Archive for the ‘Shopping and Cooking’ Category

It’s time to do some holiday baking. One essential ingredient of most baked goods is:  eggs.  Needless to say, the fragile little power packages enclosed by brown, white, and sometimes blue shells are key players for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, too.

When you shop for eggs there are a slew of different egg cartons – most of which sport all kinds of claims about nutrients and the personal space of the hens plastered front and center.

The dilemma: how to choose.  I would love my eggs to come from happy chickens that run around in lots of space  (like my Grandmother’s chicken coop that came with individual wooden nests for each chicken and a large outdoor pen).  I don’t know how to tell if hens are happy since they don’t smile, but I guess if they are sheltered, fed, have space to roam and lay lots of eggs they might qualify.

Egg Nutrition

One large egg has 72 calories, 16 in the white, 54 in the yolk.  Each has 6.3 grams of protein, 3.6 in the white, 2.7 in the yolk.  There are 5 grams of fat, 4.5 of which are in the yolk.  1.6 grams is saturated fat – all of which is in the yolk.  There are 212 mg of cholesterol, 210 of which are in the yolk.  (There’s the answer to egg white omelettes). There are a whole bunch of vitamins and minerals in these little powerhouses, a lot of which  – but not all — reside in the yolk.

The Claims On The Carton

The following information is from a Nutrition Action Healthletter Safe-Food Report.

Verified Or Certified Claims You Can Trust:

• USDA Organic means that the hens have to be uncaged inside barns or warehouses and have to have an unspecified amount of outdoor access.  They have to be fed a vegetarian organic diet free of antibiotics and pesticides and can’t have had any antibiotics after they were three days old.  Beak cutting (trimmed beaks prevent the chickens from harming each other) is permitted.

• American Humane Certified means that the hens can be confined in cages or they can be cage free.  Their beaks can be cut.

• Animal Welfare Approved means that the hens are raised by independent family farmers and in flocks of no more than 500 birds that spend their adult lives outside.  They aren’t fed any animal byproducts and their beaks can’t be cut.  Their eggs can be found at farmers markets and restaurants.

• Certified Humane means that the hens must be uncaged inside barns or warehouses but can also be kept indoors all the time.  Beak cutting is okay.

• United Egg Producers Certified means that the producer must meet minimum voluntary industry standards which, according to the Humane Society, “permits routine cruel and inhumane factory farm practices.”

Claims That Have Not Been Certified By An Organic Or Animal Welfare Organization (aka the companies make the claim – can you trust them???)

• Raised Without Antibiotics should mean that the hens haven’t been fed antibiotics at any time and if the hen was sick and given them, this claim cannot be used for her eggs.  FYI:  Routine use of antibiotics for hens is illegal.

• Cage Free means that the hens live outside of battery cages in warehouses or barns but they usually don’t have outdoor access.  They typically have two to three times more space than their caged brethren.

• Free Range or Free Roaming hens are cage free with some outdoor access although there are not requirements for how much or what kind of access.

• Pasture Raised or Pastured hens romp for at least some time outside foraging for bugs and vegetation.

Then There Are The Nutrient Claims

Because caged and cage free hens usually eat the same diet based on corn there’s no nutritional difference in their eggs.  However, some egg producers supplement their hens’ diet with ingredients that they claim produce an increased nutrient value in the egg (like Vitamin E).  Always check the Nutrition Facts label for specifics rather than just trusting the claim.

Then there are the Omega 3 claims.  The three kinds of Omega 3 fats are DHA, EPA, and ALA.  The first two help reduce heart attack risk, lower blood triglyceride levels, and are very important components of your brain cells and retinas.  Their most plentiful source is fatty fish like salmon.

The third kind of Omega 3, ALA, doesn’t protect your heart as much as the other two.  Most of us get ALA thorough foods made with vegetable oils.

The Hoodwink

Here’s a heads-up:  The FDA has banned omega 3 claims on eggs but egg producers still make the claims.  Read on.

An egg typically has about 25mg of DHA and 25mg of ALA.  If the carton boasts that the eggs have omega 3s but doesn’t specify how much – or – if it says that there are 50mg of omega 3s per egg, chances are it’s just an ordinary egg with the naturally occurring amount of omega 3s and a leading claim.

