From Teosinte to Maize to Corn to High-Fructose Corn Syrup in 9,000 Years

For most of the past 100,000 years Homo sapiens relied on gathering fruits, nuts, seeds, tubers and other offerings from nature in order to survive. It was a relatively recent 10,000 years ago that humans began to domesticate and raise animals and plant their own food.

Sean B. Carroll of The New York Times reported in an article on May 25th that the origin of domesticated maize has been determined through advances in DNA research. Corn has of course become an important food globally for humans, livestock and energy. Corn is the third largest food crop in the world behind rice and wheat.

In the past botanists have not found any direct ancestor of modern corn. The biological origin has thus been a bit of a mystery. However through DNA matching it is an unassuming Mexican grass called teosinte that is the Rosetta stone of this puzzle.

Teosinte of the genus Zea is a group of five grasses that grow in Central America and Southern Mexico. Its skinny ears have just a dozen kernels wrapped inside of rock-hard casings, like the tail of an armadillo. It is hard to imagine this plant as the ancestor of corn and in fact in the past it has been classified as closer to rice than to corn.

The DNA evidence taken from teosinte plants throughout its geographical range provides evidence that maize originated in the tropical Central Balsas River Valley in Southern Mexico. It is interesting that the geographical origin of maize is almost a template of the ancient civilizations of Mexico – Olmec, Zapotea, Teotihuacan, Maya, Toltecs and Aztecs. Maize was the mother food of these grand cultures and teosinte is the mother of maize.

It is amazing to me that small groups of people 9,000 years ago were able to select and grow the desirable features of teosinte and evolve it into a high yielding and easily harvested food crop. I thank them for the great American tradition of eating sweet corn with butter and salt on a summer day.

And of course today huge industrial farms across our continent grow just a few highly bred varieties of corn for the production of ethanol, feed for cattle and other animals, and for the great crack cocaine food product of the 21st century – High-fructose corn syrup.

Richard Wottrich

Where It All Began

The Mediterranean Diet, made famous in a study of mortality on Crete by the United Nations published in their demographic yearbook for 1948, is something many of us are familiar with. Cretans lived longer than any other people in the region at the time; hence the interest in their diet. What may not be so familiar is that this diet is largely the result of the influence of the Ottoman Empire, which lasted from 1299 to 1923 (over six centuries) and was succeeded by the modern state of Turkey.

So the natural cuisine of Turkey was dispersed and assimilated and added to throughout the Mediterranean Basin. And Turkish cuisine was influenced over the centuries by its earliest people, the Kurds and their cuisine.

The Smithsonian has an article this month entitled "Heritage Reclaimed" that is well worth a read. In it a quote caught my imagination as the perfect expression of a natural holistic approach to life. A Kurdish woman, Semi Utan (age 82), smiled wistfully as she recalled her childhood.

“In my time we lived a completely natural life,” she said. “We had our animals. We made yogurt, milk and cheese. We produced our own honey. Herbs were used for healing the sick. No one ever went to a doctor. Everything was tied to nature.”

Smithsonian article

Raita Sauce

Raita (Raitha) is a Pakistani/Indian condiment based on yogurt (dahi) and used as a sauce or dip. The yogurt is seasoned with coriander (cilantro), cumin, mint, cayenne pepper, and/or other herbs and spices as you wish. It is prepared by frying cumin (zeera) along with black mustard seeds (raie) and these mixtures are mixed into the yogurt.

Minced, raw vegetables or fruits—such as cucumber, onion, or carrot, pineapple, or papaya— are mixed into the yogurt. Raw ginger and garlic paste, green chili paste, and sometimes mustard paste, are used to enrich flavor. 

Serve Raita chilled. It cools the palate with spicy Indian dishes. Raita is also great with kebabs, any grilled meats, poached fish or roasted vegetables. Raita is similar to Greek tzatziki.

We keep a simple version in the frig that can be added to as your imagination allows:

1 large Cucumber, drained, seeded and chopped
1 cup Greek Yogurt (Fage, Oikos, Chobani)
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 tablespoons chopped Mint
juice from one lime

Richard Wottrich

Gazpacho Full Circle

Gazpacho is a tomato-based raw vegetable soup, originating in Spain in the southern region of Andalusia. Gazpacho is now ubiquitous throughout Latin America and in fine restaurants worldwide.

