Gluten Free and Your Health

I read labels.  You can judge whether it is a sickness or an indication of my curiosity.  I like to know what’s in the stuff I’m feeding the family and often that means that for some small reason a product is going back on the shelf. 

We buy almost no processed food over here at Fresh Fun Foods.  Our freezer contains ice cream, stocks, bones, cubes and a bottle of Polish vodka.  I have never bought a skid of Stauffer’s lasagna from Costco, although I do recognize that there are bargains to be had there.  We shop for seasonal produce.  We dry foods, we smoke meat and fish.  We ferment apple cider.  I preserve cherries and peaches in brandy.  We do this because it tastes good and makes for a healthy way of eating.  I acknowledge that it takes extra time and effort. 

It is important that I do this.  I am diabetic.  My sugar numbers are under very tight control and have been for a decade. I certainly could use to lose more weight and that is a struggle.  I am in constant contact with a number of doctors who treat me with great respect.  Don’t worry about me, I’m doing OK. 

I’ve become concerned about the latest fad sweeping the food world.  As a cooking teacher, I know that trends come and go, but this gluten free thing seems to have real legs and is causing confusion for people who genuinely want to eat healthy.  The first rule of dieting and exercise is to consult your physician before making any substantive changes and I don’t see that happening.  The gurus and the food companies pushing gluten free products are in no way encouraging people to go gluten free in a safe, healthy or interesting way.  They simply want you to adopt their philosophy and buy their stuff. 

Here’s a good example.  Last week at the supermarket, I spotted a container of 4C Gluten Free Seasoned Crumbs.  

 Always interested in a new product, I spun it around to read the food label.  While it is gluten free, something the mega food companies want you to associate with healthy, this is a killer manufactured product, the food version of astro turf.  The 1/3 cup portion contains 450 mg of sodium, just 30 mg short of a McDonald’s hamburger, something that you should also avoid.  24 grams of carbs and 110 calories, about a beer’s worth, also jumps off the page.  Besides that, there is almost nothing listed.  4C Gluten Free Seasoned Crumbs are a nutritional Sahara.     

  

 The ingredients list tells a similar story.  I don’t know what the glycemic index is on this, but I’m concerned that the main ingredient, gluten free crumbs, is made up or three things that will quickly turn into sugar.  Salt is listed 3 separate times and it contains 3 spices (dehydrated parsley flakes, onion powder, garlic powder) whose flavor degrades with processing and are always better fresh.  The “grated pecorino romano cheese” does not list powdered cellulose as an ingredient, however I suspect that the sawdust is included since 4C chose to specify that the cheese had been grated and powdered cellulose is included with every grated cheese on the market.  No Soylent Green is listed.  That’s probably good.

The panic produced by Wheat Belly is leading many to adopt a diet that is slim in minerals, vitamins and fiber.  While the aim is admirable, it is not a good plan to eliminate a whole class of healthy products from your diet simply because they contain one thing that is perceived as bad.  Strict portion control, eating less, is probably a better idea.  Unless you have celiac disease, contrary to Dr. Davis’ advice, cutting out all wheat is not going to make you more alert and thin.  And I’m getting a little tired of people who constantly tell me that if I would just cut out flour the diabetes will disappear.  That belief shows a profound misunderstanding of physiology, besides being kinda judgmental and mean.  Someone actually told me that they, “didn’t want to have a wheat belly like you.”  It is easy to forgive someone who doesn’t know your challenges. 

A few months back, a friend suggested that I do a couple of blogs about gluten free foods.  In preparing to do that, I looked back and saw that about a third of what I had written to that point was already gluten free.  Another large percentage of the recipes could be vegan if you subbed out the butter for oil.  I think I’m on the right track.  A healthy diet is varied and will include some foods that contain gluten.  It should be made up of fresh products and eliminate processed foods.  Bottom line, gluten free foods are an important part of any diet, but unless you have celiac disease, there is no reason to completely cut out items with gluten, because many are nutritious foods that your body needs.  As a consequence of planning a varied diet, some courses will have gluten, others will not.    

Our mantra here at Fresh Fun Foods has always been “Think at the stove.”  Do your homework.  The interwebs are often wrong, except my blog.  Evaluate sources and think critically about what you read.  I’m agreeing with Tom Waits on this, we confuse information with knowledge.  See your doctor.  Use your head. 

