The Fat of the Lamb

FAT IS GOOD.
Below is an extract from an article it not only talks about the value of organic foods but also about about the necessity of  eating saturated fat.....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-john-salerno/why-i-recommend-organic-f_b_403348.html

"The answer which I ( Dr Salerno) propose in Dr. Salerno's Silver Cloud Diet is to eat a nutrient rich diet made up of plenty of saturated fat, protein and fruits and vegetables which are organic, grass fed, and wild caught.

I get a lot of surprised looks from my patients when I tell them to eat more saturated fats to lose weight. They will start in telling me they've been eating a low fat diet for years. But they don't make the connection between this diet and their health problems, including overweight, type two diabetes, memory problems, and arthritis.

I explain to them that the body must have saturated fats for proper brain function, cell development, and satiety. Plus it just makes people look better. Fat carries flavor and makes people feel full and satisfied quicker.

I can spot the low fat dieter in a moment. Dry skin, wrinkles, and broken fingernails. Those are the telltale signs that show. Lab work reveals many more.

So I propose that people eat plenty of saturated fat, protein and organically grown fruits and vegetables for optimum health and weight maintenance. It works for my patients."

About twenty years ago when i was starting out my Shiatsu practice in London, I read an article in a publication called "What doctors dont tell you".   - in fact I just checked and its now an online magazine

http://www.wddty.com/

The author claimed that with regard to coronary heart disease, saturated animal fat was not the problem,
(the so called lipid hypothesis - that the ingestion of saturated fats caused the build-up of cholesterol which clogs arteries). The ingestion of carbohydrates; that is sugars, regardless of their complexity, create insulin production, the excess of which causes all kinds of inflammation and arterial damage. Cholesterol is in fact the bodies' attempt to repair this damage. We don't need the carbohydrates they are in fact the source of the problem. Certainly not the vast amount that modern humans eat in very processed forms
The next very important risk factor was processed food and the amazing array of  food-like substances was the issue.  That our paleolithic omnivorous digestive systems were perfectly adapted to fairly significant amounts of saturated fat, but were completely unable to assimilate all the strange chemicals and non-food, food-like substances contained and created by processing food. The body in response to these substances simply stored them in our fatty tissue, toxifying us and eventually  compromised the function and responsiveness of our internal organs, liver, kidneys, heart, pancreas etc eventually this inability to digest, assimilate and eliminate further toxifies us leading to organ compromise degenerative illness and failure. I guess it looks to me that Dr Salerno is talking about much the same thing...

And so to food.

A recipe ( reasonably complicated)- Lamb meatballs with a spiced Moroccan sauce and Honey Chard

( Im going to suggest that you make a large batch of this sauce- because it takes time and effort, freezes perfectly and you WIll want to have it again- so the recipe is for a large quantity)

For the Sauce

8 lbs of Tomatoes, ripe and sweet. ( if you buy them a little unripe leave them to ripen till soft on a sunny window sill for a few days)

3 small or 2 medium bulbs of garlic

6 med red onions

The spices

Ground cumin, ground coriander, ground allspice - 2 full tsps of each

2 sticks of cinnamon

4 stars of star anise

3 Guajillo or hot red chillies

Saffron - 1 pinch ( soak in a few tsps of water)

Ketchup/ Tamari/ Cooking sherry / Salt

Finely chop the onions ( a cuisinart / food processor does a great job and saves tears) , dice the tomatoes, finely chop the garlic.

Drop some Ex virgin Olive oil in a stockpot and add the onions and start to sautee. When soft add the garlic and tomatoes, mix  together and cook for a few mins then add all your spices,  cook the mixture down for a few mins, then  add water to cover fully, generous splash of cooking sherry and a good squeeze of tomato ketchup. and lastly the saffron and saffron water.

Bring to boil , simmer and reduce for about 4-5 hours.

For the lamb meatballs

1 lb of ground lamb

1 egg

2 cloves garlic chopped fine

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp harissa

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Handful of chopped parsley and cilantro

salt

Mix all the ingredients together , fashion into meatballs and fry till golden brown .

For the chard

Stalk the chard so its just leaf, chop into large pieces and sautee in a pan with a spoonful of butter and a tsp of honey, salt and pepper to taste.

For the couscous

Boil 1 cup of chicken or lamb stock , turn off, add 2/3 cup of couscous. Cover with lid and let the couscous absorb the liquid.

