The Ecstasy of Modern Grocery Shopping

I noticed an essay in the NYT Sunday edition today and was struck by its title, “The Agony of Modern Grocery Shopping.” My immediate reaction was to wonder why the author did not stay out of supermarkets if they bothered him. But upon reflection I decided to take a different tact. “We live in the best of times for real food shopping.”

I am a cook who loves to prepare and present real food made made from scratch. I have been cooking for 20 years, write a cooking blog ( http://coolcook.blogspot.com ), and can say definitively that times have never been better for this passion. For starters I shop every Saturday morning at the Evanston (Illinois) Farmers Market. There I buy eggs from a real farm, organic vegetables, wild mushrooms, artisan cheeses from Wisconsin and local fruit from an orchard. Alternatively there are dozens of cooperative truck farms in the Chicago region that sell shares in their annual crops. You can pick up your produce at the farm each week and show your kids where their food comes from.

Three miles from my home is a 100,000 square foot Asian market with the largest fish bar I have ever seen, and every other Asian ingredient known. I take my grandson there just to show him what seafood looks like. Even closer is a Japanese market with sushi-grade seafood, along with The Fresh Market across the street that has an excellent meat selection. Every few months I visit a Chicago-based chain of spice shops, The Spice House, which carries an astounding variety of ingredients.

Our local Costco carries bulk food items at prices that cannot be duplicated and it has a selection of excellent wines at very low prices that are worth the trip. Just a bit further is a local Greek-owned fruit and vegetable shop that has bakery specialties, excellent lamb and imported feta cheeses and olives. My local butcher shop will accommodate my every whim, including preparing a standing rib pork roast with little notice. Around the corner from me is Harrison’s Poultry Farm, which provides organic poultry products to the top restaurants in Chicago. Almost every month I buy a seven-pound capon and have a magnificent roasted chicken.

You’ll notice that I have described ten food destinations and never mentioned a supermarket. The choices are there if you look. Does quality cost more? Sure it does, but if you quite naturally reduce the quantity you eat and replace it with quality you will dine better and spend the same. Does this take more time? I would ask that question in a differently manner. Does your family deserve this attention? Should your children know where real food comes? Should a family sit down every evening possible and share in breaking bread and conviviality?

Preparing and presenting food is part of the natural rhythm of life and these are the best of times.

Richard Wottrich

Meatloaf Olivera
Serves 20

Sometimes a large crowd is expected for dinner, including several kids. The leaves are turning and it dips below 40-degrees outside. A football game is on and cold beer is replaced with good Scotch. It’s time for an old fashioned 25-ingredient five-pound meatloaf. As for scaling this recipe down, don't even think about it! Leftovers make great rye bread sandwiches the next day.

1 pound ground Bison (Buffalo)
1 pound ground chuck (beef)
1 pound ground pork
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed, crumble the stuffing
4 cups Japanese Panko bread crumbs
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, seeded and chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, charred, seeded, skinned and chopped
1 tablespoon crushed Aleppo chili pepper (or any crushed chili)
1 cup capers, drained or salt cured
2 cups salsa, medium heat
1 teaspoon hot sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon whole brown mustard seed
1 tablespoon celery seed
2 tablespoons fennel seed
2 tablespoons Greek oregano
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon apple vinegar
2 tablespoons kosher salt (If using salt cured capons, cut kosher salt in half)
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
8 strips of natural bacon, cut in half (no nitrates)
Springs of fresh rosemary and thyme

Preparation: Set your oven to 400-degrees. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients, except the bacon, rosemary and thyme. Using your hands or two large spoons, mix the ingredients thoroughly making sure not to compress or pack the mixture. Take a large cast iron pan (15-inches) or a large heavy bottomed stainless steel roaster and spray the inside with Pam, or coat it with butter. In the pan free form a large rectangular loaf. Square up the sides and corners with a large spatula, leaving a gently rounded top. Overlap the strips of bacon evenly across the top of the meatloaf. Grind black pepper over the loaf. Surround the loaf with the springs of rosemary and thyme. Roast the meatloaf for roughly 90 minutes, until a nice crust forms and a meat thermometer reads at least 140-degrees. Remove from the oven and cover with aluminum foil. Let the meatloaf rest for at least 30 minutes. Cut into slabs and serve with Cornichons (pickles), mashed potatoes and gravy. If there are leftovers (there won’t be) make cold sandwiches on rye the next day.

