Celeriac: ugly, unloved and misunderstood

Can you imagine being ignored, passed over, relegated to the back of the grocery-store vegetable display, squeezed between shiny red peppers, voluptuous eggplants and disappearing underneath the mane of a more fashionable bunch of dinosaur kale?

Can you fathom being called knob-celery? How demeaning and insulting for such a grand root, so versatile, so forgiving and oh so-full of goodness?
Even though it's a root, it contains very little starch or calories but instead is loaded with Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, phosphorus, potassium, manganese and fiber. Truly an unsung hero, a prince among winter vegetables.
Once its warty peel removed, the magnificence of this cold-weather alternative to potatoes might make you tear up: a creamy ivory flesh that will bend itself to all your epicurean whims, with a flavor reminiscent of a cross between branch celery and fresh parsley.
A Mediterranean native, celeriac was cultivated by Egyptians,Greeks and Romans for medicinal and religious uses.
Today,  the lowly but lovely celerie-remoulade, accompanied by its twin-dish carottes rapées seems to adorn many European lunch tables, but this ugly duckling of a vegetable will bow to a chef's demands with grace, heartiness and nutrition.
Peeling the root requires some effort and a good sharp paring knife. Save the peel as it makes a fabulous vegetable broth.
Use broad downward strokes to remove the thick peel. Put the chopped root into a bowl of lemon-water immediately after cutting to avoid discoloration. To soften its edge, it's best to parboil celeriac in lemon-water for 5 to 10 minutes, even if you're planning to fry or bake it.

Last week, I was pretending to prepare my garden for the winter, halfheartedly shaking a shovel around while talking on the phone, when lo and behold! I discovered a big celeriac root that had escaped the confine of my raised bed. I am so grateful the silly beast had hidden itself from my always too eager hands: I simple cannot resist the urge to pull carrots, radishes or any root veggies way before their time and always end up having to cook those scrawny pathetic runts. Not this time. The monster was close to 2 pounds, warts, hairy roots and all. In no time, the thing was washed, peeled, rubbed with a half-lemon. I dug up a couple of leeks and rummaged in the fridge for a fennel bulb. I had something in mind: a soup, un potage, that set me salivating.

          Celeriac and Fennel Soup
                                 serves 4 to 6

the stock:

-Paring from a celeriac
-2 cups of sliced leek greens (wash well)
-2 carrots sliced ( no need to peel them if using organic)
-the outer leaves of 1 fennel bulb (thick and coarse) and some of the leafy stalks
-2 bay leaves
-6-8 parsley branches
-1/3 teaspoon fennel seeds
-1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
-1/2 teaspoon sea salt
-8 cups filtered water 

Wash the celeriac carefully, scrubbing it well with a brush. With a sharp knife (I use a very good Y peeler), slice top and bottom, and peel the gnarly skin. Put all parings in a bowl of lemon-water. You can alternatively use a couple tablespoons of white vinegar..
Remove the outer leaves of the fennel bulb and chop them.
In a thick soup pot such as cast-iron, combine celeriac parings, fennel, leek greens, carrots and all other ingredients, bring to a boil then simmer covered for 30 minutes.
Strain and reserve the stock.

the soup:

-2 tablespoons pastured-butter
-1/2 cup filtered water
-1 cup of leeks, white part only (about 2 big leeks or 3 smaller  ones)
-fennel bulb left-over from making the stock, chopped
-celeriac chopped in small pieces
-1/2 teaspoon sea-salt
-stock you just made, 6-7 cups
-fresh-ground pepper to taste
-1/2 cup of heavy cream, or half-and-half
-optional chopped arugula, water-cress or tender inner-fennel leaves for garnish.

Melt butter, with water and add leeks, fennel, celeriac and salt. I occasionally will fish out the chopped carrots from the stock and throw them in the pot as well.
Stir well, cover and simmer slowly for 20 minutes. Check for moisture level at least once (add some stock if all moisture has evaporated).
Add strained stock over the veggies, bring to a boil, cover and simmer 15 minutes.
Let the soup cool down for a few minutes and blend it with a hand-held wand.
Stir in the cream. Add more stock if the soup is too thick.
Taste for salt and pepper.
Serve and add the optional garnish.

Enjoy this sweet, delicate and soothing soup.

Cocoa-Almond Butter Mini-Cups

I call them my "lovelies". I try to hide them at the bottom of my freezer but they always seem to surface at the most inopportune moment. They know exactly how to make themselves needed, wanted and loved. They are true friends.
But beware! If your notion of chocolate is Hershey's, don't even attempt to eat one. Totally unsweetened, they require a sophisticated palate.


