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ardysez

~ surrender to yourself

ardysez

Category Archives: Cook’s Edit

the comfort of food…

25 Sunday Feb 2018

Posted by Ardys in Cook's Edit, Food, Health

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

comfortfood, health, healthy eating

IMG_5799Some of us eat to live. Others live to eat. I probably fall somewhere in the middle of that continuum. Influencing personal preferences are things like cultural and family rituals, environment and health. For most adults, it is one of the few things we can do in life that is totally up to us as to when, how and what we consume. But I have found, that my body and mind often disagree about what I should be eating, and that can be a problem.

In July of 2017 I quit eating grains. All of them. Not a fad or weight-loss diet, it was an informed choice—or as informed as is possible with food intolerances, which are quite mysterious. Having a psoriatic rash extending from my upper back to my legs, and periodic eczema, I was desperate to fix the problem, if possible. It had worsened over the year I was eating gluten free so that didn’t seem to be the answer…what to do? Quit grains…and then what?

After only 3 days the itching stopped. After 3 weeks the rash started to fade a bit and I was losing weight that had slowly crept on over a period of five years. It wasn’t a lot of weight, but it was stubborn and seemingly immoveable. And then it left. Not sorry to see you go! Now, some 8 months later, I am still noticing changes for the better. Not wanting to get into the very contested issues around medical versus alternative treatments of things, I will say that tests show that my blood sugar level has decreased from high to normal, cholesterol has adjusted to normal and there is a marked difference in inflammatory symptoms, such as arthritis. And more…

I still have a list of food intolerances, but have noticed that a few things seem to be digesting much better and eczema is no longer a problem. It reminds me of that movie about Benjamin Button, the one where he ages in reverse. It kind of feels like my body is returning to normal, whatever that was. It has been a long time.

I’m not on a bandwagon to tell you to eat any certain way, we are all different. I do what seems right for myself and leave others to make their own choices. My choices are informed. I read and update my knowledge continually. Be your own advocate, I say.

Perhaps the most valuable food and life lesson was told to me over 25 years ago when I began to try and heal myself. A naturopath told me ‘Make a list of all the things you CAN eat and post it on the fridge. That way, when you are hungry you will see all the available options, rather than all the things you need to avoid’. It was a lesson in perspective–food for thought, in every sense.

In recent years I’ve become very dedicated to my morning cup of coffee. Some days it seemed it was the only bright spot in the day, not that my life is horrible, it isn’t. But food and drink consumption has been a lifelong challenge and the bright spots are not always easy to come by. The siren call of morning coffee, however, seemed to take on an elevated need to satisfy. Why? I only have the one cup, and it is half-caf, that is half decaf beans and half normal beans, ground and steeped together for my morning joie-de-vivre. I even enjoy the ritual of making my pour-over coffee. In cold weather I sometimes have a second cup but it is all decaf. Yes, caffein has become something I am also sensitive to. More’s the pity. For me, coffee is a comfort. I have been drinking it since childhood, when Grandma would ask me if I wanted her to make me some of her ‘rat poison’ (instant coffee) and we would both giggle with devilish delight. She would make me a milky cup, sweet with sugar. My parents always had coffee in the mornings and so have I. Morning just doesn’t feel right without it.*

I try to understand these things but sometimes the full picture eludes me, until one day while I’m reading or listening or watching, another piece of the puzzle snaps into place. One such day happened this month, listening to the BBC Food Program about ‘comfort food’. Most people understand what that term means, but few of us would identify the same food(s) to describe it. Usually, comfort food is something that reminds you of childhood, of home, or of a special meal, person or place. Often, all of the above! For me, comfort food was Mom’s homemade stewed chicken and dumplings, pecan pie, pancakes, mashed potatoes with gravy and fried chicken…and also, milky coffee.

As I began listening to the podcast I wondered, ‘…am I going to be able to get through this?’…such was the intensity with which people recalled their comfort foods and why. Eating can be a personal pleasure for one, or hold even deeper meaning, going to the heart of family culture and tradition. Nearly all of the foods described are things I can no longer eat. But I persevered. Not one to accept a joyless diet gracefully, I am used to researching cooking methods, foods and recipes that can restore my joie while also feeding my family and friends. Recent efforts have, of course, been focused on foods without grains.

Continuing to listen, I realised my search was not only for nutritional reasons, I had also been searching for a new set of comfort foods. 

