Peanut Skins

As I cracked open a dry roasted, unsalted peanut this morning I began to ponder this curious little legume. What first caught my attention was the thin skin covering the nut. It is the skin that is still present when labeled Spanish peanuts.

I have robotically removed this skin without contemplation for years. We all throw out the shell, but do people eat the skin; surely, some must. Before popping the next peanut in my mouth I made sure to leave the skin intact. If you have never tried this before the results are not stellar. The skin has much more texture than flavor and its thin profile is well suited for jamming itself into guns or between teeth. I can see no potential harm only annoyance and lack of flavor in consuming the skin.

If I were to be concerned with the time expended in eating the peanut I would surely ingest the skin every time. For now, that is not my primary concern so I have little reason to ingest it. Alternatively I would consume it if there was some benefit. I know there must be some small amount of fiber, but could there be more to it?

With Google at my fingertips I found a few claims about peanut skins. First, there seems to be an urban myth about the skins. And it seems that a few bored or jonesing pot smokers have taken this issue to task. Some have claimed or propagated the myth that you can get high from smoking peanut skins. I am going to say this is a myth without even trying it. I am usually convinced by evidence, but the remote possibility that a peanut skin could create a mind altering smoke and the lack of credibility in the reports from sites such as answers.yahoo.com have crushed any urges to test this myth. Besides, it would take a lot of peanut skins to test this and I have better things to do.

The second and more likely claim is that there could be antioxidant benefit from eating the skin. There is not a lot of evidence, and it appears that raw peanuts skins provide the basis of the information. If you have never tried raw peanuts I would suggest it. They taste much different than roasted peanuts; different in a much less satisfying way.

From my evaluation of the limited information I do not see substantial benefit or harm from ingesting the skin. So I will now eat the skin. I mean, why waste it?

As a last thought, why is it so hard to find dry roasted peanuts that have been shelled which do not have maltodextrin and safflower oil added? The real problem is that I have to peel my own peanuts just to isolate them. Perhaps we will live in a world someday where simple foods are just that.

Black Eyed Peas

I have a small bag of black eyed peas in the cupboard, but I have not found a use for them yet. Last night I dropped them into a bowl and added water so they would be ready to use today. I have never eaten them before, and as I am on a vegetarian diet experiment, so what better time to try them.

Browsing the internet I came across a few ideas. Searching the internet for recipes has yielded some of the best and worst recipes I have ever followed. The problem is that no one needs credentials to post a recipe. At the same time, not all good cooks have credentials. It is a sort of roulette. And that is why I often give it another shot.

Browsing through various recipes that called for meat I found it interesting that this bean is often prepared on New Years Day. In fact some consider it good luck to eat them on New Years Day. I do not, or at least do not yet subscribe to this idea. Besides, that was yesterday so I would have to wait another year to test that theory out.

I settled on a recipe that caught my eye. It called for quinoa. A few weeks ago I purchased a small amount of this grain. I had never heard of it before I read a raw food book. Never having tried quinoa it seems like a perfect time to try it along with the mysterious black eyed peas.

Black-Eyed Pea and Quinoa Croquettes

Vegetarian for 2 days...

I started a vegetarian diet on Tuesday. So far it is going well. After having hummus twice, I am ready to start making my own at a higher level. Today I searched out a recipe that will be prepared this afternoon. I soaked the beans yesterday, and I will make some pita bread today.
Here are the recipes I will be testing.

http://humus101.com/EN/2006/10/14/hummus-recipe/

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/breadsrice/r/pitabreadrecipe.htm

Last night I made orange curried lentils. the meal came out better than expected. I cooked the lentils first on boiling water. I then caramelized a diced onion in olive oil. When I placed them together I added about 2 TBSP of curry paste a teaspoon of cumin, a TBSP of coarse salt, half a can of tomato paste, a TBSP of minced garlic and ginger, and finally water to make it a bit thinner. This was simmered for a few minutes and served over jasmine rice. It was excellent with a little bit of homemade sambal chili sauce.

The Stinking Rose

Garlic is the rose I am referring to. Well, it is actually nothing like a rose. Often lumped into a category with onions, shallots, leeks, and chives garlic is actually in the lily family. Know to the biologists as Allium Sativum, this little bulb packs surprising pungency.

The flavor is best described as a hot pungency followed by background sweetness. When raw, the flavor of garlic is strongest and as it is cooked the flavor mellows. The flavor is desirable to many so garlic is often incorporated into bread, infused in oil, or used to accent meat. A myriad of recipes and methods exist for incorporation of garlic so I will shy away from specific recipes for now.

Before the cooking begins, the quality of the ingredients dictate the potential of any recipe. Selecting excellent garlic is not difficult but some attention should be paid to the bulbs at you local grocer. The bulb itself is divided into cloves. These are covered by a filmy dry skin which is easily removed by applying pressure to the bulb. The cloves are then easily separated, but each contains it's own thin film wrapper. The number of cloves varies by variety. The size of individual cloves and the overall bulb will vary by variety as well. Consider the amount of time you will expend to peel the cloves when selecting garlic. Flavor is often best in small cloves, but larger cloves should not be avoided as they pack excellent flavor as well.

A few methods exist to speed the processing time of garlic. Peeling garlic can be tedious, so depending on final use of the garlic three methods are widely used. IF the garlic is to be consumed raw, lay a clove on a flat side. Using the flat blade of a knife, apply pressure to crush the clove. The skin will now easily peel off. If keeping the garlic raw is not important, dropping cloves into boiling water for about 30 seconds is a quick way to loose the skin. Remove them promptly and cool quickly before sliding the skin off. This method retains much of the raw flavor and can be a God send when preparing 40 clove chicken. The last method keeps the entire bulb intact. You start by cutting the top off of all of the cloves as they are still retained in the skin as a single bulb. Next drizzle olive oil over the fresh cut to the cloves and place this bulb in the oven to roast. When fully roasted, the bulb can be squeezed to yield a golden yellow garlic paste. No peeling required.

