When I visited New Delhi, India a while back, I got addicted to the freshly prepared Pomegranate juice which took 4 people to prepare it. One person to cut and peel the skin, two people to remove and separate the juicy pips from the fruit, one to juice it through a specially made Pomegranate juicer. It is a laboriously task, pomegrante juice was not readily available just anywhere even in New Delhi. I only got to taste it in a New Delhi town club which provided a sunday buffet fest for its members.
Being in Singapore where we don't grow our own food, and we pretty much import everything(Talk about having big carbon foot prints) We get fruits as far as South Africa or Egypt. It was pomegranate season a few weeks back and at the local supermarket, I spotted Pomegranates from Afghanistan. The country is famous for its beautiful fruits like apricots and grapes, pity we don't get them here. I was excited! Fruits from an exotic warcountry!
Transporting these Pomegranates from this remote place to our city I suspect would have been difficult with the bad transport network over there. I could'nt imagine how much effort it took for these large beautiful pomegranates to reach our supermarkets.
It was worth the effort and it was more expensive compared to the ones from India. The Afghan pomegranates were sweeter and have a deeper ruby red color compared to the pale pink ones we regularly get from India. I got a few Afghan pomegranates from the supermarket and decided to juice them.
Juicing pomegranate was time-consuming and require pain-staking patience to remove the juicy dark ruby red pip one at a time. I had previously tried it before and failed miserably by squeezing it with muslin cloth. It resulted in disappointingly little juice with much of the precious nectar soaked by the cloth. A previous time, I ran the pips through a blender and it resulted in a bitter cloudy liquid because I juiced the white bits with it to save time.
The best way I found was cutting the pomegranate in half, and slowly pick the pips individually without breaking the ruby red sap.
I ran the pips through my new cold press juicer and it worked!. A whole fruit gave me half a glass of deep ruby nectar.
Yes it was worth all that effort and probably try it again next season. Meanwhile it is back to drinking bottled pomegranate juice for the moment.
Best way to Juice a Pomegranate
Cinnamon Buns
I love Philosophy products, they alway come up with some great food-smelling products. There were too many to choose from Sephora, lemon custard, pumpkin pie, vanilla birthday cake. I picked up a few realistic smelling body wash like lemonade and apple. More disappointing were the cocktail line (margarita, daiquri, mimosa) shampoo trio that I got.
This is one of my favorites, Cinnamon Bun. It smells like cinnamon ginger bread. What's great its a shampoo, bubble bath and body wash all in one. Good for travelling.
On the bottle, it gives you a recipe for creating your own cinnamon bun. Not tried it out yet. Let me know if it works out.
Philosophy's Cinnamon Buns Recipe
1/4 cup warm milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 portion dry yeast
1/4 warm water
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
4 tablespoon soften butter
2 eggs
- Mix all ingredients except yeast, water, flour let it cool,
- Stir and dissolve yeast in warm water
- Add yeast to first mixtutre, beat until mixed
- Add 1 1/2 cup flour, cover and let rise for 1 hour
- Add remaining flour, blend well, knead until smooth.
- Put dough in greased bowl, cover, let rise until double its size.
- Punch down, shape rolls, let rise for 1 hour,
- Bake at 400 degree F (204 degree C) for 8 mins.
The Dumb-Down consumer
"I never knew how cruel foie gras (goose liver) is," said a friend while we were having dinner together. I looked wide-eyed and half amused at the comment. She knew how goose and ducks were force-fed but it never dawn on her on how cruel it was. She was quite detached about the cruelty issue.
Call me a snob and elitest, I scoff at people who don't care where what they are eating comes from or how it was grown or processed. You should be aware of what you are eating. Sad to say, many of us are pretty much dumb-down consumers.
The dumb-down result didn't just happen over-night. Here in Singapore, since 1970s, consumers were slowly created and the dumbing down process begun.
I would also say it is the lack of awareness, the disconnection of our agricultural roots and the cover-ups from industralised food chain producers that helped evolute people into the such un-educated detached consumer.
"Don't tell me how it was processed or where it comes from, how endangered it is, I don't wanna know, as long as it taste good, I don't care."
