Sunchoke Chips

After Sophie Charlotte Elisabeth Ursinus married an elderly privy councilor at the age of nineteen, she enjoyed the upper class privileges of Prussia for decades, until her fate changed on the evening of March 5^th 1803. While she was hosting a card game at home, police stormed in and arrested her. The trial that followed shook Berlin. No longer did “Lotte” draw attention as a well-dressed widow, a pietist and a poet, but as a serial killer.

A scientist Valentin Rose was an expert witness on the trial. He submitted a report stating he was unable to prove that Madame Ursinus had poisoned any of the victims – Officer Rogay (her lover), her husband, or her aunt. The suspicion, though, was overwhelming. When Benjamin Klein, a servant and a murder attempt survivor, stepped forward to testify that his mistress had served him a bowl of prunes she had first marinated in arsenic, Mrs. Ursinus was convicted and sent to prison. Although pardoned thirty years later, she failed to recover her social standing, and died alone.

After the trial, Valentin Rose became obsessed with developing a method of detecting arsenic in the body. He succeeded in 1806 but, before the breakthrough, he discovered another peculiar – yet less harmful – substance, inulin, while distilling horse-heal extract in his laboratory.

Inulins are dietary fibers that occur naturally in many plants, such as agave, banana, garlic, asparagus, chicory, wheat, onion and sunchoke. Inulin acts as an energy reserve and regulates the cold resistance of these plants.

Enzymes in the human alimentary system, designed to metabolize starch, cannot digest inulin which is a different kind of complex carbohydrate, called fructan or a polymer of fructose molecules. It passes through the upper gastrointestinal track all the way to the colon where the local flora feasts on it. If you have ever thrown such a party in your hindgut, you know it releases a lot of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane – to put it politely. John Goodyer, an English botanist, says it more bluntly in John Gerard’s Historie of Plants from 1621: “which way so ever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men.” Although he referred to sunchokes, the phenomenon applies to all inulin-contained foods.

Native Americans, long before Europeans arrived, cultivated sunchoke tubers and used them as root vegetables. When the early colonists learnt that these underground nubs were edible, they sent seeds back to the Old World. Now Jerusalem artichoke (another name for sunchoke) is a popular crop around the continent. Pleasing to harvest, each root can produce hundreds of tubers a year!

Despite the name, Jerusalem artichoke doesn’t hail from Jerusalem, nor is it a close relative of artichoke (although the two have a similar – sweet and nutty – taste). Italian settlers in America called it girasole, which in Italian means a sunflower. If you twist your tongue, you may hear how “Jerusalem” and “girasol” sound alike. Some other names are French potato, topinambour, lambchoke, sunroot and earth apple. How can such an ugly lump have so many names?

You can substitute sunchokes for potatoes in some recipes. The two have a similar consistency and texture, and become mushy when boiled. However, introduce sunchokes in small doses to your diet, and examine how you react to them. If you are sensitive to fructose, your body may respond in a more hostile way. The zero glycaemic index of sunchokes offers no solace if you have to suffer from gastric pain and flatulence!

SUNCHOKE CHIPS

The ingredients for the chips:

Sunchoke tubers

Little olive oil

Himalayan salt

Cayenne powder

The method:

Wash the tubers carefully. You don’t have to peel them if they are young, and organically grown. Slice them very thinly, either with a sharp knife or mandolin.

Sprinkle very little olive oil on the slices and rub it in.

Roast the slices in a hot oven (225 C / 400 F) until they are golden on both sides. You may have to turn them during the process.

Add salt and cayenne before serving the chips (with tomato chutney, for example).

Thank you.

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.

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.

Almond Butter

The first day of school after the summer vacation was always somewhat bewildering. Each time, it arrived abruptly but was, nonetheless, one of the highlights of the year. It was wonderful to reunite with familiar faces that looked bright and excited, and the prospect of making new friends motivated more than the academic challenges that were inevitably ahead. Books and classrooms had the scent of potential; everything was possible. New garments and sharp pencils appeared to empower everyone to reform and succeed.

I feel the same way now, while uploading this post, except that the gap between the previous semester and today was far longer than a regular summer break. My sabbatical from blogging was filled by a military style schedule and duty, and it wasn’t until last week I was able to make a short trip to Southern Europe and fully relax. In the pictures, the Atlantic Ocean lashes the shores of Spain.

