The Danger from Bread Crumbs and Batter

So much of our food is covered in breadcrumbs or batter. The fish and chip industry relies on the latter but increasing take home to cook food from major supermarkets is chicken, risoles - both vegetable and meat, and of course fish fingers all of which rely on crumbs - bread or otherwise.

The problem is that they, like sugar, fat and salt are addictive. They, crisped up in hot oil, which they absorb in no uncertain fashion, offer a crunchy and caramelised coating that is so inviting and, for kids, almost ritualistic.

But one must be in no doubt that the crust is really bad for you. The oil it absorbs almost certainly damaged by the heat to get the crust, the crumbs browned by the heat to produce cancer causing acrylamides and the layers of unburned refined carbohydrate at the interface with the underlying meat or whatever, represent a formidable source of calories.

The worst thing about it is that this is precisely what is served, by the tons to kids, across the world as fish fingers and apart from the initial blast to their health, it locks into them a taste for this rubbish forever. In Britain 570 million are sold annually and most of these will be to kids.

All bad news.

A Few Words on the Crust of Bread, Pizza and Microwave Ovens.

   Having accepted that the crust on bread and pizza, if even browned by baking, let alone burnt or charred, is bad by way of having carcinogen (cancer producing) acrylamides, I think I should mention that using a domestic microwave oven might be an answer to this problem.
   I have not tried it with pizza as I have never tried to make pizza in the conventional sense but I have a good experience cooking my low gluten, high fibre bread in the microwave.
   The bread exposed at the top of the loaf develops a thin and tough skin, enjoyable by virtue of its texture and chewiness but in no way burned and indistinguishable in colour from the loaf as a whole.    This is due to the fact that the microwave doesn't have to cook from outside in, and cooks from the inside out. The loaf that is in the mold, has less of a skin and more of a smooth shiny surface which develops a very thin skin after removal from the mold. ( I use Pyrex and silicone rubber molds - I am sure that the former is very un-reactive with the bread mix and pretty sure the same applies to the silicone rubber).
   This means in my 1000 watt microwave oven I can cook an 800 gm loaf (1.76 pounds) in ten minutes. Allowing that in a conventional oven one would need at least half an hour and the time also to preheat that oven, it can be seen there are very considerable savings in energy - and a healthier loaf to boot!

How Nice of a Food to Lose Weight for You

We have been down the road of explaining the advantages of warm and raw vegetable salads (warves)  However something I have found something else that should be discussed.

Since they have increasingly become the backbone of my daily intake I have been losing weight. It strikes me that here is a food, virtually devoid of refined carbohydrate, except occasionally when I add a little cooked rice or blackeye beans, on which my weight has slowly lost six and  half kilos. I  think therefore the digestion of the meal itself is using lots of calories.

  It makes sense that the gut is stimulated to work harder by the tough and rough of the food, ie its sheer physical presence and that uses up the calories.

  If I was into the physics of food metabolism I might even postulate that the energy I am using up on my basically raw meal is the energy ones' stove would supply in turning it into the standard cooked vegetable meal.

  What is nice also to know that the nutrients are kept pretty much intact, something that won’t be likely if the food is cooked.

It is worth considering that the Nutribullet does one no favours in the manner above
- that 20,000 rpm motor they advertise has done it all for you. The slurry it produces requires little if any energy to move it along the gut.

More Thoughts on the Nutribullet

   At the outset consider a liquid diet as unnatural - impossible to find in nature as such and denies the need for our teeth, and much of the digestive mechanisms orientated around the mouth. The makers or proponent push the fact that so much fibre can be digested this way - I say the fibre in fruit or vegetables one uses is almost certainly damaged so much as to have little mechanical effect on intestinal motility and therefore intestinal health.
   Undoubtedly some fibre remnants persist to enable some sort pre-biotic function but the liquefaction to the degree they show occurs by pouring the result through a filter without obstruction is really worrying.
   Enzymes, vitamins and other nutrients are bound to fragment of the fruit or vegetable used and are released in a manner controlled by mastication and the normal peristalsis and rhythms of the gut.
   When a smoothie or whatever from a Nutribullet is swallowed it exposes the gut to unprecedented level of nutrients, some intact possibly, certainly some knocked about, and not just physically.
   We all like fruit salad but even this might be worrying as the mixed fruits have different acidity levels and particular nutrients in any one item may be damaged by another. Where in nature does one find any animal mixing food in this manner and how much more is that situation.
If this is the case with fruit salad think how much more damage occurs when they are blitzed in a Nutribullet?
The one case where the Nutribullet is useful is liquidising nuts and seeds but it is an expensive way of doing it as blender a quarter to a third of the price will do this nicely. In fact the Nutribullet probably goes overboard reducing any natural irritant effect of a ground nut or seed to zero.
 Something I have mentioned before is the immediacy of the effect of a problem ingredient - this could be allergy or a vegetable or fruit product that should be cooked.
The high speed of the mechanism, said to be 20,000 revs per minute, could easy create enough heat to cook the mix it is making.
Another well advertised and more expensive blender seen in department stores on demonstrations shows by extending the blitz time the mix heats up and renders itself as a soup.
I think, all in all, one has to be wary about the use of the Nutribullet as an aid to health living.

When Fixing The House It's DIY But For Health It Should Be MIY.