Better Flavor With No Hassle (Turkey Stock, Braised Brussel Sprouts)

Just a quick note here, since Thanksgiving is here and for some reason I took a catering gig on Friday.  The Fresh Fun Foods kitchen is a busy place and the Fresh Fun Foods fridge is stuffed to the gills.  When you are cooking tomorrow, be sure to make a quick turkey stock from the neck and wing tips of the bird.  Use peelings for flavor.  Why throw them out?  That’s what chefs do.  There is really nothing that you can do to help out your meal like making stock and using it in your gravy, to baste the turkey and to braise brussel sprouts.  

Turkey Stock

turkey neck and wing tips

1 gallon cold water

1/2 cup onion peelings

1/2 cup carrot peelings

the trimmings from celery, bottom and leaves

1 clove garlic, crushed

pinch fresh thyme

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf

This is a quick stock where clarity is not paramount, so we’ll take a few shortcuts.  It will be perfect for our Thanksgiving needs. 

Combine all ingredients in a large stockpot.  Turn the heat on medium and bring the stock to a simmer in about 30 minutes.  Skim off the froth that rises to the top.  Reduce the heat and simmer lightly for 60 minutes.  Strain the stock through a fine strainer and pick the meat from the neck to chop and use in your gravy.

Baste your turkey with this stock by pouring a 1/2 cup over the turkey every 30 minutes (or when you think about it).  This way, you will have a deeply caramelized bird and a pre reduced pan juice to magically turn into gravy using Grandma’s flawed recipe.  At least this way you’ll have concentrated flavor to start out. 

Additionally, consider braising your brussel sprouts in turkey stock.  Score the bottom of the sprouts and blanch them as you normally do.  In the mean time, peel and chop a carrot and some onion.  Sauté them in a large pan.  Maybe add some bacon?  Drain the sprouts and add them to the pan, season with salt and plenty of fresh black pepper.  Cover the bottom of the pan with about 1/2 inch of stock and braise them uncovered in a 350° oven for 20 minutes. You can do everything except the braising the day before.  Resist the temptation to roll sprouts in olive oil and char them all to hell in a blazing oven.  I don’t know where this came from.  It is a poor technique that produces dried out veg coated in bitter ashes.  Drizzling them with Balsamic vinegar doesn’t make you Mario Batali.

…and no matter what the experts say about brining turkeys, don’t do it.  It’s evil, immoral and wrong, a tacky fashionable trend that ruins the pan juices that you need to make a proper gravy.  Just use a thermometer and take the turkey out when it reads 160°.  Rest the thing for 20 minutes before carving.  That’ll give you plenty of time to eat the crispiest skin before your jerk brother does.

Pots and Pans For Cheap (Apple Crisp)

As I have often said, you won't see shiny pots and pans in my kitchen.  I don't do glitz or bling well.  Our Cuisinart was a wedding present.  At thirty years-old in June, it is not holding up as well as the marriage.  It has some dings, but keeps chopping along.  The motor smokes and belts scream, although what wouldn't after three decades of my use/abuse?  Like me, the cooking equipment is a little battered, rough around the edges or simply worn thin.  That's not a bad thing.  I think that it means that there is some character in those scratches and dents.  So what if my knife box looks like it is filled with tools right outta CSI.  The blades get the job done in a surprisingly efficient manner, maybe even with a little style.

I haven't purchased a new kitchen toy in recent memory, unless being bullied into buying a Pampered Chef garlic press counts.  My big problem is that I am hard on kitchen tools.  I am always bending pots and snapping off handles.  So I have a choice, either spend a bunch of money on durable stuff or find durable stuff for cheap.  There are a few places where I find the equipment that I need.  First, yard sales are the thing.  Often people are willing to let you haul away their excess stuff at almost no cost.  I remember getting six large spoons and ladles marked USN from a guy selling his Dad's WWII Navy gear.  I got some seriously heavy duty utensils from The Oklahoma, originally paid for by your tax dollars in the 40's, for about a buck a piece.  The problem with yard sales these days is that too many folks watch Antiques Roadshow and think that everything they are selling is gold.  Also, bargaining gets ugly way too fast.  We live in a hostile society.

