It's so difficult to find a good vegetarian soup! Anybody who reads this blog knows that I love me some soup. Being a vegetarian, however, makes it very, very difficult to find a good soup that fits into my diet. Vegetarian canned soups at the store are plentiful, but exremely disappointing. Restaurant soups are almost always non-vegetarian. I usually end up making my own soups at home. But, when I want soup the most -- when I'm sick with a cold or a fever -- making soups is the last thing I want to do, or sometimes am even capable of doing. Dan's always willing to run around like a crazy person all over town finding and getting me whatever I want when I'm ill, but the problem still remains that no soups that I want or can eat seem to be out there.
I have been fighting off a cold or something for a few days now, and all I've wanted is soup. After an exhaustive search online, Dan stumbled on a soup restaurant that we've never noticed before: Zoup. It's a chain, and there is one in Denver. It's not really near us at all, but the drive isn't so bad as long as it's not rush hour. We checked out the online menu, and the first thing I noticed is that they marked each of their soups whether it's vegetarian. They have numerous selections every day, and from what I've seen they have two or three vegetarian options daily, which for a (non-vegetarian) restaurant is actually quite a lot.
Dan ventured out to bring home every one of their soups that I was willing to eat so I'd be stocked up when he went off to work. Each soup was good. I wouldn't say it's the best soup I've ever had, but it's good enough that I'm totally willing to establish it as a regular soup-getting place for when I can't make the soup. And really, that's saying a lot. Because it's so difficult to find a good vegetarian soup!!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
The Problem With Raw
I'm sure you have all heard of the raw food movement. There are plenty of references ro raw foodism all around us. And who can forget the momentous moment in S&TC when Samantha first laid eyes on a certain sexy raw-food restaurant waiter? It's a thing. If there's a place where accuracy matters, it's health. So I'm going to discuss raw food a little if you don't mind. I'm no expert by any means, by the way, so forgive me if this all sounds a bit amateurish; I'm just tryin to sum up what I know of the subject. If you want specifics, there is ample information on the topic to be found virtually everywhere.
I read a magazine article a few months ago wherein the author proclaimed that a raw food diet is in no uncertain terms healthier than, more nutritious than, and will allow you to live longer than a diet that includes cooked food of any kind. He gave a temperature above which you shouldn't cook food (I don't recall his temperature, but many raw foodists say 104). He was very certain that you shouldn't be cooking any of your food because the nutritional value will always go down. (He also talked about killing 'beneficial food enzymes,' which, by the way, most scientists don't even believe are a real aspect of our nutrition.)
The raw food mantra of "cooking-reduces-nutrition" at first sounds logical and may be easy to accept as black-and-white truth. But unfortunately, it's just not. We all know that if you take a piece of spinach and boil the crap out of it, many of the compounds in the spinach are now in the water instead of in the leaf. That's why the water is green now. And many of those compounds are things that are valuable to us nutritionally. But the science of how compounds in foods react to cooking and interact with our bodies is much more complex than just "cooking reduces nutrients."
If you measure certain nutrients in certain foods before and after cooking you might conclude that the nutrients in the food are reduced by cooking. But the way, and even if, our bodies absorb and use those nutrients is dependent on a variety of factors. For instance, some of the nutrients in some raw foods are blocked by other compounds. There is even a name for such blocking compounds: antinutrients. In some foods, cooking can impair or negate the effects of the antinutrients, thereby making the beneficial nutrients more available to us. This means that even if the nutrients measure lower when the food is cooked, the amount that our bodies will get from the item may be increased, even exponentially so. Antinutrients are just one example of how the chemistry of cooking can sometimes work in our favor.
Another example of a benefit from cooking food is lycopene. A raw tomato essentially has no lycopene; it is only there in cooked tomatoes. You will get more lycopene from ketchup than you will from a raw tomato. Or, how about carrots. Many of the antioxidants in carrots are made much more available to our bodies when the carrots are cooked. Beans are another good example. Beans are a superfood with many beneficial compounds that are totally locked to us when the bean is in it's raw state. And, some minerals are barely affected by cooking or not at all. These are just a few examples that I happen to be aware of. I'm no nutritionist.