When I was an exchange student in Chicago eons ago, peanut butter sandwiches were a lunch-box staple at school. I don’t think it is as popular anywhere else as in America. Almond butter is nutritionally similar but has nominally less saturated fats and a bit more calcium and iron. It is also a better source of vitamin E and magnesium. Perhaps the biggest difference is that peanuts are often over cropped and susceptible to fungi called aflatoxins, which gnaw the immune system. If not organic, peanuts are likely pumped with pesticides.

The benefit of making your own nut-butter is that you can regulate the sugar intake and additives. Use honey, maple or agave syrup to sweeten it, and a pinch of Himalayan salt for a balance. Almond butter is so thick that you can roll sweet balls from it and coat them with carob or chocolate. Plain, you can add it to the salad dressing, smoothies, soups and baking. For a stronger taste, toast the almonds with skins.

The first day of school would be a fiasco if I had to do all the talking. Instead, I would like to know how you are doing. What are your recent realizations, hopes and needs? What is new in the blogging sphere? How can I serve you?

Thank you.

Sourdough Pan Bread With Butterbean Filling

If you have been following the blog, you have noticed that I use spelt in most of the recipes that call for flour. Because I’m frequently asked about it, it is a good subject to explore.

There are a couple of theories of the roots of spelt (Triticum spelta), an ancient hybrid of emmer wheat (Triticum diococcoides) and wild goat-grass (Aegilops tauschii). It remains unresolved whether it has two separate origins in Asia and Europe, or a single one in Mesopotamia (modern Iran), where it grew prior bread wheat, around 6000 BC. The earliest archaeological evidence of spelt, in Central Europe, is from the Eneolithic Period (2500–1700 BC). In the late Iron Age (750-15 BC) it became a principal wheat species in southern Germany and Switzerland. It wasn’t until the 20^th Century that it was replaced by bread wheat due to the mechanization of agriculture. Unlike wheat, spelt is stored and shipped with a tough outer husk intact which, although ensuring the freshness of flour, makes it laborious and more expensive to produce. Today, the revival of organic farming has made this peasants' staple food of the past available again. Most of the spelt products on the market have an artisan flavour for being carefully stone-milled.

Spelt (Triticum aestivum ssp. spelta) that was introduced to America in the 1890’s is a sub-species of common wheat and, therefore, different from pure spelt. In the old continent it has been grown as feed for livestock for hundreds of years. Living in Europe I’m not aware how popular pure spelt is in the US nowadays but I’m sure it is available.

Health wise, spelt is better than wheat. Even whole wheat, which has the fibre and nutrient content intact, is nutritionally inferior to it. Because spelt is highly water soluble, the nutrients are more readily absorbed by the body. It is high in protein, B vitamins, and both simple and complex carbohydrates. The complex carbohydrates are important in blood clotting and stimulating immune system. Spelt is a superb source of fibre, amino acids and minerals.

Being related to wheat, spelt is not gluten-free. However, its gluten is of less quantity and has a different molecular makeup from wheat. Those who are sensitive to wheat may find it easier to digest. In my case, it doesn’t cause dry skin, rash or headaches like wheat. Because of the fragility of gluten, spelt flour calls for less kneading and lower baking temperature. Although it doesn’t rise as much as cultivated wheat, it remains light and airy.

Spelt's has a nutty, warm flavour. It comes out strongly when whole berries are soaked and cooked as an accompaniment, like rice.

Spelt flour is excellent for baking. There are several types available: wholegrain, extra fine, all purpose, cake, bread, mixed and graham. They are milled from the separate layers of cereal and differ nutritionally and by their baking propensities. Some has soft and some elastic or even gummy viscosity. Usually less liquid is required than when baking with wheat. However, the general rule of leaving the dough rather wet than too dry, applies to spelt as well. One of the characteristics of spelt is that it feels fatty when coming in contact with water.

Earlier this fall, I became interested in using a sourdough starter as an alternative to commercial yeast that disagrees with my stomach acid and philosophy of consuming only sattvic (the mode of goodness) food. Using a starter is rewarding, however, it calls for planning. It takes about three days to activate the bacteria. Once it is alive, it can be used for baking or stored in a refrigerator. It takes from five to ten hours for a loaf of bread to rise in a warm place before baking.

Sourdough bread tastes wonderfully rustic. Today I’m sharing my favourite way of filling it with butterbean paste and baking it on an open pan. With a colourful winter salad aside, it makes a substantial breakfast, lunch or snack.

I have experimented with several kinds of stuffing but found mild butterbeans creating a needed contrast for the tart and crisp crust. Homemade fresh cheese works well, too.

