I pulled out my Complete Asian Cookbook by Charmaine Solomon to see if I could alleviate cooking boredom.  Since I generally like Indian food, I thought I’d start with that chapter.

The bottom line: What a tasty Miracle of Miracles!  A great lesson in how a couple simple ingredients can make a fantastic dish.   Here is the recipe for Mutton Kari (aka Lamb Curry) that is simple to make and fast, with only about 20 minutes of prep time involved:

• 2.5 – 3 lbs. lamb shoulder or other cut (cubed)
• 2 tablespoons ghee or oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
• 3 large tomatoes
• 2 fresh chillies (optional)
• 2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, chopped
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander or mint

1. Cut lamb up into cubes
2. Heat oil in a saucepan or dutch oven and cook onion, garlic, and ginger until onions are slightly translucent
3. Add curry powder, salt, and vinegar and stir
4. Add meat and stir to coat with spice mixture
5. Add tomato, chillies, and mint
6. Cover and cook over low heat for 1 – 1.25 hours until lamb is tender and fluids have reduced to make a rich curry
7. Check on mixture occasionally and, if necessary, add 1.4 c hot water to prevent meat from sticking to pan if too much water evaporates
8. Five minutes before the dish is finished, add garam masala and chopped coriander.

Viola!

This dish is best served over a grain like basmati rice or millet.  I will update other vegetable accompaniments as I progress through through the book and find other gems.

Anti-inflammatory side note: If you eliminate the tomatoes from the dish and substitute 3 c. of finely chopped zucchini and 1 c. water, it will taste just as good and you can stick to your diet!

More and more people are cutting the wheat bread and substituting with gluten-free options.  Last year, a USA Today article cited that 15 – 25% of the population are in favor of gluten-free foods but only about 1% of the population has overt celiac disease, so why the trend towards these wheat-less products?

Because we feel better!

You don’t have to have celiac disease in order to have a sensitivity to wheat.  Celiac is an autoimmune response to wheat that tears apart the gut lining (called villous atrophy) whereas gluten intolerance means that it just irritates your gut and casues digestive trouble.  Subtle intolerances can cause abdominal pain, bloating, fatigue, itchy skin, joint pain, constipation, diarrhea, and other minor symptoms.

The most common food intolerances include dairy, wheat, soy, corn, nightshade vegetables, sulfites, and nitrites.  Noticing how you feel after eating these foods, both shortly after and up to three days, can give you hints to whether or not you have an intolerance.

I have an intolerance, what do I do?

If giving up your favorite snack for the rest of your life is daunting, then do this instead: limit your intake to once a week or less.  The real danger of eating intolerances more frequently is the constant irritation of your gut lining.  Inflammation is a precursor to many chronic diseases, including cancer, so limiting exposure to irritants is one key to lifelong health.

Why are we increasingly sensitive to foods?

My opinion? GM food and our toxic world.

Until the last 30 years, small farmers fed America.  Now, we have large-scale farming operations that predominantly raise one crop: wheat, maize (or corn), conoloa, soy, or cotton.  These crops are produced with GM seeds that are herbicide-resistant and produced by the herbicide producer!  Is our health the main concern of the chemical company and large-scale farms?  Probably not!

In addition, we know that small genetic variations in our own body can deactivate important enzymes and even lead to death.  What happens when we mess with the genetics in our food chain?  It doesn’t take countless clinical trials to answer this question.

The solution

What we have to do is pay attention to signs from our body and eat local to support sustainable agriculture.  We have less genetic variation in our food than any other time in history.  It’s time to change!

Good resources for further reading:

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
• In Defense of Food and other books by Michael Pollan

So after a long hiatus from blogging, here’s my belated winter post:

While there isn’t much to punctuate the time when we are blanketed in darkness and cold besides fleece and down, ancient cultures used this as a time of deep introspection and healing.  In Chinese medicine, the season of Winter is associated with the Kidney organ, where all of our primordial wisdom and physical energy reserves are located.  A respite from normal toil was expected during this time, and people would gather with their elders, catching up on embroidery and other household chores.

Just as Nature as turs life above ground to something desolate and seemingly hostile, the potential for the future is righteously seeded underneath just waiting for the few degrees of warmth to start a solid ascension from it’s fertile cradle. Taking time for yourself during this season is essential to collect energy reserves to last you all year.  It is during the Winter when we catch up on sleep, nurture our bodies with hearty stews, and keep ourselves active with a more gentle regime than usual.