Some companies supplement their hens’ feed with things like algae or fish meal which can boost the DHA in each yolk to about 100mg.  Adding canola oil or flaxseed to the feed can boost ALA to around 350mg.

If the carton claim is that the eggs have 300mg or more of omega 3s most of it is probably ALA and not the more desirable DHA or EPA.

An Apple A Day . . .

Keeps the doctor away!  How often have you heard that – and who said such a thing?

It seems to be a variant of a Welsh proverb, published in 1866, equating eating an apple when going to bed and keeping the doctor from earning his bread.

What’s So Special About Apples?

Magical and aphrodisiac powers are attributed to lots of foods and the apple doesn’t disappoint – remember the Garden of Eden? Ancient Greeks would toss an apple to propose to a woman. Catching it signaled acceptance.

Apples are good for you. They grow in every state in the continental US.  They have Vitamin C and flavonoids (antioxidants) to help immune function and aid in preventing heart disease and some cancers.

They reduce tooth decay by cleaning your teeth and killing off bacteria. They are easily digestable and their high fiber content adds bulk that helps the digestive process. They have pectin, a soluble fiber, that encourages the growth of good bacteria in your digestive tract.They are a good source of potassium, folic acid, and vitamin C.

What Makes An Apple An Apple?

Apple flavor is a blend of tart, sweet, bitter, and that distinct apple aroma — a mysterious blend of 250 trace chemicals naturally contained in the fruit.  The sweetness comes from the  9 – 12% sucrose and fructose content.

A medium apple weighs about 5 ounces, has around 81 calories and 3.7 grams of fiber from pectin, a soluble fiber. Unpeeled apples have their most plentiful nutrients just under the skin.

Popular Apples Found In Markets:

• Braeburn:  sweet/tart flavor; yellow with red stripe/blush; firm, great for snacking. Season: October to July.

• Crispin: sweet flavor; green-yellow; firm, great for snacking and pies. Season: October to September.

• Empire: sweet/tart flavor; solid red, crisp, great for snacking and salads. Season: September to July.

• Fuji: sweet/spicy flavor; red blush, yellow stripes/green; crisp, great for snacking, salads and freezing. Season: Year round.

• Gala: sweet flavor; red-orange, yellow stripe; crisp, great for snacking, salads, sauce and freezing. Season:  August to March.

• Golden Delicious: sweet; yellow-green; crisp, great as a snack, in salads, sauce and pies. Season: Year round.

• Granny Smith: tart and green; occasionally has a pink blush; crispy, great for baking, snacking, sauces, pies and salads. Season: Year round.

• Honeycrisp: sweet/tart flavor; mottled red over a yellow background; crisp, best for snacking, salads, pies, sauce and freezing. Season: September to February.

• Jonathan: spicy and tangy; light red stripes over yellow or deep red; less firm and good for pies and baking. Season: September to April.

• McIntosh: tangy; red and green; tender and best for snacking, sauce and pies. Season: September to July.

• Red Delicious: sweet; can be striped to solid red; crisp; good for snacking and salads.  Season: Year-round.

• Rome: sweet; deep, solid red; firm and great for sauce, baking and pies. Season: October to September.

SocialDieter Tip:

Basic apple info: Try to find apples that haven’t been waxed. Farmers’ markets are probably the best places to look. You might want to peel the skin off if it is waxed.

Wash your apple thoroughly before eating or cutting it up to decrease the amount of pesticide residue or bacterial contaminants.

Keep apples in the fridge to keep them in their best shape and so they last longer. Unrefrigerated they get mushy in two or three days. Apples should be firm and blemish-free.

Cut apples will turn brown, a result of oxidation.  To prevent that, toss them with citrus juice — oranges, lemons, and limes all work equally as well.

Do you watch Top Chef?  I do.  I also watch Top Chef Masters.  And, because I happen to live in the New York City area, I’ve been fortunate enough to eat at wd–50, Wylie Dufresne’s restaurant in Manhattan. Dufresne, a contender on Top Chef Masters and a guest judge on Top Chef, is one of America’s most famous chefs who routinely uses molecular gastronomy in his food preparation.

