Category Archives: Mindful Meals

Celebrate World Oceans Day

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Nowadays, all eyes are on the Gulf of Mexico as the BP disaster unfolds day after day. But tomorrow’s World Oceans Day isn’t about lamenting what’s been done; it’s about celebrating what we still have, deepening our connection to it and making strides to protect it for the future.

The United Nations designated June 8th as World Oceans Day in 2008 as a way to raise international awareness for the world’s water. Each year, organizations and individuals plan events and initiatives to help people learn about and take action to preserve our oceans and the ecosystems they encompass.

For our part here at NOURISH Evolution, we have a week full of goodies for you. To start, look out for our 7 Super Sustainable Seafood Picks on Tuesday (click here for last year’s … all still solid choices). We compile our lists by cross-referencing numerous sources to find fish that are sustainably sound and safe for us to eat. Then we add in a third factor … whether or not it’s easy to evaluate at the fish counter.

It may seem a dire time for the world’s oceans. But simple steps like talking to your fishmonger, learning more about the issues and buying only sustainable seafood will take us a long way towards a healthier future.

How to Use Salt

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The first time I met Mark Bitterman, co-owner of At the Meadow and author of the upcoming book Salted, we were at a restaurant with a bunch of mutual friends. I’d heard about him and his salt passion, but I was still surprised when he pulled a cluster of pouches out of his bag and mounded salts—from delicate pink to rusty red to steel gray to white—right onto the tablecloth.

how-to-use-salt-post“You carry those with you?” I asked.

Mark shrugged, completely unfazed. “I like people to be able to taste how different salts interact with different foods. Here, check this out …” And, just like that, my view of salt changed forever.

Here are Mark’s suggestions for how to use salt.

Be Deliberate

Most of us sprinkle salt—often kosher salt—into foods we’re cooking almost without thinking. But Mark urges us to take a more strategic approach. “The idea is to think about what result you want to achieve and then use the best salt for the job.” In many cases, this will mean sprinkling a certain type of salt on the end dish–more like a condiment than an ingredient. Mark advocates a fundamental shift in our salting technique to use less during cooking and more at the end.

Be Choosy

But Mark’s not talking about shaking on the Morton. He’s talking about the thousands of hand-harvested artisanal salts that come from every corner of the earth. Nutritionally, these salts contain over 12% less sodium chloride than kosher or iodized salt, with the rest of the content being trace minerals. “Those minerals contribute to the roundness of the flavors,” Mark says. “They interact much more gently with the food and have a richer, more balanced taste.”

Mark likes to divide salts into three foundational categories–fleur de sel, sel gris and flake salt–and uses each type different ways.

Fleur de Sel – Fleur de sel and sel gris are what Mark calls “sister salts” in that they’re both types of sea salt formed by salinated water being concentrated down from pond to pond until crystals form within the brine. While the names are French—fleur de sel means “flower of salt” and sel gris means “gray salt”—these types of salt are made all over the world. Fleur de sel are the delicate crystals that blossom on the surface of the pond. “Fleur de sel comingles; it lets a food’s inner light shine forth.” It’s a versatile finishing salt for just about any dish.

Sel Gris – Sel gris are the crystals raked from the brine and the bottom of the pond. It too can be used as a finishing salt; Mark speaks of a “syncopated saltiness” with sel gris where every bite is different. “It’s a very vibrant, lively way to season something.” But Mark also recommends sel gris as an all-purpose cooking salt. “The great thing is that sel gris can be inexpensive, but you’re still using a beautiful hand-harvested artisan product in your daily cooking.”

Flake Salt – Flake salts are salt crystals that have been formed into flakes. “They can be flat, arrowhead shaped or big, fat pyramids.” Where fleur de sel is delicate and dainty, flake salts are “the Lamborghini salts. They’re sort of showy and flashy. They spark and stimulate your palate and then get out of the way and let the food shine through.” Mark finds flake salts exceptional on simple green salads. “There’s a beautiful crisp snap of salt, but then it’s gone and the flavor of the salad shines through; there’s sparkle without it being overpowering.”

