Healthy holidays

It's hard to eat healthy at this time of year.

First, there's all the holiday food - high in fat and sugar.

Then there's the cold weather, perfect for soups and stews, but not so good for salad.

I'd been puzzling how to get us eating more raw vegetables and less cheese and crackers, when I came across this walnut and roasted red pepper dip.

I am not generally a fan of veggies and dip - dips are often dairy-based and runny enough to make the trip from bowl to mouth precarious.

But this one is firm enough to stand up on a celery stick, and it's vegan. I found the recipe in Seasons and Celebrations, a book published by Relish magazine.

The sun-dried tomatoes make it a pretty red color, the roasted red pepper gives it sweetness, and the walnuts form the solid base and add a ton of heart-healthy nutrition.

Best of all, it whirls up quickly in the food processor. I served it with raw kohlrabi, radishes, carrots, cauliflower and celery. It was good as munchies before the meal, and it went well with a bowl of soup.

The recipe makes a lot. It stores well in the fridge for a few days, and then I stirred the last of it into a casserole of rice and lentils.

Put this dip on your holiday table, and you will find your family eating many more raw vegetables.

Roasted Walnut and Sun-Dried Tomato Dip
1 1/2 cups (3 oz) sun-dried tomatoes, not oil-packed
1 1/2 cups walnut pieces
3/4 cup chopped roasted red peppers (I pulled a frozen red pepper from my freezer - you could use a bottled one)
1 clove garlic
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Pour boiling water over dried tomatoes. Soak 1 hour.

Toast walnuts in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until you can smell them, about 5 minutes.

Drain tomatoes in a colander over a bowl, reserving the soaking liquid.

Place walnuts, tomatoes and 1/2 cup soaking liquid in the food processor. Add remaining ingredients. Pulse a few times, then process until fairly smooth. Add more soaking liquid, 1/4 cup at a time, until you get the texture you like.

Serve at room temperature. Serves 8.

Breakfast fruit

Pomegranate seeds are fun to eat - the bright red color, the crunchy flavor pop. We've been enjoying them on our breakfast fruit. Paired with the fabulous grapefruits we get from Jorge at the Hollywood Farmers Market, they give us a flavorful and nutritious start to the day.

I resisted pomegranates for years because of their tendency to squirt staining red juice all over me. But in recent years I've been practicing my technique, and am now pretty comfortable with them. Early in the season, I was timid in my preparation. I submerged a pomegranate in a bowl of water, then scored the skin in quarters with a paring knife, pried it apart and pulled out the seeds - all under water. The pulp fell to the bottom, the seeds floated on top. No mess.

Now, however, I'm feeling more confident, and I do it without the water. I score the pomegranate, pull it apart, and gently, with the flesh away from me, open up the sections to reveal the seeds. I gently flip these out into our bowls of fruit.

We don't drink fruit juice - except freshly-squeezed on Sunday mornings. Fresh fruit has more vitamins, bioflavanoids, enzymes, minerals and other phytonutrients than any juice or pill. I cut the grapefruit so we get some of the membranes - rich in bioflavanoids which boost the power of the vitamin C.

Plus, the seasonal variety makes morning fruit an ever-changing and interesting part of the day.

Healthy and Delicious

The other day on Belief (formerly Speaking of Faith) on NPR, Krista Tippett interviewed chef and flavor-lover Dan Barber about the ethics and enjoyment of growing and eating delicious food. I can't recommend this interview more highly. Click here to listen or podcast it.

Barber is a young chef with two New York restaurants, one on a farm. He respects the flavors of fresh food and says it's his job to enhance them, not show off with fancy chef tricks. When he is cooking, he feels the farmer standing behind him, and remembers that it is the farmer who should receive credit for the food, not the cook.

He is a proponent of organic farming methods and heirloom varieties because he has found they taste better. He tested the brix (natural sugar) level of the carrots growing on his farm, and found it was twice the normal level for carrots. Then he tested organic bagged grocery store carrots and found their brix level was practically non-existent. He theorized that people are genetically wired to eat sweet foods like healthy carrots, but as produce is hybridized for easy growing and transporting, a lot of the flavors and sweetness have been lost, so it's no wonder kids don't want to eat their vegetables.

He's also connected with a doctor doing cancer research to see whether these super vegetables have more antioxidants and cancer-fighting chemicals than regular produce. He is sure that vegetables that taste better must be healthier, and he is looking to prove it scientifically.