- a closet-eyed self declared gourmet acquaintance
For me, I use to be an un-aware eater with a strange curious yearning on how food was cooked and where it was grown. I had grown a little disgusted at mass-produced food and how food affect and harm our environment. Endangered animals and seafood are still being eaten, and more animals and fishes are reaching endangered levels. Our land continue to be poisoned by growing pesticide and nitrogen based fertilisers. We have de-evoluted into a singular crop based agriculture and industralised food chain. Many of our beautiful wide-range fruits, vegetables and other produce has been on a steep decline to extinction.
Reading the local food forums, often I come across self-declared food gourmets raving about some rare and endangered produce. Here in Singapore, we are known as food lovers, however I beg to differ. These so-call foodies are rather ignorant gluttons. Most are obsessed about eating, but don't really care much about how the food was produced.
For me, the worst kind of person is the kind who is all too happy to eat anything and turn a blind eye, brushing under the carpet where food comes from and how it was treated. We need to be aware of what we are eating only then we can make our own decisions, judgements and actions. These very decisions and actions affect our environment, our planet.
Alice Louise Waters , influential American food activist on sustainable food, once said "Eating is a political act, and the choices you make have consequences beyond the table"
So You are a Bluff Vegetarian
"So I want real vegetarian food, can you provide that?"
"What kind of food do you want?"
"The real one, not bluff one."
In my previous life, I helped arrange corporation & organisations functions. As with any dinner events in Singapore, you need to cater for people with diverse food restrictions ranging from Halal to Vegetarian Meats. This event co-organiser was given the prominent role of pushing my buttons by fufilling the needs of 5 vegetarian in the group of around 200 plus.
After much probing, she finally came back to me after refusing to explain what sort of vegetarian meals she wanted (she was suppose to ask the Vegos, i guess she didn't), declaring that all of them should be taking vegetarian meal that is purely chinese even though some were indian vegos. Asking what it meant, she got irritated and said, not the bluff types who take vegetable and fish &animal products. No garlic or onion type, you know the 'Real Vegetarian.
And no, she is not a vegatarian herself, she eats decayed and crude flesh of dead animals.
If you are a little more open minded about people's diets, and not so much of a food nazi, here's the list :
Types of 'Real' Vegetarians
Lacto-ovo- vegetarian
They don't eat animals like beef,pork, poultry, seafood but do eat animal products like dairy and eggs
Lacto-vegetarian
No eggs, but does eat dairy products
Ovo-vegetarian
No dairy products but eats eggs
Vegan
No meats of any kind or animal products like dairy, eggs, or processed food containing animal derived ingredients like gelatin or foods that uses some animal based product in the manufacturing and processing like sugar, some cooking oils and honey.
Pescatarian
One who eats no animal flesh with exception of fish. Some Pescatarian eats seafood.
Proper term for is Pesco Vegetarian, one who eats fish and vegetables and not Pescartarian (one who eats only flesh of fish)
Pollo Vegetarian
One who eats no other animal flesh other than poultry
Jain Vegan
By religion and belief, strict Jain eats no root vegetables like garlic, carrots, potatos. Anything that kills or disrupt other living creatures is strictly forbidden.
Mahayana Buddhist Vegan
By religion, eats no pungent smelling vegetables or any vegetables that excite lower senses like chilli, garlic, onions.
Flexitarian/Semi-vegetarian
Eat a mostly vegetarian diet, but occasionally eat meat.
Raw vegan/Raw foodist
Eats unprocessed vegan foods that are not heated above 46oC some say 60oC.
Macrobiotic
Eats whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and soy products and seaweed, allows some types of fish. Eats to keep the yin and yang in balance.
Fruitarian
Strictly eats only the fruit of the plant.
Hippocrates Soup
This delicious and healthy soup is both medicinal and cleansing. One of my personal favorites, it is sweet and naturally fragrant, requires no added salt or seasoning. The Hippocrates Soup is also used as soup stock for my other soups and as a base for other recipes. All ingredients are organic where possible. Always get organic potatos and tomatos for this soup as the pesticide levels for these produce tend to be much higher in non-organic ones.
The soup is always served every lunch and dinner as a starter soup for Gerson Therapy (GT) patients. Its a pre-requisite menu for GT patients. While much of GT is directed to liver cleansing, this special soup is designed to help cleanse the kidney and nourish the body. No salt or other condiments should be added for obvious reasons.