Experiment

Salt is made around the world, from Australia to Wales, Bali to Vietnam. But do salts from different places taste different too? “Absolutely,” says Mark. In addition to the terroir element (as in wine, where the elements of the earth and place affect the fruit and, ultimately, what’s in the bottle), there’s also what Mark calls a merroir effect. “The conditions of the ocean affect the salt. French sea salt is minerally and briny, on the Adriatic coast of Italy they’re fruity and sweet. In the Philippines the salts have round, warm flavor.” Play with different types of salt to see which ones you like where (and keep an eye out for Part II of my talk with Mark … an artisanal salt tasting).

Use Salt Mindfully

Aside from the unique flavor and texture that artisanal salts bring to food, and the additional nutritional punch, there’s a soulful aspect too. “When you use these salts—be it a standard sel gris or a rare fleur de sel or flake salt—you’re using a regal ingredient that’s at the core of our culinary traditions. You start to treat it like an important ingredient and use it more mindfully. And in the end, you salt better.”

Mark and his wife, Jennifer, own At The Meadow in Portland, Oregon where they sell artisanal salts, chocolate, wine and flowers. Also add Mark’s book, Salted: A Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral, to your bookshelf.

Memorial Day Menu

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We’re in San Francisco this weekend enjoying time with old friends and exploring new places on our own. Christopher and Noemi are napping at the moment and I’m looking out at rooftops and freighters on the bay. Doves are cooing in the eaves and leaves rustling in the breeze. And I’m thinking about menus for the weekend.

I thought I’d share a few dishes I’m pondering while you’re considering your own.

APPETIZER

Spanish Leaning Spinach and Chickpea Dip — I waffled about whether to name this ‘hummus’ or ‘chickpea dip’, but ultimately thought it veered far enough from tradition to go with the latter. It is, in any case, delicious. If you’ve ever had any doubt as to the strength of pounded garlic, this little dish will set you straight.

SALAD

Mama Kourtesi’s Beet and Greens Salad — This salad, which I learned from Mama Kourtesi in Greece, is the essence of “whole eating.” She boils both beets and their greens and tosses it all in a simple dressing of oil and vinegar for a surprisingly tasty, super-versatile salad or side dish.

BIG DISH

Big City Souvlaki — When I lived on Corfu, souvlaki meant skewered cubes of grilled, marinated pork. But on a trip through Athens seeking out the best street food and mezedhes, we found this version to be utterly addictive; moist and tender with just the right amount of spice.

DESSERT

Chocolate Angel Food Cake with Macerated Strawberries — A gorgeous cake; light and ethereal and rich with chocolate all at the same time. Strawberries, in peak season right now, are the perfect topper.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone. And thank you to all it’s in memory of.

Process Your Food Personally

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In a day when so much of our food is delivered to us pre-cut, pre-made, pre-cooked, I would argue that we’re neglecting ourselves. A meal can be a full-on amusement park of an experience if we let it be, especially when you process your food by hand.

process-food-personallyThink of a finished dish as a dot. Now picture each interaction we have with the ingredients as concentric circles surrounding that dot. Pounding a curry paste in a mortar and pestle, for instance, is a complex undertaking that would add several rings around the dot of “vegetable curry.” Lose the mortar and pestle and blam the ingredients in a food processor and you erase a few rings, like the satisfying soreness that sets in as you pound and pound and pound wondering “is this ever going to work?” and that epiphany moment when individual ingredients yield and it really does. Buying prepared curry paste deletes even more rings—like the conversation with the person at the market about chiles and where to find lemongrass stalks—until all you’re left with is a shell of “eating” around “vegetable curry.”

I’m not saying don’t ever buy another jar of curry paste—I know I’ll continue to do so in the future. I’m simply suggesting that how involved we get with preparing our food really does make a difference. It’s a wonderfully satisfying mindful eating practice.

