Make your own mini-Grill

From LifeHacker comes this simple idea to make your own mini-grill

Use tin snips or heavy duty kitchen shears to cut strips into a can. Fold the strips back (carefully - don't cut yourself on the edges) and line with foil.  Add a few charcoal briquettes and you're cooking!

What a Crock!

We've owned a crock pot for decades, never using it, gathering dust on our shelf of unused appliances. Then my wife saw a good deal on a pork roast for "pulled pork" and bought it. We've never done that either so she asked a friend who gave us a pulled pork recipe which required a crock pot. We followed instructions and waited, and waited. After several hours the meat still looked raw. We waited more hours - and finally the meat was cooked and did pull apart easily with a fork. We added a sauce that was wonderful and my wife is eager to try it again.

This got me to wondering, is a crock pot safe? How can meat be raw for hours in a warm environment and not develop food poisoning? The answer is in the temperature.

The low or warm setting is 71–74 °C [160–165 °F] and the high is usually 175–200 °F. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, bacteria in food is killed at a temperature of 165°F. Beef/pork should be cooked to an internal temperature of 170° as high as 190°F in poultry. With a crock pot you are cooking right on the edge of safety, just high enough to kill bacteria but not enough to burn food. Be sure to follow cooking directions, for instance cooking poultry on low would not be safe.

I saw a comment online that opening the lid of a crock pot lowers the temperature and that you should add 20 minutes cooking each time you lift the lid.

Bottom Line

Have fun with crock pots but follow instructions. It's not a bad idea to test the internal temperature of meat to make sure it's in the safe zone.

Carb Substitutes

“Man does not live by bread alone, even presliced bread.” - D.W. Brogan

Today I found an excellent list of carb substitutes on myThirtySpot.com and this fits in so well with yesterday's topic of Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load.

1. Use summer squash for hash browns.
2. Replace mashed potatoes with pureed cauliflower. If the taste bothers you, try mixing cauliflower with potatoes to lower the carb count. Parsnips also mix well with potatoes but there's very little carb reduction with parsnips.
3. Use sliced zucchini for pasta noodles. This one I've used and it works great. My wife uses a mandolin with a Julienne cutter and then sautee the zucchini strips and pours spaghetti sauce on top.
4. Use spaghetti squash for spaghetti. Very easy to make and when the cooked squashed is scraped with a fork, the result is spaghetti like strands.
5. Cottage cheese pancakes? I never noticed this one when I used the South Beach Diet plan. Mix cottage cheese, oatmeal, eggs & a few spices in a blender for a "pancake" batter. What I have tried is almond flour and chick-pea flour for pancakes. The taste was fine but the texture was not the same.
6. Use Tempheh for Scalloped Potatoes
7. Make Mac n Cheese with diced vegetables
8. Use less pasta and more beans or veggies in a pasta salad
9. Use low-fat string cheese for chips? Slice & bake for "chips"
10. Use Portobello mushrooms as a mini-pizza crust - YUM. This does work But don't overcook, portobellos will lose liquid and collapse when overcooked.
11. Use sliced eggplant in place of lasgna noodles
12. Use lettuce (napa or romain) as a wrap instead of bread for sandwiches

Bottom Line

See myThirtySpot.com for the full recipes. Bon Appetit!

When to toss Leftovers?

"Leftovers make you feel good twice. First, when you put it away, you feel thrifty and intelligent: ‘I’m saving food!’ Then a month later when blue hair is growing out of the ham, and you throw it away, you feel really intelligent: ‘I’m saving my life!’"
– George Carlin

Question: "When do I throw out leftovers"?

TasteOfHome.com has a simple answer, "If in doubt - throw it out". 

Don't rely on taste or smell or looks. Food may contain an unhealthy level of bacteria yet give no clue after several days.

A more detailed answer is, "it is best to eat leftovers within 2 days. Some items may still be safe after 3-5 days."

Raw foods from potentially dirty environments have a higher risk of contamination. These include fresh poultry & fish & other seafood (shrimp, scallops, squid, and shucked clams, mussels, and oysters). Don't keep these items in a fridge for more than a day (two at most).  Fresh (raw) ground meat and chopped meat (stew chunks) are equally at risk with more surface area exposed for bacteria growth.

Cooked foods will usually keep for 3 days (5 at most).

There are some foods that are are designed/created for a slightly longer shelf life:
hard cheese: 3 to 4 weeks
soft cheese: 1 week
yogurt: 1 - 2 weeks

Advice for Storing Leftovers

Begin with a clean container with an airtight seal. For items still hot, use shallow containers or divide the food into smaller portions so the center of the leftover can cool quickly. Some experts suggest waiting until steam has stopped rising from food before putting it into the refrigerator so that you don’t heat up your refrigerator. But don't wait too long.