The main medicinal ingredients are leeks, celeriac (celery root), parsley root. Potatos are added for carbohydrates and tomatos, garlic onions are added for taste. Here in Singapore, parsley root is rare and hardly available in the shops so I omit it. You can find celeriac (seasonal) in Singaporean gourmet supermarkets like Tanglin Supermarket, Jasons, Culina and NTUC finest. If celeriac is unavailable, replace with celery stalks.
Recipe : Hippocrates Special Soup
Makes four portion for two days
Ingredients (use organic produce where possible)
400g medium celeriac
250g medium onions
250g celery stalk about 3-4 medium stalk
500g roma tomatos
500g potato
400g leeks
300g parsley root (if available)
3-4 cloves of garlic (as desired)
1 stalk parsley herb (condiment)
filtered water
Method
1. Wash all the vegetables thoroughly, unpeeled, cut in small cubes.
2. Add just enough filtered water to cover the cut vegetables in non-aluminum based pot.
3. Cook all the ingredients under low heat 60-80 degrees Celsius for 1.5-2hours in firmly
covered pot.
4. Remove tender and soft vegetables from heat, run through food mill/blender. Remove fibers
or peels.
5. Blend still warm ingredients thoroughly till soup is thicky and creamy. Only blend the soup
while its warm, otherwise the soup will form a sticky and starchy texture when cooled.
6. Allow soup to cool before storing in refrigerator
7. Make enough for about two days only.
Notes :
- You can vary the taste by adding semi-dried tomatos or roasted garlic to the soup.
- Portions of Leeks, celeriac, celery stalks, parsley root should remain as prescribed.
- The unblended version can be used as Vegetable Stock for other recipes.
- The soup should be cooked at low and slow heat to preserve its valuable nutrients and keep it easily digestible. In fast and high heat cooking, the cells burst and the minerals go out of their colloidal composition, it becomes more difficult to be absorbed.
- The soup pot must be non-aluminum and must have a closely tight heavy pot lid to prevent steam to escape.
My vegan version of Chermoula
The recipe is modified for Gerson Therapy cancer patients which omits strong aromatic spices and oils in their strict diet.
Recipe : Chermoula
Makes around 500ml marinade
Fresh Ingredients :
- 1 red onion
- 5 garlic cloves
- 90g organic coriander, including stalks
- 150g organic Italian Flat leaf parsley
- 1 strand saffron (pounded)
- 1/2 bunch organic mint leaf
Other Ingredients :
- 1.5 Tablespoon Ras el Hanout
- 200ml Flax oil
- 1/2 lemon - juiced
Modified Ras el Hanout :
(roast the mixtured spices in low to medium heat in wok)
- 1 bay leaf (pounded finely)
- 1 teaspoon thyme (pounded finely)
- 1 teaspoon ground mace
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground anise
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander seed (pounded finely)
Optional for Non GT patients :
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- I teaspoon turmeric
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Method
- Blend in food processor for 1 min, all the fresh ingredients and roasted Ras el Hanout except flax oil and lemon juice. Texture should be pesto-like.
- Slowly add small portions of Flax oil and lemon juice to the mixture till thick and paste form.
- Cover marinade mixture to eggplant, sweet capscium or squashes. Grill.
Caretrace - a website that traces where your food comes from
Commercial and industrial agriculture and businesses have long severed our ties with the people and the land that grow our food. We as consumers have stopped being conscious of where our food comes from, our children only knows that food comes from the supermarket.
Won't it be great to meet the people who grow and produce our produce, our foods. That gives us a little choice on our purchases and how the items we buy affects our environment and the people who are dependant on it. Being conscious about our food sources allows us to be more pro-active in building a more sustainableEarth. Start asking ourselves, how does eating meat affect our environment, or how does growing this apple with pesticides affecting our health and the health of the land?
This new website Caretrace(http://www.caretrace.com) I found recently, has a great idea of connecting us to the source. Being new, it hardly has any food items on the list and minimal information. It would be a delight to see it grow and expand. Do support it.
Here's what it says about Caretrace :
Caretrace allows you to learn more about the origins of your food and the people who produce it. Trace products to a farm and read biogs, watch videos and explore maps.
You can also link products to projects and find out how some of the money spent is going to good causes which benefit the local communities where these products are made.