Last year I did a piece called Food you can Trust Hall of Fame and its sister diary, Hall of Shame Awards. With the end of the decade tomorrow, it's high time to take a look at some of the best and worst foodstuffs and trends that have made an impact in the last ten years, according to moi, in one single diary.
Please add your suggestion/find to this incomplete list, it is bound to have missed your favorite snack, pet hate, silly trend, cooking method, utensil or way of life.
I wish you all a Happy New Year and may 2010 bring a degree of prosperity, peace and stability to our globe.
I'll start first by making a prediction: molecular gastronomy will fade away. Why? I have a hunch that future chefs will eschew overly clever froths and foams made by biochemists and go back to tradition using localized products with a vegetarian bent (more on that downthread).
Michel Roux Jr of "Le Gavroche" eatery in London says it better that I would:
"These mousses and foams that have popped everywhere have been a disaster," he says about molecular gastronomy. "To add gelatine to an ingredient and pump in CO2 to make a froth out of it isn't food to me. It's vile and it has no place in gastronomy. People make potato puree out of it for God's sake."
Local sourcing, seasonal produce and sustainability (seed companies are selling more than they were before the recession) are back in fashion thanks in part to growing farmer markets and food luminaries like Michael Pollan who has said in one of his articles (New York Times Magazine, a must read piece) that a nation losing its culinary heritage runs risk of losing its identity as a nation. Another trend prediction is the increasing interest in foods with added but real health benefits.
I hinted above at the vegetarian bent. I am not advocating a total ban on meat but a more careful approach to our eating habits. We know that climate change is occurring and that according to the FAO, livestock are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming (though some ag parties would dispute these facts).
As much as I like an occasional Sunday roast I would urge the good people of this planet to utilize meat as a treat, not as an everyday occurrence. Look at the various Asian cuisines and you will notice that grains, which they refer to as san, are considered the primary component of the diet and everything else, meat, fish and vegetables are considered accompaniments. In the coming year I will write several pieces entirely devoted to vegetarian cuisine. You'd be surprised at the incredible amount of great vegetarian chefs who have devised mouth-watering offerings. I hope the next decade is when vegetarian and vegan recipes begin to make into the mainstream rather than play second and third fiddle to the carnivorous orchestra.
Isa Chandra Moskowitz has done a lot to bring vegan cooking out of the era of knit-your-own-lentil-bake without resorting to fake meat with everything, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau is a useful authority on vegan baking, and Rose Elliott is the Delia of the meatless society, having been around forever and moved with the times.
The following are some of my favorite foods, most of which have been around for an eternity:
Olive oil is and has always been on the top of my list of essentials, it is chock full of monounsaturated fats, lowers bad LDL cholesterol and it reduces the risk of developing heart disease among many other advantages.
Results from the Seven Countries Study, which looked at cardiovascular disease incidences across the globe, showed that while men in Crete had a predisposition for high cholesterol levels, relatively few died of heart disease because their diet focused on heart-healthy fats found in olive oil. Look for extra-virgin or virgin varieties — they're the least processed—and use them instead of butter when cooking.
I have discovered oatmeal recently via my partner, and I have never felt better after a hearty bowl of it, doused with maple syrup. A great start to the day and not expensive. It can be cooked with water or milk or both. Molasses is also a great and almost natural sweetener.
Start your day with a steaming bowl of oats, which are full of omega-3 fatty acids, folate, and potassium. This fiber-rich superfood can lower levels of LDL (or bad) cholesterol and help keep arteries clear. Add Flaxseed which is full of fiber and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, a little sprinkling of flaxseed can go a long way for your heart. Top a bowl of oatmeal or whole-grain cereal with a smidgen of ground flaxseed for the ultimate heart-healthy breakfast.
Legumes and Grains: combining the two is not rocket science as I will demonstrate in a forthcoming diary. Legumes, also known as pulses, are the group that contains beans and peas. Grains include cornmeal, bulgur wheat, barley and oats. Rice is a grain too, and includes all the varieties like brown, short grain and long grain varieties. For the grains, it is always best to choose whole grain varieties rather than the refined products.
Carbohyrate source Whole grains are made of a rich starch store (the endosperm) comprising from 60- 80% of the seed (depending on the species and variety), the embryo plant (the germ) rich in protein and fats and vitamins and comprising only about 3% of the seed, and the seed coat, the bran, which is where most of the B vitamins (and many of the minerals) are. At 80% carbohydrate, seeds are, like tubers, an excellent fuel for daily activity. And whole seeds contain the B1 vitamin necessary for carbohydrate metabolism. Grains are relatively 'slow burners', so they don't push up your blood sugar levels and then suddenly drop them - they tend to keep blood sugars relatively stable.