This all makes me think of the episode of Good Eats in which he showed how the Mayans processed corn to make masa flour which was the foundation of their diet. By processing the corn kernels in a certain way (as I recall it included slaked lime), they totally changed the kernels' chemical makeup (without realizing it of course). Without processing it that way, the corn's important nutrients would have been totally unavailable; the treatment made the compounds locked inside the corn nutitionally availabe to the human body -- and basically allowed the Mayans to thrive as a massively successful society. But I digress into anthropology. Anyway, it just goes to show that chemically altering foods - which is what cooking is - can sometimes have very positive effects.
Now, I'm obviously not saying that all foods are dietarily better when cooked. There are, of course, plenty of instances in which a particular nutrient may be more available in something raw than in the cooked version. It's just that, it drives me up a wall when I see a raw foodist make the proclamation that cooked food is always less nutritious and less healthy than raw. It's very, very untrue.
The chemical changes that cooking can impart are many. There are multiple aspects to consider. Some dietary benefits might be increased with cooking, and other benefits can be reduced. Like most things, it's foolish to try to narrow down the complex chemistry of our dietary intake to a single, simple rule. The truth is, variety is the spice of health. To have a balanced and healthy diet, we are supposed to eat a wide variety of foods. For instance, we'll get the widest nutrient range if we eat many types of fruits instead of just one. In kind, our diet should also include foods with a range of preparations. If we eat that way, we will be offering the widest possible selection of nutrients to our bodies. Go ahead and eat your raw carrots, but eat your cooked carrots, too, and you'll get the best of both worlds.
The last thing I want to mention is this: The raw food movement is in part a reaction to our culture's increasing dependence on food that is overprocessed, overpreserved, over-everything. I think getting back to fresh, natural food that is real and simple is a very good idea. It's great to focus our efforts on eating fewer processed foods, fewer preservatives and trans fats, more homemade meals, more fresh fruits and veggies. But those who say that cooking is the enemy are unfortunately misguided.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating!
I read a magazine article a few months ago wherein the author proclaimed that a raw food diet is in no uncertain terms healthier than, more nutritious than, and will allow you to live longer than a diet that includes cooked food of any kind. He gave a temperature above which you shouldn't cook food (I don't recall his temperature, but many raw foodists say 104). He was very certain that you shouldn't be cooking any of your food because the nutritional value will always go down. (He also talked about killing 'beneficial food enzymes,' which, by the way, most scientists don't even believe are a real aspect of our nutrition.)
The raw food mantra of "cooking-reduces-nutrition" at first sounds logical and may be easy to accept as black-and-white truth. But unfortunately, it's just not. We all know that if you take a piece of spinach and boil the crap out of it, many of the compounds in the spinach are now in the water instead of in the leaf. That's why the water is green now. And many of those compounds are things that are valuable to us nutritionally. But the science of how compounds in foods react to cooking and interact with our bodies is much more complex than just "cooking reduces nutrients."
If you measure certain nutrients in certain foods before and after cooking you might conclude that the nutrients in the food are reduced by cooking. But the way, and even if, our bodies absorb and use those nutrients is dependent on a variety of factors. For instance, some of the nutrients in some raw foods are blocked by other compounds. There is even a name for such blocking compounds: antinutrients. In some foods, cooking can impair or negate the effects of the antinutrients, thereby making the beneficial nutrients more available to us. This means that even if the nutrients measure lower when the food is cooked, the amount that our bodies will get from the item may be increased, even exponentially so. Antinutrients are just one example of how the chemistry of cooking can sometimes work in our favor.
Another example of a benefit from cooking food is lycopene. A raw tomato essentially has no lycopene; it is only there in cooked tomatoes. You will get more lycopene from ketchup than you will from a raw tomato. Or, how about carrots. Many of the antioxidants in carrots are made much more available to our bodies when the carrots are cooked. Beans are another good example. Beans are a superfood with many beneficial compounds that are totally locked to us when the bean is in it's raw state. And, some minerals are barely affected by cooking or not at all. These are just a few examples that I happen to be aware of. I'm no nutritionist.
This all makes me think of the episode of Good Eats in which he showed how the Mayans processed corn to make masa flour which was the foundation of their diet. By processing the corn kernels in a certain way (as I recall it included slaked lime), they totally changed the kernels' chemical makeup (without realizing it of course). Without processing it that way, the corn's important nutrients would have been totally unavailable; the treatment made the compounds locked inside the corn nutitionally availabe to the human body -- and basically allowed the Mayans to thrive as a massively successful society. But I digress into anthropology. Anyway, it just goes to show that chemically altering foods - which is what cooking is - can sometimes have very positive effects.
