David Foster Wallace Considers the Lobster

I enjoy David Foster Wallace (DFW) as an author. And, needless to say, I enjoy food. So when my August 2004 issue of Gourmet magazine (a subscription I'm on the verge of letting lapse for its focus shift away from beef bourguignon and baguettes towards women's diamond encrusted watches and travelogues of small exploited European towns) arrived I was excited to see an article by DFW.

Actually, the FRE noticed it before me, read it, and kept slipping it under my grocery list saying, "Did you read this yet? You have to read this!"

Well, I read it, and now you can too:
http://www.lobsterlib.com/feat/davidwallace/
(The page will send you to a pdf of DFW's article. Go to "Click here to read the full article".)

It was trademark DFW - footnotes, covert humor, and a vocabulary that Noah Webster would find unabridged. It addressed a topic I imagine lots of people think about but few take to conversation. DFW was given the assignment of covering the 2003 Maine Lobster Festival (MLF). What he returned for publication gave the editors of the magazine pause.

Not only did he shade the festival's bright tone with realness:

"Be appraised, though, that the Main Eating Tent's suppers come in Styrofoam trays, and the soft drinks are iceless and flat, and the coffee is convenience-store coffee in yet more Styrofoam, and the utensils are plastic (there are none of the special long skinny forks for pushing out the tail meat, though a few savvy diners bring their own). Nor do they give you near enough napkins, considering how messy lobster is to eat, especially when you're squeezed onto benches alongside children of various ages and vastly different levels of fine-motor development - not to mention the people who've somehow smuggled in their own beer in enormous aisle-blocking coolers, or who all of a sudden produce their own plastic tablecloths and try to spread them over large portions of tables to try to reserve them (the tables) for their little groups."

But he led the reader into an emotional feast of what is required to "prepare" lobster:

"The intimacy of the whole thing is maximized at home, which of course is where most lobsters get prepared and eaten (although note already the semiconscious euphemism "prepared" which in the case of lobsters really means killing them right there in our kitchens). The basic scenario is that we come in from the store and make our little preparations like getting the kettle filled and boiling, and then we lift the lobsters out of the bag or whatever retail container they came in ... whereupon some uncomfortable things start to happen. However stuporous the lobster is from the trip home, for instance, it tends to come alarmingly to life when placed in boiling water. If you're tilting it from a container into the steaming kettle, the lobster will sometimes try to cling to the container's sides or even to hook its claws over the kettle's rim like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a roof. And worse is when the lobster is fully immersed. Even if you cover the kettle and turn away, you can usually hear the cover rattling and clanking as the lobster tries to push it off. Or the creature's claws scraping the sides of the kettle as it thrashes around. The lobster, in other words, behaves very much as you or I would behave if we were plunged into boiling water (with the obvious exception of screaming). A blunter way to say this is that the lobster acts as if it's in terrible pain, causing some cooks to leave the kitchen altogether and to take one of those little lightweight plastic oven timers with them into another room and wait until the whole process is over."

And if there was any doubt in a reader's mind that a lobster can feel pain, that is, if they subscribed to the opinion of Dick, the man from the rental-car agency who chauffeured DFW from the airport: "There's a part of the brain in people and animals that lets us feel pain, and lobsters' brains don't have this part.", he proceeded to whittle away that doubt:

"Lobsters don't have much in the way of eyesight or hearing, but they do have an exquisite tactile sense, one facilitated by hundreds of thousands of tiny hairs that protrude through their carapace." And from TM Prudden's About Lobster "it is that although encased in what seems a solid, impenetrable armor, the lobster can receive stimuli and impressions from without as readily as if it possessed a soft and delicate skin." And since they do not "appear to have the equipment for making or absorbing natural opioids ... which is what more advanced nervous systems use to try to handle intense pain ... one could conclude that lobsters are maybe even more vulnerable to pain."

Near the end he addressed some moral questions:

"The more important point here, though, is that the whole animal-cruelty-and-eating issue is not just complex, it's also uncomfortable. It is, at any rate, uncomfortable for me, and for just about everyone I know who enjoys a variety of foods and yet does not want to see herself as cruel or unfeeling. As far as I can tell, my own main way of dealing with this conflict has been to avoid thinking about the whole unpleasant thing. I should add that it appears to me unlikely that many readers of Gourmet wish to think hard about it, either, or to be queried about the morality of their eating habits in the pages of a culinary monthly. Since however, the assigned subject of this article is what it was like to attend the 2003 MLF, and thus to spend several days in the midst of a great mass of Americans all eating lobster, and thus to be more or less impelled to think hard about lobster and the experience of buying and eating lobster, it turns out that there is no honest way to avoid certain moral questions."

Ruth Reichl, the Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet took a risk publishing it, but she smoothed over its appearance on pages 50 - 64 by describing it generically as "hilarious" and "thought provoking". She did finally render it with more honesty: "It is ... very uncomfortable - and something you're not likely to forget anytime soon."
________

Making Coffee

It's 4:49 am. Some snow fell overnight. The deer are barking. I'm wearing 4 layers of clothing, and I'm making coffee.