So here’s my challenge: Pick a night (or day) when you’ve got some time, choose something you wouldn’t normally make from scratch – salsa, curry paste, vinaigrette, you name it – and make a homemade version. Then notice the difference–not just in how it tastes, but in how you feel throughout it the whole process.

Mother’s Day: Celebrating Grandmas

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By Cheryl Sternman Rule

With Mother’s Day around the corner, I wanted to take a moment to honor grandmothers, those women a branch up from moms on the family tree. I’ve asked three cookbook authors, all representing different ethnic heritages, to reflect on how their grandmothers’ food traditions influenced their own.

cookbooks-post“I totally believe that grandmothers are the keepers of the culinary flame, especially for immigrant families,” says Patricia Tanumihardja, author of the recipe-packed, story-filled The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook (Sasquatch Books). “Language and food are the two most important ways that culture is passed down through the generations.” When her mother Julia was growing up, Pat’s Popo (Chinese for grandmother) would always prepare Julia and her siblings an afternoon snack of roti bakso, or sweet bread stuffed with pork. Julia, in turn, prepared the dish frequently for Pat, passing along Popo’s tradition. So even though Popo passed away when Pat was an infant, she remained a presence in the family’s household through that beloved snack.

For her cookbook, Pat interviewed grandmothers whose roots spanned the Asian cultural spectrum, from Chinese, Japanese, and Indonesian to Korean, Filipino, and Thai.  She believes strongly that immigrant grandmothers are the torchbearers of a family’s culinary heritage. “Grandmothers are the closest link to an immigrant’s homeland. They cook for their grandchildren, and they speak to them in their native tongue.” If her own grandmothers were still alive today, she says, she’d “celebrate them on Mother’s Day,” too.

Monica Bhide, a Washington, D.C.-based food writer and author of several books on Indian cooking (her most recent is Modern Spice), recalls spending many hours with her grandmothers, Savitri and Kaushalya, chopping vegetables, peeling oranges, and shelling peanuts. One of the biggest lessons they imparted, she reflects, was to always cook enough for company. Though she was raised largely in Bahrain, Monica’s roots are Indian, and many members of her extended family lived together in the same home in New Delhi.  Her grandmothers would work alongside their servants (not uncommon in many Indian households) for hours, preparing the evening meal for 20 or more family members each night.

Today, Monica has happy neighbors, largely because she has taken her grandmothers’ lessons to heart. “I make extra food, even now,” she says. “I have older neighbors, whom I love. I take them dinner every other day.”

Jennie Schacht’s Jewish paternal grandmother Henrietta lived to be 101. “She was a powerhouse of a woman,” Jennie remembers. “I absolutely adored her.” Henrietta did The New York Times crossword puzzle in 15 minutes every Sunday, and regularly turned out Ashkenazi Jewish specialties such as brisket, noodle kugel, and blintzes from the railroad-style kitchen in her tiny apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. “I loved her blintzes,” Jennie says. “I could practically tell you how to make them just from having observed her so many times.” Grandma Schacht (as Jennie called her) also taught her how to flute a pie crust. “I can still picture her thumb pressing in to form the impressions.”

Jennie’s newest book, Farmers’ Market Desserts (Chronicle Books), includes a plum soup recipe her father raved about throughout her childhood. Her headnote to the recipe even reads: “One childhood role I had was to re-create my grandmother’s best hits for my dad.” That soup was one of them.

“Grandma Schacht would be enormously thrilled that I’m writing cookbooks,” she says, “because she just cared about food so much.”

This Mother’s Day, toast your mom, but raise an extra glass to your grandmothers, too.  I’ll be toasting my Grandma Sarah and her soothing chicken soup, and my Grandma Eve, whose Sunday morning breakfasts always included bagels and butterfish. To grandmothers near and far, offer thanks for their lingering presence — in your lives, in your hearts, and at the table.