Here are some examples of ways to keep healthy and sane in these last winter weeks:

1. Eat a variety of seaweeds and dark foods – they are symbolic Kidney foods!

2. Grass-fed, free range meats – eat small portions daily as they are warming.  Add ginger to your stews to enhance this effect, especially if you are someone who runs on the cold side.

3. Take time to meditate or take a walk every day (well bundled, of course).

4. Get good sleep.  In natural medicine, we are taught that each hour you go to bed before midnight counts for two, compared to the less nourishing post-witching hour sleep.   Try to get to bed by 10pm nightly, at the latest.

5. Most importantly, Laugh!!

Be Well and enjoy our gradual warming to the Spring season!

We have so many wars going on in this world that I thought to change the name of the diet to something more positive. Instead of being against inflammation, why don’t we just focus on balance. Besides being this buzz word in the new agey health community, it’s actually an ancient concept that constitutes the base of Chinese philosophy and medicine. Also, we don’t really want to eliminate all inflammation in the body; our immune system needs inflammation!

Being somewhat clumsy at times, I am no stranger to the process of inflammation in my body, which can be roughly translated as,”OMG, we’re down!! WE’RE BLEEDING! Let’s fix this NOW!!” The whole chemical message and inflammatory response starts at this point, and inflammation is used as a tool to heal the area, recruiting immune cells and promoting circulation. The same advantage can been seen when we mount a fever when we get an illness, or use a therapy to heal ligaments and tendons called prolotherapy.

When we have a body in balance, it knows when to produce inflammation and when to turn it off. Problems with chronic inflammation may occur when there is a heavy metal burden in the body, when we are eating foods we are sensitive to, or when anything is exogenously introduced in the body that doesn’t agree with us. There are other reasons for chronic inflammation, but I will focus on how we heal from potentially disagreeable foodstuffs we may unwittingly be eating.

There are a number of common food allergens in most of the foods we eat on a daily basis. We all know what an allergic reaction looks like: someone makes the international sign for choking and blows up like a balloon before being shipped to the nearest ER. What distinguishes an allergen from something we are intolerant of is simply the degree of reactivity. The delayed hypersensitivity reaction may produce a markedly less severe reaction, like gas, bloating, eczema, anxiety, acne, etc. While blood tests for food sensitivities are not 100% reliable, you can use an elimination diet to determine what your body does not agree with and just decrease or avoid the food.

A great resource that explains the diet can be found here. They do a wonderful job of putting the diet into a tiered system, depending on how many potential dietary allergens you wish to remove at once: http://www.womentowomen.com/detoxification/detoxdiet.aspx

These women also have links to many other well-written and informative articles.

The most important thing to remember when embarking on a new diet is to listen to your body. During the first few days of a new diet, there may be “cleansing” reactions, such as loose stools or headaches. Don’t fret. These should subside and increased mental focus and energy should be present by the end of the first week. Congratulations if you’ve decided to take this big step!!

By now, you’ve probably heard something about mercury in amalgam fillings and the risks associated with having elevated mercury levels in your body.  The extent to which you might be affected depends on a variety of factors, including your inherent ability to detoxify, which is mostly determined by genetics, and whether or not you have a healthy diet and lifestyle.

The main problem with mercury is that it causes inflammation, and inflammation is the root cause behind many common illnesses.  While mercury may not be the only factor in the development of a disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis or cardiovascular disease, it can be additive and should be addressed in people who have higher than normal levels.

My friend and colleague, Dr. Jeff Clark, speaks in-depth about mercury and detoxification strategies on his website: http://www.cfsn.com/detox.html

Personally, I like the gentle approach to mercury detoxification instead of using harsh chelation agents, which can be damaging to someone who’s ability to detox is compromised.  Pesto is not only incredibly tasty, but has a variety of ingredients that actually support the body’s detoxification pathways, bind to metal, and help with excretion.

Here is my recipe, which is most easily made in a Cuisinart-type mixer.  Blender is ok, too, but you have to be a little more tactful with adding ingredients so things actually mix together.

Metal-Free Pesto

3 bunches cilantro

2-4 cloves garlic, depending on taste

2 teaspoons sea salt

1/2 – 3/4 c. olive oil

1/2 – 1 c. pumpkin seeds/hemp nuts/brazil nuts in a 50/25/25 ratio.

Add the nuts, garlic, salt and one bunch cilantro to the mixer and turn on.  Start adding olive oil until the mixture blends to a smooth consistency.  Next, add the other two bunches of cilantro and mix until smooth again, adding more olive oil until it looks like pesto.  Some people prefer their pestos to be more oily and less pasty.  You decide.