Yogurt Dressing

I use this sauce as an accompaniment to spicy grilled chicken or fried fish. It's a cool, refreshing contrast to any strongly-seasoned food, and if you use non-fat yogurt, it offers a lower-fat alternative to many salad dressings.

It didn't occur to me to write about it - it's a simple concoction. But the FRE, who claims that were it not for a fanatic's influence on him he would still be the owner of his 20-something svelte physique, and which fanatic counters that indeed it is because of her influence on him that he has packed on brawn, not blubber, and has retained a sought-after youthful glow, wanted me to post it.

He says: "It's healthy! It's made of all good things. I can smear it on everything and not feel guilty!"

Well, thank you, FRE. But maybe you've just grown to be appreciative of what little fat gets served to you between the plates of steamed vegetables. You're a long-suffering man, how can I not oblige this minor request.

Ingredients

2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 small garlic clove
2 tsp. white wine vinegar
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/3 cup plain non-fat yogurt
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. dried chives
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. salt

Makes about 1/2 cup

~~~~~~
1    Using a garlic press, squeeze the pulp from the garlic clove into the oil and stir to coat the garlic and infuse the oil.

2    Add the vinegar and mustard and whisk until you have an emulsion, about 30 seconds. Whisk in the yogurt, then add the spices and salt and whisk again. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Note: Here's one place where I prefer dried herbs to fresh. Dried won't taint the color of the sauce. Fresh will turn the sauce pale green. Not that I'm averse to green sauce, but I think the creamy off-white color complements a fish dish better than something resembling guacamole.

Here's how a serving stacks up against the same amount of mayonnaise:



~~~~~~
I was introduced to the thick, creamy raitas while taking a class on Indian cuisine, although there's a variety of these yogurt-based sauces throughout India and the Middle East. They're typically made with whole-milk yogurt which is often strained to form an even thicker product that I know as yogurt cheese. To this yogurt is added, depending on the region, grated cucumber and mint (India), raisins and salted onions (Middle East), olive oil and garlic (Greece), and other dried fruits, nuts, and spices.

While pondering what to serve with a grilled chicken sandwich one day, the idea came to me to combine a raita with a mayonnaise (an oil, egg, acid emulsion). Since I was looking for a low-fat, natural alternative to mayonnaise I used non-fat yogurt instead of the traditional full-fat. This displaced the saturated fat in the whole-milk raita with primarily monounsaturated fat from olive oil. The mustard and yogurt kept the dressing emulsified so there was no need for egg yolk. There's one change I would make to the above recipe (if there were more hours in a day) ... I would drain the yogurt before adding it to the dressing giving the final product a thicker consistency.

If you do have those hours, here's how to make yogurt cheese:

Line a wire mesh strainer with cheesecloth and place over a bowl. Pour 1 or 2 cups of yogurt into the strainer and let drip at room temperature for about 4 hours or until the remaining yogurt has reached the desired consistency. (Volume will be reduced up to half.) Refrigerate.

By the way, this yogurt cheese makes a dandy low-fat cheesecake. But that's another recipe for another day.

Holiday Nuts

'Tis the season for nuts, and boy are there a lot out there. If you're feeling stressed, one nut you don't want to pass up is the brazil nut. Let its deep mahogany, ridged, crescent-shaped shell lure you into exploring the creamy-colored flesh inside. Do it for the flavor. If that doesn't entice you, consider that the brazil nut is the most selenium-dense food you can eat. And selenium is a pretty powerful antioxidant; it can stave off cancer, promote clear arteries, and reduce pain from arthritis, all through its ability to quench free radicals. (The National Institutes of Health has a nice fact sheet on selenium's benefits.)

Just 3 brazil nuts contain more selenium than one 200-mcg tablet, the typical dose in over-the-counter selenium supplements. Why crunch a tasteless tablet when for the 80 calories in those three nuts you can also get a little protein, calcium, magnesium, and an assortment of other vitamins and minerals?

Find yourself a nutcracker and take care of a few Holiday nuts!

From the mixed nuts bowl:

Banana Nut Squares

Three over-freckled bananas were making everything in the kitchen smell like banana. Oh, it bugs me to toss perfectly good, albeit overripe, fruit down the In-Sink-Erator. So while I had my pan and recipe still handy from making Butternut Squash Squares, I thought I'd use them for my bruising bananas. The ingredients are similar. Replacement of squash with banana and omission of spices were the biggest changes.


Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tbsp. wheat germ (raw or toasted)
1 tbsp. wheat bran
2 tbsp. soy flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup mashed bananas
3 tbsp. vegetable oil (e.g. peanut oil)
1/4 cup honey
3 tbsp. brown rice syrup (or honey)
1/2 cup buttermilk or plain non-fat yogurt
Dash cider vinegar
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Makes 16 squares

Note: Each square contains:

Calories	136
Protein	3.5 g
Carbohydrate	19.4 g
Fiber	2.1 g
Fat	5.8 g

~~~~~~~~~~
1 Preheat oven to 350°F.

2 Rub 1 tsp. vegetable oil on the insides of an 8 by 8 inch cake pan.

Note: Insulated cookie sheets and cake pans were a boon to baking. The small pocket of air trapped between two closely-spaced sheets of aluminum slows heat transfer, preventing edge or bottom burning and allowing batters to rise more evenly, without the characteristic hump in the middle. You can simulate an insulated pan by nesting two inexpensive pans of the same size. I've done that here with two 8 by 8 inch pans.

3 Combine the mashed bananas, oil, honey, rice syrup, buttermilk, vinegar, and vanilla extract. Whisk or beat vigorously.

Note: You'll need either two medium or three small bananas. If after mashing and measuring them you come up short, you can substitute plain apple sauce to make up the difference.

4 Whisk the egg and egg white separately from the banana batter.

Note: Egg proteins coagulate or curdle in the presence of acids. The liquid ingredients in this recipe are acidic enough to cause coagulation. This can be reduced if eggs are added just before baking.

5 Stir together the first 7 ingredients (dry ingredients).

Note: Sifting is an effective way to mix and aerate dry ingredients. However, the particulate matter in this combination will make sifting difficult, so be sure to mix these dry ingredients thoroughly, breaking up and distributing any chunks of baking powder or baking soda.

Unless your flour uses the word "pastry" or "soft", it is probably made from a hard or winter wheat that contains a little more protein. This extra protein will absorb more water and produce more gluten, resulting in a denser, less voluminous product than if you used pastry flour.

6 Measure nuts and chop if necessary.

7 Add about 2 tbsp. of the liquid batter to the whisked eggs and beat. Slowly pour the beaten eggs back into the liquid batter, whisking the batter as you pour.

8 Add dry ingredients to wet. Fold in slowly until just combined and no or very few dry lumps remain. Add chopped nuts as you're folding. Pour into prepared 8 by 8 inch pan. Bake at 350°F. for approximately 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

9 Cool thoroughly (1 to 2 hours) in the pan before cutting into squares. (The squares will be very moist and need this time to set.) They may be eaten then or stored in the freezer.

Enjoy!

"They're Rancid"

A few weeks ago I purchased two packages of whole almonds at the local supermarket. (Intended for use in my Tamari Almonds recipe ... I'm addicted to them!) When I opened the bags I was hit in the face by the smell of rancidity. Both bags were affected and neither had reached their "Best If Used By" date of 09/09/05. Usually, I would toss them away and chalk it up to the risk of buying packaged food. For whatever reason ... maybe I didn't get enough sleep, or maybe too many people cut me off on the road that day, or maybe I was enduring an episode of PMS, SAD, OCD, et al, ... I decided to return them. There were two possible outcomes, one - I would get my money back (at $6.00/lb, almonds are pricy!), and two - maybe the store would pull the rest of their rancid stock and replace them with something fresher.

Well, I did get my money back (in effect):

Me: "Hi, I'd like to return these."

Customer Service Desk Representative (CSDR): "Is something wrong with them?"

Me: "Well, yes, they smell bad."

CSDR removes the tape I had used to reseal one of the bags and places her nose into the opening: "They smell OK to me."

Seeing I was embarking on a confrontation, I stood more erect and with an air of authority ascended to use of the proper term: "They're rancid."

CSDR opens the second bag, shoves her nose in, and repeats "They smell OK to me", and pulls in some backup, "Hey, Sue, Do these smell OK to you?"

Sue: "Smell OK to me."

I shove my nose into a bag, wince for effect, and repeat "They're rancid."

CSDR sees I will not back down and uses a CSDRs next best weapon against returns: "Do you have your receipt?"

I didn't. Who keeps grocery store receipts from weeks ago? Me: "No."

CSDR: "Well, without the receipt ... "

Me: "I'll take store credit."

CSDR: "It's not our policy ..." she recites as she commences to fill out the store credit paperwork. The words escape her mouth fluidly, almost without thought. She knows store policy, she wants you to know she knows it, and that she is making an exception. My CSDR has the technique of eliciting shame down pat. (I pity her own Resident Eaters.)

Weeks later, the stock of almonds is still there. Apparently, my CSDR's opinion of these almonds' freshness trumped mine. I'm sorry to say I now question the quality of all of this particular supermarket's packaged nuts. Oh, for the days of open markets when my nose could do the shopping.

Besides the smell, why do I care if my nuts (or any other foods) are rancid?

Rancidity
A term used to describe chemical deterioration of fat. Rancidity is not a static state. Rather, it refers to a dynamic, or changing, or in this case, cascading effect. Rancidity can occur when a fat (precisely an unsaturated fat, of the type found abundantly in nuts) is exposed to oxygen in the presence of heat, light, moisture, and certain metals. Its double bonds break; the fat can then take up that oxygen and become oxidized. An oxidized fat is vulnerable to forming a free radical.¹ When it does, it interacts with the next closest fat forming another free radical, which interacts with the next closest fat, forming another free radical ... and so on in a self-perpetuating process² until you're left with a bag of nuts that smell like old socks, dead fish, and paint thinner³, god help us.
~~~~~~
¹ The free radicals, peroxides, and other products formed when a fat or oil becomes rancid have been demonstrated to initiate and promote malignant tumors. That is, rancid fat can cause cancer.