Now onto the reason for writing about Garlic to begin with. I was making hummus a few nights ago and read a curious passage. "You should wait for a little while after crunching garlic." I had never heard this before so I went on a search for information.

Argentinian researchers reported (in the March 7, 2007 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry) that crushing garlic releases an enzyme, alliinase, that catalyzes the formation of allicin, which then breaks down to form a variety of heart-healthy organosulfur compounds. So crushed or chopped garlic, they reported, was potentially better for cardiac health than whole cloves.

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART02935/Four-Unexpected-Food-Facts.html

It is also interesting to note that cooking garlic kills these useful enzymes. In fact, only 60 seconds in a microwave can completely destroy them. I am not advocating a raw food diet here, but I do suggest that we use our garlic in raw or close to raw form so we can reap the benefits.

Garlic, like onions, contains compounds that inhibit lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase, (the enzymes that generate inflammatory prostaglandins and thromboxanes), thus markedly reducing inflammation. These anti-inflammatory compounds along with the vitamin C in garlic, especially fresh garlic, make it useful for helping to protect against severe attacks in some cases of asthma and may also help reduce the pain and inflammation of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

In addition, allicin, one of the sulfur-compounds responsible for garlic's characteristic odor, is a powerful antibacterial and antiviral agent that joins forces with vitamin C to help kill harmful microbes. In research studies, allicin has been shown to be effective not only against common infections like colds, flu, stomach viruses, and Candida yeast, but also against powerful pathogenic microbes including tuberculosis and botulism.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=60

I find it fascinating that this common and flavorful bulb has health effects which were long suspected, but are now showing up in scientific studies. It may be a stinking rose, but life would be a little less interesting without Garlic. I would say that I will start putting more of it to use, but I already love garlic and use it frequently. If you have been put off by it in the past, give it another try. It's good for you.

http://fcorpet.free.fr/GaspachoRecipe.html#ail

Ewww

Over the last two days I have been re-exposed to sub par, unhealthy food. Over cooked prime rib, chip dips, Jell-o salads and the like. The after effects have set in. Call me crazy but even my head seems to hurt. I need some real food.

All of this food like product used to be what I ate. My venture into natural foods has been so exciting and invigorating. I know realize just how powerful it has been. It is one thing to change diet and witness effects, but then try to go back and you will see so many more symptoms of poor diet reappear.

I have laced the laced the shoes and picked up the basketball. Last night I picked up a gym membership. It is almost the new year and I refuse to be cliche, or so I am telling myself. I will be one of the few to actually get in shape this year; not that I am so far out of shape right now. I just want to be in better shape.

So I will transcend a grocery establishment today. I need fresh fruit and veggies. I am hungry, for food. My gut is bloated and my kidneys are working overtime. I am looking forward to some simple, elegant, and delicious produce.

On a food note, I received a salt grinder for Christams. This one however has red peppers in teh grinder so it produces a coarse salty spicy mix. If you did not know, I am a big fan of capsaicin.

To put this place in perspective, as I look around I see shasta grape artifically flavored pop, non stick sprays, ritz crackers and fudge. Ewww, I need to get out. This is going to kill me softly just like the song...

Back At It

With a short lapse I have returned. Blame it on the snow or the confinement or just a lack of drive, but I am back now.

I recieved a few new books on food I am itching to get through. The first I have opened drew me in for 20 pages before I could seperate myself to eat breakfast. The book is "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

In the past month I have become obsessed with simple breads. By simple I am talking about breads with four inredients: flour, salt, yeast and water. I believe this is the way bread was meant to be made. In this book I am seeing my own ideas confirmed and reinforced.

On page they speak about salt. Using coarse salt will not change the flavor of the bread, but compared to fine salt there is a crucial difference to observe. I found this principal throough trial an error. The fine salt packs more densely than the coarse salt and therefore you should use less fine salt in a recipe.

I still have a ways to go, but there are some simple truths in this book. I love simple and elegent. So far this book is it. On the table are also two other books. One is about cheese making and the other is about yogurt. Those books I will expose at a later time.

For now I am out of town, and my materials and kitchen are not on hand. I am enjoying some food that does not fit into my natural foods criteria, but it is the holidays and I make an exception for family while I am a guest.

My latest thoughts have been down the lines of vegetarianism. With all of the problems inherent in our meat production military industrial complex of this fine nation vegetarian cuisine is starting to seem like an easy way out.

We know understand proper nutrition and meat is not a requirement. With all of the concerns I have it seems like a viable and realistic, and even healthy, option. While on the road I will be doing some research and considering another facet to the the experiments I run on my diet. A vegetarian week is coming.

I enjoy fish, I eat little red meat, and I am disenfranchised with poultry production. Pork comes from an animal that seems too intelligent and closely related to humans. Besides, I was never bacon or pork chop fan to begin with.

So I will muse for a few more days and return with my results. On decision has been made though. It is time to step up the workut routine. Food is excellent, and health is important, but to have a well rounded body mind and soul anyone can recite the fact that excercise is important.

Too many of us avoid it, or pretend like we get enough. I know the time can be tricky to allocate, but I am relatively young and it makes far too much sense not to begin a habit that may extend my life and improve the quality of it.

A Quick Thought

I hate that place [Starbucks]. I heard about a movement to refuse to buy any retail items today. It sounds like the way I already live. I like it.