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Slow cooked chicken and vegetable soup

Many of the old comfort foods were just not possible to recreate satisfactorily with alternative ingredients that did not include grains, or flour, as we know it. Fried chicken made with almond meal just didn’t make the grade. However, stewed chicken like Mom used to make for eating with dumplings or noodles, made into ‘Zoodle Soup’ is pretty good. It is a slow cooked chicken and vegetable soup made with zucchini ‘noodles’ (‘zoodles’) or in my case, stick shapes cut on the mandolin slicer, because I didn’t want to have another gadget in my kitchen. The zoodles remind me of the way Mom would sometimes break spaghetti into shorter pieces for soups. The soup is savoury and wholesome and what you would want if you had a cold or flu. That’s the comfort test, isn’t it? When you are sad, or sick, what do you want to eat that makes you feel better?

Russian ‘Syrniki’ or ricotta pancakes were soon to be added to my repertoire.

IMG_0871

Russian-style Syrniki, ricotta pancakes with yogurt and berries

And an ersatz English-style Muffin fills the void, when I want a crispy vehicle for butter and jam.

IMG_0916

grain free English-style Muffin with cashew butter and plum jam

My greatest triumph so far has been French-style Apple Cake. It looks and tastes like my distant memory of the real deal, and everyone who has eaten it thinks it is delicious and special, as is its namesake.

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French-style Apple Cake

I realise I will never replicate the exact feeling of those old comfort foods because they are flavours that were established in the beginning of my life. But there is great pleasure, and comfort, in creating new dishes for this phase of my life.

So what do you want to eat that gives you comfort? Go on, I’m tough, hit me with it….

 

*(I have eliminated coffee several times over the years, once for three years, replacing with green, herbal or black tea and not found any health benefits.)

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living dangerously…

14 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by Ardys in Cook's Edit, Food

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

baking, biscuits, cookies, dairy free, gluten free, maplesyrup, oranges, refined sugar free

If ever you are feeling particularly murderous and audacious, but wanting to bake all at the same time, here is what you do.

  1. Take a perfectly nice recipe that calls for a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice.
  2. Substitute blood oranges (because that is what you have on hand) for the regular kind.
  3. Hand squeeze them with a citrus juicer. (Warning: murderous tendency may either be heightened or diminished by the visceral act of hand-squeezing blood oranges.)

    fullsizeoutput_38c0

    the blood and the orange

     

4. When you are nearly finished look down at what you are wearing.

If it is a pure white linen shirt …you are really living on the edge, so go for it. If the shirt looks like something from CSI, take it out and shred it and get some stress release. Better still, burn it. As we know, that leaves fewer clues. If you escaped without a drop on your shirt, as soon as you finish baking, go buy a lottery ticket.

fullsizeoutput_38be

the syrup over warm biscuits, don’t they look deceptively good? HA!

I was all set, in fact had already written this post to include the recipe, when horror of horrors, the resulting biscuits/cookies were no good! The taste was okay, but nothing to rave about, but the problem was they upset both my husband and my digestion! Now, I’m normally sensitive, so not so surprising for me. But my husband has an iron gut and can eat just about anything. The biscuits were gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar free, a good start, one would think. But it just goes to show, anything can be problematic.

To be honest, I often have problems with refined sugar alternatives. Honey and maple syrup both have free fructose in them in sufficient quantities to upset me if I consume too much. And while I can usually get away with small amounts of citrus fruit, the juice is much more concentrated with fructans as well. I’m just guessing here, but I’ve necessarily become a pretty good detective. In the end, I had all my luck up front with this recipe, as you can see from my pristine white linen shirt. How did that happen???? No need for the lottery tickets, it was obvious my luck had run out when I ate one of the biscuits. They were a bit fussy to make, too, and while I was curious enough to try them, I have simpler recipes that I will share with you some time when I’ve recovered my composure.

Enjoy your day.

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white linen shirt, that escaped bloody oranges

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Cook’s Edit: Pasta and Beans with Kale

06 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by Ardys in Cook's Edit

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

Food, Italian style, soup, vegetarian

Original recipe: Pasta e Fagioli with Escarole

For most of this year I have been trying to imagine a ‘category’ in which to gather the occasional food posts I write. Recently, as I was making and photographing this delicious soup, and realising how many changes I had made to the original recipe, it suddenly occurred to me… Cook’s edit. Most of us can relate to this. I think I’m not alone in viewing recipes as ‘suggestions’ and feeling within my rights to make changes to suit my diet or my tastes, not to mention availability of ingredients. I’m reluctant to make changes to cake or pie recipes, however, because the quantities and ingredients are closely aligned with the chemical reaction that lifts them and makes the texture so important.