Upon their arrival in Tenochtitlan the Spanish conquistadors, led by Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valle de Oaxaca, were purportedly astounded by the ninth Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II (1466–1520) and his large gardens. The Emperor had a botanical garden and an aquarium. The aquarium had ten ponds of salt water and ten ponds of fresh water, containing fish and aquatic birds. Several large gardens were irrigated by water channels and had pathways so that visitors could enjoy them.

According to the scholar Francisco Cervantes de Salazar (1514? – 1575): "These gardens contained only medicinal and aromatic herbs, flowers, native roses, and trees with fragrant blossoms, of which there are many kinds." (Granziera 2001:188). Montezuma did not allow his gardeners to grow any edible plants that could be used for food because he believed that only lower classes should grow plants for sustenance. His gardens were only for pleasure; they also served as a collection of plants from all areas of the empire.

Cortez found tomatoes growing in Montezuma’s gardens in 1519, and brought them back to Spain as bounty. Because of its origin the tomato (a member of the Nightshade family) was deemed poisonous and used as a decorative plant. (Who had the strength of character to first eat a tomato in Spain is unknown, but it may have been the brother of the first person to eat an oyster.)

This is my take on this classic cold summer soup:

22 ounces of V-8 juice (four 5.5 ounce cans)
2 pounds of tomatoes, quartered, seeded and finely chopped
3 shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced in sea salt
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
3 stalks of celery, finely chopped
1 banana pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons unfiltered extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 cup dry white wine
1 juice from a lime
chives for garnish (or Yellow Chinese chives)
toasted bread points and olive oil

In a stainless steel or glass bowl mix all the ingredients except the garnish. Cool for two hours. Serve the same day it is prepared. Garnish with chives. A dollop of Greek yogurt adds a cool note.

Thyme

The whole point of a holistic approach to eating is that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. This refutes the entire notion of big food companies that specific ingredients must be purchased from them and ingested - that we need to take supplements to be healthy. It just doesn’t wash.

Herbs are a case in point. Humans have been eating herbs for thousands of years for good reason - it makes them healthy. In the case of Thyme what follows is a listing of just the antioxidants that have been identified in the leaf of Thymus vulgaris or Common Thyme:

Alanine, anethole essential oil, apigenin, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, caffeic acid, camphene, carvacrol, chlorogenic acid, chrysoeriol, derulic acid, eriodictyol, eugenol, 4-terpinol, gallic acid, gamma-terpinene, isichlorogenic acid, isoeugenol, isothymonin, kaemferol, labiatic acid, lauric acid, linalyl acetate, luteolin, methionine, myrcene, myristic acid, naringenin, rosmarinic acid, selenium, tannin, thymol, trytophan, ursolic acid, vanillic acid

It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.

Viva D. Rodriguez Cuba!

I didn’t really plan on being in Miami two weekends in one month, it just worked out that way. I stayed at the beautiful Mandarin Oriental and then at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. The Fontainebleau recently had a one billion dollar makeover (you heard me right, $1 billion) that resembles a rehab center for celebrities.

The nexus of Latin cool, Miami is vivacious, tacky, hot, multilingual, gaudy, tattooed, hipped and hopped, alive, seedy, gleaming, and whatever you want it to be. It is where the tectonic plates of North and South America collide in a cacophony of human diversity.

Close friends in Chicago recommended that we go to the top Cuban restaurant in town, D. Rodriguez Cuba. Opened last December in the art-deco Astor Hotel at 956 Washington Avenue in South Beach, D. Rodriguez is a big space with high ceilings, a live salsa band and with multi-leveled terraces outside. For a quieter dinner dine around 7:00 pm as the live music starts at 8:30.

Cuban cuisine is historically a blend of Spanish, African and Caribbean cuisines. Typical fare consists of rice and beans; a main pork or beef course; vianda that encompass yucca, malanga, potato, plantains, unripe bananas and even corn; and a salad composed of tomato, lettuce, avocado, including at times cucumber, carrots, cabbage and radish. Fruit is often ignored, except ripe plantains, which can be served with the rice and beans. Cuban fare is usually served family style.