Ingredients for the shells
1/4 cup coconut manna or butter
1/4 cup melted or very soft coconut oil
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt

Ingredients for the filling
3 Tbsp almond butter, or any other nut butter
1 Tbsp coconut oil
pinch of sea salt

Preparation
-whisk all the ingredients for the shell in a small bowl
-line two 24 mini-muffin pans with paper liners
-spoon about 1 tsp of the shell mixture in each liner
-place pans in freezer until solidly set, about 1/2 hour
-while the shells are setting, mix all ingredients for the filling
-take pans out of the freezer and quickly spoon about 1/2 tsp of cocoa mixture on top of each shell.
-once all shells are covered, add the remaining cocoa filling
-place the trays back into the freezer
-serve cold (the nut mixture will melt quickly at room temperature

Go easy! These pack a punch in terms of calories!

Salt

Evil On Your Table

Humans cannot live without salt. Earliest settlements were build around salt producing ponds and springs. Caravans trekked deserts trading salt ounce-for-ounce for gold.. The Romans soldiers were paid a salarium possibly to purchase salt (hence the word "salary"). Roads were built to transport it and Europeans kings taxed it heavily.








Still, we need to understand that the refined table salt (the one that pours!) and the cooking salt found in mainstream grocery stores can have a huge impact on our health.
For proper body functions, we need to eat what I usually refer to as "real salt", unrefined and still containing 84 minerals and essential elements.
Table salt is 97.5% sodium chloride and 2.5% chemicals such as iodine and moisture absorbents, namely aluminum. Its chemical structure is changed during processing at over 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. What remained after this chemical cleansing is sodium chloride, an altered salt that our body cannot recognize as food.

Most processed foods (canned, frozen...) are preserved with this kind of salt. If you think that 9 out of every 10 dollars spent on food go toward processed food, you realize the extent of the problem.

Table salt crystals are isolated from each other and the body needs to expend an immense amount of energy to try to metabolize table salt. The fluid balance is destabilized, which puts a lot of stress on the body's elimination system:

-to neutralize the overdose of sodium chloride we ingest, water molecules surround it to break it up into sodium and chloride ions;

-perfectly structured water is taken from our cells which results in dehydrated cells, ultimately killing them prematurely;
 
-when the body cannot get rid of all the sodium chloride, it utilizes a lot of cell-water to neutralize it, causing excess fluid in tissue. This can contribute to kidney and gall-bladder stones, arthritis, gout, and yes, cellulite.

The average American consumption of table salt is from 4,000 to 10,000 mg/day: that's 1 to almost 3 teaspoons.
Table salt packaging never list the other dangerous additives because the manufacturers are not required by law to do so. The winner is clearly aluminum hydroxide (an alloy that nicely deposits in the brain) added to keep the salt from caking. After all, isn't it such an inconvenience for the cook that the darn salt would clump? Wouldn't you rather chose the risk of Alzheimer's disease?
Furthermore, the anti-caking agents perform the same function in the human body, so refined salt does not dissolve and combine with the water and fluids present in our system. Instead it builds up in the body and leaves deposits in organs and tissue, causing severe health problems like hyperthyroidism.
If that was not enough to scare you away from table salt, you need to know that the aluminum used in salt production leaves a bitter taste, so manufacturers usually add sugar in the form of dextrose to hide the taste. Refined sugar is associated with the development of more than 60 diseases.

What are some alternatives to table salt?

Organic (unrefined) sea salt contains minerals and trace minerals that the body can use. Sea salt is harvested near ocean coasts, where the sea water is channeled into a of clay-lined ponds. Ocean water evaporate under the action of sun and wind, and a mineral-rich brine is left. The salt-farmer stimulates this mixture to help in the crystallization then gather the salt by hand using wooden tools. This harvesting method preserves the vital balance of the minerals we need.  




But beware, as many salts labeled “sea salt” are washed or boiled, which removes minerals and trace elements from the salt. When shopping look for “organic” sea salt.

 My favorite, and the favorite of many chefs is the magnificent and VERY expensive Fleur de Sel 
(of course it has to be French) which is the salt that floats to the top of salt ponds crystallized by the sun.  

Another must in every kitchen is the Himalayan Pink Salt which offers natural elements identical to those in our body, which given the state of the Earth oceans might be purer than sea salt.