When you serve, put a dollop of live bulgarian yoghurt over your sauce ( not compulsory but pretty good and looks beautiful)

Obviously if you dont want to make vast quantities of the sauce then adapt the recipe accordingly.

Also save the lamb fat it makes wicked home made fried potatoes.....

Trust me this one is worth the effort.  Invite some friends and show off and share.

Until we eat againxxxx

That Curry

By popular request, ( and you know who you are) I'm posting the recipe for another chicken curry. This one's an old favourite which I never tire of. I called it Elaichi Moorgh ( which means Cardamom chicken ). I just made it up and its always been well received. Apart from once when i made no concessions to the anglo-saxon palate and nearly killed a friend by way of chilly-induced internal combustion...

You will need
8 pieces of chicken (with bones and skin) I like to use thighs and drumsticks.
3 med onions
a little heavy cream ( optional)

The spices
Garam Masala
Ground Cumin
Ground Coriander
Tumeric
Cayenne pepper
Cinnamon Sticks
Green Cardamom pods
Fresh Red  or Green Chillies ( Indian or Thai)

Chop the onions fine and fry in oil until golden and soft.
Add the chicken pieces and fry to seal off a little ( medium heat)
Then add the spices.

The principal spice is garam masala , generously sprinkle it over the chicken till you more or less cover whats in the pot.
If you use two heaped teaspoons , then use one each of ground cumin and coriander
Half a teaspoon of tumeric and the same of cayenne pepper.
Fry and keep turning the chicken, onions and spices till everything is nicely coated in an aromatic brown paste.
Lastly add the chilly ( to taste) suggest maybe three fresh ones of med strength, sliced lengthwise ( strength is all very subjective)
A couple of cinnamon sticks (or about 5-6 pieces of cinnamon bark if you can get it from an indian grocer)\
About 6-8 cardamom pods.
Cover fully with water, add salt, bring to boil and then simmer for about 1and a half to 2 hours till the chicken falls easily off the bone. For the last twenty-30 mins take the lid off the pot to reduce the liquid down to a thicker gravy.
You will add salt as you go as the stock gets richer and reduces down.
For a final touch and if you want to a splash of heavy cream will turn it really smooth.( don't overdo the cream though or you'll drown the flavour and make it too bland). Sometimes I add it and sometimes I don't.

Rice, naan, chapaati or chuky, crusty white bread to accompany. This keeps really well in the fridge and can often improve by the next day.

Good Eating. And once again Happy Birthday Kaya and Rafael.

On Vegetarianism

In India, where I was born, vegetarianism is a cultural reality. I couldn't give you statistics, but a very large number of hindus (and jains and buddhists) practice vegetarianism.

The predominant reason is philosophical; essentially the karmic problem of killing sentient lives willingly. Doubtless there are people who just don't like eating meat, those who do it for apparent health reasons and  many who simply cant afford it.

Preferences and poverty aside, I'd like to take a look at the philosophical dimension of things. It is also noteworthy that in our time the ecological implications and costs of meat rearing has also become a reason for vegetarianism, particularly in the western world.

Someone I know  posed a question recently "are we dying or are we living?", well in truth aren't they both the same thing ? The life process or event is one in which death is built in. This endless recycling of beings; this creation, consumption and elimination of beings is a cycle with no beginning or end. We define the death event because of its apparent finality with regard to our waking consciousness, and our sense of loss, grief and finality in relation to everything we love.

Are we living or dying or are we a sacrificial process.? Am I aware of this sacrifice that is my life ? Can I yield to it, surrender to it as it occurs or will I ignore it and resist it especially at its most challenging, when death takes my body and my egoic consciousness. ?

The accidental as well as deliberate slaughter of organisms is inevitable and part of this process of appearances and disappearances, but death is the inevitable passage for each and everyone.

No consciousness wills its own end (typically), each one demonstrates the desire to grow, protect itself, propagate itself, resist pain and partake in pleasure.

So is it possible to live in a way free of the chronic anxiety and fear of death, to surrender to death when it is appropriate ( rather than rage against the dying of the light)? .

To focus on simply how we die is to miss the point about how we live. How we live IS how we die.

When I consider the sentient beings who sacrifice their lives for my sustenance, the elk, buffalo, pigs, chicken, fish and lamb I'm truly grateful. I'm also conscious not to eat meat from sources where that being may have been treated cruelly in life AND death. How they lived and died is crucial (not that they died)

That my buying power supports life affirming, conscious animal husbandry. That their life was honored by my appreciation and my cooking.