² This process is what antioxidants (like vitamin E, and the carcinogenic BHA and BHT) can stall. The antioxidant sacrifices itself to the demands of the free radical, protecting the next fat in line from the assault.

³ These odors are genuinely characteristic of rancid fat, as documented by sensory analysis panels. You may, if you possess a scientific nature, conduct a test for yourself. Take some raw nuts (which contain unrefined polyunsaturated fat, a type particularly vulnerable to rancidity), and leave them exposed to warm air. You might just place some in a small dish and leave them in a lighted place beside your hob or oven. Smell them over time, and periodically compare them to some (hopefully) fresh nuts. And leave your comments! I'd love to hear how others experience rancidity.

Braised Lamb Shanks

They take a little time to cook, but for a relatively inexpensive cut of meat, they're remarkably tender and delicious! And if they came from a lamb that was free to graze, they'll have less saturated fat and more omega-3 than just about any cut of grain-fed beef.

The lengthy braising time removes any gamey flavor that causes some people to shy away from lamb. So if you're looking for a warm, meaty dish on a cold night, try this.


Ingredients

2 lamb shanks, 3/4 to 1 lb. each, bone-in
1 small red onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 tbsp. high-heat oil (refined peanut or avocado oil are good choices)

1/2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. ground ancho chili pepper (or other mild pepper)
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. crushed rosemary
1/4 tsp. rubbed sage
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper


1 rounded tsp. all-purpose flour
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup beef broth
1 cup tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
1/8 tsp. molasses (optional)
1/2 tsp. tamari (or soy sauce)
(1/2 tsp. salt if using salt-free broth and tomatoes)

2 medium carrots, pared and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 medium potatoes (Red skin or Yukon gold), cut into 1-inch dice

Serves 2 very hungry people.

Note: The recipe may be doubled (4 shanks, one per person) but you'll need to plan on a larger Dutch oven, at least 7 quarts. You could also use a roasting pan, just make sure to cover it tightly as the shanks cook. The seasonings may be adjusted to your taste. The amount of liquid may also be adjusted, as long as the shanks are almost fully submersed when you place them in the oven.

~~~~~~~~~~
1    Preheat oven to 350°F.

2    Prepare onion and garlic. Rinse shanks with cool water. Pat dry. Sprinkle with black pepper and a dash of kosher salt.



3    Preheat a medium-sized Dutch oven (4 to 5 qt.) on medium high for 1 minute. Add 1 tbsp. oil and brown shanks on high, 2 minutes per side.

4    Transfer shanks to a plate. Reduce heat to medium. Add the other tbsp. oil to the pan, and sauté onion and garlic until they just start to brown, about 5 minutes. Turn heat off.

5    Stir in all of the spices except the bay leaves (from oregano to black pepper), and let bloom in the warm oil for about three minutes. Turn the heat back up to medium-high, stir the flour into the vegetables. Add one cup of red wine and allow to boil for a minute while stirring. Add the beef broth, tomato sauce, molasses, tamari, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and add the lamb shanks. Cover the pan and place in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 300°F and cook for another 1.5 hours. Check every half hour and add more wine or broth if the sauce becomes too thick or dry.

Note: Liquid should come about three-quarters of the way up the sides of the meat before placing in oven (as shown).

You don't want all the liquid to evaporate as the shanks cook or you'll end up with dry meat and a scorched pan. The amount of evaporation will depend on how tight-fitting your lid is.

6    Add the carrots and potatoes and cook for another hour, checking the consistency of the sauce periodically.

7    If you'd like to remove some of the fat rendered as the meat cooked, transfer the shanks and vegetables to a plate. Strain the remaining liquid through a sieve into a gravy separator. Pour the defatted sauce back into the Dutch oven or roasting pan. Thin with additional wine/broth/tomato sauce if desired. Bring to a simmer. Add back the shanks and vegetables to reheat before serving.

Enjoy!

A Fat We Can't Live Without

Some of my work as a graduate student focused on the importance of a particular fat in our diet. It's a fat that our ancestors consumed a lot more of than what you or I consume, for reasons that have to do mostly with how our livestock are farmed and fed. This particular fat decreases inflammation. You can guess that if we don't get enough of it, we'd have difficulty with diseases of inflammation ... like arthritis and heart disease. This fat is even linked to brain function, it can reduce depression and aggression, and it's absolutely vital for the development of the fetal brain. (Are you pregnant? Make sure you're getting some.)

What is this fat? Well, even though I alluded to us getting it from animal food, it's not a saturated fat. In fact it's polyunsaturated. We can't live without it, yet our bodies can't make it, so we have to eat it, making it what nutrition textbook writers call an "essential fat". Can you guess yet? I'll give you the best hint ... it's found in fish oil. It isn't fish oil, but it's found in it, and it's the reason sales of fish oil are through the roof. The fat I'm referring to is of a type called omega-3. If you're someone who takes fish oil, you may know this fat by the abbreviations EPA (EicosaPentaenoic Acid) and DHA (DocosaHexaenoic Acid), which are often listed on the bottle's "Supplement Facts" label.

EPA and DHA are the important forms of omega-3, and you can only find them in foods of animal origin¹. You may have read about the omega-3 in non-animal foods like walnuts and flax seed. Unfortunately, that vegetable form (alpha-linolenic acid) has to be converted in our body to the more active EPA and DHA before it can do much of its anti-inflammatory work. And only a tiny bit gets converted.² So, if you want to make sure you're getting enough of the active forms of omega-3, it's best to eat an animal that has done the conversion for you.

For animals to do the conversion, you have to supply them the raw materials. Animals that graze, that is, whose diets are not heavily supplemented with grain³ (as are most of today's livestock), do a lot of converting. Fish, because many of them still graze and are not grain-fed, do a lot of converting (and also eat a lot of smaller fish that did a lot of converting). It follows then that fish (and fish oil) or the flesh of grazing animals are the best natural sources for EPA and DHA.⁴

That's one reason why last weekend I served lamb (in the form of Braised Lamb Shanks - recipe listed). Lamb is one of the few meats commonly available that comes from an animal still left to graze, at least for part of its life. You may be fortunate to live near a specialty market or health food store that sells free-range beef or buffalo⁵. But most meat in grocery stores, unless otherwise labeled, came from an animal that was raised in relatively close quarters with other animals, was grain-fed, and was likely the recipient of antibiotics, growth hormones, and animal by-products in its feed (although this last addition has been somewhat curtailed in light of the spread of mad-cow disease ... which propagates through a herd when animals are fed brain and nervous tissue from their fellow animals. Yuk.)