                                                                                                                     
Iodine is not added to organic sea salt (Himalayan salt may contain a small amount of iodine). It is needed for the production of thyroid hormone and as the body does not make iodine,  it is essential to eat foods that contain it.

Raw grass-fed cow's milk, cheeses and yogurt
Pastured organic eggs 

Saltwater fish
Organic seaweed (including kelp, dulce, nori)
Shellfish

Organic potatoes

Organic strawberries

Watercress (the oldest known leaf-vegetable consumed by humans).

Salt-Crust Fish

• 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 3-pound cleaned scaled whole fish (white fish works best), fins removed
• 1 cup thinly sliced leek (white and pale green parts only)
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 cup filtered water
• 2 26.5-ounce boxes coarse organic sea salt (6 cups)
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Lemon wedges for serving

Preparation

• Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 450°F. Line large baking sheet or oven-proof glass dish with foil, leaving generous overhang. In skillet, combine first 3 ingredients and toast seeds/spices over medium heat until beginning to pop, stirring frequently, 7-9 minutes. Cool spices then coarsely crush in mortar.
• Rinse fish inside and out and pat dry. Sprinkle all of seeds/spices mixture in fish cavity. Stuff with leek and lemon slices.
• Blend egg whites and water in large bowl with whisk. Add salt. Stir until salt is evenly moistened. Spread about 2 cups of the salt mixture in 4' x 12" strip (or to match length of fish) on foil sheet. Place fish on salt. Cover fish completely with remaining salt mixture, pressing to seal.
• Bake fish 25 minutes, remove from oven and let stand in crust 10 minutes.
• Using a large knife, rap crust sharply to crack. Brush salt from fish, cut and serve with lemon wedges and olive oil on the side.
  
  
  Bon Appetit!
  
  

 


 

Sugar: Is it the faux-friend that really could kill you?

There is an ocean of research that proves it. 

No but, if , when. No doubt. 

Sugar is doing to American civilization what lead did to Rome.

It’s making us fat, it’s making us crazy and it is slowly killing us. 

Are you scared of flying in a plane? Are you worried about terrorism? No need to stress your already panicked system. 

Sugar will kill you faster than Al Qaeda.

High-fructose corn syrup is taking the lion's share of our calories. In a mere 300 years, the average yearly consumption of sugar has gone from 4 pounds to 180 pounds (yes, that's one half-pound per day per person).

In the 1700’s, only the rich could afford sugar. Thus, they had very bad teeth. The lowly peasants, wanting to emulate their lords and ladies and appear what they were not, would blacken their choppers. Midwives and healers already could recognize all the signs of deterioration brought on by the consumption of sugar. Unfortunately but very predictably, those poor souls literally ended up in the fire for denouncing what would fuel the expansion of a few empires, the colonization of others and the slave-trade.

For the mere 2.3 million years of evolution, humans had quite a rough time trying to maintain their blood-sugar at the optimum level. Food was scarce and ability to store it even worse. Today, we are facing a crisis due to the reversal of these parameters. You can get your fill almost anywhere. Gas stations seem to be engaged into a war of which one can offer the most absolutely revolting concoction. Florist are pushing chocolate and office supplies stores rival each other with displays of potato chips!!

Simply put, sugar is everywhere, from sodas and candy, to sports drink and condiments. Most processed foods contain some sort of sweetener. From birth to death, we are being poisoned. Some infant formulas contain as much sugar as a can of soda. Medicines such as cough syrup are filled with the stuff.

And still, some wonder why we are becoming a nation of obese people. One third of the population is obese, the other third is overweight, which leaves only one third healthy (not a very large pool in which to find Olympians!) The rate of obesity of white middle- age men has gone from 3% to 30% in little more than 100 years and with it the rates of heart disease, diabetes and kidney failure.

Let’s take a look at the different sugars and sweeteners:

Glucose, fructose and dextrose are monosaccharides, simple sugars.  The  body metabolizes them differently, with glucose and dextrose being pretty much the same thing. They can form more complex sugars by recombining: table sugar is half fructose/half glucose and is a disaccharide. 

High-fructose corn syrup is also a combination of fructose and glucose (55/45).

Ethanol is obtained from fermenting sugars with yeast but is not a sugar.

Xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol, glycerol, erythritol and maltitol are very popular sweeteners that are neither alcohol nor sugars although they are dubbed “sugar alcohols” Partially absorbed by the small intestine, they can bring on a full array of problems such as diarrhea, bloating and flatulence.