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Cheryl Sternman Rule is a food and nutrition writer whose work has appeared in numerous national magazines, including EatingWell and Body+Soul. She is the voice behind the food blog 5 Second Rule.


Early Spring Menu

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Weather is so strange. In the East, y’all are just cleaning up after a veritable hurricane. Here in the West, after months and months of cold and rain, it’s suddenly 80 degrees and gorgeous blue skies. So while my husband fetches a rose to sip outside tonight, I’m going to pull together an early spring menu:

early-spring-menuGrilled Crostini with Fava Bean Spread — This nibble comes together super-quick once the favas are shelled, so you can whip it up and be back outside before the conversation even hits a lull.

Fusilli with Artichokes and Swiss Chard — I love this dish. It’s winter and spring and light and creamy all at the same time.

Lemon-Herb Lamb Chops — This makes a perfect first grill–tender lamb chops bathed in a garlicky, lemony marinade. Mmmmm.

Blood Orange Granita — This granita makes the most of the last of the blood oranges in a light, refreshing dessert.

And I have to throw in a favorite sandwich for this time of year too:

Radish and Goat Cheese Baguettes — Everything about this sandwich makes me happy. The radishes–so vibrant and colorful–come straight from our backyard, the bread from our local bakery, and the cheese from grazing goats just a few miles away. Even the olive oil comes from a local producer.

Enjoy!

Cultivate Your Soil

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I’ve been gardening “organically” for nearly a decade now. But up until recently, I carried a narrow definition of “organic” in my head as what I wasn’t putting on my plants—no pesticides, no herbicides, no synthetic fertilizer. And while that is part of the equation, I’ve learned that organic gardening is so much more than what you don’t do; it’s about how you nurture the soil to be healthy long-term and, consequently, produce fruitful crops.

cultivate-soil-postThis isn’t revolutionary. In fact, Thomas Jefferson wrote this advice—about pesky pests—to his daughter in 1793:

“When the earth is rich, it bids defiance to droughts, yields in abundance, and of the best quality. I suspect that the insects which have harassed you have been encouraged by the feebleness of your plants, and that has been produced by the lean state of your soil.”

There’s a strong parallel here to the NOURISH Evolution approach. One of our fundamental aims is to help people get beyond thinking of healthy eating as being what we don’t eat (fat, carbs, sugar, processed, whatever) and instead take a long-term view to mindfully nurture themselves through the foods they do. And, to come full circle, a healthy garden can be one of the best ways to achieve that.

This week, consider cultivating a garden (from the soil up) as you ponder the concept that a healthy body is as much about what you put into it as what you refrain from eating.

If you’re curious about what it takes to start a garden, here’s a helpful guide from the Sonoma County iGrow program. 

Go Slow

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It’s March first and, maybe it’s just me, but I feel like the year is already zooming by. Ironically, well before the year began I had slated March to be a time when we slowed down here on NOURISH Evolution. Not in the sense of fewer posts or reigned in momentum, but in terms of taking a big breath and diving deeper. Into why fresh, seasonal sustainably-farmed, -caught and -raised food tastes better and is better for our bodies and the earth. Into how our communities are strengthened and nourished when we choose to eat these foods (and, by contrast, are depleted when we don’t). Into where the choices we make at the grocery store, as isolated as they may seem, really do have an impact on things like national health care; global warming; the obesity crisis and hunger in developing nations.

That last sentence may freak you out, but it’s true. Michal Pollan wasn’t exaggerating when he said that we vote with our forks three times a day, and this month we’re going to explore to a deeper extent the wider consequences of the choices we make regarding the food we eat.