Richard Wottrich – richard.wottrich@gmail.com – http://coolcook.blogspot.com

Mushroom Barley Soup

My dad used to make mushroom barley soup in the Fall every year when the leaves started to turn. Coming in after tossing the football around on a Saturday, we’d have hot bowls of soup and chunks of freshly baked bread for dipping.

Years later I have learned that mushrooms may have hypoglycemic activity, anti-cancer activity, anti-pathogenic activity, and immune system enhancing activity. Recent research has found that the oyster mushroom naturally contains the cholesterol drug lovastatin; some mushrooms produce large amounts of vitamin D when exposed to UV light and that certain fungi may be a future source of taxol. To date, penicillin and the statin drugs lovastatin, and mevastatin, are notable pharmaceuticals which have been isolated from the fungal kingdom. Other pharmaceuticals derived from fungi include ciclosporin, griseofulvin, cephalosporin, and ergometrine.

Try an assortment of crimini, Portobello, shiitake, maitake (hen-of-the-woods), oyster, and enoki mushrooms. Also use wild mushrooms if you can. Usually a good farmers market will have a mushroom purveyor who will have interesting selections. They cost a bit more, but the freshness is important. Mushrooms taste fantastic and they are good for you – it’s a win, win.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 pound cleaned sliced fresh mushrooms
1 tablespoon Madeira or Amontillado
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups beef broth
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon apple vinegar
1 cup barley
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh Thyme

Directions:

Heat the oil and butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery and garlic; cook and stir until onions are tender and transparent. Stir in the barley grains until just coated and toasted. Stir in mushrooms and continue to cook for a few minutes. Mix the flour into the chicken and beef stock and pour into the pot and stir until smooth. Add the lemon juice, vinegar and Madeira and bring to a quick boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until barley is tender, about 50 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and Thyme before serving.

Hemingway's Brook Trout

Most folks who “know” Ernest Hemingway know that he spent many years in Northern Michigan. His family owned a summer home called Windemere on Walloon Lake, near Petoskey, Michigan. Growing up Hemingway fished for Brook Trout in most of the area streams, including School and Bear Creek, and the Boardman, Sturgeon, Black and Pigeon rivers. I have fished many of these same streams over the years, as we owned a family cottage near Elk Rapids on Grand Traverse Bay for over 40 years.

In 1920 Hemingway wrote a piece for The Toronto Star entitled “Camping Out.” In it he wrote, “A pan of fried trout can’t be bettered and they don’t cost any more than ever. But there is a good and bad way of frying them.”

Hemingway’s recipe was simple. “The proper way is to cook over coals [in a fry pan]... Put the bacon in and when it is about half cooked lay the trout in the hot grease, dipping them in corn meal first. Then put the bacon on top of the trout and it will baste them as it slowly cooks. The coffee can be boiling at the same time and in a smaller skillet pancakes being made that are satisfying the other campers while they are waiting for the trout.”

My father and I cooked Brook Trout this way, especially on fly in fishing trips in Canada. Our Indian guide, Eli, would set up a shore lunch right on the banks of a lake and grease the spiders (flat-bottomed fry pans) with lard. The red fleshed Brook Trout were gutted and cleaned a few feet away, then brought over and dredged in corn meal, waiting for the strips of bacon to crackle. The Trout would fry up beautifully in the hot grease, crisp skin on the outside and succulent moist flesh inside.

From the water to the tension of the line to the hot spider is more than just a state of mind, as you cannot create this dish unless you are really there.

Richard Wottrich

Piperies Gemistes Me Feta (Peppers Stuffed With Feta)
This Greek (Macedonia) dish is made with sweet Florina peppers, although Fresno or Anaheim chilies may be substituted. This dish appeared on the Aug/Sep 2010 cover of Saveur magazine. Serve this with a slow-braised leg of lamb and Horiatiki (Greek Salad) for a perfect dinner.

