress. From the standpoint of broadmindedness, the observation angle of an artist has shrunk narrower than ever in the chronicle of mankind. The sense of control that comes from producing a visually, literally or musically impressive piece is blinding. It is common for an artist to identify with the work done.

As a contrast to the heavily designated and stagnant idea of an artist being the source of creativity, I was delighted to hear Elizabeth Gilbert’s talk in 2009 TED. You can listen to it here. The author of Eat, Pray, Love reminds of the pre-renaissance view of an artist “having” (a) genius, instead of “being” one.

To illustrate the point, Ms Gilbert narrates a humorous story of a poem chasing a poet. If the poet isn’t ready to write the poem when it arrives, the poem proceeds to look for another poet! What a lovely, albeit, unpopular way to acknowledge the creative process! Think about it: if we were able to see the creative energy manifesting in and around us, as something none of us owned but had been blessed with, it would set us free from the lower qualities like fear, anxiety, envy and pride. They are side-effects of our inability to recognize greater universal forces. In other words, seeing beyond ourselves!

The reluctance to talk about myself or, even what I do, comes from the uneasiness of limiting myself into a designation, be that of an artist, photographer, blogger, woman, married, European, slightly overweight or parallel to a financial, social or educational status. They are all external coverings that have temporarily taken forms to correspond with the qualities I have been or I am attracted to. How much can we dwell on someone’s clothes? The epidemic of our time is that we have to constantly reinvent and enhance our self-image in order to remain on the pulse of fashion and acceptance. Not seeing beyond the senses, mind, intelligence and the immediate environment is our tragedy.

Now I’ve spoken myself into a corner and wonder how in the earth I’m going to connect today’s recipe to everything said. I would welcome the creative spirit to visit, but it is busy illuminating another blogger right now! Therefore I’m ending the post by thanking the muse of June for filling blackcurrant bushes with fragrant leaves that give a fresh Scandinavian touch to an old dolma recipe of the former Ottoman Empire, Middle East and Mediterranean region. Serve with a refreshing summer salad!

Thank you.

Colourful & Good

Many bloggers come from the tradition of cooks, especially those from the old cultures. They take pride in showcasing family or regional recipes that have been simmered by generations of food enthusiasts. Every dish has a name and a story. In some places the recipes are still learnt by watching mothers and grandmothers cooking. Until the modern times it was uncommon for a daughter to be inefficient in the kitchen. Welcome to my world!

Our society has needs and demands that replace skills like cooking, hosting and housekeeping. In fact, they are looked down as hindrances for equality and progress. In our era – ruled by economical gain, technological prowess and the entertainment industry – prosperity and auspiciousness are evaluated by pertinent ideals. Dining on fast food and takeaways, or eating out in the restaurants, serve the means. When growing up, I didn’t have the will, time or necessity to learn cooking. The priorities were elsewhere.

Like many of my peers disenchanted by the skin-deep pursuits of life, I’ve also taken a detour from the upbringing of superficial values. As unfashionable as it is, I enjoy being a humble and simple housewife. It is a fulfilling responsibility and gives plenty of freedom for self-development, meaningful relationships and other privileges of life. It also places me in the kitchen a lot!

I won’t be able to share culinary gems with concealed historical anecdotes, handed down by the ancestors, but remain an innovative apprentice. One of the things I would like to improve is recipe-writing. I would appreciate your advice. Most of you are organized bloggers and some of you are professional bloggers. How do you measure and document the ingredients while cooking? It becomes tricky with a spontaneous cooking style executed without pre-drafted notes. I usually end up with a generic idea of ingredients and no idea of amounts!

I don’t think I’ve made the same recipe twice. A week ago I fried eggplant and okra julienne in the oven and served them in tomato gravy. It was brilliant! Against my habit, I duly noted the ingredients in order to replicate the dish. On the second run I had freshly made cheese at stock and rolled cheese balls to go with the sauce. It was good but not as excellent as previously. It made me doubtful about following a recipe to a tee. It seems that something is lost – perhaps the magic of fingertips, intuition or intimacy – when measuring cups and spoons are introduced. There is a subtle difference, similar to that of eating with fingers versus utensils.

Cheese balls are mild and soft in texture and taste. Crunchy cucumber salad with roasted peanuts and grated coconut create a nice contrast. It matches well with a paperthin puff-bread, poori.

Pooris are usually made of wholegrain wheat mixed with a dab of ghee. I use spelt flour instead. Sometimes I add rye flour, too. If possible, it makes them even more palatable! In Bengal refined wheat, maida, is used and the bread is called luchi.

Street vendors in India make pooris by hand, without the help of a rolling pin. They challenge the size of a football. The pastime of slapping, flipping and puffing pooris is fun entertainment. It is one of the endearing antics found only in India!

As the name indicates, bitter melon or gourd, karela, is bitter. It is a common vegetable in Asia, Africa and Caribbean. It stimulates the appetite and is often served as a side dish or a starter of a meal.

Small bitter melons are less grumpy and don’t require seeding before cooking. Once again, oven roasting works well with karela.

Serve everything with light and fluffy Basmati rice.

Thank you.