Another story he told was of a friend who grows kosher spelt. To be certified kosher, the grain has to be harvested with no weeds in it. At harvest time, a rabbi walks at the front of the harvester, checking for weeds. If he sees any, the harvest stops while workers rip the weeds from the field. The farmer did some research, and found that the non-kosher weeds indicate a soil imbalance. As he improved his soil, mainly with manure from his cows, fewer weeds grew in it, and he was able to harvest more quickly and reap more grain from his land. The old ways made good sense.

Barber also emphasized that in order to eat healthy, we need to cook our own food. Not necessarily grow it, because farmers are generally bettter at that than we are, but take fresh food home and turn it into good simple meals. Krista Tippett asked how we can do that in our busy lives - she was hoping to be let off the hook, but he wouldn't do it. He pointed out that 10 years ago if someone had said Americans will spend four hours a day on the internet, everyone would have said they didn't have time. If someone had said 30 years ago that everyone would pay for television cable service instead of watching free t.v., or 10 years ago that everyone would pay for cell-phone and internet services, everyone would have said no one could afford it. Yet we do. So there's no reason we can't cook food and buy local organic produce - the time and the money is there if we choose to focus on it.

He's so right.

Migrant workers

The question of migrant labor has bothered me since seeing an exposé on 60 Minutes many years ago on the sub-human conditions some Florida citrus pickers lived in: shacks with holes in the floorboards, unspeakable toilet situations, company stores with overinflated prices so workers ended up owing the farmers money. I was appalled.

And yet it continues across North America, and probably in other countries too.

In our desire for cheap food, we create tight profit margins for farmers, so they squeeze their workers. And agribusiness is out to make megabucks, so it cuts corners wherever it can. Illegal immigrant migrant workers have no power at all, so they are the easiest to take advantage of.

It's one of the dark secrets of the food industry - the way we treat the people who plant and harvest our food.

Organic farmers can treat their migrant fieldworkers as badly as non-organic, but at least the workers aren't exposed to pesticides.

The good news is that some farmers take really good care of their workers. Penning's Organic Farm in Ontario, Canada, runs a literacy program. Literacy workers live and work alongside the migrant workers, and create tailor-made English and math lessons to advance their academic skills.

Unfortunately, supportive employers are the exception, not the rule. Because many migrant workers are illegal immigrants, they are powerless to stand up for their rights, and vulnerable to abuse. Earlier this month, migrant farmers in Simcoe, Ontario, went on strike because they were not being paid. Many were deported.

I read a book recently called Highwire Moon, by southern Californian novelist Susan Straight (HoughtonMifflin 2001 and Anchor Books 2002 - National Book Award Finalist). It's the story of a mother and daughter separated by the U.S. - Mexican border. Of most interest to me were the descriptions of working in the fields and living in the migrant labor camps. This is not a polemic. It's a story of family and survival. And I recommend it for its harsh but not strident look into where our food comes from.

Gingerbread Cookies

While I was visiting my mother in Montreal, we made Christmas cookies for the neighbor-hood children. She hands them out in little bags with a tube of icing attached. It's a great combination of craft and treat, even if the little boys squirt the icing directly into their mouths instead of on the cookies.

Mum's baking is a little healthier than most because she only uses organic whole wheat flour. This sometimes has interesting results - a recent lemon poppyseed loaf took twice as long to cook as the recipe suggested. But it tasted great - people asked for the recipe.

She buys whole wheat pastry flour, which is ground from soft wheat and has less gluten than hard wheat. If you're making bread, use hard wheat flour. For all other baking, use soft. And store it in the fridge or freezer to keep it fresh.

Mum had two items that make cookie-cutting easier. One is a blue silicon pad to roll the dough out on so it doesn't stick. The other is a set of wooden slats you place beside the dough and run the rolling pin on so you get the cookie dough to a uniform height. She has three sets of these slats, all 14" long by 7/8" wide, and with heights of 1/8", 1/4" and 1/2". I covet them, and have asked Larry to make me a set.

These gingerbread cookies are a lovely dark color, and while they're baking the whole house smells of Christmas.

Mum's Gingerbread Cookies
3 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice (for luck)
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

Separately, beat the butter until creamy. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in spices, then molasses and egg, beating well after each addition. (The more you beat the dough, the fluffier the cookies will be. I like them on the dense side.)