2 Fresno or Anaheim chilies, 4” to 5”
6 ounces of Feta cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
½ teaspoon lemon zest
½ teaspoon dried Greek oregano
2 egg yolks
Kosher salt and ground pepper
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Slice the peppers in half lengthwise and remove seeds and membranes. In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to whip the Feta, oil, yogurt, parsley, lemon zest, oregano and egg yolks. Season with salt and pepper. Stuff each pepper with the filling. Roast in a 300-degree oven for 15 minutes, or until the peppers are just softened. Sprinkle the parmesan on top and broil for another 2 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot. Serves Four.

Roasted Shrimp, Feta & Orzo

Orzo is an Italian pasta shape which resembles grains of rice. In fact, “orzo” means “barley” in Italian, and in Italian cuisine, the word “orzo” often refers to barley, as in the case of drinks made with roasted barley.

Feta (Greek: φέτα) is a brined curd cheese traditionally made in Greece. Feta has been an EU Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) product since 2002. Only cheeses produced in a traditional way in some areas of Greece (mainland and the island of Lesvos), and made from sheep's milk, or from a mixture of sheep's and goats’ milk (up to 30%) of the same area, may bear the name "feta".

Be aware of the environmental issues surrounding farmed shrimp, especially as farmed in certain Asian countries. You have no control over what steroids, herbicides and similar toxins were utilized in the particular country of origin. Wild shrimp is a better choice.

kosher salt
olive oil
¾ pound of orzo
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 medium lemons)
freshly ground pepper
2 pounds shrimp (16 to 18 count), peeled and deveined
1 cup minced scallions, white and green parts
1 cup fresh dill, chopped
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 cucumber, unpeeled, seeded, medium dice
1 medium-sized red onion, diced
¾ pound good quality feta cheese, ½ inch dice

Preparations: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Fill a large pot of water, add kosher salt and a splash of oil, and bring to a boil. Cook the orzo for 10 to 12 minutes until al dente, stirring occasionally. It takes time for the orzo to plump up, so be patient.

Prepare the dressing by whisking the lemon juice with the olive oil, two teaspoons of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Drain the orzo and put into a big bowl. Add the dressing immediately while the orzo is hot and mix well.

Put the shrimp in a bowl and add olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss briefly. Put the shrimp on a baking sheet in a single layer. Roast for 4 to 5 minutes until firm – do not overcook.

Add the shrimp to the orzo and then add the scallions, dill, parsley, cumber and onion. Mix gently. Season with salt and pepper. Add the feta and toss gently. Set aside for one hour or longer to allow the flavors to marry, or refrigerate overnight. Allow to come back to room temperature and taste for seasoning.

Vegetables In Oil For Roasting - Tritto

Simple joys of Italian cooking include keeping a couple of jars of chopped vegetables on hand, steeped in olive oil, for roasting and sautéing – known as Tritto. Pick the best quality vegetables of course and clean and chop them by hand. I mix them dry in a bowl with several herbs from my herb garden and a few thin slices of lemon, and then put them into tall vertical jars. I use a blend of olive oil and canola oil to cover the vegetables. Let them steep for at least 12 hours in a cool room.

The jar on the right has soft vegetables such as red peppers, leeks, fennel, celery, broccoli and cauliflower. These will roast in 20 minutes or so at 350-degrees. The jar on the left has root vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, celeriac, and onions. These will roast in 45 minutes or so at the same temperature.

When ready to use, drain the oil (saving it for other uses) and spread the two medleys of vegetables evenly in separate roasting pans. Season with salt and pepper and any other spices you enjoy. Or surround a roast with the vegetables to create wonderful gravy.

Richard Wottrich

Deep Fried Spiced Quail

by Christine Manfield from her great cookbook

We are in the dogs days here in Florida...and it has begun to dent my brain. Sandy Botstein did this great little pastel of the lady & the pigeons (flying rats to some of my friends). It is because of the heat I am sure, but I cannot tell if she is inviting them to eat dinner or to be dinner...and I love little birds (for dinner) so here follows my favorite recipe for quail (which I know is not squab...but they would work just fine).