Thrift shops are a better route.  Three, Care and Share in Souderton, Impact Thrift in Montgomeryville and Good Stuff Thrift in Fairless Hills stand out.  I like Care and Share, because once before going in in I told Cathy that I hoped that I could pick up a good tortilla press for cheap.  Moments later, a top quality press was in my hands.  In a Mennonite thrift shop, that was like Babe Ruth calling his shot.  Their prices have gone up recently, making me be more selective as I fill my basket.  Impact tends to put too much out on the shelves, so you have to sort through many second quality goods.  That said, they move a huge amount of equipment and it is smart to stop by often, just to see what is on the shelves today.  My favorite is Good Stuff Thrift, mostly because they employ my daughter Maggie, but also because I got a twelve piece set of vintage Le Creuset enamelware pots and roasters for $70.  While you are there, say hi to Mag and take a look at the wildly creative paper art she sells at The Paper ReStore.  

Today's recipe is something that I made in an iron enamel-clad Dru oval roaster I snagged at Impact for $6.  It is a heavy beast, completely overbuilt, something that I hope my great great grandchildren fight over sometime in the next century.  While it is prefect for cooking a duck or goose, it served equally well to hold an Apple Crisp that I knocked out last week.  Since it is apple season, this is an easy dessert to make this weekend.  There really is no such thing as the perfect cooking apple, no matter what your Grandma said.  Use a variety of fresh apples for this one.

Apple Crisp with Dried Cherries

8 medium apples, mixed varieties, peeled and sliced
3/4 cups dried cherries
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
8 tablespoons butter
1 cup flour

Place the cherries, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water in a medium sauce pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes, until the cherries have softened and reconstituted.  Cool to room temperature.

Use 2 tablespoons of butter to grease the inside of a 9 by 12 shallow baking dish.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the sliced apples, cherries and the syrup in which they were cooked.  Pour the apple/cherry mixture into the baking dish.

Preheat the oven to 375°.  In a large mixing bowl, mix 1 cup of sugar and 6 tablespoons of butter.  With you hands, work this into an even consistency as if you are making sugar cookies.  Pour in the flour and mix only until combined.  The resulting topping will contain both large and small lumps.  Sprinkle the topping all over the apples and cherries in an even coating.


Bake the Apple Crisp for 30 minutes, turning it regularly so that the crust browns evenly.

Serve hot, maybe with some good vanilla ice cream and definitely a shot of Calvados.

Get Out in the Orchard (Apple Fritters)

French cooks would call these Beignets aux Pommes, but damn it, while I’m a French chef, I also grew up in Pennsylvania where huge Deitsch women cook apple fritters in vats of oil, bringing delight to us all.  This is a seasonal variation on my standard fritter recipe.  Don’t be scared by how the batter will look.  It should resemble taffy, however when you drop it in a fryer, you’ll get a crisp, airy, misshapen bit of dough, packed with concentrated apple flavor. 

If you would prefer to cook the fritters on a buttered griddle, deep frying can be scary, add an extra 1/2 cup of milk to the recipe and cook them like small pancakes.  Avoid the temptation to add “Apple Pie Spices” to the fritters.  While that might seem like a good idea at the time, they will burn in the oil and give the fritters a nasty acrid taste. 

October and November is the time to get out in the orchards and support the farmers.  Buy pumpkins and squash with the intention of eating them.   Ask the orchardists for the apples that they don’t normally offer to customers.  Their favorites, the ugly, spotty and streaked fruit is often the best.   

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Apple Fritters

2 cups flour

½ cup milk

1 egg

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons melted butter

1 cup sliced apples, sautéed in butter

a pinch each of sugar and salt

powdered sugar for dusting the fritters

Peel, core and thinly slice 2 medium sized, crisp, tart apples.  Here is one place where Jonathans or Macs are a good choice.  Sauté the apples over low heat in 1 tablespoon butter.  You want to soften them, but not cook them so much that you make applesauce.  Refrigerate to cool the cooked apples while you make the batter. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk, egg, butter, salt and sugar.  Mix with a wooden spoon to combine.  Add the baking powder and flour.  Mix the fritter batter until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  You’ve done nothing wrong.  It should be a sticky mess.  Fold in the cooled apples.  Rest the batter for 10 minutes. 