Garlic: This savory bulb has a natural antimicrobial agent, called allicin, which is slowly transformed to an inert substance after the cloves are crushed.  Garlic also has selenium, which is an important cofactor in many enzymatic processes in detoxification.

Cilantro: Clinical studies have shown that eating cilantro increases the body’s urinary excretion of both lead and mercury

Pumpkin seeds: These seeds are a great source of magnesium and zinc, which are also important in the detoxification pathways.

Brazil nuts: A great source of selenium

Hemp nuts: This is an optional ingredient, but I love using hemp products since they have a balanced ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, in addition to other essential fatty acids, which are important as building blocks for hormones, for proper immune function, as a protective agent for the cardiovascular system, and so forth.  To read more on hemp, click here: http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/livingharvest/hemp101.d2w/report

You can enjoy pesto with virtually every dish!  I suggest rice pasta, quinoa, toast, eggs, veggies, and meats.  You can even add 1/4 c. cilantro pesto to 1/4 c. vinegar for a savory and metal-chelating vinaigrette.

If you have any concern about heavy metals and your health, consult your local naturopathic physician for the appropriate treatment for your particular constitution.

You may not be baking savvy, so just show off your balls. They are easy-to-make, lower on the glycemic index, and can be made in a relatively healthy way.

The basic idea is that you mix yummy ingredients together, then roll them into balls.

1. Ball morter: tahini, almond butter, cashew butter, coconut butter
2. Ball glue: agave syrup, honey, maple syrup
3. Ball bulk: coconut, spirulina, chocolate chips, carob chips or powder, protein powder, dried fruit, seeds, and nuts

The exact ratio of these ingredients depend on how sticky you want your balls to be.

Tahini, Coconut and Honey Balls

• 1 c. tahini
• 1/2 c. honey
• 2 – 3 c. shredded coconut

Basically, you mix everything together, leaving some coconut reserved to dust your balls with at the end.
Protein Balls

• 1 c. almond butter
• 1/3 c. rice/hemp protein powder
• 1/4 c. agave syrup
• 1/3 c. shredded coconut
• 1/2 c. chopped almonds
• 1/4 c. spirulina

I like the idea of taking these higher calorie treats on camping trips or hiking, instead of a luna bar or other snack bar.  Not only are they less expensive and healthier, but more tasty, too.

Spirulina is a high-protein super food they use in many green drinks.  Basically, it’s a type of bacteria full of nutrients including essential fatty acids, an array of vitamins and minerals, and free radical scavenging  bioflavenoids.   Clinical studies on spirulina support its use for anemia, stroke recovery, age-related memory decline, and hay fever.

Chlorella and Blue-green algae can also be used for your balls.  They have similar benefits as spirulina, in addition to the ability to remove mercury from your body.  Yeah, green balls!

For some reason, most people think that in order to have a gourmet meal, you must possess amazing culinary skills and years of experience. This is just not so. Some of the best meals can have fewer than six ingredients and take only a short time to prepare. The secret? Good quality food. As long as the starting ingredients are fresh, you really can’t go too wrong.

Here is a suggestion that should only take 30 minutes, including prep:

Wild rice, Curried Tilapia and Sauteed Spinach

I have to admit that, when I made the meal, most of the ingredients had come from Costco. There’s a part of me that cringes about it, but they have made efforts to keep up with the demand for organic foods and I’m not going to pretend that the fish wasn’t cheaper there and still of very high quality. We purchased about 5 lbs. of fish and froze 2 -3 fillets in separate plastic bags to be thawed as needed. We also picked up a gigantic box of organic spinach (which I think is slightly evil because of the plastic waste) and organic wild rice blend (also in a slightly evil plastic container).

The morning before our meal, I took the tilapia out and put it on a plate to prevent fish juice puddles. By the evening, the cats had not found out about it, so I was able to cook our meal.

Rice First

I began by letting the rice cooker do its job. Wild rice needs water in a 1:2 ratio so, 2 cups rice to 4 cups water. Add about 1-2 teaspoons sea salt to help with taste and cooking. Another secret is to use a bouillon cube or two for flavor added directly to the rice cooker.

Using a pot is OK, too. When I cook rice in a pot, I just turn up the heat on high until it’s boiling, then turn it down to almost the lowest setting and keep the lid on for 40 minutes simmering. Then, turn off the heat and let sit for another 10 minutes. The rice kernels should be split open yet not mushy.