4 large quail

8 tsp Massaman curry paste (Massaman)

vegetable oil for deep frying & stir frying

6.5 oz. small spinach leaves

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

2 tsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 Tbsp fried red shallots slices

Preheat oven to 450F Wash quails, pat dry; rub generously w/Massaman curry paste; Heat oil in deep fryer to 350F; deep fry quails 4 minutes transfer to baking tray bake for another 3 minutes; rest 2 minutes before serving; Stir fry spinach w/a little oil w/garlic, fish sauce & pepper until wilted place spinach as a base on each plate, top w/quail, sprinkle w/fried shallot.

Make Your Own Curry Paste

4 tsp cumin

8 tsp coriander seeds

seeds from 5 cardamon pods

6 cloves

2 sticks cinnamon

8 dried birds eye chilies

2 tsp Thai shrimp paste/kapi

6 fresh birds eye red chilies, chopped

20 cloves garlic, chopped

2 small brown onions, chopped

4 tsp green peppercorns

5 cilantro roots, chopped

small amount vegetable oil

zest 2 kaffir limes, chopped

2 stalks lemon grass chopped

2.5 oz palm sugar/zaggery, shaved

2.5 oz fish sauce

2 oz tamarind liquid (1 part pulp simmered w/4 parts water for 30 minutes, strained)

Dry roast cumin, coriander, cardamon, cloves, cinnamon sticks, dried chilies over gentle heat until fragrant, cool & grind to a fine powder. Dry roast shrimp paste over gentle heat until fragrant. Blend fresh chilies, garlic, onion, peppercorns, coriander root, & small amount of vegetable oil as required in a food processor. Cook paste over gentle heat until softens & slightly colored, place in food processor w/lime rind, lemon grass, dry roasted shrimp paste, add remaining ingredients & process thoroughly.

She's not really going to eat those birds is she???????????????

The Best Lobster Roll In the World – Red’s Eats

If you’re ever driven up into Maine on Route 1 you know what I’m talking about. There in the town of Wiscasset, sitting hard on the west side going north just before the Sheepscot River Bridge, sits Red’s Eats. Red’s opened in Boothbay in 1938, and moved to the north end of Wiscasset in 1954. The traffic jams in Wincasset are legendary for this simple reason - Red’s sells a perfect Lobster Roll for $14.00 that people stop for from miles around. In fact the traffic is so bad that they are proposing to move Red’s Eats about 50 feet and put in a new bridge that will divert around Wiscasset and its legendary lobster shack.

Red's is a real lobster shack, a building built around a small house trailer with a single window where you both place and pick up your order. The lines can be 100 feet long on a hot summer day. About 25,000 cars a day cruise through town during the summer months. The cars at the intersection can be backed up a mile or more. It’s worth it.

Each Red’s Lobster Roll contains all the meat from a one-pound lobster extracted in glistening chunks and piled into a toasted split-top bun served with a cup of drawn butter or mayonnaise. It is lobster-eater's nirvana.

Red's Lobster Roll Recipe

New York Times article

Herbal Butter

Over the years I have always used herbal butter for corn-on-the-cob until it has become second nature. After multiple requests here is the recipe for this simple nectar. After all, if it tastes good it has butter in it.

2 sticks butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs; basil, thyme, parsley, lavender, rosemary, oregano, as you wish
1  teaspoon apple vinegar
freshly ground pepper to taste
sea salt to taste

Slowly melt the butter in a sauce pan and add the ingredients. Blanch your just-out-of-the-field corn in boiling water for two minutes or less. Drain and pour the herbal butter over the corn in the bowl. This is also great on any grilled fish, boiled potatoes, grilled onions, boiled cabbage and carrots, and on and on…

Enjoy!

Deconstructing Alice Waters


Anthony Bourdain is the quintessential lighting rod in the narrow confines of the US food world. Folks either love him or hate him. I loved Kitchen Confidential because it humanized the shadowy world of fine dining. He told the truth – or at least his version of the truth.