"If food has been left out for longer than 2 hours, don’t put it back in the refrigerator, and don’t keep it for later. It’s not safe to eat." - TasteOfHome

"If food is left at room temperature for more than two hours, (one hour in hot weather) bacteria can grow to harmful levels, making it unsafe to eat." - European Food Information Council

Other experts discourage cooling leftovers on the kitchen counter but instead recommend putting warm leftovers quickly in the fridge. Bacteria are like Golilocks and love warm food (not too cold and not too hot) and grow quickly at a temperature that's "just right". My mother is a stickler when it comes to food safety. My wife & I were surprised when she took the hot bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken we had purchased for a picnic, transfered it to tupperware, and then put that in a cooler with ice, because it would take us a few hours to reach the picnic site.

P.S.
The quote at top comes from a George Carlin routine called Ice Box Man which I recommend.

The Dark Side of Chicken Soup

“In August it will be so hot
I will become a cooking pot
cooking soup of course. Why not?
Cooking once, cooking twice
cooking chicken soup with rice.”
-Chicken Soup With Rice, by Maurice Sendak

Chicken soup is world renown as healthy and helpful - there's chicken soup when you're sick and chicken soup for the soul. But are you aware that chicken soup also has an evil, dark side? As reported by NPR in the story "Why Burn Doctors Hate Instant Soup", instant soups are a common cause of serious burns and scalds; with noodle soups the worst offender.

"Noodle soup is strangely perfect for delivering a serious burn. The sticky noodles cling to the skin, which leads to deeper, more severe burns, ... hospital stays for upper body noodle-soup burns are more than twice as long as scalds from hot liquids alone."

Part of the problem is allowing a child to cook or eat something that is scalding hot. The heat may come from a microwave or boiling hot water added to the soup. And even if your child is well-trained and super cautious, the problem with some instant soups is their cup shape with a narrow base make them prone to tipping. The soup is accidentally spilled and splashed with the noodles clinging and burning. The Chief of Burns at Shriner's Hospital for Children in Northern California examined several popular brands for the amount of tilt it takes to tip the soup.

The Burn Chief contacted Nissin and manufacturers of the "tippiest" cups with a simple suggesting, turn the cups upside down so they open on the narrow end like Yoplait yogurt. None of the companies responded according to NPR.

Bottom Line

"I don't have them in my house," says Dr. Warren Garner, director of the burn unit at University of Southern California's County Hospital in Los Angeles. "I would say that we see at least two to three patients a week who've been injured by these products."  - NPR story

If you buy instant soup, buy one that is bowl shaped with a wide base to reduce the risk of tipping over and scalding. And write to the makers of the tippy cups to let them know why you won't buy their product again.

You're Burning the Chow

Little John: You're burning the chow!
Robin Hood: Sorry, Johnny. I guess I was thinking about Maid Marian again
- Disney's movie, Robin Hood

When one thinks of school the obvious subjects are Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. But the two high school classes that I have most benefited from are Typing and Cooking which I use everyday. Cooking class was fun - our teacher acquired bags and bags of apples that fell on a nearby golf course so for weeks we explored many possible ways to cook or bake with apples (yum!)

It is often said that cooking is an art while baking is a science. Cooking follows formulas and requires technique but the flavoring should be done by taste because the seasonings used may be stale and require extra amounts. Baking requires exact measurements and precise cooking time and temperature. Baking uses ingredients that are rather basic but must be combined in the right way - butter, eggs, salt, flour, water, milk, sugar, etc.

For example, if you're making sugary candle like caramel, you'll want to buy a candy thermometer. Sugar is very particular and changes its color and consistency with different temperatures that is well documented in cookbooks.  Because of this I thought the chemistry of sugar was well understood. Imagine my surprise to find out that University of Illinois scientists learn startling new truth about sugar.

"In the literature, the melting point for sucrose varies widely, but scientists have always blamed these differences on impurities and instrumentation differences."

When the Illinois scientists could not get sugar to melt at a fixed temperature, they decided to investigate and learned that the melting point of sugar was heating-rate dependent.

"We saw different results depending on how quickly we heated the sucrose. That led us to believe that molecules were beginning to break down as part of a kinetic process."

When a compound has a fixed melting point, the compound changes phase-state (i.e. from solid to liquid) and that change is reversible because the chemical composition of the compound is unchanged. But some substances (organic ones like milk and now sugar) "melt" by decomposing, by breaking up in to different chemicals in a process that is NOT reversible by merely cooling the temperature. At high heat sugar will decompose rapidly and appear to "melt" at a lower temperature. This is exactly the same as heating milk - if you heat it too quickly it "scalds" and burns. You must heat milk (and sugar) slowly to avoid decomposition.

Bottom Line

What does this mean for cooks? The temperature setting on your stove matters. You can not just set the burner to High to cook something faster. Butter will burn, milk scald, and sugars break down when the heating is too fast.

Experienced cooks also learn that more heat does NOT boiling pasta faster-  the water will stay at boiling temperature (100 C or 212 F) and go no higher. You can use High to get the water to boiling quickly, but once there, you're wasting energy if you don't turn it back to Low. All high heat does during boiling is turn more water to steam - it won't make the water any hotter.