Sucralose or Splenda is a freak, 600 times sweeter than table sugar, and obtained through a chlorination process. A small percentage of the sucralose ingested is absorbed by the small intestine but it has been shown that it is capable of destroying the bulk of the friendly intestinal bacteria on which our immune system depends.

Aspartame or NutraSweet is also an artificial sweetener with documented and devastating side-effects such as headaches, migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, rashes, depression, irritability, insomnia, hearing loss, vision problems, loss of taste vertigo and memory loss.

Agave syrup is a highly processed substance and it is about 80% fructose. Thanks to very smart advertising, it’s made a grand entrance on the shelves of natural-food stores but there’s really nothing natural about it.

Stevia derives from the stevia plant, which is very easy to grow in a lot of climates. It is 200 times sweeter than table sugar and does not raise blood sugar. However if you have insulin issues, it is best that to avoid  all sweeteners, including Stevia, as they all can decrease your sensitivity to insulin. Some object to the bitter metallic after taste of Stevia. It might be worth trying a different brand. The whole-leaf extract has not been approved by the FDA and can only been sold as a dietary supplement, while compounds from the Stevia plant can be legally used as a “natural” sweetener (Truvia a no-calorie sweetener is is not made from whole Stevia, just two of the sweetest compounds). Only the FDA can make it so confusing and complicated.

Honey is 53% fructose. Used in its RAW form, it is natural and has wonderful healing properties when used in moderation.

Glucose vs. fructose

Glucose is the energy source of every living thing on our planet. The human body was design to run on the stuff. But now, we consume mostly fructose. In vegetable and fruit, fructose is mixed with minerals, enzymes, vitamins, fiber…All these contribute to modulating the effect fructose has on our body. But sadly, we now consume fructose in its most naked form: in drink, juice and processed foods. One century ago the average person ate 15 grams of fructose per day. Today, the average is closer to 75 grams with some people reaching a high of 130 grams.

Our liver is the poor lone work-horse in the metabolization of fructose. Every day, it receives massive amounts of fructose that has not been subjected to any break-down by the body. The fructose from your Coca-Cola (remember, it’s made from high-fructose corn-syrup, a mixture of unbound sucrose and glucose) goes straight for the liver and is turned into fat, ready to be deposited in those nice little areas we love to hate: thighs, belly, under-arms, buttocks. In the meantime, the glucose in your Coke, being what every cell in your body in programmed to use, is burned up soon after you have your drink.

The effects. Glucose vs. fructose

The problems of fructose metabolism don’t affect just your dress size. Here’s a sample of the effects of fructose on the human body:

-Raises blood pressure by elevating the levels of uric acid (a bit more complicated than that really so please don’t run to your doctor with this paper in hand!!!!)

-Damages kidneys,

-Increases chronic low-level inflammation, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes, and according to the latest research, to cancer,

-Promotes weight gain, abdominal obesity,

-Leads to Metabolic Syndrome (decreased HDL, increased LDL, high triglycerides, high blood-sugar and high blood-pressure)

-Promotes non-alcoholic fatty-liver.

A sugar break?

According to some research, it would seem that the more sugar you eat, the more effective your body is in absorbing it. Of course, the more you absorb, the more damage is done.

The body becomes "sensitized" to sugar and more sensitive to its toxic effects as well. But you can give a  sugar holiday to your body in as little as 2 weeks. The sensitization decreases and the body becomes less reactive.

But what about fruit?

Fruits are lovely and perfect the way they are. Yes, they contain fructose but their design also includes vitamins, fiber and antioxidants that minimize the negative effects of fructose. But what happen when you drink only their juices? You still get all the fructose but most of the antioxidants have been lost in the processing of the fruit. Bottled juices from the grocery store are probably the most hazardous for our health:  they tend to grow fungus as they sit nicely on their shelves waiting for a buyer. Fresh squeezed juices are fine to consume in MODERATION, that is not every day. Fructose is not the enemy per say, but the higher its consumption the higher the devastation it brings on the body.

I can hear the objection rising in the back of some heads: Didn't our ancestors evolve eating fruits and berries? They sure did, but they ate fruits when they were in season. They also ate fruits that had not been bred and modified over centuries, to be uniform in shape, size and color and to be SWEETER.

If you are a raw-foodist, eat the cleanest diet and get plenty of exercise, it is possible for you to consume fructose in excess and still remain perfectly healthy. But my friend, you are the exception.

My recommendation is to eat no more than 1 piece of fruit per day, unless you have insulin issues/diabetes in which case you should totally avoid it.

Here’s a chart of the fructose content of common fruits.