In his latest book, Medium Raw, we have the added surprise of an older Bourdain who actually has distilled (literally) into an excellent writer. There are the obligatory “Emperor’s New Clothes” undressing of pretentious and over hyped celebrity chefs of course – that’s his trademark. But even here his skill in deconstructing Alice Waters is akin to watching a fine surgeon at work.

Where Bourdain really shines however, far beyond “food writing”, are in his chapters in which he roams the world in jewel-like vignettes of food experiences, and in the amazing profile of the fish butcher at Le Bernardin. Justo Thomas prepares 700 pounds of fish at the country’s best fish restaurant every day – 1,000 pounds on weekends! He is an artist, as is Bourdain’s description.

Or not – you either love the guy or you don’t.
 
Richard Wottrich

Truffles are no Trifle

Italy’s “King of Truffles” died on June 17 at age 79. Paolo Urbani and his brother ran Urbani Tartufi, which claimed control of 70% of the world market for both black and white truffles. Along the way Urbani introduced Italian truffles to the world as well.
Truffles are the coveted fungi above all others dating back to medieval times. The 18th-century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin called truffles "the diamond of the kitchen". Urbani’s family founded the firm back in the 1800s.

The white truffle or Alba madonna (Tuber magnatum) comes from the Langhe area of the Piedmont region in northern Italy and, most famously, in the countryside around the city of Alba. It is also found in Croatia, on the Istria peninsula in the Motovun forest alongside Mirna river. While in Dubrovnik in 2007 I had ethereal white truffles showered on creamed white noodles that were nectar from the gods.

Growing symbiotically with oak, hazel, poplar and beech and fruiting in autumn, truffles can reach 12 cm diameter and 500 g, though are usually much smaller. The flesh is pale cream or brown with white marbling. Like the French black truffles, Italian white truffles are highly esteemed.

The white truffle market in Alba is busiest in the months of October and November, where a 1.6-pound white truffle sold for $150,000 on Nov. 8, 2009 during the 79th White Truffle Festival. In 2001, the Tuber magnatum truffles sold for between $1,000 and $2,200 US per pound; as of December 2009 they were being sold at 10,200€ per kilogram ($28,130 per pound).

The Chinese truffle (Tuber sinensis, also sometimes called Tuber indicum) is a winter black truffle harvested in China. Due to their fast growing nature, Chinese truffles are often exported to the West as an inferior-quality substitute of Tuber melanosporum. Restaurants have been known to serve Chinese truffles and claim they are the real deal.

Urbani has a vast network throughout Italy that supplies the firm with truffles and provides it with competitive information. Farmers keep secret the location of their truffle trees and they have been known to poison competitor’s dogs. Historically truffles were hunted by pigs, but they love to eat the stuff, so dogs have been substituted. Old truffle hunters, known as Cavatori, or extractors, can be recognized by the fingers they have lost to their truffle pigs.

Today more than half the annual black truffle production is farmed. But the illusive and prized white truffles must still be gathered in the wild. As for Urbani, his daughter Olga will carry on the family tradition.
Richard Wottrich

Mise en place at Il Falconiere, Cortona, Tuscany

Packing Eggs

Boy packing eggs at Farmers Market. Portland, Oregon (Photo:RLW)

Methyl Iodide & Strawberries – Oxymoron? Not!

Where do your strawberries come from?

The New York Times reported today on a growing dispute between the California State Department of Pesticide Regulation and a scientific committee over the approval of a new chemical in the growing of strawberries. It is another interesting example of where big agricultural interests trump the safety of you, me and our children.

For decades strawberry growers injected methyl bromide into their soil as a soil fumigant and structural fumigant to control pests before growing strawberries. However this chemical is an ozone-depleting chemical and it was banned by the Montreal Protocol international climate treaty.

Methyl iodide was found as a substitute in 2007. More than 50 chemists and scientists, including members of the National Academy of Sciences and Nobel laureates asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency not to approve the chemical. Nevertheless the California State Department of Pesticide Regulation has bestowed provisional approval for this chemical.