Nine women can not produce a baby in one month
- The Mythical Man-Month

"all things come to those who wait"

Waiter there's a F.R.O.G. in my sandwich

"At Motel 6 in Amish Country I wonder if they leave the light on for you?"
~ Jay London

My wife & I enjoy vacationing in Amish regions. There are many reasons.
1. An admiration for a people who truly live according to the dictates of their religion.
2. A chance to learn "primitive" survival skills from a life without electricity.
3. Great food

It seems every time we visit the Amish we find some new food item. One year it was hot, buttery pretzels sold at a roadside stand - the best pretzels ever. Another year it was Trail Bologna served hot in a sandwich. This year we "discovered" F.R.O.G jam. With a name like that, it's got to be good? The name stands for the flavor ingredients: Figs, Raspberry, Orange Peel, and Ginger. When we finished the jar we'd bought, we tried to duplicate it at home. We started with a jar of fig jam, warmed it in a pot, and added raspberries, grated orange peel, grated ginger, and some pectin to help it set again. Sealed it in a larger jar, and sterilized it. We opened the jar yesterday and it's great. A bit more ginger kick than the original but that's OK.

Here are two recipes I found online:

F.R.O.G. Jam-

• 3 oranges juiced
• 2 (3 oz) packages of raspberry gelatin
• 4 cups mashed ripe figs
• 4 cups sugar
• 4 TBS. orange zest
• 4 TBS. fresh finger, finely diced

Over medium heat, stir orange juice and gelatin until dissolved.
Add chopped figs, sugar, orange zest and ginger. Let come to boil on med heat, reduce to low, stirring often. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, continue stirring until mixture thickens.
Pour into sterilized jars, seal and place in canner filled with hot water. Process sealed jars for 15 minutes.
 
Low Sugar FROG Jam

3 oranges juiced- about 1 cup liquid (add water if needed to get 1 cup)
1 (3oz) pkg. of raspberry gelatin (JELL-O)
1 pkg low sugar sure jell
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup splenda
4 cups chopped figs
1 Quart of fresh raspberries, cooked, smashed, and strained to remove seeds (unless you like seeds)
4 TBS orange zest minced fine
4 to 5 TBS fresh ginger minced fine

In large saucepan, stir together OJ, raspberry juice, gelatin and pectin (surejel) until dissolved over medium heat.
Keep stirring until there are no lumps, it may take awhile. Add sugar, splenda, figs, orange zest and ginger and bring to boil on medium heat.
Reduce to low heat, but keep on a low boil and cook for about 25 minutes. Stir often or it will burn. When the mixture thickens, pour into sterilized half pint jars, and seal with rubber tops and rings. Place in hot water bath and process for 15 minutes.
Because of the reduced sugar, this jam should be stored in the refrigerator and used within 6 months.
 

Bottom Line

We have a great time at supermarkets either run by the Amish or selling to an Amish population. So many different items that you won't see at your neighborhood grocery store.

New Ideas for the Grill

“Kids are wonderful, but I like mine barbecued.”
- Bob Hope

I love BBQ. There's something primitive and satisfying about food grilled or roasted over a flame. And I thought I knew a thing or two about grilling technique. But MensHealth.com has some ideas that never occurred to me. Supposedly the article is about how healthy grilled foods can be but I'm enjoying the pictures and recipes.

1. Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken Breast
What a simple idea for the grill. Add some cheese and you have an inside-out chicken-cordon-bleu. My fear would be burning the prosciutto while waiting for the chicken to cook completely through.

2. There are several ideas for grilled fruit. Cubed Watermelon served with feta cheese. Grilled apricots halves served with yogurt, grilled pineapple slices with ice cream. There was also strawberry shortcake where the shortcake was grilled.

3. Grilled cheese. I've never heard of Haloumi cheese but this I want to try.

4. Grilled pizza!

Bottom Line

What's your favorite recipe for the grill?

Ramen

"Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better."

-Robert Redford

As a child and young adult I enjoyed Ramen. It's a quick and easy meal. Later while working in Manhattan I was introduced to Noodle Houses which serve delightfully flavored bowls of noodles with your choice of toppings. Now I can bring these two experiences together thanks to Ramen Hacks: 30+ Easy Ways to Upgrade Your Instant Noodles.

The article describes many (30?) excellent ideas for enhancing ramen. One secret is having a great broth base. I ordered noodle soup at a Japanese fusion bistro and was shocked to find it had zero flavor. Perhaps a clean, simple taste is popular in Japan but I like my broth to be complexly flavored. Here's some things to add instead of the highly salted packets that come with Ramen.

• Miso paste
• Chili bean sauce
• Thai curry paste
• Japanese curry powder
• Fish sauce or Oyster sauce
• Harrisa (a Tunisian hot chilli sauce common in North African cooking)
• Vinegar (especially flavored vinegars)
• Ponzu (a Japanese citrus-based sauce)

And ...

• Spices like white pepper, sichuan pepper, or chili flakes added to the finished dish, or a cinnamon stick, star anise, and coriander seeds added to the simmering broth (remove 'em before serving!)
• Fats like toasted sesame oil, chili oil, or an animal fat like pork, chicken, or duck.
• Citrus juices—a quick squeeze of lemon or lime right before serving brightens flavors.

A great broth will excite all 5 flavors - sweet, sour (vinegar), bitter (citrus), salty and umame (meat protein) as well as having a bit of heat (chilli).