Supermarkets are making a fortune out of you from foods you can make yourself (MIY) and polluting the world for the privilege.
This is just a short note on how we have become dependent on supermarkets and stores for the most
ordinary things usually at high price in money and certainly a high price in the environment as these
items are packaged attractively almost seductively in protective surrounds of shaped clear plastic, under protection of expanded polystyrene and paper labelling and clear film to view the contents.
Yet the contents can easily be made at home so that they are fresher, the items used of equal or better quality and done so without the use of preservatives and fancy packaging which will pollute the environment.
Things one never bought before like made up custard, creme caramel ( often sold in glass dishes complete with  a raw sugar sachet to glaze on under the grill at home )  and even sandwiches at costs each of which would buy a loaf of bread and a chunk of cheese to make a dozen sandwiches.
This whole thing of dependence for such things is just a failure to get across to the public how easily it is to do as good - of course there is the convenience thing but there is the confidence thing and the lure of the packaging, most of which will become land fill.
This brings me to the business of MIY which is Make It Yourself.
There has to be intelligent and focused teaching and even by television on really simple, everyday stuff.
Most programs on meals that can be made in 15 or 30 mins simply lie about the reality as even the presenters struggle to make the grade and they have the backing and preparation all ready at hand.
The preparation of a meal means having a menu in the head - not a specific one but a rough outline.
Then all one has to do is to fall back on a little experience, have a look whats in the fridge, vegetable basket and cupboard and then make up as one goes using common sense to pick the best way to deal with what one has.
I'll elaborate on MIY soon.

A Safer Bacon

I guess that’s about as much as one can say - safer - after all there are lots of reasons to hit at a ‘safe’ nomination - it’s meat, there’s fat, there’s the contamination with bugs and even worm infestation. But allowing for those the worst thing about preserved meats of which bacon is merely one, is the preservatives of the nitrate and nitrite denomination. Though it seems that in some ways these might aid the vascular system they have been associated with oesophageal and stomach cancer. On balance it seems to be a good idea to steer clear of meats preserved with nitrates and nitrites.

Perhaps one has to say maybe safer to be utterly honest. What I have to propose is a form of curing which is very low in salt and uses balsamic vinegar or upmarket soy sause.

What I have found to be the best cut of meat so far is in fact one of the cheapest and that is belly pork. In this country I buy it from Marks and Spencers as a slab in a clear plastic wrapper, usually with some coarse pepper, so you can see how fatty or other- wise it is. I choose pretty lean meat but some fat on or through it makes for a better tasting result.

Having tamari, Braggs Aminos or balsamic vinegar (hereafter called the marinade - for that is what it is - a marinade that is driven into the meat and not sitting on the outside as is usual)  with a marinade at hand I brush some onto the slab and some of it on the plate or board holding the meat, and with a sharp pointed knife stab I it many times. I turn it over and repeat - the stab holes sitting in a film or layer of what you have chosen to use. Now rub some over the cuts or bend the slab so some goes into the stab holes that now open.

Placing it on its edge, and bent into a U it sits in the top centre of the oven opposite the fan which usually sits centrally at the back.

The fan is alone is used and this is continues for some 10 to 20 hrs with repeated stabbing sessions and rubbing in every 2 or 3hrs. Timing is not critical

THE IMPORTANT THING IS NOT TO WORRY-IT WILL SLOWLY SHRINK AND GO BROWN AS IT DRIES.   

What drying does it to concentrate the natural flavours of the meat plus those that are in the marinade, inside the meat and where it matters from a flavour point of view.

As for the preservative aspect of all of this, drying will contribute, balsamic vinegar acts as preservative, the Aminos have a small amount of salt that is said to be natural - at least not added to the soy ferment, and of course Tamari soy sauce has quite a bit of salt.

Added to this the meat will be kept in the fridge and could even be frozen though I cannot vouch for this. Allowing the water content of the meat is reduced by drying it would seem logical that there is less in meat cells to expand and disrupt its texture as happens mostly from freezing meat.

Sliced very thinly and raw it offers a truly distinctive and sweet flavour to the meat or if like a slice of bacon it is warmed through in a pan with an egg or so it is truly delicious.
It is important never to crisp your food and bacon too especially ordinary bought bacon!

I find heating a piece in the pan and chopping it finely and adding to a vegetable salad makes a little go a long way flavour wise.  

Pizza Turnover for a really quick meal.

Having proposed that the base for your pizza be a wrap, thereby reducing the amount of dough to be consumed, I had the other night to make for a curry dinner party elsewhere, some nibbles or canapé.
Using three wraps laid flat I spread on half of each a layer of a mix as below about a 1/4 in or 6m thick tapering off near the edge.
   
    [This was a concoction of feta and cheddar cheese, curry powder, finely chopped onion, sliced   tomato, passata, low sodium salt, Cayenne pepper,and lemon juice. This was a bit moist and as I wanted to be sure the mix stuck to the wrap I made a mini mix of tamarind, just as an added flavour, and psyllium in very warm water. When the psyllium was dissolved I added some raw jumbo oats - a good tip this - oats really mop up moisture - and then added this to the main mix.]

I then folded the half of the wrap without any spread over the other and microwaved each  wrap on full power for 2 minutes. (The thinness and soft texture of the wrap allows it to be folded very easily.)

Using some sharp scissors  ( and definitely not one of those roller pizza cutters )  I cut triangles every in (25mm) along the margin to the centre to make micro pizza slices. This is so easy and neat.
Having a top and bottom to contain the filling makes them really suitable as a canape. It is is the presence of the cheese and the psyllium that sets the filling so it binds to the wrap and doesn't fall out. It is probably sensible therefore not to serve these too hot.

Forgetting the business of this being a way to make canape it is a very fast way of making a really
enjoyable light meal.
GET A WRAP, PUT YOUR FILLING ON HALF, FOLD, MICROWAVE AND ENJOY!