I believe in the dignity of all sentient beings,  so just  as I care about a human beings rights to live free of fear, cruelty and mistreatment I feel the same way about non-humans.

I hope the bacteria whom i feed with my body approve of the way I was reared.

Levantine Lasagne

After three inches of snow and a bitter wind, a roaring hot fire and the trials of the week shed. I couldn't
resist just putting the radio on and getting in the kitchen.


I call this a Levantine Lasagne, I just love the word "Levant" , I love its romance and evocation of Arabian dhows,
spice markets, swarthy traders and sultans. It is where Africa, meets Europe and Asia; The melting pot of Greeks, Arabs, English, French and Venetian traders, Ottomans and North Africans. (The days before passports and the illusions of racial purity and discrete nation states )
Scan any Levantine recipe and a pound to a penny you'll find ground lamb. And that is the backbone of this dish.
I recently saw a little palestinian cookbook authored by the elderly father of well know poet. It was full of hand-drawn illustrations and anecdotes. Nearly every single recipe featured ground lamb.


What you'll need is 
1 large sweet red onion
1 lb of ground lamb
4- 5 medium ripe tomatoes
1 large fat aubergine
1 cup of couscous
1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan


The Spices


Cinnamon
Allspice
Smoked Paprika
1 Ancho Chilly ( another type will do but the Ancho has a deep smokey mellow flavour and is ideal)
Few sprigs Thyme and Marjoram ( fresh if you have them)


Slice the tomatoes into fat half inch slices and make a layer of them with a splash of Olive oil into the bottom of a pyrex or other baking dish.


Slice the aubergine in half in inch thick slices, salt and let sit for 10 mins.


Cook the couscous ( boil a pan of 3 cups of chicken stock- as soon as it comes to a boil turn it off and add a cup of couscous and cover-  let it sit till the couscous absorbs the liquid)


Finely chop the onion and begin to fry with olive oil till golden and soft.
Mix the spices and herbs with the lamb and add to the onions, fry till the lamb is browned and remove from the stove.
Fry the aubergine slices till nicely brown and soft. (I use extra virgin olive oil for most things but frying an aubergine consumes vast amounts of oil so use whatever your preference or judgement dictates.)


The tomatoes are the bottom layer, next the lamb, then the aubergines, grated Parmesan and finally Couscous.
Cover the dish with foil or wax paper and place in the oven for 20 mins. 375 - 400.


Serves four or two very hungry and greedy people.

Harch Green Chile and the Autumnal Omelet

Anyone who lives in New Mexico knows about Hatch Green Chile. If they don't its because they

arrived yesterday night on the last train from somewhere else.

The Hatch crop comes in early September, and here and there dotted along the roadside you see the roasters. The only thing I'd ever seen that was comparable was when we used to go to Spitalfields market in London ( one of the few organic markets at that time) and there was this guy selling coffee. He wasn't just selling it though, he was roasting it in this giant rotating drum of a roaster. The smell was intense, the guy was wired, it was a show of raw caffeine power. His coffee was all muscles and sophistication all at once. Anyhow back to Chile.

The beautiful hot, aromatic, pungent chilly with its blackened skins are like gold.

You drive them home, bag em up and freeze pounds of the stuff to see you through the winter.

There are a few things that people crave when they leave here and top of that list is Hatch Green Chile. My friend Rose clocked up a few miles in New York desperate to satisfy a craving.

On my kitchen window sill, the last of our stupendous tomato crop, is gently ripening away, oblivious to the season change and the crisp cold nights. When i was a shiatsu practitioner and dabbling with macrobiotics, nightshades were frowned upon. I know the whole Belladona association, but really ! has any of these people eaten a really sweet, sun ripened tomato or aubergine.

I know it almost seems patronising to post an omelet recipe, but trust me, this is no pedestrian

flat yellow apology of an egg dish.

This is a 20 minute meal. The autumnal Taos omelet.

3- 4 nice plump Hatch Chile's skins removed

1 really fat ripe tomato or a couple of medium sized ones.

Couple of slices of ham or a chicken sausage ( whatever you prefer)

4 eggs

some whole milk

Fresh goat cheese.

Olive oil, salt and pepper.

Dice the tomato and the chile together with a clove of garlic and fry with olive oil.

a few minutes on medium heat and then set aside.

Beat the eggs in a bowl , season with w salt and pepper

add a generous dollop of whole milk,

Drop the eggs into a hot pan with some more fresh olive oil.