And ... don't forget to add toppings like eggs, meat and vegetables.

The article concludes with ideas for using Ramen as a noodle base (or topping) for other dishes. With care you can make stir-fried and cold noodle dishes. Stop cooking the ramen just before it's completely done, then drain it. It'll continue to soften from the residual heat, as well as cooking further when you stir-fry it.
* Create Pad Thai by stir-frying semi-cooked ramen with fish sauce, peanuts, vegetables, and a touch of lime and tamarind paste

Other ideas include ramen salad, ramen spaghetti, ramen tacos, and much more.

Bottom Line

Ramen is a great emergency food. It keeps "forever" if you can keep it safe from bugs and mice by storing it in airtight containers. And it just needs hot water to cook.

But please don't think of Ramen as a health food. There's 400 calories if you eat a whole bag and nearly a day's worth of salt in the seasoning packet.

Cooking Secrets

“What my mother believed about cooking is that if you worked hard and prospered, someone else would do it for you.”
- Nora Ephron

Men’s Health magazine has 30 Top Chef Secrets:

30. Bake your Bacon at 375°F for 12 to 15 minutes for perfect crispness
29. Keep a cutting board from slipping by placing a moist towel under it
27. Know when to add salt. If you salt vegetables early, the water is drawn out and they steam instead of brown. Add salt at the end of cooking.
26. Steaks and chops are easier to cook evenly when the center is warmed up beforehand. They suggest placing meat in a sealed bag in lukewarm water for 30-60 minutes before cooking.
25. Restore limp vegetables with an ice water bath
24. Brighten the flavor of seafood and salads with a misting of sherry or rice vinegar from a spray bottle
23. Cut awkward-to-slice vegetables—such as mushrooms, carrots, and peppers—by first cleaving them in half. Then rest the flat parts on the cutting board.
22. If meat is overcooked, slice it thinly, and cover with a dash of oil and an acidic sauce like tomatoes, fresh lime juice, or a few spoonful’s of vinaigrette. The acid and oil will restore moisture and fat to the mistreated meat.
21. Serve hot food on warm plates - heat dishes at 150°F for 10 minutes before plating. Server cold food on cold plates - lightly chill plates in a freezer to boost the crispness of summer salads.
19. Always cook fish with the skin side down for the first 75 percent of the cooking time (about 5 minutes), and then flip it briefly to the flesh side to finish.
17. Pat meat and fish dry before cooking
16. Wednesday is the least busy day at grocery stores.
14. Dense meats like steak, pork, or chicken legs can burn on the outside before they're fully cooked through. Insert a clean stainless-steel rod or nail into the thickest part of meats to help cook the insides.
13. Try pan roasting foods. Sear one side of meat in a hot pan, then flip and place the pan in an oven to roast at 400°F
12. Zap lemons, limes, or oranges for 15 seconds in the microwave before squeezing them to get more juice.
10. Don’t use Teflon coated pans with high heat. This will destroy the pan.
9. Try cooking with a 50:50 mixture of butter and olive oil. This gives the flavor of butter with the higher heat tolerance of oil.
8. Never refrigerate tomatoes, peaches, potatoes, onions, bread, and garlic.
7. After cooking pasta add the starchy water to the sauce to help it adhere to the pasta, and create a creamier, more flavorful final product.
5. Let the meat rest after cooking: Wait 5 minutes before biting into burgers or grilled chicken, 7 minutes before cutting into steaks, and at least 15 minutes before carving a turkey or a larger roast.
3. Don't overcrowd the pan: ingredient overload makes a pan's temperature plummet, and foods end up steaming rather than caramelizing
2. Too much salt? Use a splash of vinegar to counterbalance.
1. Don’t use a salt shaker. Pinch kosher salt straight from a dish. The coarse grains and the touch of your fingers give you maximum control.

Bottom Line

Cooking is both Art and Science. It helps to know the science basics about salt, heat, caramelization, etc and have a flair for creative mixing of flavors.

MISC

Interesting date today  1/11/11. 
Veteran's Day will be numerically interesting this year with 11/11/11.

My Bread

“The first time I tried organic wheat bread, I thought I was chewing on roofing material”- actor Robin Williams

Unless your food storage is a mountain of tin cans or a closet full of freeze-dried meals, odds are that you will have a few buckets of wheat for emergency use. Now what will you do with that wheat? Back during the Y2K scare we got a good price on a wheat grinder so we were able to make decent flour but had little luck making bread from scratch. Most of our baking efforts came out like bricks with very little yeast rising. We checked our yeast - it was alive but not working for us.

A few months back my wife found a bread recipe that has worked perfectly every time. We now have a new loaf every few days. The recipe was first published in the New York Times back in 2006 by baker Jim Lahey. It was an immediate success with the public and Lahey used his moment of fame to publish a baking book called, My Bread. We've tried a few recipes - we really enjoyed the no-knead olive bread with green olives, no so much a loaf containing peanuts.

The full bread recipe is a bit big for just two; the loaf sometimes goes bad before we can finish it. This won't be a problem if you have kids.

Some things about the recipe that work for us.