But, I believe, that requires us to slow down first. There’s vulnerability in slowing down and allowing for introspection, and I think that’s a healthy place to be as we move ahead into this month. I know it’s where I need to be, and somehow it keeps getting reinforced. By the book proposal I’m working on, about soulfulness and seasonality and themes that resonate to our very core. By the very first My Nourish Mentor group call today, where the enthusiasm and eagerness for deliberate change was electric. By being asked to be part of the leadership team of our local Slow Food chapter as the organization takes dynamic strides towards an exciting vision (you’ll find out more about the Slow Food organization this Friday in a piece by Kurt Friese). All of these experiences are humbling. All are exhilarating. And all require the presence of mind and authenticity of spirit that simply isn’t possible when whipping through them at warp speed.

This week—this month—I invite you all to join me in going “slow.” Does that mean committing to hours a day contemplating Big Things? No; in fact, my schedule is only going to ramp up over these next few months. What it does mean is that we’ll try to catch ourselves when barreling down a well-worn road of habit, take a few deep breaths and, at the very least, notice what we’re doing. At the very best, we’ll change course and, step by step, start carving out the path we really want to take.

Check back frequently on NOURISH Evolution this month to see what we uncover at this snail’s pace.

For the Love of Dumplings

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By Jacqueline Church

A “taste of the heart” is just one of the translations for “dim sum,” but it’s one I favor. I find the description carries over to dumplings too, which are a major component of dim-sum and are featured at this time of Lunar New Year as a symbol of  good luck.

The Chinese aren’t alone in their love for dumplings. The Polish have pierogies, South Americans eat empanadas. Koreans munch mandu, and Italians have ravioli and tortellini. Ever heard of Swabian Maultaschen? That stuffed noodle-style dumpling hails from Germany, as do Munich’s knödle. Indians have samosas. Kreplach are the dumplings in Jewish soups. There’s hardly a familiar cuisine that doesn’t have some well-known version of a dumpling.

dumplings-postMy mother is Japanese and our dumplings are called gyōza. You may know them as pot-stickers. At home these tasty little pouches mean more than just luck. In a culture that doesn’t have ways to overtly communicate love, a favorite food will often convey the affection not easily expressed otherwise.

The first time I brought Caleb, my then-boyfriend, home to Maryland, Mom suggested we gather the family for blue crab, so we stopped at the fishmongers on the way home from the airport. As we sat down to lunch and Mom parceled out our plates, it was hard not to notice where her affection was focused. For her first born, (me); a crab cake. For my sister, the mother of her only grandchildren; a crab cake. For her youngest child, the only son; a crab cake. For the new boyfriend? A giant crab ball (think supersized crabcake) the size of a grapefruit! The “Crab Ball Incident” as it’s now known, was only the first inkling of her love for my now-husband.

On another early visit, Mom made her gyōza and was delighted to see how much Caleb enjoyed them. Once she learned that he adores dumplings, she was certain to have a batch ready to go upon his arrival. We don’t even have to ask now; the food-as-love theme plays out all on its own. If we’re coming to visit, there will be gyōza. I reap the benefits of course, enjoying them along side my husband. My siblings are not as lucky. Their portions usually get served to Caleb before they arrive. “I can make gyōza for them anytime. Eat, eat!”

Fumiko’s gyōza are delicious. They’ve become the bar against which all others (including mine) are measured. And all others fall short. Though mine are passable, “they’re not Fumiko’s,” Caleb laments. This is the silent love pact between my mother and my husband. She will always make gyōza for him and he will always love hers above all others.

And me? I couldn’t be happier.

jackie-thumbJacqueline Church is an independent writer whose work has appeared in Culture: the Word on Cheese, Edible Santa Barbara, and John Mariani’s Virtual Gourmet. She often writes about gourmet food, sustainability issues and the intersection of the two on her blog Leather District Gourmet. Currently, she’s at work on Pig Tales: a Love Story about heritage breed pigs and the farmers and chefs bringing them from farm to table.


Aphrodisiac Foods: Folklore or Fact?

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by Cheryl Sternman Rule

Imagine if it were really true. If we could go to the grocery store and fill our carts with edibles that would turn us into sexual dynamos. If a certain vegetable made our libidos soar, or a fruit intensified bedroom pleasure, or a meat or fish or beverage so transformed us that passersby would inch a little closer.

Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that throughout history, folkloric traditions have promoted certain foods as aphrodisiacs. These foods, named for the Greek goddess Aphrodite, are believed not only to enhance sexual pleasure, but to bring us closer to the divine, make us more fertile, and hold forth the promise of immortality. The bad news, of course, is that the scientific proof surrounding these claims is somewhat specious — particularly those that relate to, well, immortality.

If you’re a skeptic, that’s okay – but let’s take a look at some common foods and assess their aphrodisiacal impact from both a folkloric and scientific perspective.

ancho-cinnamonOysters.  Perhaps the most commonly touted aphrodisiac, these bivalves are said to resemble the female, um … parts, and thus by their very contour are believed to incite passionate fervor. Nutritionally, they boast a high zinc content, and this essential mineral has been shown to increase blood flow and to play a role in male fertility.

Chiles and spices.  Spices have long been associated with the exotic, and with the titillating fear of the unknown. Ancient Romans and medieval Europeans, who favored imported spices especially, believed them to awaken sexual interest and arousal. From a scientific viewpoint, hot chiles do contain capsaicin (concentrated in their white, pithy veins), which causes lips to swell and sting, blood flow to increase, and heart rates to quicken. These symptoms simulate – what else? – sexual arousal. Some dried spices (like cinnamon and cloves, for example) are rich in antioxidants, and thus good for overall health, while roots like ginger are touted both for their healthful and aphrodisiac properties.

Milk and honey.  According to Miriam Hospodar in her article on Aphrodisiac Foods in the the 2004 issue of the journal Gastronomica, “Milk and dairy products were lauded for their aphrodisiac, rejuvenating, and life-extending properties. All but one of Kama Sutra’s aphrodisiac recipes contain sugar, milk, honey, or clarified butter…”  Scientifically, of course, milk is an excellent source of calcium, and at only 90 calories per cup, it’s an excellent overall energy booster. Drinking it cold (and spiked with chile!) will prevent it from having that somnolent effect that warm milk can have.  The last thing you want on Valentine’s Day is to be, ahem, drowsy. As for honey, sweet foods are often offered as tokens of love and affection. Candies, cookies, chocolates, little cakes — there’s a reason we give these items to our sweethearts this time of year rather than, say, salads or sausages, and honey is no exception. Hospodar says that there are numerous references to honey being “a divine substance that came from heaven.” Valentine’s manna, perhaps?

Nuts and seeds.  Hospodar writes of an Islamic sex manual called The Perfumed Garden which promotes a diet of almonds and pine nuts “chased by a glassful of thick honey for three consecutive days.” The concoction, it was believed, would increase sexual stamina for married men. Because pine nuts, almonds, sesame seeds, and other zinc-rich foods are also high in protein and beneficial fatty acids, they do in fact contribute to overall wellness and heart health, in particular . . . increasing, by extension, overall vitality.

Chocolate. Despite its ubiquity this month and presence on Valentine’s Day gift lists, chocolate gets mixed reviews for its ability to stimulate love and desire. On the one hand, cacao, a sacred Aztec food, was believed to inspire eroticism; on the other, it was condemned for inflaming passions irresponsibly. Chocolate does contain feel-good chemicals like serotonin, which can create a rush of pleasure, so there may be some chemical explanation, however tenuous, for its hallowed place in aphrodisiac folklore.

Will these foods make you feel good about yourself? Perhaps; because foods that promote good health and sound nutrition provide the keys to overall wellbeing. Will they actually heighten libidinous desires? That’s still open for debate. For now . . . you can experiment on your sweetie with my Spicy Valentine’s Love Potion.  Check back and let us know how things go.

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Cheryl Sternman Rule is a food and nutrition writer whose work has appeared in numerous national magazines, including EatingWell and Body+Soul. She is the voice behind the food blog 5 Second Rule.