Heat a three inch deep pot of oil to 375°.  The oil must not be too hot or the center of the fritters will not cook.  With a small spoon, drop one teaspoon of batter into the oil.  Turn the fritter when one side is cooked.  Fry for about three minutes until brown and crispy on the outside.  Remove from the oil with a strainer and drain on some newspaper.  Fry the fritters in small batches. Hold the cooked fritter in a 165° oven.   

Dust with powdered sugar before serving hot.  It is unlikely that they will get to cool, since children, spouses and strays normally grab them up as soon as they clear the oil.

Salads and Pasta and People Doing the Right Thing

Today's blog is simply a link.  https://lou-farrell.squarespace.com/new-u-wellness-fair/

Last week, I worked the NEW U Wellness Fair at Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA.  The Wellness Committee is clearly doing something right.  Everyone I met had a good handle on healthy eating choices.  Certainly their work is paying off.  Folks are eating better and moving more, which has the added benefit of keeping health care costs down.

Their Wellness Committee invited me to do a couple of food demos focusing on healthy foods.  The salads part was easy.  Fill up on healthy, interesting vegetable preparations and you will be too full to eat a veal chop wrapped in bacon.  The more difficult presentation, cooking whole wheat pasta was a challenge.  Whole wheat penne is not as firm as that made with semolina or durum wheat.  In order to make it firm and able to be sauced without turning to mush, it is a good idea to saute it in very hot olive oil.  Oh, and to keep it healthy, cut your portion.  On one needs to eat as many noodles as they serve you in most red gravy restaurants.  Recipes for all the stuff I cooked at the Wellness Fair are available at the above link.

A critique (Pork Tenderloin)

Recipes that you pull down off the interwebs can sometimes be first-rate, but there is no guarantee.  A reader sent a pork and apple recipe that seemed to have all the right ingredients; however it did not come out right.  Her comment was “the meat seemed more steamed than roasted.”  Additionally, she thought that it would be good with some kind of crust, a good idea.  The reason that this recipe did not work is that there is a real jumble of technique.  If the author had simply decided whether he was making a sauté or stew, the results would have been satisfactory.  Since he didn’t, the result is not as good as the ingredients would suggest.  Also, pork tenderloin, or any lean cut of meat, should not be cooked in liquid.  It should be roasted quickly.  More on that later.

I haven’t a clue where this recipe came from.  It is probably not from Rachael Ray, because I don’t see any place where she suggests coating good food in some kind of crap carbs like corn flakes or Doritos.  It is doubtful that it is Paula Deen’s, since there is no diabetic-safe deep fryin’ or overt racial insensitivity.  I normally do not present other’s recipes, but this will be instructive.  It’s time to be a cook/nerd.  Here is a rundown of what was recommended.  I’ve cut out any info that your really don’t need.  Make notes.  See if you can spot the problems.

2 (1- to 1-1/2-pound) pork tenderloins

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more as needed

  1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus more as needed

  1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

  1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

  1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 apples, cored and sliced

2 onions, sliced

1 cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon butter

1. Heat oven to 425°F.

2.  Trim each tenderloin of any silver skin.  Pat pork dry with paper towels.

3.  Then, using your hands, rub the tenderloins all over with 1 tablespoon of the oil,    sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and rub until both tenderloins are evenly coated.

4.  Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large cast iron skillet or heavy-bottomed oven-safe frying pan over medium heat. You will know when the pan is ready when the oil shimmers.

5.  Add the pork tenderloins and cook, turning occasionally, until evenly browned all over. Transfer the browned pork to a large plate or cutting board.

6.  Add apples and onions then cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned around edges, about 5 minutes.

7.  While the apples and onions cook, coat the pork all over with the mustard, sprinkle it with 2 teaspoons of the thyme and black pepper, and rub until it’s evenly coated.

8.  Add the remaining teaspoon of thyme to the apples and onions, stir. Then, place pork tenderloins on top of apples and onions and slide into the oven. Roast 10 to 15 minutes or until an internal thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers between 145 and 150 degrees F.

9.  Transfer pork to a large plate and cover with aluminum foil. Let rest about 10 minutes.

10.  While the pork rests, place the pan with apples and onions back onto the stove and turn heat to medium. Add chicken stock and use a wooden spoon to scrape the pan, lifting any brown bits from the bottom. Bring to a simmer and cook until reduced by half. Add butter and stir until melted.