1. The long rise time lets the yeast do its job.

2. Use a dutch oven or cast iron pot with lid. The bread rises very little in the oven so it takes the shape of the pot. We had a lot of round low loafs before my wife switched to 2/3 recipe and a cast iron tea pot to give the loaf some height.

3. Definitely preheat the pot (without the lid). We tired once with a cold pot and the bread stuck to the pot and did not want to come out. But with a hot pot and a little corn meal tossed in before the bread, we have no sticking.

4. My wife now mostly skips mini-knead and second rise step. She lets it rise for as long as 24 hours in winter when our house is cold. Then while the pot is preheating in the oven she'll punch the bread or move it around a little inside the rising bowl if it looks too gassy.

5. As some versions of the recipe state, the hardest part is waiting for the bread to cool for one hour after de-potting. The author says this is essential and we haven't broken the rule yet.

Bottom Line

Try it - you'll like it! We liked it so much we bought the book after first borrowing it from the library.

Cheese Making

“Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese” - Billie Burke

Several years ago, my wife and I attended a cheese making class and had a great time. For a simple cheese like mozzarella, the technique is quite simple and the cheese can be eaten immediately. Firmer cheeses like cheddar require a long drying time and more experience. Cheese making is not a difficult hobby and can become a business. When traveling we love to visit independent cheese makers and sample their wares. They are everywhere!

For equipment, supplies, techniques and recipes, check out BEGINNING CHEESE MAKING © by Professor Fankhauser, Ph.D., at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College. The professor recommends starting with his yogurt recipe and working your way up to soft cheese (Neufchatel) and mozzarella.

Bottom Line

Freshly made cheese is so amazingly tasty. Try some fresh ricotta on bread as a spread. It is literally milk turned solid with a clean and simple taste different than the more processed cheeses that take on a flavor of their own from the maturing molds and bacterias. You'll also be surprised at how wonderful fresh yogurt can be - just like Greek yogurt but cheaper.

Induction Stovetops

“God will provide the victuals, but He will not cook the dinner”- Proverb

There are five primary ways to cook food in a home:

1. Fireplace cooking (rustic but fun)
2. Gas stove/oven (same principle as a fireplace but you control the flame)
3. Electric stove/oven (using the “waste” heat of an electrical circuit)
4. Induction (magnetic field)
5. Microwave (waves vibrate food molecules)

Of these methods only a Microwave cooks the food directly. Typically all other methods first heat a cooking vessel and the vessel then cooks the food. Think of the times you wait for a skillet to warm up or burn something because the pan is too hot.

In this post I want to discuss Induction stoves. My wife & I were looking at new stoves the other day and most of the stoves on display were Induction. Neither of us has ever used one. How do they work? [The numbers below match the picture]

1. The “burners” (or more accurately called the “elements”) pulse electricity through copper coils to create an oscillating magnetic field.

2. The field extends just above the element and into the metal of the cooking vessel. This creates an electric current INSIDE your pan/pot, which generates heat. Essentially the cooking vessel becomes an electric heating element.

3. The heat of the pan/pot cooks the food.

4. Nothing outside the cooking vessel is affected by the magnetic field.

In order for Induction to work, the cooking vessel must react to magnetism. That’s yes for iron and steel, no to materials like aluminum, copper, and Pyrex. If you’re not sure, try the magnet test. A vessel is ferrous (i.e. subject to magnetism) if a magnet will stick to it.

Induction Pros

• Heat faster with the fine control of gas cooking.
• More energy-efficient than traditional cooktops (90% vs 70% for electrical units)
• Safer. The hottest thing is the pan itself, not a flame or an electrical element which can be quite hot.
• Cleaner – ever try to clean a spill on an electric element? The induction element surface is perfectly flat and wipable.
• In Consumer Reports, 2008, induction appliances outscored gas and electrical ovens.

Cons

• Won’t be able to use your copper, aluminum or Pyrex pots
• Pot & pans need to have a flat base to make contact with the magnetic field. A rounded Wok won’t work so well. (I did read that China makes rounded induction elements just for woks!)
• Pans heat really fast! Say 10 seconds. This would normally be considered a plus but it also means you’re likely to burn some food until you get used to it. It is suggested that you always put some oil or liquid in the pan before turning on the heat – this will help buffer the heat.
• The Induction magnetic fields could interfere with a pacemaker or defibrillator.
• Metal jewelry like rings and bracelets can become hot if your hand hovers over an active element. Many modern induction units have sensors and only activate the magnetic field when a “lot” of metal is detected – a pot’s worth instead of a ring or bracelet.
• Noise – some induction stovetops have an internal fan to keep the electrical parts of the elements cool. Some pot and pans will hum or buzz on an induction stove.

Bottom Line

While there is no “flame” with Induction cooking you still have to take precautions. The metal pan will become hot and will still burn you. When you pick the pan up, the stovetop that was directly under the pan is still hot from the heat of the pan and needs a moment to cool before the stovetop is safe to touch.

Resources:
http://theinductionsite.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_cooker

Exotic Foods

“Human beings, vegetables, or comic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player” - Albert Einstein

Perhaps it no surprise that only 20 percent of Americans eat the recommended five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables a day. And it doesn’t help that the top vegetable consumed is potatoes in the form of French fries.