Protein builds growing bodies, and protein is made up in turn of 'building blocks' called amino acids. Grains are low in the amino acid 'lysine', which makes their protein content less useful than it would otherwise have been. Wheat has about 8-15% protein, depending on the variety (ancient wheats had a higher protein content), rice has a low content, at 7%. So grains in general are perhaps best regarded primarily as an energy and vitamin and mineral source.
Legumes, on the other hand, are very good sources of protein. Peanuts, for example, are protein rich, with about 25% or more protein content (and with a favorable amino acid profile). Lentils have about 25%, cowpeas have from 23-35%, common beans (Phaseolus) have about 22%, and so on. Legumes tend to be low in the amino acids methionine and cystine, but are high in the amino acid lysine. Lysine is low in grains, so eating the two together leverages the protein content of both. Co-incidentally, legumes such as lentils and peas tended to grow as weeds among wheat and other grains at the time they were being domesticated; in South America maize, a grain, was (and is) grown with beans, a legume. In Asia rice and Soya beans complement each other.
As a young lad I used to forage for berries in the nearby woods. Blueberries, mulberries, raspberries, wild strawberries - none of these were safe with me around. And what a lot of good they did to me! Nowadays I try to buy them seasonally and preferably locally. Ireland grows strawberries in large quantities which can be bought by the roadside, and with the advent of plastic tunnels, one can find raspberries. I have a few raspberry plants alongside red currents growing in our garden. They are easy to grow and seem to multiply every year.
The pigments that give berries their beautiful blue and red hues are also good for your health. Berries contain phytochemicals and flavonoids that may help to prevent some forms of cancer. Cranberries and blueberries contain a substance that may prevent bladder infections. Eating a diet rich in blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, cranberries and strawberries may help to reduce your risk of several types of cancers. Blueberries and raspberries also contain lutein, which is important for healthy vision.
One thing that goes well with berries is yogurt. Plain yogurt is best and if you know how to make it it's even better. I once read about Turkish shepherds who lived a very long life on a diet of yogurt, bread and olives.
Legend tells that yogurt and Kefir were born on the slopes of Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus range of mountains, between the Black and Caspian seas. On the hot southern slopes a pitcher of milk belonging to a Turkish nomad was contaminated by a mixture of organisms that thrived in the warm milk. The result was what the Turks call "yogurut". The name "yogurut" was supposedly introduced in the 8th century and was changed in the 11th century to the current version yogurt. Undoubtedly a regular intake of the organisms found in yoghurt can have a beneficial affect to the digestive tract.
One of the best gizmo around is the multi-tiered steamer (see pic below), a fairly versatile cooking device that won't cost a fortune and which will bring health benefits. The last decade has produced and updated a plethora of cooking utensils and one of the brightest idea was to invent the solar cooker. Solar cookers are an ideal addition to any kitchen wherever there are predictable hours of sun many days of the year. Unfortunately for me, Ireland has little sun but plenty of water. This link will show you many ways how to build your own solar oven
One of my pet peeves is misleading health claims, ingredient obfuscations, and other labeling misadventures. Can orange juice really help prevent or treat arthritis? That’s the implication on the label of a Minute Maid orange juice fortified with glucosamine hydrochloride “designed to help protect healthy joints.” It's a false claim. Period. Quite a few major companies, including Coca-Cola, Kellogg, Kraft, General Mills, and Nestlé, continue to confuse or defraud consumers about the health effects, ingredients, or “natural”-ness of their products.
You all know about my profound dislike of bottled water so there's no point rehashing it ad nauseam. Same with HFCS:
High-fructose corn syrup is a common sweetener and preservative. High-fructose corn syrup is made by changing the sugar (glucose) in cornstarch to fructose — another form of sugar. The end product is a combination of fructose and glucose. Because it extends the shelf life of processed foods and is cheaper than sugar, high-fructose corn syrup has become a popular ingredient in many sodas, fruit-flavored drinks and other processed foods.
The very worst of all, IMO, is the dreaded melamine, compliments of China who is struggling to put its food products house in order. I wrote last year:
I sincerely hope China will learn the many, many food safety lessons and review the entirety of their food production lines in a clear and verifiable manner if they want to entice the rest of the world with their foodstuffs. For now, I'm not advocating anyone to purchase any edibles made in China. It will change in due course.
There was another melamine alert earlier this month which seemed to have gone under the radar for most consumers so it is too soon to regain confidence in their food products. For now.
Please add your best and worst of this past decade in the comments. Next week I'll do a diary on inventive vegetarian cooking. With all the trimmings.