“This is without question one of the most toxic chemicals on earth,” said John Froines, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California.

Breathing methyl iodide fumes can cause lung, liver, kidney and central nervous system damage. It causes nausea, dizziness, coughing and vomiting. Prolonged contact with skin causes burns. Massive inhalation causes pulmonary edema.

But the strawberry business in California is a $2 billion industry. I wonder who will win this battle. I wonder even more about what else they spray on the food you, me and our children eat grown in California?

Richard Wottrich

Marius Market, Paris (Photo:RLW)

Brown Rice versus White Rice?


A just-released Harvard study came to the stunning conclusion that eating brown rice instead of white rice decreases the chances of developing Type 2 diabetes by about 10 percent compared to people who eat it less than once a month. And those who eat white rice on a regular basis — five or more times a week — are almost 20 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who eat it less than once a month.

This is of course patently clear to anyone with any knowledge of whole foods, versus highly refined foods - as their perishable nutrients have been removed to make them shelf-stable. Hence The New York Times headline today is a sad commentary on the apparent fact that many think this is new information.

What is more interesting in my opinion is that this study reinforces the erroneous “single ingredient” fallacy of our approach to healthy eating. Year after year studies highlight one ingredient or another and make claims regarding their healthy benefits. Highly engineered foods clog our grocery shelves with absurd marketing claims regarding the few nutrients that have been added back into cheap highly refined food commodities such as high-fructose corn syrup, white rice, refined white flour, and de-oiled soy flakes.

In the holistic approach to healthy eating it is preciously the great diversity of whole foods availability that delivers everything the healthy body needs to function. Isolating down to a single ingredient such as brown rice misses the point and misleads people into thinking there is a “sliver bullet” out there that bestows good health.

One of my cooking heroes, Julia Child, said it best, “Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health.”

Richard Wottrch

Quinoa, Rice & Spinach Steamed Pilaf

Quinoa (pronounced "KEEN - wa") is a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is not a true cereal, or grain, or member of the grass family. Quinoa is closely related to beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds. Its leaves are also eaten as a leaf vegetable, much like amaranth.

Quinoa originated in the Andes of South America and it has been an important food for 6,000 years. Its name is the Spanish spelling of the Quechua name. Quinoa is generally easily grown and altitude-hardy, so it can be cultivated in the Andes up to about 4,000 meters (over 13,000 feet).

Quinoa’s protein content is very high (12%–18%). Quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source among plant foods. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest.

I created this particular dish to take advantage of unique crunch of Quinoa with the addition of some flavor notes and nutritional side kicks that result in a very tasty side dish, similar to a pilaf - but steamed instead.

1 cup Quinoa (Nuts On Line)
1 cup premium white rice
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup white wine
1 large tomato, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh oregano
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh spinach
1 tablespoon butter
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Splash of lemon juice
Parsley as a garnish

In a rice cooker combine the Quinoa, rice, chicken stock, wine, tomato, oregano, spinach and butter. Set the cooker to white rice. When done remove the mixture to a large bowl and fluff with a fork. Add sea salt and pepper to your taste, lemon juice and serve with parsley as a garnish. This presents well with grilled lamb loin chops.

Richard Wottrich

Relative Nutritional Value - Distance Shipped Plus Time to Market Are Inversely Proportional to Nutrients


Chamonix, France (Photo:RLW)

Why ask where your food comes from? Fresh fruits and vegetables in your supermarket travel an average of 1,500 miles before sale. Fresh fruits and vegetables in a typical farmers' market travel an average of 50 miles.

Fresh fruits and vegetables that come from fields in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, China or any other country may or may not comply with U.S. Department of Agriculture or EPA rules and regulations. What are they spraying on your food in these countries? How do we know?

The antioxidants in fresh fruits and vegetables are there to help the plants ward off insects and diseases. If a plant is grown in the genetically identical mass plantings of an industrial farm it does not need to produce antioxidants to fend off insects and diseases - they have all been killed by herbicides and pesticides.