Fish next

What you will need: rice and/or corn flour, curry powder, sea salt, cumin seed, coconut oil….and the fish, of course.

Put about 1/2 c. flour on a plate then add 1 teaspoon each of curry, sea salt and cumin. Mix it up.

Heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil in a saute pan (either cast iron or stainless) over medium heat. Flour each side of each fillet, dust off excess, and place into pan. The pan should be hot enough that they sizzle.

When one side is lightly browned, use a spatula and flip them over to the other side. Let them cook until the meat flakes or is firm to touch. Turn down heat and transfer them to a plate.

Spinach

Ok, here’s the grand finale.

We heat up a teaspoon of coconut oil in a pan over medium heat, throw in a couple handfuls of spinach, add a pinch of sea salt, and stir it around until wilted! If you want to get fancy, you can add a teaspoon of minced garlic.

That’s it!

By now, you’ve probably noticed that the label “organic” also means “more expensive.” Recent news also indicates that food costs will only continue to rise so I’ve thought about some ways that eating organic can be done more cost-effectively:

• Buy in bulk! Food costs also incorporate the cost of packaging. If you go to the store and bring your own containers to fill up, not only are you doing your part to save the environment, but you can also get a cheaper deal on legumes, oils, nuts, rice, and other nourishing foods from the bulk bins.
• Buy what is in season, on sale, or local. When you think about the large distances your kiwi has traveled to get to the market, you wonder if the energy expended to get it there will even equal the energy it will give you. I have nothing against kiwi, or any other tropical fruits, but buying more locally can be cheaper and have less of an impact on the environment. Eating seasonally also has a way of attuning your body to nature, which is never a bad thing.
• Go to farmer’s markets. Not only will the food tend to be cheaper, but it will be fresher.
• Avoid expensive processed foods like crackers, cookies, and chips. The cost of the packaging and processing add up. For the foods that I can’t live without (like Mary’s Gone Crackers rice crisps) I just stock-up when the item is on sale.

There are many reasons to buy organic food but it really boils down to one issue: your health and the health of the rest of the people on this planet. Nearly everyone has a certain percentage of pesticides in their bodies and there’s a positive correlation with the increase in environmental pollution to the incidence of chronic disease, allergies, and chemical sensitivity illness in this country. Now, I’m no expert, but I would say that the two just might be connected. Let’s do our part to support the planet and support a healthier body with organics! Yeah!

I’m pretty sure it’s not. In fact, I would bet on it being inedible, especially the polycarbonate variety: Plastic #7

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/business/worldbusiness/25plastic.html?ex=1366862400&en=f35ba1b831f1b598&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

In general, the safest materials to use for cooking or storage are stainless steel, glass, and cast iron. Materials in most plastics, regardless of how high quality they are, have the potential to leach unwanted chemicals into your body which can cause inflammation and, in the case of bisphenol A, disrupt hormone regulation which can lead to cancer. A similar story can be told about Teflon, regardless of the research from DuPont that says otherwise.

For food storage, I prefer to reuse glass jars and employ trusty pyrex bowls with lids (yes, the lids are plastic, but not dreaded #7 plastic). I usually don’t fill them to the brim either so that my food, especially when hot, stays relatively untouched by potential carcinogens.

My favorite salad is simple to prepare and so incredibly delicious. Thank you, Dr. Portuondo of Honolulu, who taught me how to make this wonderful dish.

Kale Salad

1 head of kale
1 lime
2 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Bragg’s liquid aminos
(or substitute 1.5 tsp. tamari sauce)

Chop up the kale into fine strips.

Send the garlic through a press, then mix with the juice of your lime, olive oil, and Bragg’s. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix it up. This is best left to marinate for a half-hour or so to “cook” the kale and let the flavors mingle together. The dressing ingredients are approximate so feel free to experiment.

Kale facts

Kale is a member of the cabbage family and is high in Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Manganese. You also get a good amount of fiber, as you might imagine.

There are several varieties of kale to choose from including dinosaur kale, or lacinto, green leaf, red leaf, and Russian red leaf, although my Russian friend claims never to have seen it before. Go figure. Any of these can be used for the salad or even mixed together with a doubled recipe.

Accompaniment

This is fantastic with Black Bean Soup, which can be created by using the left-over black beans. Use a carton of vegetable stock and a cup of cooked beans, heat in a pot (a stainless steel pot), and add cilantro at the end of cooking for added flavor.