~~~~~~
¹ Purslane, a plant that grows near the Mediterranean, is a rare exception.
² That's a post unto itself!
³ Diets based on grains such as corn, soy, millet, etc. do not provide good raw materials. This applies to humans too.
⁴ This is one reason I do not support diets that completely eradicate foods of animals origin.
⁵ Organic meat is not the same as free-range or range-fed meat. Organic usually refers to the quality of grain, in this case organic, fed to the animal.

Recipe Update

It was time for a few more Whole Wheat Sourdough Raisin Pecan Breads, but this time I took some pictures. Nothing to write home about, except for maybe the proofing box.

Carbohydrates, Cholesterol, and Other Kernels

Save for my Apple Pie, which is rare fare on The Fanatic's Menu, it's dawned on me that a number of my recent posts are carbohydrate-rich, giving the impression that my diet is carbohydrate-rich, leading to the presumption that (at least through a filter of South Beach, Atkins, Barry Sears, et al.) my body is wide, my blood vessels narrow, and my time on this planet limited. Thanks to mirrors and modern blood-letting technology, I can attest to wide vessels, slender tenders, and the promise of longevity. I've asked myself ... how can I be a walking testament to the virility of an anti-Atkins camp? I think the answer lies in the type of carbohydrates I eat. And to do them justice, Atkins, Sears, and Agatston (South Beach Diet) all address this issue. It isn't so much that eating fewer carbohydrates (which, by default, equates to eating more protein and fat) makes us healthier. It's that the type of carbohydrates we eat, the highly-processed, easily (and speedily) digestible, nutrient-poor starches we begin and end our days with are wrecking havoc with our girth ... not to mention our blood lipid profiles.

This isn't news. There are lots of text books and popular diet books and research studies and MDs with web pages that espouse the benefits of eating foods closer to their natural, un-processed state. They describe, some in meticulous detail, why these foods are better for us than the likes of, say, a soft pretzel or a bowl of corn flakes.

Yet people battling high cholesterol and taking doses of statins will turn to me questioningly when I suggest that their morning bagel is more likely the culprit behind their over-200 mg/dl cholesterol¹ than their weekend scrambled eggs. It seems intuitive to equate the cholesterol (and saturated fat) we eat with the cholesterol in our bloodstream, and to an extent it does play a role. The association between sugar or starch and cholesterol may be more mystifying² but, in fact, can powerfully impact our blood lipid profile. And the more processed those sugars and starches are, or the higher their rank on the glycemic index scale, the greater elevating effect they have on cholesterol. (Researchers in a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found they could lower women's LDL cholesterol up to 10% by feeding them foods with a low glycemic index.³)

What exactly is glycemic index (GI)? And how can you use it to lower your cholesterol? Simply, GI is a measure of how fast a food you eat is broken down, and consequently, how high that food can send your blood sugar (blood glucose) after you eat it. A low GI is preferable to a high GI. There are lots of resources on the web for GI. One I like is on David Mendosa's site.