Beat in the flour 1/3 at a time until well blended.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to roll out easily (2 hours or overnight).

Roll the dough out between two pieces of wax paper until 1/4" thick. Cut out shapes. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 350°F for 10-12 minutes. Transfer to racks. The cookies will harden as they cool.

Makes about 45 cookies depending on the size of your cookie cutters.

Traveling Vegetarian

East Coast Trip Part 6

From Pittsburgh we drove across the state to York, PA, where we had a cook-out with Larry's brothers and their wives.

Randy barbecued chicken, and I was happy to see that he did not grill vegetables too. That is not a slur on Randy's barbecuing ability, but there is an art to vegetarian barbecue. I have appeased too many meat-eaters by choking down the charred yet half-raw vegetables they threw on the grill especially for me. If you invite a vegetarian to a barbecue, do what Randy and Lorraine did and serve lots of great side dishes.

I enjoyed fresh corn on the cob, black beans, creamy noodles, green salad - a great vegetarian meal.

The next morning we drove south to Maryland's western shore to visit Susan and Rich. Susan sang at our wedding in Montreal in 1998, and we'd only seen her once since. This was the first time I had visited her stables and riding arena, and met the horses.

For dinner we went to Solomons Island and ate on the pier watching the sunset.

When my mother and I drove from Montreal to South Carolina in 1986, traveling as a vegetarian was a real challenge. Everyone served seafood and french fries. Salads were iceberg lettuce with a wedge of tomato if you were lucky. Even fancy restaurants had limited options. Further inland, vegetable soup had beef in it.

I'm happy to report that times have changed for the better. We ate at a place called Solomons Pier. Larry had crab cakes - his favorite - and I had a great salad (although a litttle too heavy on the dried cranberries) with feta and pecans for protein. We all shared an order of hush puppies - gotta have something fried - which were really good.

I was sorry we only had one night to spend on the Maryland shore, but we were on a schedule. Next stop Baltimore.

Creative Cooking

When I got home from Montreal late Tuesday evening, I looked in the fridge and saw two rutabagas, some leeks and carrots, and half a cabbage. I did what any sensible person would do: closed the door and went to bed.

The next evening, however, I came home from work determined to make a delicious meal.

I gently cooked the sliced leeks in olive oil until tender, then added some chopped garlic, basil and the last tomato from our garden. I stirred in some white lima beans I had pressure-cooked, sprinkled some salt and pepper, and let it simmer. A squeeze of lemon juice before serving finished the provençal-inspired main course.

On the side I served mashed rutabagas, just like mashed potatoes but orange and fluffier. Normally I would have used half potatoes and half rutabagas, but we had no potatoes.

Then I cooked my mainstay cabbage recipe, one I got from my friend Queenie years ago in Montreal. Its bright yellow color cheers the plate and the light cooking makes many of the nutrients more available to the body. Best of all, it cooks on the back burner while I'm making the rest of the meal. If I'm not ready for it, I turn off the heat and let it sit until I need it. It reheats well.

I often make this simple recipe even simpler. I throw the mustard seeds in hot oil. When they pop I add the cabbage, salt and tumeric and toss until the cabbage is well-coated. I then let it cook until it's done. But I recommend you try the full recipe for the real Indian flavor. If you like to make curries, this is an excellent side dish along with the dal. But that's a story for another day.

Queenie's Spiced Cabbage
1 small cabbage, processed or cut fine
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp black mustard seeds
1/4 tsp tumeric
1 green chili, split in half
salt to taste

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add the mustard seeds. When you hear them starting to pop, add the onion, tumeric and chili. Stir for about 1 minute.

Add the cabbage and salt to taste.

Set the heat to medium-low. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serves 4.

Calabacitas

At Thanksgiving, I made this sauté of peppers, zucchini and corn to spoon over the lentil loaf. It's also great with mashed potatoes or wrapped in warm corn tortillas.

Regular readers know my affection for the poblano. When roasted, it has a smoky depth that enhances this dish. (Click here for roasting instructions. You could substitute a regular diced green pepper. The heat of the jalapenos is mellowed by the cream -- add more or less to taste.

The recipe calls for a lot of stirring, but it's more a matter of keeping an eye on it and stirring as needed rather than hovering over the pot.