Now, I'm obviously not saying that all foods are dietarily better when cooked. There are, of course, plenty of instances in which a particular nutrient may be more available in something raw than in the cooked version. It's just that, it drives me up a wall when I see a raw foodist make the proclamation that cooked food is always less nutritious and less healthy than raw. It's very, very untrue.
The chemical changes that cooking can impart are many. There are multiple aspects to consider. Some dietary benefits might be increased with cooking, and other benefits can be reduced. Like most things, it's foolish to try to narrow down the complex chemistry of our dietary intake to a single, simple rule. The truth is, variety is the spice of health. To have a balanced and healthy diet, we are supposed to eat a wide variety of foods. For instance, we'll get the widest nutrient range if we eat many types of fruits instead of just one. In kind, our diet should also include foods with a range of preparations. If we eat that way, we will be offering the widest possible selection of nutrients to our bodies. Go ahead and eat your raw carrots, but eat your cooked carrots, too, and you'll get the best of both worlds.
The last thing I want to mention is this: The raw food movement is in part a reaction to our culture's increasing dependence on food that is overprocessed, overpreserved, over-everything. I think getting back to fresh, natural food that is real and simple is a very good idea. It's great to focus our efforts on eating fewer processed foods, fewer preservatives and trans fats, more homemade meals, more fresh fruits and veggies. But those who say that cooking is the enemy are unfortunately misguided.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Crystallized Ginger
In my continuing adventure into the wonders of sugar work, I tried my hand at making my own crystallized ginger the other day. It was successful and the results delicious, but most of all it was really, really fun! If you've never crystallized anything, you might want to try it once just for the heck of it, to see how it works and what fun it is. It's more effort than just candying things, which I did with orange peel a few days before, but it's definitely more fun. It's like a little science experiment.
What happens when you candy something, like the peel, is that you cook it in a sugar syrup so that it gets infused with the sugar. It's often coated in granulated sugar. The difference with crystallizing something is that when you cook it in sugar syrup, you let all the water evaporate away. This means that all the sugar, which is dissolved in the water, re-crystallizes out of the water as the water evaporates away, and the sugar crystals cling tightly to whatever is there. It's the same idea as evaporating sea water to make salt.
I have seen crystallized things made on cooking shows, but in person it was way cooler than I expected it to be. I don't know, maybe that's just the science geek in me, but as the last of the water bubble away and all of a sudden there was sugar everywhere, I was very giddy. I even called my husband into the kitchen so he could see, and I kept asking him, "isn't that cool? Isn't that cool?" He assured me over and over that yes, it was indeed cool.
For this first dive into the magic which is crystallization I crystallized some ginger. I sliced the ginger thin and then boiled them in plain water for about 20 minutes. The water became a very deep golden colored and strongly flavored. I saved it when I drained the ginger slices. The ginger then was simmered in the sugar syrup, which is about as much sugar as ginger and maybe a fifth as much water. Then, like I said, you just wait for the water to evaporate. When the water is almost gone, it begins to look like it's foaming rather than boiling. Then all of a sudden, there is no liquid, and there is sugar everywhere. You have to turn off the heat, and quickly scoop the ginger out of the pan. It can cool on a wire rack or even just some wax paper. Separating the ginger while it's still warm will help keep it all from sticking together, but you have to use tongs or utensils, as hot sugar is a dangerous weapon.
I obviously had a lot of fun crystallizing ginger and now I want to crystallize everything. I already went to the store and stocked up on almonds, lemons, and more oranges. Everybody better watch out, everything I make is going to be coated in sugar from now on.
For B&D&J if they are reading this: I'm bringing a load of crystallized stuff to our game this weekend, so get ready for a sugar high!
Happy eating!
What happens when you candy something, like the peel, is that you cook it in a sugar syrup so that it gets infused with the sugar. It's often coated in granulated sugar. The difference with crystallizing something is that when you cook it in sugar syrup, you let all the water evaporate away. This means that all the sugar, which is dissolved in the water, re-crystallizes out of the water as the water evaporates away, and the sugar crystals cling tightly to whatever is there. It's the same idea as evaporating sea water to make salt.
I have seen crystallized things made on cooking shows, but in person it was way cooler than I expected it to be. I don't know, maybe that's just the science geek in me, but as the last of the water bubble away and all of a sudden there was sugar everywhere, I was very giddy. I even called my husband into the kitchen so he could see, and I kept asking him, "isn't that cool? Isn't that cool?" He assured me over and over that yes, it was indeed cool.