His table is helpful because it lists not only the GI rank of a food, but takes into account how much of a food people typically eat. For instance, carrots have a moderately high GI, but since there is so little carbohydrate in one carrot (the amount a person typically eats), you'd have to eat 8 of them to equal the glycemic impact of one small, 3.5 inch, bagel (the amount a person typically eats - well, maybe in some parts of the world).

This post ended up being longer than I planned. I really only wanted to say that although I write about and enjoy foods with a high-carb signature, they don't make up the bulk of my diet. And I'm attentive to a food's GI when preparing meals, much to the FRE's chagrin.

~~~~~~
¹ Since I implied that a cholesterol level of over 200 mg/dl is high, I thought I'd post the US National Institutes of Health general cholesterol recommendations (pdf file):



² For those with a technical interest:
When we eat sugar or starch, it's digested into a 6-carbon glucose molecule. This 6-carbon glucose can be broken down further into a 2-carbon acetate fragment (a reaction from which we derive a little energy). This 2-carbon acetate fragment is used for various purposes. It can be broken down further into carbon dioxide gas and water (a process from which we derive a whole lot of energy) ... or (if we don't need energy because we're sitting at a computer not moving more than our eyes and a few fingers) it can be used to make cholesterol and other fats. Thus, an influx of these acetate fragments from ingestion of lots of high-GI foods can drive the production of cholesterol.

³ Sloth B, Krog-Mikkelsen I, Flint A, Tetens, I, Bjorck I, Vinoy S, Elmstahl H, Astrup A, Lang V, Raben A. No difference in body weight decrease between a low-glycemic-index and a high-glycemic-index diet but reduced LDL cholesterol after 10-wk ad libitum intake of the low-glycemic-index diet. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004. Aug;80(2):337-347.

A Word on Molasses

What is it?
Molasses is typically made from sugar cane. The cane juice is heated, then cooled. As it cools, sugar crystals form. These crystals are the basis for commonly sold white granulated sugar. The dark syrup that remains after the sugar crystals are removed is known as molasses. This syrup can be diluted, reheated, and recooled several times to extract more sugar crystals. Each sugar extraction leaves the resulting molasses less sweet, and more pungent or bitter. "Blackstrap" molasses has undergone several extractions and is usually the least sweet of those sold.

What to buy?
You'll see various brands and types of molasses in the store. Grandma's and Brer Rabbit are two available near me. "Mild" and "Full Flavor" molasses have undergone fewer extractions than blackstrap and contain more sweet-tasting cane juice. But there's nothing quite like the robust, deep-roasted flavor of blackstrap. And of all the common sweeteners, blackstrap molasses, through its process of reduction, is an excellent source of minerals.

One tablespoon blackstrap molasses provides¹:

Potassium	498 mg
Calcium	172 mg
Magnesium	43 mg
Sodium	11 mg
Iron	3.5 mg

If you've never tasted molasses, you might want to start with a milder version than blackstrap. Grandma's Original with the gold label is a good one.


¹The nutrient profile can vary depending on the quality of sugar cane and the level of extraction. These figures are averages.

Butternut Squash Squares

I may as well post the recipe I used to service yesterday's butternut squash puree. I hadn't intended on it since I planned on adapting it to my previously posted Sweet Potato Squash Loaf. But the unexpectantly thin consistency of the puree was a small adjustment that changed a familiar recipe into a pleasant surprise. So here it resides, for two reasons:

1. The batter was more fluid than I had anticipated, so at the last minute I decided to cook it in a square pan instead of a loaf pan, with good results!



2. For some reason, it's getting rave reviews from the FRE, who generally views squash and other gourds as Halloween decorations, aghast they could serve a purpose other than colorful porch adornment:

   "It's (chew, swallow) ... it's like (bite) ... it's so (move around mouth) ... like custard, like custard cake!"

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tbsp. wheat germ (raw or toasted)
1 tbsp. wheat bran
2 tbsp. soy flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground dry ginger
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves or allspice
Dash black pepper

1 cup cooked, pureed butternut squash (or canned pumpkin)
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup buttermilk or plain low-fat yogurt
1 tbsp. freshly grated ginger root (optional, but very good!)
Dash vinegar
1 large egg
1 large egg white

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

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1 Preheat oven to 350°F.

2 Rub 1 tsp. vegetable oil on the insides of an 8 by 8 inch square cake pan.

Note: I had prepared an 8 by 4 inch loaf pan to contain my batter. After its final mix, I judged it too wet to cook in a loaf pan ... the middle would be mushy and undercooked. If I tried extending the baking time, experience told me the middle would still be mushy and undercooked, and the edges would be overcooked. At the last minute I decided to use a square cake pan. I'm glad I did. The batter cooked evenly, neither underdone nor overdone anywhere. Instead of slices of loaf, I ended up with squash squares.