Fruits and vegetables have been developed to stand up to shipping over great distances. The chief consideration is appearance and long shelf life. There is little if any consideration of nutrient value. In fact, the longer a fruit or vegetable stays on the shelf the lower its nutrient levels are. Nutrients deteriorate over time. That is why the Food Industry breaks foods down and removes active nutrients - to extend shelf life. That is why you have white rice and refined white flour. Those pesky nutrients mess everything up for Food Industry profits.

Donald R. Davis, a research associate with the Biochemical Institute at the University of Texas, Austin, recently analyzed data gathered by the USDA in 1950 and 1999 on the nutrient content of 43 fruit and vegetable crops. He found that six out of 13 nutrients had declined in these crops over the 50-year period (the seven other nutrients showed no significant, reliable changes). Three minerals, phosphorous, iron and calcium, declined between 9 percent and 16 percent. Protein declined 6 percent. Riboflavin declined 38 percent and ascorbic acid (a precursor of vitamin C) declined 15 percent.

A study of the mineral content of fruits and vegetables grown in Britain between 1930 and 1980 shows similar decreases in nutrient density. The British study found significantly lower levels of calcium, magnesium, copper and sodium in vegetables, and of magnesium, iron, copper and potassium in fruit. The report concludes that the declines indicate "that a nutritional problem associated with the quality of food has developed over those 50 years."

Relative Nutritional Value (RNV) equals the nutrient level (n) divided by distance shipped plus time to market (d + t), where the nutrient level is assumed to be 100 at perfection. Hence a tomato that travels 1,500 miles in 10 days to reach market has an RNV of .07, while an organic tomato shipped 50 miles in one day has an RNV of 2. And a sprig of parsley grown in your garden that you pick and eat on the spot has an RNV of 100. This is my own equation and its purpose is purely to highlight the issue of nutrient value in our foods.

This formula supposes that local foods are organically grown. Thus their produce had to develop antioxidants to ward off insects and diseases. It also supposes that the soil these plants were grown in is richer than the chemically maintained and exhausted soils of huge industrial farms. This may or may not be true. That is why you ask. Know where your foods come from and how they are grown. It makes a difference.

Richard Wottrich

Sautéed Pineapple & Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts are a cultivated member of the wild cabbage family, probably refined in ancient Rome. The first written reference to them is in 1587 in what is now Belgium, hence the name. Folks who don’t like Brussels sprouts probably have had them over cooked - overcooking should be avoided because it releases glucosinolate sinigrin, which has a sulfurous odor.

The combination of pineapple and Brussels sprouts at first seems an unlikely one, but the pineapple’s semi-sweet tartness contrasts beautifully with the butter and cinnamon and the fresh crunch of the Brussels sprouts. Pineapple is a good source of manganese (91 %DV in a 1 cup serving), as well as vitamin C (94 %DV in a 1 cup serving) and vitamin B1 (8 %DV in a 1 cup serving). The contrast of the bright green and white of the Brussels sprouts and the bright yellow of the pineapple make this a great summer dish.

1 whole pineapple, skin removed, quartered, cored and cut into pieces roughly the same size as the Brussels sprouts
1 pound of Brussels sprouts, washed, bases removed, cut in half lengthwise
1 stick of butter (eight tablespoons)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Zest from one orange
Juice from one orange, freshly squeezed
sea salt and pepper to taste
fresh mint as garnish

Put the cleaned Brussels sprouts in a large pot of salted boiling water and blanch for three minutes. Shock them in cold water immediately and reserve. In a sauté pan large enough to hold all the drained Brussels sprouts in a single layer, melt the butter. Add the sprouts and sear at high temperature until they just start to turn brown. Reserve. In the same pan place all the pineapple chunks in a single layer and sear until they just start to brown. Put the Brussels sprouts and pineapple chunks into a large bowl. Deglaze the pan with the orange juice, zest and cinnamon for two minutes. Pour the pan butter mixture over the pineapple and Brussels sprouts. Throw in a quarter cup of chopped fresh mint, sea salt and pepper and toss. Serve at once. [The acid in the pineapple will turn the bright green of the sprouts to a dull color if you let this dish sit too long.]