In an effort to encourage Americas to try new foods, MensHealth.com has published The Best Foods You’ve Never Heard Of. With 25 exotic flavors, I’ll cover half here and complete the list in my next post.

• Acai – the (ah-SIGH-ee) berry is the size of a grape, tastes like a chocolate blueberry, and packs more antioxidants than blueberries and pomegranates. While the berries may be hard to find, Acai juice is sold in many grocery stores as a health drink.
• Aioli - (eye-OH-lee) is a light sauce from southern France made of olive oil, eggs, and garlic that is a healthy alternative to mayonnaise. It is traditionally served with seafood, hard-boiled eggs, and vegetables.
• Alligator – combines the best of surf and turf with omega-3 fatty acids and muscle-building protein. I’ve tried it twice and it tasted like fishy chicken.
• Amaranth – this mild, nutty taste was beloved by the Incas and you’ll love it too. It cooks like rice or wheat berries but has more fiber and protein.
• Aronia Berry – also known as the chokeberry, perhaps for its bitter, tart taste? Like the acai this is a purple berry packed with antioxidants. Find it in a mixed juice called Oki.
• Celeriac - loaded with bone-building vitamin K, and vitamin C and potassium. It can be shredded with cole slaw. My family likes it mixed 50/50 with mashed potatoes. This winter root vegetable has a celery taste.
• Fenugreek - a component of most curry powders. Can be used to spice up soups and stews.
• Ginger – a staple of Asian cooking that is known to aid digestion. My wife loves sugared ginger candy.
• Goldenberries- a great source of vitamin A and disease--fighting antioxidants. They look like yellow tomatoes wrapped in a Japanese paper lantern.
• Hemp Seed Nuts - Similar in taste to sunflower seeds (and no, you won’t get high.) Packs more protein per gram than beef or fish.
• Holy Basil - popular Indian herb, also known as tulsi, is best used fresh for its cancer fighting properties. Can’t find it? Try fresh sweet basil instead.
• Jicama – this root vegetable looks like a turnip but is juicy and slightly sweet. It reminds me of licorice. It can be sliced for salads or cooked like a baked potato.

Bottom Line

Fruits and vegetables can be fun. Search the Internet for unusual salads that mix some of the items above. I get many ideas by Googling “recipe salad” + an ingredient.

Baking Powder & Food Science

“In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.”-Julia Child

For several days after a local disaster, odds are you won’t be able to drive to the local grocery store to pick up some missing ingredients. For this reason all preparedness sites will recommend food storage and stocking up on supplies. But sometimes even the best plans have a gap and you discover you forgot something basic like baking powder. When that happens it’s nice to have a list of emergency ingredient substitutions in a good cookbook (like Joy of Cooking) or printed (in advance) off a website like http://chemistry.about.com/od/foodcookingchemistry/a/substitutions.htm?nl=1

What is baking powder and how would you make it? According to Wikipedia, “Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent used to increase the volume and lighten the texture of baked goods such as muffins, cakes, and biscuits. … It is used instead of yeast for end products where fermentation flavors would be undesirable or where the batter lacks the elastic structure to hold gas bubbles for more than a few minutes. … Breads made by chemical leavening are called quick breads.”

Baking powder consists of an alkaline/base component (typically baking soda), one or more acid salts and an inert filler (like cornstarch). When the powder (single acting) gets wet the base and acid react producing gassy bubbles. The role of the filler is to extend the shelf life of the powder by absorbing moisture and preventing a reaction in the baking powder container. Over time the filler will be used up and the baking soda goes flat if not tightly sealed.

I used the phrase “single acting” which needs explaining. Baking powder that reacts when wet is single acting. In contrast “double acting” powder requires liquid AND heat to react. Double acting is useful when you want something to rise in the oven while cooking.

If you’re out of baking powder or find that it’s gone flat, you can make it as follows:

1 teaspoon of Single Acting Baking Powder =
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (an acidic salt)
1/4 teaspoon cornstarch or potato starch

You can leave out the cornstarch if you’re making just enough for one recipe and using it immediately.

Bottom Line

My mother majored in Home Economics at the University of Idaho. One of her textbooks, which I found fascinating as a teen, was called the Chemistry of Cooking. It explained why things happen when you cook. Today a great source for food science facts is the TV show “Good Eats” by Alton Brown on the Food Network. Knowing the science can make one a better cook.

For example, do you know that deep fried food need NOT be greasy! Greasiness is a sign that the oil was not hot enough (perhaps from too much food put in the oil too quickly) or that the food was left in the fryer longer than necessary. Under the right conditions, the food being fried emits steam from the heat of the oil and the steam prevents oil from going into the food.

Wood Fire Cooking

“What my mother believed about cooking is that if you worked hard and prospered, someone else would do it for you.”-Nora Ephron

For years my wife & I have been looking for the right equipment for wood fire cooking. After a long search, just last weekend we finally found an affordable ($18) Dutch oven with legs and a lid at a flea market. (Legs easily allow one to put coals under the pot.) We have also been looking for the ideal outdoor fire pit (www.firepit-and-grilling-guru.com/outdoor-fire-pit.html). We had a great time cooking hotdogs and S’Mores over a portable fire pit at a friend’s house. And recently visited another friend with a built in fire pit. But what we really want is an advance system with grills, shelves, arms, etc.