Insulated cookie sheets and cake pans were a boon to baking. The small pocket of air trapped between two closely-spaced sheets of aluminum slows heat transfer, preventing edge or bottom burning and allowing batters to rise more evenly, without the characteristic hump in the middle. You can simulate an insulated pan by nesting two inexpensive pans of the same size. I've done that here with two 8 by 8 pans.

3 Combine the pureed squash, oil, honey, molasses, buttermilk, ginger root, and vinegar. Whisk or beat vigorously.

4 Whisk the egg and egg white separately from the squash batter.

Note: Egg proteins coagulate or curdle in the presence of acids. The liquid ingredients in this recipe are acidic enough to cause coagulation. This can be reduced if eggs are added just before baking.

5 Stir together the first 12 ingredients (dry ingredients).

Note: Sifting is an effective way to mix and aerate dry ingredients. However, the particulate matter in this combination will make sifting difficult, so be sure to mix these dry ingredients thoroughly, breaking up and distributing any chunks of baking powder or baking soda.

Unless your flour uses the word "pastry" or "soft", it is probably made from a hard or winter wheat that contains a little more protein. This extra protein will absorb more water and produce more gluten, resulting in a denser, less voluminous product than if you used pastry flour.

6 Measure nuts and chop if necessary.

7 Add about 2 tbsp. of the liquid batter to the whisked eggs and beat. Slowly pour the beaten eggs back into the liquid batter, whisking the batter as you pour.

8 Add dry ingredients to wet. Stir until just combined and no or very few dry lumps remain. Gently stir in chopped nuts. Pour into prepared 8 by 8 inch square pan. Bake at 350°F. for approximately 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

9 Cool thoroughly (1 to 2 hours) in the pan before cutting into squares. The squares may be eaten then or stored in the freezer.

Note: Pop a frozen one into a plastic bag in the morning and enjoy a moist, spicy squash square for lunch!

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash

My local Farmer's Market had a surplus of butternut squash at the end of the season. I'm not especially fond of butternut squash, but I like to support this local farm. So when I heard they were giving them away to avoid trashing them, I came home with a bagful.

One reason I don't like these squash is their difficulty in preparation. They are hard. It's hard to pare and dice the hard, raw flesh. The resulting cooked product usually ended up ... hard. At least that was my memory of them. That memory is quite a few years old though, and it was formulated at a time when dinner at the end of a long day was corn chips and salsa. Paring, chopping, and stewing hard squash was in a league with changing the oil in my car. I'd do it if I had to, but paying someone else to do it was infinitely more welcome.

A bagful of butternuts and a daunting memory. What's a woman to do?

Throw them in the oven whole:


Ingredients:

Butternut squash
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1    Wash exterior with plain water.

2    Preheat oven to 320°F.

3    Wrap squash individually in aluminum foil.

4    Bake for 1.5 hours.

Note: Three small squash softened nicely in 1.5 hours. If your squash are large or you're roasting several at one time plan for 2 hours.

5    Remove from oven, leaving the aluminum foil intact. Allow to cool for about 2 hours.

6    When cool, unwrap. Slice down the middle lengthwise. Scoop out and discard seeds. Cut the soft flesh into 2-inch sections. Pare and dice sections. The squash may be added to soups, stews, casseroles, or refrigerated for future use.

I pureed the diced squash for use in a loaf.

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What is loaf?

Loaf is a term used to describe any shaped mass of food, as in veal loaf or the more generic meat loaf, although it is usually reserved for items of bread. It has evolved to include sweetened doughs with a less elastic texture and a smaller crumb than bread, e.g. cake. The loaves (or squares) you see on this site cannot rightfully be called bread, nor are they cake. They were developed to make use of more healthful ingredients, to lessen the gratuitous use of nutrient-poor fats and sweeteners, and to maintain an attraction to the Fanatic's Resident Eater that would preclude him visiting vending machines for Tastykakes©.

Apple Pie

I don't imbibe so much myself. It's how recipes like Sautéed Apples are developed. But I can't help accommodating the Fanatic's Resident Eater with the stuff of his dreams.

Happy Holidays!


Ingredients: (For a 9-inch pie):

6 to 8 cups pared, thinly sliced apples
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp. apple juice or apple cider

2 tbsp. cold butter

Egg white wash:
     1 egg white
     1 tbsp. milk
     1/4 tsp. sugar
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1    Prepare a Basic Pie Crust.

2    Wash, peel, core, and slice apples. Place apple slices into a large bowl, a very large bowl, the biggest bowl you can find.

Note: I used all but three Gala apples from this picture.

3    Combine sugar, flour, spices, and salt. Toss sugar mixture with apples. Sprinkle lemon juice and apple cider over apples and toss again.

Note: I have tried over the years making apple pie with less sugar. I was pleased with the taste, but it seemed the apples always turned mushy. The sugar performs more than a sweetening function I discovered. It creates a hypertonic solution for the apples. That means the fruit will stay firm and retain its color as it cooks. So, don't be tempted to scrimp on the sugar.