Brassica and Thyroid

If you've been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, you've probably been told to avoid eating certain foods that contain goitrogens.  This would include the brassica family: broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, bok choi, turnips...Goitrogens are compounds that suppress the function of the thyroid by interfering with iodine uptake. 
Can the consumption of these foods cause hypothyroidism? 
Some physicians and nutritionists believe that this warning is unfair to the brassica family and exaggerated. 
Why?
-The goitrogenic compounds in these foods are destroyed by cooking.
-In order to have a negative effect on the thyroid hormones, one would need to ingest a huge amount of broccoli, which is very unlikely to happen over a long period of time. I'm yet to meet someone addicted to kale or Brussels sprouts (can't say that about sugar though, can I?)
Still, I would not recommend that anyone with hypothyroidism eat any of these foods in their raw form. Steaming, light sauteing are good options for these tender and beautiful veggies.

On the other hand, soy (I love to hate soy, so easy to do) by affecting the absorption of iodine has goitrogenic properties.  It's unfortunate that most people eat soy every day. Not just your garden variety vegetarian or vegan, mind you, but every person who buys processed foods ingests a fair amount of soy. 
Soy is everywhere, from energy bars to fake meats, from baked goods to cheese (cheese?!), from baby-formulas to noodles. Just check the labels of some of the packaged foods in your kitchen and look for these terms:
soy flour, hydrolysed vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, protein concentrate, textured vegetable protein, vegetable oil (simple, fully, or partially hydrogenated), plant sterols, or the emulsifier lecithin. 
Its many uses and disguises are telling of its value to manufacturers: endless and cheap.
Many vegetarians rely on tofu for proteins. Tofu is highly processed and difficult to digest. The human digestive tract is just not able to utilize tofu's proteins.
Tempeh and miso are the exceptions, as long as they've been fermented properly, using traditional and ancestral methods.
Seitan (which I aptly pronounced Satan for the longest time until I was corrected by an irate fundamentalist vegan who probably mistook my accent for a fashion statement) might take the first prize for ultimate franken-food. It's made from wheat gluten, the most allergenic part of wheat. I wonder who ever came up with this genial idea: let's make fake meat out of grains that most of us should not be eating in the first place, slap a label with a sunrise-over-a-cute-farm on it and promote it to eager non-meat eaters as the most ethical food ever to hit the shelf! 
It is a challenge to get quality proteins, whether one is carnivorous or not. Avoiding adulterated and toxic foods should be a priority if we are to avoid getting sick.
Buy grass-fed meats, more and more available in mainstream stores - even Costco sells grass-fed beef.
Support your local farmers by getting pastured chickens, eggs, pork.
And even though I'm no big fan of protein shakes (I think food should be chewed), high quality protein powders are available through health-care professionals. I would stay away from most powders sold in grocery stores or vitamins stores, as they're made from poor quality proteins, such as whey from cows raised in factory-farms, and processed at very high temperature. They also tend to include an arm-length list of unpronounceable ingredients.

We all know that processed foods are not healthy but they are source of iodized salt, and hence iodine. A lot of salt is lost when we shift from processed foods to a whole-food nutrient-rich diet and getting enough iodine can become a problem.
I usually recommend cooking with sea salts but most contain very little of no iodine at all. Adding kelp or kelp seasoning to the diet is a good option unless you've been diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease.
The use of iodine in the treatment of thyroid disease is controversial. Some hypothyroid patients  have successfully been treated with iodine. For people who have hypothyroidism caused by iodine deficiency, supplemental iodine is both necessary and effective but should only been done under a physician's watch.

Enough blah blah blah, let's move on to serious matters: a recipe!

And today's winner is quick and simple and delicious.

Roasted Cream of Broccoli Soup

preparation: 5mns
Servings: 6

Ingredients

    1 1/2 lbs. broccoli florets
    4 shallots, peeled and sliced
    1/4 cup olive oil
    1 tsp. Celtic salt
    1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
    4 cups organic chicken broth or vegetable broth
    1 cup coconut milk
    
Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 
Put  broccoli florets and shallot slices in a bowl. 
Pour olive oil over, add salt and pepper and mix well.
Spread mixture onto a large cookie sheet.

Roast in the oven for 15 minutes, remove and cover with foil. Let it sit.

Bring the stock to a boil in a large stockpot. 
Add the broccoli mixture and return to a boil. 
Lower heat down to simmer for 10 minutes.

Blend with wand-mixture until smooth. Stir in coconut milk and reheat to warm.