However.

With ‘Pasta e Fagioli with Escarole’, I was not precious. 

The original recipe sounded perfectly fine but for dietary and procurement reasons I needed to make changes. Though I know what it is, I have never even seen anything labeled ‘escarole’ here in our groceries, so that was not an option either. But I have a couple of Tuscan kale plants in my herb garden and those leaves substituted nicely. My resident soup connoisseur pronounced it ‘beautiful’. I’ll take that, all day long!

I wholeheartedly encourage you to view the original recipe above, and make your own changes if need be, or you can use my version and tweak it as well. Cook’s edit.

One of the things I like best about this soup is that you don’t need meat stock to make it, or any stock at all, since it creates its own with the herbs and vegetables. Often I want to make soup and have run out of my freezer supply of stock, and don’t have time to make any. Since I can’t eat onion or garlic, water as a soup base can be pretty plain, but not this one.

Pasta e Fagioli with Kale

2 x 400 tins cannellini beans – soaked (navy beans, fagioli etc)

1 Parmesan rind* (about 2 ounces), plus shaved Parmesan for serving

2 medium carrots, scrubbed, halved crosswise and then halved lengthwise

img_2283

topped with cheese, ready to serve

2 celery stalks, halved crosswise

6 sprigs of parsley

1 sprig rosemary

2 bay leaves

2 dried chillies

sea salt, freshly ground pepper

~3 T olive oil

1/2 a large fennel bulb chopped into smallish chunks, plus the stem pieces trimmed

1 x 400g tin organic tomatoes in juice, unsalted if possible

3/4 C dry white wine (yes, this is necessary)

~1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes

~1 tsp fennel seed

2oz dried pasta, I used good quality 100% spelt noodles

~ 8-10 leaves Tuscan kale – tear the leaves from the hardest part of the stem as it often doesn’t break down easily, and just use the leafy parts (as I said, the original recipe calls for escarole, which I never see in the grocery here, and Tuscan kale is growing in my garden so I used that)

I cannot eat beans of any kind without first soaking them. It aids in their digestion (and reduces the wind factor) so 24 hours before starting the soup, I put the two cans of rinsed beans into a jug with water to let them soak.

first 'layer' of flavour, cheese and herbs
first ‘layer’ of flavour, cheese and herbs
second layer of flavour, veggies, chilies and parsley
second layer of flavour, veggies, chilies and parsley

To make the soup stock put the parmesan, carrots, celery, parsley, rosemary, bay leaves, chilies  and don’t forget to use the stem pieces from your fennel bulb, as well as a good pinch of sea salt and freshly ground pepper into a soup pot. Add just enough water to cover the veggies, about 6-8 cups, or thereabouts. Simmer, covered, on low for about an hour. Turn off the heat and let it sit for another hour.

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sautéed fennel, to replace onion

In a frying pan, place the oil and the fennel and sauté until there is a bit of colour on the fennel. Add the tomatoes and cook until most of the liquid is gone. Add the 3/4C wine and simmer until most of the liquid is gone again.

Remove the cheese rind, vegetables and herbs that have steeped in the stock. Add the fennel and tomato mixture to the stock, and also the drained, pre-soaked beans, and the kale, cut into pieces that will be easy to get onto a spoon. At this stage add the red chilli flakes and the fennel seed. The soup needs these seasonings to make up for the lack of garlic and onion, so even if you only use small amounts, you probably need to use at least a little, or something in place of them that you prefer. Taste the broth and if needed (which it probably will) another pinch of salt and a few more grinds of pepper. Simmer for another 30 minutes and taste again for salt and pepper.

Add whatever pasta you are using, or omit it if you don’t want to use it. Follow the package directions for time to cook, I cooked my spelt noodles for about 14-15 minutes. The pasta certainly made the soup less runny, but only slightly. If you wanted to you could simmer the soup with the lid off and reduce the liquid that way, or start with less water initially.

Serve the soup with freshly grated parmesan over it, fresh bread if you eat it, or nothing at all.

(* Parmesan rind – When I finish my Parmesan cheese I save the rinds in the cheese drawer in the fridge, then add them to soup for flavour. I’ve recently discovered a recipe called Parmesan broth, which I intend investigating as soon as I have some rinds saved again…which means eating a lot of parmesan cheese first—nasty job but someone has to do it)

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