4    Remove one pie crust square from refrigerator. Allow to warm for about 5 minutes to assist rolling. Place onto the middle of two overlapping sheets of plastice wrap, and cover with two overlapping sheets of plastic wrap. Roll through the plastic wrap into an approximately 13-inch round. Peel off top wrap, position dough over pie pan, and peel off bottom wrap. Press dough gently into pan. Leave overhanging dough in place.

Note: Although this process keeps plastic wrap manufacturers in business, it's an efficient way to work pastry dough. There's no sticking to your rolling pin or the counter, you won't heat the dough by handling it directly, and it's easy to place into the pie pan. There's just one trick to the plastic-wrap roll: Peel the wrap off and replace it periodically as you roll (both top piece and bottom piece) to prevent stretching the dough instead of rolling it. (Stretching will produce a tougher pastry.) You can easily flip the dough, rearrange the plastic, roll, and flip again.

5    Preheat oven to 425°F.

6    Remove remaining dough from refrigerator and roll into a 13-inch round as described above.

7    Toss apples a few more times and fill pie pan. This quantity of apples will need to be arranged tightly to fit, but the resulting well-filled pie is worth the effort.

8    Dice 2 tbsp. butter into about 20 pieces. Dot apples with butter.



9    Cover apples with second crust. Fold top crust overhang under bottom crust overhang. (You may need to cut the bottom crust so it is about ½ inch shorter than the top crust.) Flute, pinch, fork, or otherwise seal the crust edge. Make slits in top crust. (Be creative!) Brush top with egg-white wash.

10    Place pie onto a cookie sheet or line bottom (or bottom rack) of oven with aluminum foil to catch drippings. Bake at 425°F. for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. and bake for an additional 45 minutes or until top is golden and apples begin foaming through the slits.



11    Cool for several hours before cutting.

Note: Resist the urge to cut a warm apple pie, or all your precious juice will flow out into the empty spot. (Pectin, a soluble fiber found naturally in apples, will help to gel this juice as it cools.)

Enjoy!

Basic Pie Crust

Eager to try my new Spectrum Organic Non-Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening, I used it in a pie crust. The resultant crust was a success!

Ingredients (For a 9-inch double crust):

2½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup Spectrum shortening (138 grams; 1 tbsp=13g)
1/2 cup butter (120 grams; 1 tbsp=15g)
6 to 8 tbsp. ice cold water
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1    Sift together flour and salt.

Note: Refrigerating the flour before use will keep the dough cold as you work with it. It's also a good idea to use cold butter and shortening. If you store your shortening at room temperature, I recommend measuring the amount you intend to use prior to refrigerating it. Shortening (especially Spectrum's product) is brittle and is easier to scoop and press into a measuring cup when it's at room temperature. Or you could just weigh it.

The colder you keep the fat, the more intact you keep the pieces of fat. (They don't melt as much as you handle the dough.) These whole pieces of fat will wedge between layers of dough as you roll, creating flakiness in the final product.

2    Cut shortening into flour mixture. Use a food processor, a hand-held pastry blender, or two knives. Whatever you use, don't overmix. You should still see clumps of fat about the size of a large green pea when you're done.




Note: A pastry blender with blades (on the left), is more efficient for cutting into cold, hard shortening than one with wires (on the right).

3    Sprinkle cold water over the crumbled dough one tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork between additions.

4    Gather the dough into a ball. If it's still too crumbly, toss in a few more tablespoons of cold water. Flatten the ball into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Note: The dough should be crumbly, don't keep adding water just to create a cohesive ball. (Water is the scourge of good pastry.) If it's just too unwieldy, collect the crumbles onto a piece of plastic wrap and fold the wrap up and around the dough to form a ball. Some gluten will form during refrigeration, making the dough more cohesive and easier to handle later.

5    Unwrap the refrigerated dough. Cut into two fairly equal pieces. Rewrap one piece and place it back into the refrigerator. Place the other piece lengthwise onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Cover it with another sheet of plastic wrap. (You'll be rolling through plastic wrap.) Roll it into an oblong approximately 9 by 12 inches. Fold ends towards middle (as you would fold a letter to fit into an envelope). Roll this a few times to flatten. Fold opposite ends toward middle. Roll to flatten. You should have about an 8-inch square when you're done. Wrap this with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Repeat the rolling procedure with the remaining piece of dough.

Note: Manang has an excellent pictorial representation of the plastic-wrap roll on her site.

Plastic-wrap roll trick: Peel the wrap off and replace it periodically as you roll (both top piece and bottom piece) to prevent stretching the dough instead of rolling it. (Stretching will produce a tougher pastry.)

6    Prepare your pie filling while the dough cools.

On to my apple pie...
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