And yet, good equipment is only the beginning. In an excellent blog post, Learning to Cook on a Wood-Fired Stove, Deborah describes that no book held the secret to successful food fire cooking. She had to learn by trial and error:

The biggest challenge is keeping the oven heat even. Unlike a gas or electric stove, when you put something in the oven to cook and the temperature drops as the food absorbs the heat, nothing kicks in to compensate. What to do? Feed the fire wood that will burn quickly and offer more heat. As the food begins to cook and its internal temperature rises, a longer, slower-burning piece of wood will maintain the heat. Open the oven door if it gets too hot - but not for long. Your oven may even have "hot spots" like mine.

In addition to equipment and practical experience, a cook needs supplies and recipes. In Baking and Simple Cooking After a Disaster the author considers a time when “cooking as you once knew it, from cabinets bulging with a variety of packaged items, store bread and cookies, or a quick trips to the store for box cereal and meat in a neat packages, with an armful of deli tubs and rotisserie chicken – just ended.” Would you know how to cook using flour, salt, lard and other basics?

Bottom Line

If you want to learn survival-cooking skills, purchase or download some old-fashioned cookbooks. The Cooking After a Disaster post recommends …

We have several 1940 era cookbooks, Mennonite/Amish cookbooks and a thin book of ingredient substitutions as well as good, basic ones at least 30 years old. They’re priceless for simplicity, economy and few ingredients. This will mean going to the used bookstore or surfing Amazon. Avoid modern cookbooks that assume access to lots of ingredients and avoid cookbooks from the 1800s because they do not have standard measurements and assume things you might not know about like how to assemble ingredients, cooking times, pans and temperatures.

One of my favorite books is The Joy of Cooking (1965 edition). The Joy of Cooking has been in print continuously since 1936 and with more than 18 million copies sold. The older editions cover everything from butchering meat, ingredient substitution, simple sauces to complex dishes. It includes a lot of practical advice on techniques.

Another source that can be useful is modern versions of pioneer recipes. Check out Amazon’s Best Pioneer Cookbooks.

Bacon!

“And Now for Something Completely Different” – Monty Python show

The blog post, Bacon Survival Kit, answers the question many of you have been asking, “How can I satisfy my bacon cravings during extended trips in the wilderness?” For short ventures away from home you could use ice packs to preserve fresh bacon and cook it over a campfire (wrap it around sticks if you have no pan). For long trips when the ice runs out, you can travel with pre-cooked bacon or bacon flavored bits. There is also bacon flavored spam, Baconnaise, bacon salt, and even bacon flavored lip balm.

The Bacon Survival Kit goes “whole hog” and makes a creative snack of bacon & cheese flavored crickets (yes crickets), covered in Bacon & Cheddar cheese flavored spread, with a dash of bacon seasoning, and wrapped in a strip from Yoder’s Bacon in a Can. Yum!

Bottom Line

I’ve eaten many odd things but not crickets (yet). For something more conventional and cost effective try Bacon TVP (Texturized Vegetable Protein). It is produced from soy flour after the soybean oil has been extracted, then cooked under pressure, cut into crumbled bits, flavored and dried. It can be cooked with scrambled eggs, tossed into salads, sprinkled over vegetables, or eaten directly just like Bac-Os. To learn more, check out the site Using TVP.

Add a Pinch of Salt

“The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea” - Isak Dinesen

Did you know that “consuming twice as much potassium as sodium might halve your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease”? According to a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, excess sodium causes the body to retain fluids, which raises blood pressure. Potassium does the opposite; it blocks sodium and helps lower blood pressure. The study says you’ll get the ideal ratio for fluid balance by eating twice as much potassium as sodium. Americans typically consume more sodium than potassium and as a result “Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both women and men in the US”. Worldwide, coronary heart disease killed more than 7.6 million people in 2005. Thirty to fifteen times higher than the annual deaths by flu, 250,000 and 500,000 worldwide.

Sodium is packed into every processed food we eat as a preservative and taste enhancer. I’d love to use soup mixes or Asian noodle mixes at work for lunch but these usually contain 50% to 100% of the 2,300 milligrams daily limit recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Avoiding excess salt is difficult. Consider the list of saltiest restaurant dishes, 20 Foods Your Cardiologist Won't Eat, by Men’s Health Magazine.

• Chili's Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad packs in 4,440 mg, nearly twice the daily limit and the equivalent of nearly 30 individual sized cans of Pringles Potato Chips.
• P.F. Chang's Hot and Sour Soup Bowl tops the list with 6,878 mg sodium, 534 calories. Imagine three days of salt in one bowl!
• The salt in prepared food is not always obvious; Red Lobster’s North Pacific King Crab Legs contain 3,570 mg sodium. Perhaps they cook the legs in highly salted water?