11.  Slice pork into 1-inch slices then serve on a bed of the apples and onions with pan sauce drizzled on top.

Crack open a jug.  This might take a while.  I’m drinking a Cab from Wycombe Vineyards in Bucks County, PA.  Here is my point-by-point critique.  Excuse me for being picky.  It’s sort of what I do.  This is how chefs think.

·         -The chef who wrote this recipe assumes that the reader is able to competently clean the sliver skin off the tenderloin.  Additionally, he thinks that a reader will know that a pan is hot by the look of the oil heating in it.  I would never take that sort of thing for granted.  Both of those things take training and/or experience. 

·         -Don’t rub the meat with oil, you’ll make a mess.  Just season it and sear it in the hot pan with oil.

·        - The author is correct.  The meat should be seasoned and browned on all sides.  Instead of searing the pork, then reserving it until later to finish, why not put it in the oven to finish cooking it now?  

·         -That’s a lot of onions!  Half of that amount would give you a better apple character.  You could cook the apples and onions in the pan where you seared the pork.  That way, they would pick up the pork flavor; however apples and onions have completely different cooking times.  Apples will cook through in ten minutes or so, while onions need at least thirty minutes.  The better way to do this would have been to stew the onions down in a separate pan, add in the apples (which you should have peeled) and cook them until they are soft, preserving their aroma.  Deglaze the pan with white wine or even better some hard cider, then stir the apple/onion compote in.  You are making a sauce, not just cooking up some stuff.

·         -Apples and mustard do not go together.  They are good in separate sauces.  Also you should never cook mustard for an extended amount of time since it will get bitter and acrid, like most cooks.  

  

·         -When the pork is returned to the pan with the steaming apples and onions, you are stewing it.  It will get tough and stringy.  The color will be pale, rather than browned.  That’s not what a cook wants to do with a fine cut of meat.  It is good that author suggests searing the pork.  It should then be cooked fully and rested while the sauce is finished.  Just before serving, the meat should be sliced across the grain then sauced.  The unbending rule is that cheap cuts are cooked at a low temperature for a long period of time, while expensive cuts get quick cooking at a high temp.  Actually, pork tenderloin is best sliced and pounded into paillards and sautéed.  Chef Ted used to do that and call it veal.  He always made his food cost.  He was not particularly ethical.

·         -Covering the pork with foil only continues the cooking, essentially steaming the meat, making it tough, ruining the browning that you worked so hard to do.  Instead set the meat in a warm place while you prepare the sauce.

·        - Ignore the whole discussion about a pan sauce.  Anything you would get out of the pan is already in the puree.  Skip that and make the best puree possible.  Oh, and why do Americans put chicken stock in everything?  Pigs have bones.  

·         -I would either mash or puree the apples and onions, then adjust the consistency with water, pork stock or cream.  Remember you are making a sauce, so it should be a thin coating texture.  Alternatively, it would be nice to heat the thick puree and flambé it with applejack or brandy.  Do like the recipe says, slice the pork and lay it on top.  

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Pages back, it was suggested that a crust baked on top would be interesting.  I agree.  Here are two ways you might do it.  For both preparations, sear the tenderloin in oil, place it on a broiler pan, brush it with something to hold the breading then add the crust.  Bake at 400° for about 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven, rest for 5 minutes, slice then serve.

Mustard Crusted Pork Tenderloin

1 cup bread crumbs

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds

1 teaspoon fresh sage, chopped

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

a few grinds of fresh black pepper

In a medium sauté pan, melt the butter over low heat.  Add the mustard seeds, sage, salt and pepper.  Sauté until the seeds begin to brown.  Add the bread crumbs, mix thoroughly, remove from the heat.  Brush the tenderloin with the Dijon mustard.  Top the pork with the mustard crust.

Parmesean Cheese, Black Pepper and Thyme Crusted Pork Tenderloin

1 cup bread crumbs

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons grated Parmesean cheese

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 teaspoon coarse grind fresh black pepper

1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

As in the previous recipe, melt the butter, add the seasonings and the bread crumbs.  Away from the heat, blend in the Parmesean.  Brush the tenderloin with the egg, then top with the crust.

Well, I hope you have had fun.  The above recipe is not a bad one, but if you have a little technique under your belt, you’ll be able to see through the problems and make a better dish.