Thank you.

Chickpea Dip & Spelt Crackers

Nearby, my camera is standing on a tripod, groomed like a bull ready to charge. As soon as I open the oven, a cloud of steam surges into the kitchen. It reminds me of the moments after rain when every scent travels on its own track. Now I smell the faint spirit of closeness between basil and rosemary that is covered by a duvet of melted mozzarella. It is hidden between the layers of tomato sauce, roasted slices of eggplant and pasta sheets.

I’ve wanted to post a lasagne recipe for five weeks. I’ve cooked it as many times, but something has always distracted me from photographing it. Armed with determination, for the sixth time, I finally place the dish on the table, climb on a kitchen stool, focus the camera and call my husband to help. He bursts in, panting: “my passport is lost!”

What? 

I rush down, enter the hallway and see our coats and jackets turned inside out on a pile on the floor. From the doorway it looks like a whirlwind has sucked in hundreds of misplaced items from the drawers and shelves and spitted them out, everywhere. It is a mess. It’s more than a mess. His passport is lost! My husband, who doesn’t lose things, has lost his passport.

Neither of us can think straight when we comb through all possible and impossible hideouts and wonder where it could be. Soon it becomes inevitable: the passport is not in the house. My husband has forgotten it somewhere or dropped it, or, it has been stolen. A call to the police station confirms: it’s there. Someone has handed it over to the police.

What a relief! But, by the time I stagger back to the photography setting, my subject has lost the momentum. The soft cushions of mozzarella have sunk in like a blanket woven from fatty, rough wool by nomads. A geyser of olive oil has jetted on the top. The palette has turned muddy. Instead of a pond after a light snow, the lasagne looks like an overgrown bed of moss. Exposing it on Internet would be a disservice.

Because I don’t have a plan B, I grab chickpeas from the cupboard, give them a quick shower and let them soak overnight. In the morning I cook them with tejpatta, a small piece of cassia, salt and some cayenne. When I finally get an idea of how to use them, I regret boiling them with spices. My knowledge of Middle Eastern cuisine is meagre, but I suspect the paste wouldn’t qualify as hummus if cooked with Indian spices. To be on the neutral side, I decide to call it a dip and stick to the Indian flavours with a liberty of using olive oil and homemade tahini, too!

For a hodgepodge, the dip turns out perfect! Although 'perfect' is a word often loaded with too high expectations, it is accurately applied here. An overall earthliness comes from the chickpeas and sesame seed paste. In an orchestra they would be the brass instruments that have a clear, directional sound travelling straight outward from the bell. The lemon zest, on the other hand, would be a seductive flute. And, just when you think the concert is over, on the back of the palate, you will feel the warmth of cayenne. It’s an instrument you didn’t notice earlier: the one that ties the theme together!

The dip has a feather light texture. It melts in the mouth. It is complimented by spelt crackers and a seasonal salad.

Thank you.

Quinoa Pilaf

At your dinner table, is there a dish that receives negative reviews time and again? Regardless how it is prepared or served, it will be poked around. Neither my husband nor I am a picky eater, yet, quinoa used to be an issue for us.

“Fish-eyes again!” my husband exclaimed whenever I pushed a plate of quinoa instead of rice in front of him. He asserted the kernels were crawling and staring at him! We debated, to the point of indigestion, whether quinoa is suitable for vegetarians.

When we received an invitation for a lunch at a friend’s house, I flinched. The host had recently introduced quinoa as a supplement to his raw food diet. Before we left home, I took precaution and fed my husband well. The gentleman he is, I knew, he wouldn’t throw a temper-tantrum at the table, but better to be safe than sorry. I had no idea what kind of surprise was ahead of us!

The conversation was jolly when we sat down to eat. After a couple of mouthfuls, when I noticed my husband about to say something, I turned gray, horrified.

“This is excellent,” he announced. “What is it?”

My gaze was locked at him like a flock of fish with a thousand eyes (quinoa seeds?). I didn't believe my ears. Seeing him accepting seconds and thirds, and even fourths, it was clear: quinoa khichdi would become his favourite breakfast or lunch.

Glistened with lemon juice and olive oil, and mixed with vegetables braised in a pinch of hing, black pepper and ground coriander, quinoa had regained its' vegetarian status. 

I usually cook it with yellow, split mung dal instead of aduki beans and omit pine nuts or almonds. This time, for a visual swing, I assembled it as a pilaf, although prefer it like a stew, khichdi.

You judge, is it glaring at you?

Thank you.