Richard Wottrich

A Tsunami of Chemicals Hits Your Food

The big food crops globally consist of sugar cane, rice, wheat, corn, soy beans and tubers. These crops account for roughly 80% of everything the world eats. To bring these crops to the worlds’ masses, set to hit 7 billion in 2011, vast amounts of herbicides are used. This is efficient for huge industrial farms because it cuts down on spoilage and weed losses, keeping profit margins robust. We apparently tolerate this as the price we pay for feeding the world. Why?

Most of these industrial crops are broken down into basic cheap derivatives, such as high-fructose corn syrup, that show up in the thousands of engineered foods that populate our supermarket shelves. The food industry churns out advertising that makes absurd health claims about these products. In other words, the nutrients are removed from these foods to be broken into cheap easily shipped bulk commodities, which are then engineered into high value, shelf-stable packaged “food” products we buy to feed our children. Why?

If you look into the world of industrial food crops you’ll see companies like Monsanto, a $10.7 billion giant that sells both crop seeds and the glyphosate-based herbicides (Roundup Ready) that are used to protect them. Monsanto is a fine company. They do a good job for their shareholders and for the farmers who buy their seeds and the chemicals to control weeds. What is missing from this equation are the stakeholders who eat the end products – you and me and our children.

Roundup Ready is an excellent herbicide that has about as small an environmental footprint as can be engineered. Since it was introduced a decade ago it revolutionized farming in that it gave farmers a very effective and relatively safe method of controlling invasive weeds. The trade off for this was the requirement that their crop seeds be genetically engineered with the insertion of genes that made them immune to Roundup Ready. My question is where are the studies regarding the effect of these genetic changes on the nutrients, quality and safety of the resulting food products?

Unfortunately Monsanto lost control of both sides of this equation when the Roundup Ready patent ran out. Chinese companies have been offering look-alike herbicides at drastically lower prices. We all know how trustworthy Chinese chemical companies are. Have you read anything recently about the safety of Chinese herbicides used on U.S. crops?

Mother Nature has changed the game plan as well. Predictably, “superweeds” have appeared throughout the U.S. that are immune to Roundup Ready. Farmers are frantic to kill these weeds. Other herbicide companies are racing to roll out older, more toxic herbicides that can kill them. Monsanto is lowering the price on its Roundup Ready to compete with the Chinese and these older toxic herbicides. Remember, we are talking about the food we eat here.

In order for these older toxic herbicides to work effectively, food crop seeds must be genetically altered again through the insertion of genes to make them immune to these “new” poisons. Rules and regulations governing the use of these herbicides are set by the EPA. The giant herbicide companies obviously lobby congress to influence the EPA rules, many of which were set years ago before genetically engineered foods were so prevalent.

The giant seed companies have petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to approve these new genetically altered seeds. Often, as in the case of Monsanto, these companies offer both products – meaning they have a special inside knowledge of how they want the rules and regulations to favor their products. We all know how effective government rules and regulations have been in the Gulf of Mexico recently.

Superweeds have opened up the herbicide business in a big way, as companies rush new chemicals and new genetically altered seeds to market. It is an insidious cycle of poison – new seeds – new weeds - new poisons – that is disturbing. Everyone is happy - the food company executives, their shareholders, the farmers, members of congress receiving industry political contributions, EPA and USDA career bureaucrats who have what amounts to tenure – all are happy except the folks missing from this cycle – you and me and our children. Who represents the interests of the people who eat these highly engineered commodity food components?

So what can we do? We can eat whole fresh foods that are not part of the industrialized food industry. We can stop buying the highly engineered shelf-stable food products that clog the shelves of our huge supermarkets. And when you have to buy a packaged food item, study the label. When you see derivative food commodities such as high-fructose corn syrup or de-oiled soy flakes or refined white flour, and other nutrient-barren additives on the label, don’t buy it. If a packaged food product has more than five ingredients, or has any ingredient you do not understand, don’t buy it.

Buy fresh. Buy local. Cook.

Richard Wottrich