The prevalence of salt and chemicals in processed foods is one reason Michael Pollan wrote his book, "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" and his pithy summary:

"Eat [real] food. Not too much. Mostly from plants."

Perhaps the answer to eating too much salt is eating a banana? You’ll need to need a whole bunch! At 400 mg of potassium per banana, you’ll need 12 a day to reach the daily-recommended amount of potassium. More if you’re overdosing on salt. Other high potassium foods include

• potato (900 mg each)
• oat bran (500 mg/cup)
• tomatoes (500 mg/cup)
• spinach (950 mg/cup)
• raisins (600 mg/half cup)
• pears (300 mg each)
• cucumber (300 mg each)
• mangoes (300 mg each)
• orange juice (500 mg/ 8-ounce glass)

Put this all together by eating one of each item just listed from the banana to the orange juice and you’ll reach the recommended daily potassium level of 4700 mg.

Bottom Line

It takes careful food planning to avoid exceeding the daily sodium limit and to reach the daily potassium level. No wonder most people consume more sodium than potassium each day! One way to measure heart healthy foods is the “K factor”. K is the chemical symbol for potassium and the K factor is the ratio of potassium to salt within a food.

Common K Factors include:

• Soybeans = 340
• Fresh fish (not canned) = 3 to 5
• Milk = 2.8
• Corned beef hash = 0.37

An article in Whole Foods magazine mentions a book with more details, “The K Factor” by Dr. Richard D. Moore but it is out of print, has one Amazon review, and is selling for 1 penny used (not good indicators). Dr Moore has another book (1993) about the K Factor which is also out of print, “The high blood pressure solution: natural prevention and cure with the K factor”. It seems the idea of K Factor quickly faded and never became a diet fad.

Box Ovens

“If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”-President Harry S. Truman

This story comes from Box Oven at PreparedForSurvival.com. This looks like a fun project to try with our Cub Scout pack. However during an actual emergency I think I’d use my Little Joe BBQ grill instead of a box oven to cook food.

1 Brick (or flat rocks)
1 roll Aluminum foil, heavy-duty
1 Corrugated cardboard box
1 Metal pie pan (an old one you won’t cook with again)
3 Coat hangers
4 Charcoal briquettes, lit

1. Cover the inside and outside of the box completely with 3 or 4 layers of aluminum foil, including the flaps. Lay box on level ground so that the opening opens oven-style (front-door style is OK, too).

2. Straighten the coat hangers, then run them through the sides of the box about 2/3 of the way up from the bottom to form a rack.

3. Set brick or rocks on oven bottom. Place the live coals onto the pie pan and put the pan on brick. Use an oven mitt or hot pad to avoid burns when handling the pan.

4. Place food to be cooked onto the coat-hanger rack and close the oven door.

5. Watch carefully, checking often. Each live coal makes about 80 degrees Fahrenheit (some say 35 F)

Bottom Line
We have a big grill at home but during an emergency I’ll want to conserve my limited supply of charcoal. So a small “beach” grill or box oven can let one confine the heat in a small space and cook with fewer briquettes. There is also a “volcano” line of products for maximizing charcoal heating:
The original Volcano stove
The Volcano II Collapsible Cookstove, its offical web site and evaluated by Scout leaders

The box oven story above mentions using “lit” charcoal. My favorite method for starting briquettes is a charcoal chimney. (YouTube demonstration) If you use lighter fluid the fumes inside a box oven will affect the food.

Another option for cardboard box ovens is solar power. See Inventor turns cardboard boxes into eco-friendly oven for more details.

Where does cooking oil come from?

“If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?” - Stephen Wright

I'm amazed that there are people who do not realize that hamburgers and steaks come from cattle. Perhaps they think it was created in a laboratory or grew on a tree? Although a city-boy through and through, my grandfather was an Idaho dairyman so I did get to visit working farms as a child. I also learned just how much meat a steer can provide when grandpa give my mother a half side of beef as a Christmas gift. My parents paid for the butchering and rented a storage freezer. It took awhile to eat that much beef!

So although I'd like to think I know where food comes from, I did learn a few things in a recent blog, Cooking Oil or Butter. The authors researched what it would take to create new cooking oil (olive, canola, corn, etc.) should they run out.

• Corn oil takes 56 lbs (1 bushel) to make about 1.2 lbs of corn oil.
• Almond oil, Soybean oil and Sunflower oil like take a lot of product and some serious pressing and processing for not much output.

My wife & I experienced the same problem when we decide to make apple cider. We got a great deal on a half-bushel of apples and the nature center where she worked had a cider press. For all our effort we got perhaps a quart of cider.

Bottom Line

Some foods are NOT easy to make at home. Include LOTS of cooking oil in your food storage. When it's gone you're not likely to make more. Also be sure to use the oil and replace it since it will go rancid over time.

What alternative do you have for oil? Butter & lard. I know of two long term storage techniques for butter:

1. Butter powder - we have it but haven't tried it yet (not desperate enough :-)
www.usaemergencysupply.com/information_center/butter_powder.htm

2. Raise a goat, sheep or cow and make your own butter from milk. (the city-boy part of me says "no-way") www.geocities.com/zambo_da9/tip_goat_raising.html