What The Heck Is Molecular Gastronomy?

It’s a scientific discipline that studies the physical and chemical processes that happen during cooking.  According to Wikipedia, It tries to figure out things like:

• How different cooking methods alter ingredients
• What role the senses play in appreciating food
• How cooking methods affect food’s flavor and texture
• How the brain interprets signals from the senses to tell us the “flavor” of food
• How things like the environment, mood, and presentation influence the enjoyment of food

“The Scientific Study Of Deliciousness”

This is how Harold McGee, author of  the book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, describes MG. Gourmet Girl Magazine gives these examples of MG techniques:

• Flash-freezing which involves quickly freezing the outside of various foods, sometimes leaving a liquid center.

• Spherification: Little spheres are made by mixing liquid food with sodium alginate then dunking it into calcium chloride.  A sphere looks and feels like caviar and has a thin membrane that releases a liquid center when it pops in your mouth.

• Meat glue: Wylie Dufresne’s “shrimp noodles” are noodles made of shrimp meat and created using transglutaminase, or meat glue, as it’s called at wd-50. It binds different proteins together and is commonly used in foods like chicken nuggets.

• Foams: Sauces that are turned into froth by using a whipped cream canister, sometimes with lecithin as a stabilizer.

• Edible menus: Yep, eat your menu. By using an ink-jet printer, inks made from fruit and vegetables, and paper made of soybean and potato starch, your menu can taste like your dinner.

• Dusts and Dehydration: Dehydrating ingredients into a dust changes the way to use them, for example, making a dust of certain mushrooms and then sprinkling it on food.

The Bottom Line

According to Environmental Nutrition (EN), if you’ve wondered what makes glossy white peaks form when you whip egg whites, or how an ordinary milk can  turn into rich, pungent cheese, you’ve wandered into the world of molecular gastronomy (MG).

MG, “the scientific study of the pleasure giving qualities of foods—the qualities that make them more than mere nutrients,” analyzes long standing culinary practices and old wives’ tales and deconstructs classic recipes. As you lick that delicious ice cream cone do you stop and think about ice cream’s complicated physical structure that includes ice crystals, protein aggregates, sugar crystals and fats in a condensed form?  You don’t, but molecular gastronomists might.

What Does MG Look Like On Your Dinner Plate?

Grant Achatz, a James Beard award winning chef might serve these foods at Alinea, his Chicago restaurant: tiny bits of cauliflower served shaved, fried, dehydrated, and coated in three kinds of custards; Chinese beef and broccoli plated as a traditional short rib, the plate dotted with dehydrated broccoli and peanuts then covered with a clear gelatinous sheet of Guinness beer.

Got you thinking as you lick your lips?

How You Handle Food Really Matters

Here’s a great big reason why paying attention to how you handle food is so important:

Just give ‘em  (bacteria) the conditions they like:  warmth, moisture, and nutrients, and boy will they grow.   A single bacterium that divides every half hour can result in 17 million offspring in 12 hours.

Putting food in the refrigerator or freezer will stop most bacteria from growing —  except for Listeria (found in lunch meats, hot dogs, and unpasteurized soft cheese), and Yersinia enterocolitica (found in undercooked pork and unpasteurized milk).  Both will grow at refrigerator temperatures. Cooking food to a temperature of 160 F will kill E. coli O157:H7. Don’t let that container of take out food hang around on the counter, either. Put it in the fridge and heat it up when you’re ready.