For this first dive into the magic which is crystallization I crystallized some ginger. I sliced the ginger thin and then boiled them in plain water for about 20 minutes. The water became a very deep golden colored and strongly flavored. I saved it when I drained the ginger slices. The ginger then was simmered in the sugar syrup, which is about as much sugar as ginger and maybe a fifth as much water. Then, like I said, you just wait for the water to evaporate. When the water is almost gone, it begins to look like it's foaming rather than boiling. Then all of a sudden, there is no liquid, and there is sugar everywhere. You have to turn off the heat, and quickly scoop the ginger out of the pan. It can cool on a wire rack or even just some wax paper. Separating the ginger while it's still warm will help keep it all from sticking together, but you have to use tongs or utensils, as hot sugar is a dangerous weapon.
I obviously had a lot of fun crystallizing ginger and now I want to crystallize everything. I already went to the store and stocked up on almonds, lemons, and more oranges. Everybody better watch out, everything I make is going to be coated in sugar from now on.
For B&D&J if they are reading this: I'm bringing a load of crystallized stuff to our game this weekend, so get ready for a sugar high!
Happy eating!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Candied Orange Peel
I made candied orange peel for the first time a couple of days ago, and brought it to our game night to share it with friends and get opinions on how it came out. I got good feedback, even though I definitely cut the strips too small, as they shrunk during cooking and ended up teeny-tiny.
It turns out that making candied orange peel is not very difficult, just very time-consuming. There are several steps. After doing a little research, I found that recipes for candied peel vary widely, including some recipes that take a whole day. I am inexperienced in this sort of thing, but this is the general outline of what I did, and luckily, it worked for me.
Candied Orange Peel
1. Cut the peel from the orange(s), being careful to remove as much of the white pith as possible. Cut the peel into strips.
2. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the orange peel and boil for five minutes. Drain the peel, discarding the water, and rinse the peel with cool water. Refill the pot with fresh water and again bring to a boil. Add the peels to the new boiling water and again boil for five minutes, drain, and rinse.
3. Boil, drain, and rinse the peels as many times as needed, using fresh water each time, until they are a little less soft than the desired texture, 10 to 20 minutes total boiling time.
4. For every two oranges' worth of peels, measure a third cup water and a half cup sugar. Bring the sugar and water to a gentle simmer in the small pot, making sure it all dissolves. Add the peels and simmer about 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Be very careful - the hot sugar solution will burn skin. With tongs or spider ladle, carefully transfer peels to a bowl of regular granulated sugar, tossing to coat each peel; transfer to wax paper or silicone mat. Be careful - boiling sugar is dangerous and will burn skin quickly!
6. Allow peels to cool. Dip in chocolate if desired. Keep in a closed containter.
I've been slowly venturing into the realm of sugar work, and this is one thing I have been wanting to try my hand at for a while now. I rarely have oranges around the house because I have to be so careful about how much potassium I take in (because of my kidney disease), so it took me a while to finally get around to try actually making candied orange peel. I'm glad I finally did. Now that this was successful, I may try similar things -- candied ginger comes to mind. And next time, my candied orange peel will be a normal size, not the strangely tiny bits I ended up with this time. Live and learn.
Happy eating!
It turns out that making candied orange peel is not very difficult, just very time-consuming. There are several steps. After doing a little research, I found that recipes for candied peel vary widely, including some recipes that take a whole day. I am inexperienced in this sort of thing, but this is the general outline of what I did, and luckily, it worked for me.
Candied Orange Peel
1. Cut the peel from the orange(s), being careful to remove as much of the white pith as possible. Cut the peel into strips.
2. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the orange peel and boil for five minutes. Drain the peel, discarding the water, and rinse the peel with cool water. Refill the pot with fresh water and again bring to a boil. Add the peels to the new boiling water and again boil for five minutes, drain, and rinse.
3. Boil, drain, and rinse the peels as many times as needed, using fresh water each time, until they are a little less soft than the desired texture, 10 to 20 minutes total boiling time.
4. For every two oranges' worth of peels, measure a third cup water and a half cup sugar. Bring the sugar and water to a gentle simmer in the small pot, making sure it all dissolves. Add the peels and simmer about 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Be very careful - the hot sugar solution will burn skin. With tongs or spider ladle, carefully transfer peels to a bowl of regular granulated sugar, tossing to coat each peel; transfer to wax paper or silicone mat. Be careful - boiling sugar is dangerous and will burn skin quickly!