Calabacitas
1 poblano, roasted and peeled
1 red pepper
1/2 lb medium zucchini
2 jalapenos
1 tbsp oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups corn kernels, thawed if frozen
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried
1 tbsp whipping cream
1 tbsp chopped cilantro

Seed and quarter the roasted poblano and the red pepper and cut into 1/2 inch wide strips. Keep separate. Halve zucchini lengthwise and slice across in 1/3 inch half-moons. Seed and chop the jalapeno.

Heat oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion until golden, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini, red pepper, jalapeno and garlic. Sauté until zucchini begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Add corn, oregano and poblano. Stir 3 minutes. Add cream and half the cilantro. Cook, stirring, until the cream thickens, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with the remaining cilantro.

Leftovers can be refrigerated for a few days.

Serves 4

Agricultural Chemicals in Drinking Water

There has been a rash of stories recently about agricultural chemicals getting in the drinking water of farming communities.

More than 1 million Californians live in places where the tap water is not reliably safe to drink.

And I'm not talking chlorine or fluoride, chemicals intentionally added to municipal water supplies. No, the dangers are the chemicals that seep into the groundwater from chemical applications in the fields and orchards.

I'm glad people are realizing that what you spray on plants and soil will end up in the water supply. Now we need to crack down on the types of chemicals that are sprayed in this way (including lawn-care chemicals and garden pesticides).

We consumers have an impact by buying organic produce. Also organic cotton, because cotton is the most heavily pesticided crop in America. Better yet, wear hemp, which requires no chemicals to flourish.

On Fresh Air the other night, Terry Gross interviewed oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee who has just written a book called The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. The highlight for me was near the end of the interview when he mentioned the role chemicals play in causing cancer. He said that all chemicals, not just newly-introduced ones, need to be re-examined solely and in combination, and those that cause cancer should be banned or restricted.

Wouldn't that be great?

While they're doing the testing, they could look at the effects chemicals have on hormones too, and look at which ones are poisonous to humans. Even better, science might find ways to achieve the same beneficial results without harmful chemicals.

I keep hoping.

Emptying the fridge

Last week our fridge was bulging at the seams.

I figured that most of it was Thanksgiving food, and that after Thursday, things would calm down.

Not so.

It seems I was a little over-inspired at the farmers market, and we had a plentitude of kohlrabi, rutabagas, parsnips and greens.

I was leaving for a week with my mum, and knew that Larry would eat bachelor food while I was away. So I did my best to empty the fridge.

I roasted the parsnips and cooked the kohlrabi to eat with Thanksgiving leftovers.

I cooked the greens from the kohlrabi with lacinato and red kales. I froze some, and we ate the rest for dinner with potato cakes made from leftover mashed potatoes. (Is there anything better than mashed potatoes patted into cakes and lightly browned in a little olive oil?)

The lettuce was washed and wrapped in paper towels for Larry to make into salads. (Or feed to the compost heap.)

Finally, I found three bunches of cilantro. I picked out the freshest leaves and found I had enough to make a double-batch of this spicy cilantro pesto, which I stashed in the freezer. I'll serve it as a dip with raw vegetables, toss it with pasta, or drizzle it over vegetables and rice.

The recipe comes from A Celebration of Herbs, a lovely book published by the Huntington Library and Gardens in Pasadena, and given to me by my friends Lisa and Sally. It has old botanical prints from the library and modern recipes inspired by the Huntington herb garden and the diverse cultures of southern California. It would make a nice gift for any cook on your list.

There is more space in the fridge now, and I feel good knowing that my freezer is well-stocked for when I return.

Spicy Cliantro Pesto
2 1/2 cups fresh cilantro, stemmed and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 cup walnuts
1 1/2 heads (yes heads, not cloves) of garlic
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried crushed red chiles
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup olive oil

Put all but the olive oil in the food processor. Whir until minced. With the machine running, gradually pour the oil through the feed tube. Blend smooth. Season to taste. Refrigerate for 1 week, or freeze for 1 month.

Update: I defrosted this pesto for supper on Christmas Eve. I tossed it with hot rotini and halved grape tomatoes, and served parmesan on the side. It was spicy and garlicky and delicious, although the saltiness had increased in the freezer. If I make it to freeze again, I will cut the salt by half. Also, I think it would be a little intense as a dip.