Safety Tips

• Cut produce, like half a watermelon or bagged salad, should be refrigerated or surrounded by ice – don’t buy it if its not
• Separate your raw meat, poultry, and seafood from the other food in your shopping cart and in your refrigerator – packages do leak
• Store perishable fresh fruit and vegetables (like berries, lettuce, herbs, and mushrooms) in a clean refrigerator at a temperature of 40F or below
• Wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and warm water after you prepare any food
• Wash fruit and vegetables under running water just before eating, cutting, or cooking, even if you plan to peel them. Don’t use soap (it leaves a residue). Produce washes are okay, but not necessary.
• Scrub firm produce like melons and cucumbers with a clean produce brush and then let air dry.
• Toss the outer leaves of heads of leafy vegetables like cabbage and lettuce.
• Thoroughly cook sprouts. Children, elderly people, pregnant women, and people with a weakened immune system should avoid raw sprouts.
• Drink pasteurized milk, juice, or cider.
• Lower your pesticide exposure by 90% by avoiding the dirty dozen: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, imported grapes, carrots, and pears. Think about buying organic for the dirty dozen and conventional for the foods with the lowest levels of pesticides:  onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes (Environmental Working Group).
• Eat locally grown food:  food is well traveled – the average mouthful has a 1400 mile journey from farm to plate. Locally raised food is fresher, closer to ripe when picked, requires less energy to get to you, and is not as likely to be treated with pesticides after harvest.
• Wash all produce well before eating – be careful with nibbling the unwashed grapes or berries in the market or on the way home.

More information on handling produce safely

Katsikaki:  Kid Goat

It all started last fall on a trip to Washington DC. I had dinner at Komi, a fabulous Greek/Mediterranean restaurant.  The highlight (or one of the highlights, there were many) was katstikaki, Greek for a kid goat.  I have had goat before, but this preparation was memorable.

Fast forward 5 months.  I paid a visit to a butcher in New York City to order lamb for Easter dinner. This particular butcher only sources from the Northeast.  “No lamb,” I was told – “Easter is early and the local lambs are not ready – but we are stocking goat for six weeks through Easter.”

I’ve never prepared goat before, but was up for the challenge.  However, animal lover that I am, I had to dissociate the image of the animal from the meat.  Goat would be fine as long as it did not bear any resemblance to the animals at the nature center or the ones I’ve seen perched on the sides of cliffs.

I placed my order for two legs of goat (they’re small), which I later had to increase to three – everyone I invited was so intrigued by the thought of goat, they agreed to come.  I even tried for four legs, but ended up with a tripod – the supply was exhausted!

Goat: the most widely consumed meat in the world

Goat is a staple of Mexican, Indian, Greek, Southern Italian, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, and other cuisines. Baby goat, also called cabrito or capretto, is low in fat and cholesterol.  It is similar to venison in its flavor and texture, but it isn’t gamey.  Kid goat meat is tender and delicate like young lamb and is similarly prepared. Mature goat meat is tougher and more strongly flavored. Goat meat (also called Chevon), can be stewed, baked, braised, grilled, roasted, and barbequed.  Some cultures roast the goat on a spit or in a pit.

Goat Nutrition

Goat is nutritionally superior to beef or chicken, with a low fat content. Since goat is a red meat, it contains iron and B vitamins.

According to the USDA:

3 oz. cooked (Roasted)	Calories	Fat (Gr.)	Saturated Fat (Gr.)	Protein (Mg.)
Goat	122	2.58	.79	23
Beef	245	16	6.8	23
Pork	310	24	8.7	21
Lamb	235	16	7.3	22
Chicken	120	3.5	1.1	21

Cooking Our Goat

How to cook our three legs of goat prompted much family discussion.  One son suggested roasting the goat on a spit in the front yard, another suggested digging a pit in the back yard, the third, wisely, suggested braising it, indoors, in a large pot.  I was on a quest for goat info. I googled and talked.  I asked a couple of chef acquaintances.  I went to primary sources:  a couple of Greek mamas who own diners and cook lots of goat.

Bottom Line

You can cook goat, especially baby goat, much like lamb.  When it came down to the wire, we ended up making goat stew – two different ways. We browned cubed goat, along with onion, garlic (lots), carrots, and celery.  With a house full of people crowding the kitchen and eating constantly, we did the prep work and browning the night before and the stewing the next day.  Because we couldn’t decide on our preferred flavorings, we made two stews – one with red wine and tomato paste, the other with white wine and lemon.  We also made liberal use of oregano.  We served the stew(s) with orzo, asparagus, and sautéed kale.

No Leftovers

Everyone – from an eighteen month old to an 85 year old – ate goat – both kinds.  No clear favorite for red wine/tomato stew vs. white wine/lemon stew.  A great meal, flavorful, satisfying, and quite nutritious.  Room for dessert.