6. Allow peels to cool. Dip in chocolate if desired. Keep in a closed containter.
I've been slowly venturing into the realm of sugar work, and this is one thing I have been wanting to try my hand at for a while now. I rarely have oranges around the house because I have to be so careful about how much potassium I take in (because of my kidney disease), so it took me a while to finally get around to try actually making candied orange peel. I'm glad I finally did. Now that this was successful, I may try similar things -- candied ginger comes to mind. And next time, my candied orange peel will be a normal size, not the strangely tiny bits I ended up with this time. Live and learn.
Happy eating!
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Picky About Pickles
I enjoy pickles as much as the next person, but I have a strong opinion about them. I will eat most pickles, including the sad, yellow ones you get at some lower-class sandwich joints, but what constitutes a very good pickle is, in my mind, very specific. By the way, I know that anything that is pickled technically constitutes a pickle, but I'm just talking about cucumber pickles.
In Michigan, my family usually bought Claussen pickles. Their commercials make a big deal about Claussen pickles being packed and transported cold, and they're in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. I don't know if it's the refrigeration or their brine or the exact dna of the pickles, but Claussen are way better than some other national brands, for instance, Vlasic. I'm not saying Claussen are the best pickle, but for your basic grocery store brand pickles, they're the better ones. If I need pickles, I will certainly use whatever is available, but ever since I moved to Denver I've been bummed that I've had to resort to buying Vlasic. My husband is the one who usually does the grocery shopping, and for four years he's told me that there are no Claussens to be found.
Well, we both went shopping today, and as it turns out, Denver does have Claussens after all. Right there in the refrigerated case. Either Denver just got some Claussens in or Dan didn't look in the right place. No biggie. I'm just glad to have them!
Another favorite type of pickle is the gherkin, the little sweet ones. My grandma used to serve them every Thanksgiving, so no matter what the season, gherkins make me nostalgic. Like dills, however, certain gherkins are better than others. Mt. Olive sweet gherkins or regular gherkins are good.
For the record, some of my absolute non-grocery pickles come from the Spicy Pickle sandwich shop. Their pickles are, of course, spicy. Every sandwich comes with a spicy pickle, but sometimes I'll just buy a bunch of the pickles sans sandwich.
I've tried making my own cucumber pickles but they are just never right. I've tried a few recipes and just haven't gotten the taste correct. It might be that I have to find the right sort of vinegar.
Does anybody out there have a favorite pickle, or great pickle recipe? And if you make your own cucumber pickles, what sort of vinegar do you use? Let's talk pickles.
Happy pickle eating!
In Michigan, my family usually bought Claussen pickles. Their commercials make a big deal about Claussen pickles being packed and transported cold, and they're in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. I don't know if it's the refrigeration or their brine or the exact dna of the pickles, but Claussen are way better than some other national brands, for instance, Vlasic. I'm not saying Claussen are the best pickle, but for your basic grocery store brand pickles, they're the better ones. If I need pickles, I will certainly use whatever is available, but ever since I moved to Denver I've been bummed that I've had to resort to buying Vlasic. My husband is the one who usually does the grocery shopping, and for four years he's told me that there are no Claussens to be found.
Well, we both went shopping today, and as it turns out, Denver does have Claussens after all. Right there in the refrigerated case. Either Denver just got some Claussens in or Dan didn't look in the right place. No biggie. I'm just glad to have them!
Another favorite type of pickle is the gherkin, the little sweet ones. My grandma used to serve them every Thanksgiving, so no matter what the season, gherkins make me nostalgic. Like dills, however, certain gherkins are better than others. Mt. Olive sweet gherkins or regular gherkins are good.
For the record, some of my absolute non-grocery pickles come from the Spicy Pickle sandwich shop. Their pickles are, of course, spicy. Every sandwich comes with a spicy pickle, but sometimes I'll just buy a bunch of the pickles sans sandwich.
I've tried making my own cucumber pickles but they are just never right. I've tried a few recipes and just haven't gotten the taste correct. It might be that I have to find the right sort of vinegar.
Does anybody out there have a favorite pickle, or great pickle recipe? And if you make your own cucumber pickles, what sort of vinegar do you use? Let's talk pickles.
Happy pickle eating!
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