Chef Douglas Rodriguez is considered to be the Godfather of Nuevo Latino Cuisine. He has opened restaurants in Miami, Philadelphia, Arizona, and the most recent, D. Rodriguez Cuba at the Astor Hotel in Miami Beach. You may know him as the executive chef and co-owner of the Patria in New York City.

I won’t dwell on his cuisine except to say that his Tapas (crab and lemon with cucumber yogurt Empanaditas), Ceviches (Fire and Ice - Salmon, lemon juice, chives, jalapenos, dill over yogurt and cucumber granite) and Cassabe Flat Breads are not to be missed. The menu is an adventure. And a few puffs of a good cigar out on the terrace afterwards might have you exclaiming, “Who lives better than us!”

Richard Wottrich

Photo: Andre Baranowski

Slow Cooked Salmon with Leeks in Cream and Red Wine & Pomegranate Butter

I adapted this dish from Gordon Hamersley, the chef and owner at Hamersley Bistro in Boston, who created this to feature wild Alaskan King Salmon. King has the highest fat content of wild Salmon we can source in the US and thus is especially well suited to this method of roasting. The succulent result is an instant “melt in your mouth” moment that causes immediate silence at the dining table.

Salmon available in the US include the Alaskan King, the Coho or Silver, Humpback or Pink, Atlantic or Leaper, Sockeye or Red, and the Chum or Keta. As in all cooking the absolute freshness and quality of your fish selection either makes or breaks this dish. Wild Salmon in my opinion has a better taste.

Recognize that Salmon is an animal protein source and as such should be restricted to 10% of your caloric intake. In January 2004, the journal Science warned that farmed salmon contain 10 times more toxins (PCBs, dioxin) than wild salmon. The study recommends that farmed salmon should be eaten only once a month, or perhaps only every two months, as it can pose cancer risks to the human beings.

Ingredients:
1 cup red wine
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
6 whole cloves
6 whole allspice berries
6 whole peppercorns
2 shallots
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (6 softened, 2 diced)
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley, plus 1 tablespoon thinly sliced
3 medium leeks, washed and julienned
½ tablespoon fresh marjoram, finely chopped
½ tablespoon fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 tablespoon crushed fennel seeds
1/3 cup vermouth
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 6-ounce skinless boneless Alaskan King filets
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Preparation:
Combine the red wine, pomegranate molasses, chopped shallots, cloves, allspice and peppercorns in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Boil until reduced to roughly two tablespoons; about 15 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl, discard solids. When the sauce is cool add the softened butter and chopped parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir until well combined. At this point you can refrigerate the butter as is, or put it on a sheet of plastic wrap and twist it into a thick cylinder about 1 inch by 5 inches. This is best made the day before.

Heat the remaining butter in a skillet over high heat. Add the leeks, marjoram, thyme, fennel and season with salt, stirring occasionally until the leeks are slightly wilted – about 2 minutes. Add the vermouth and cook, stirring occasionally, until almost all the liquid has evaporated, about 8 minutes. Add the cream and lemon juice and cook at low heat, stirring occasionally, until the cream thickens, about 20 minutes. Add water if the mixture becomes too dry. Keep warm and reserve.

Heat your oven to 275 degrees. Arrange the Salmon filets on a foil-lined baking sheet or pan. In a small bowl combine the remaining shallots, olive oil and garlic. Rub the filets with the mixture and season with salt and pepper. Roast the Salomon until done to your taste. Medium rare takes about 12 minutes. Done to an even consistency takes about 18-20 minutes. Put a tablespoon of the wine butter on top of each filet and let it melt slightly in the oven.

Presentation:
Spoon the leeks in cream onto the center of the plate and place a Salmon filet on top. Garnish with parsley. As a main course I served seared fresh pineapple slices and Brussels sprout halves (par boiled for 5 minutes and then sautéed in pineapple juice) until both were slightly caramelized.

Adapted from Saveur, July 2008