( whisking them continually as you do)

soon as the eggs are in, spread the rest of your ingredients around the omelet

liberally drop goat cheese all over.

Keep it cooking on a pretty high heat to nicely brown the omelet.

Soon as the omelet is reasonably firm , put the pan under a hot broiler and finish off

Should be nice and golden and puffy.

I like to slide it out of the pan onto a chopping board, fold it over in half and slice it up to present it. Any fresh salad and a round of toast to accompany and you cant go wrong.

until the next meal. xx

philosophy and a recipe

On the subject of food I'm with Michael Pollan and Joel Salatin, Raymond Blanc and generations of people who until the recent past, understood that food not only needed to be grown well but eaten well. That if you want food you go to a garden or a farm, if you want a piece of machinery you go to a factory. There is no such thing as a factory farm, its an oxymoron at best and an abomination at worst.

Pollan is interesting because he serves to remind us that food is not simply about health and nutrition, but about culture.

To reduce food to a nutritionists point of view, is to be guilty of the same reductionism that reduces everything to the sum of its parts and never sees the beauty and integrity; the consciousness of what is before us.

I really don't intend to write about the morally bereft ways of companies like monsanto, organo phosphates, terminator seeds, GMO's the poisoning and destruction of water tables, the stupidity of monoculture and the ills of globalization ( if you need that kind of eduction there are plenty of informed sources)I'm writing with all that as a given. Therewith I set my stall out.

Food is so much more than the chemistry lesson of fats, carbs, proteins bla yawn bla. Even as I write it i feel the energy drain from my solar plexus and a fog of indifference come over me. Food is joy, art , sustenance, pleasure , generosity, wealth and the cornerstone of culture. I once thought that God or Consciousness was that cornerstone, but the truth is that consciousness abides as an ever-present reality, food however is something we actively participate with, enjoy and co-operate around on a daily basis. Neem Karoli Baba understood this, he was always feeding people.

I'm staggeringly lucky to live in Northern New Mexico just outside Taos at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, looking out across to the peaks of Truchas and Penasco to the south, the great mesa to the west and far peaks of the Blancas to the North. Its a lively buzzing town with cosmopolitan mix of Pueblo Indians, Spanish settlers, Mexicans, Anglos, a vastly disproportionate number of fine artists of all kinds, and eccentrics from everywhere.

The land is not simply given to monoculture and ranching, but is richly planted with Orchards of cherry, apple and apricot. Kitchen gardens are fairly common and most people with even a little land will keep one. Chickens are also often kept and a few people like my friend Sabina keep an organic goat herd producing fabulous raw cheese, milk and kiefer.

I'm going to post recipes as I go, because cooking is one of my great pleasures. It is effortless and a daily joy. I try and keep my food pretty seasonal, but I'm not especially fastidious about this. Despite the fact that I like nothing better than pottering around the kitchen the whole day, I work a 9-5 and dont make a gazillion bucks. So I'm like most working people. Much of my cooking is a 30- 45 minute meal made fresh every evening.

Today was a bit of a proto-fluish day so I made a chicken curry. It wasn't my usual recipe, but i cant stop tasting it as it cooks mercifully the rice is now on

so I'm only 20 mins away from eating with impunity.

When you cook a chicken try and cook with bones and skin. ( That's what helps create the stock and the flavour) boneless, skinless chicken may sound easy, but its always a little weak.

Anyhow here goes, this is a variation on a butter chicken, somewhere between that and a korma.

1 chicken- cut off the legs, wings and breast and save the carcass for a stock or soup.

2 med onions finely chopped

3 med cloves of garlic - minced

1 inch of ginger- minced

4 thai / indian chillies sliced lengthwise )keep the seeds.

3 or 4 med tomatoes nice and ripe ( riper the better) diced small.

The spices:

2 tsp garam masala

1tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

( teaspoons are heaped not flat)

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp turmeric

handful of raw cashews ground

1/2 cup of heavy cream

1 cup of live tangy full fat yogurt

fry the onions, sautee till nice and soft

add the ginger/ garlic and chillies

after a couple of mins add the chicken pieces

fry for a few mins then add spices

fry the spices till you begin to smell them well

( dont burn though)

add the tomatoes fry all together for another couple of mins

Put everything into a slow cooker/ crock pot or on the stove top on a low heat

Add yogurt, cream and ground cashews.

Let cook for at least 4 hours in a slow cooker or for 1 and 1/2 hours on the stove.

Serve with white basmati rice or naan or whatever you like.

Share and eat slowly.