Chestnut flour crepes with a smear of French chestnut creme... this is what autumn in heaven must be like.

As if on cue, the arrival of the Fall Equinox brought with it that crisp scent of morning air… and the beginnings of incredibly tempting magazine recipes for all things autumn.  While butternut squash, predictably, leaves other ingredients in the dust as far as its frequency of mention, I’m seeing more and more mention of chestnuts as an accompanying flavor to everything from pastas and meats to desserts.

Since good, quality fresh chestnuts are still a little ways away (but be assured: once they arrive, you’ll hear about it from me first), I decided to whet our collective appetite for their delightful, sweet and nutty flavor by giving chestnut flour some airtime.

I’ve already encountered chestnut flour this year on my fabulous gluten-free honeymoon to the South of France, where one vendor at a village festival was selling fresh crepes made from farine de châtaignes (chestnut flour), filled with an obscenely decadent chestnut creme (think Nutella, but made with chestnuts and honey) or your choice of typical crepe fillings.  I particularly appreciated this authentic version of the sweet crepe; after all, French cuisine offers us a wonderful gluten-free savory crepe option in its buckwheat crepes (called Crêpes de Sarrasin), but most sweet crepes are still made with plain old wheat flour.

But we patisserie-deprived gluten-eschewers can now have our crepes, and eat our Madeleines, too.  The wonderful people at Dowd & Rogers offer a long list of chestnut flour gluten-free recipes on their website, including this one for Chestnut Flour Crepes and this one for Chestnut Flour Madeleines.  (I cannot tell you how long I’ve been looking for a gluten-free madeline recipe!  Substitute the milk and/or egg replacement of your choice to modify these recipes for your dietary restrictions.)  In true French fashion, the latter recipe uses a full stick of butter, which translates into about 1.3 tsp of butter per Madeline.  Health food it is not, but my philosophy is that having to break out the madeleine pan, preheat the oven and wait for 20 minutes every time we want to indulge in a little bit of cakey naughtiness is a very good way to prevent the impulse binge.  Bake them, enjoy them, share them, and that’s the end of it.

Given how rarely we come across chestnut flour, you may be as surprised to learn, as I was, that it was a traditional substitute for wheat flour in Italy during the middle ages, and was used extensively for making bread and pasta.  Sadly for us, most pasta, gnocchi and bread recipes that call for chestnut flour (Farina di Castagne) combine it with wheat flour.   If you can eat gluten, you can try substituting up to 1/4 of the all-purpose (white) flour in your baked goods/pasta recipes with chestnut flour, or in recipes that call for some cake flour in addition to the all-purpose flour, try substituting all of the cake flour with chestnut flour.  If you’re baking gluten-free, you can try substituting part or all of the white rice flour in a recipe with chestnut flour. To be sure, it’s an expensive swap, but as you’ll see below, it’s a glycemic-ly advantageous one if you can afford it.

All About Chestnut Flour

While Chestnuts are technically tree nuts (and therefore people with tree nut allergies should take care… you may or may not have a reaction to chestnuts!), Chestnut Flour is quite different than the flours/meals of other tree nuts, such as Almond Flour or Hazelnut Flour.  To start, chestnut flour is very low in fat; in fact, chestnuts have a starchy profile that makes their flour more similar to typical grain flours in its nutritional (and functional) profile than the typical nut flour.  By way of comparison,

• 1/4 cup almond flour contains 160 calories, with 6g carbohydrate, of which3g are fiber, 6g is protein and 14g is fat
  
• 1/4 cup of chestnut flour contains ~95 calories, with 21g carbohydrate, of which <1g is fiber, 1g protein, 1g fat*
• 1/4 cup all-purpose white (wheat) flour contains ~114 calories, with 24g carbohydrate, of which <1 is fiber, 3g protein, <1g fat

* Note: if you come across the Dowd & Rogers brand, there is clearly a typo on their nutrition facts label–one which I have emailed them about.  A 1/4 cup serving does NOT miraculously contain only 25 calories.

While chestnut flour is still considered a high glycemic index food (the source I consulted rated it a ~65 on the index; a food must be 50-55 or lower to be considered ‘low’), it is still considerably lower on the GI scale than typical flours used for baking, glutinous and gluten-free alike, such as white rice flour (GI=~95), potato starch (GI=~95), Arrowroot starch (GI=~85) and white (wheat) flour (GI=~85)**.  To be sure, it’s considerably more expensive (and hard to find), but for those of you looking for lower GI, GF substitutes for the white rice flour in your recipes, chestnut flour could be a good option… so long as you’re not allergic to tree nuts, that is.

If you’re not sure what all of this means, a sidenote: the GI, in a nutshell, is an index that compares the blood sugar response a food produces compared to the response created by pure glucose (sugar), which equals 100 on the index.  A food with a high GI (say, 95) essentially produces the same spike in blood sugar levels as eating pure sugar.  Generally speaking, in the flour world, the lowest GI flours will always be those that are higher in protein and/or fiber, such as quinoa flour, chickpea flour, whole wheat flour, rye flour, teff flour and buckwheat flour. Research has shown that diets with an overall lower-glycemic effect (mostly diets rich in whole grains, beans and vegetables as opposed to diets high in refined grains and sugar) are linked to a variety of positive health outcomes, particularly a lower risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease.  Since so many of the most commonly-used gluten-free flours are so darn starchy, it’s good to be aware of your lower GI options and choose them whenever possible.

** Just another note on the numbers: GI values will vary–sometimes widely– depending on the method used to measure them (such as whether the researcher compared the food to glucose or white bread), and the particular samples of food products analyzed.  GI data should be used directionally–as in, to compare the relative effect of one food to a similar food–rather than as absolute numbers set in stone.  To complicate matters, a food’s ACTUAL effect on your blood sugar will be influenced by how much of it you’re eating and whatever else you’re eating it with… assuming you’re not going to be eating plain chestnut flour as a snack.  This is the idea behind a concept called the glycemic load, which is what you *really* care about.

If you are going to be partaking in a high-GI indulgence, it’s better for your blood sugar to eat it AFTER a meal that contained some fat, protein and fiber so that the latter nutrients will blunt the glycemic effect of the food.  In other words, eating a cupcake on its own as an afternoon snack will produce a higher blood sugar spike than eating that same cupcake after a sensibly balanced meal. And of course, taking a nice brisk walk after the snack or the meal will also help dampen the glycemic effect of whatever you’ve eaten.

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Few few foods evoke as much controversy as does soy.  Depending on who you are and what expression of soy you’re eating, it can be either a healthy source of high-quality protein that may have some protective benefits against breast cancer risk, or a highly-processed food ingredient that may compromise your health and well-being in a handful of ways.

On one hand, there are multiple, large observational studies out of Asia which show a statistically significant association between higher intakes of natural soy foods and lower risk of developing breast cancer among (mostly post-menopausal) women.  And even those Asian studies which don’t support this association have not shown that eating more traditional soy foods ever increases the risk of breast cancer.  American studies have, by and large, failed to show a similar association, but most researchers chalk this up to the fact that even “high” intakes of soy in the U.S. are lower than the lowest intakes in Asia, meaning that American women are likely not eating enough of the natural phytochemicals in soy called isoflavones that have been credited with its potentially protective effect against breast cancer.  Furthermore, most of the soy eaten in the U.S. is not in the form of traditional, whole-r foods like tofu, miso, tempeh and natto like it is in Asia, but rather in the form of a processed, concentrated, soy-derived food additive called soy protein isolate (SPI), whose isoflavone content may or may not be comparable to that in traditional soy foods.

On the other hand, there is a quieter, but nonetheless disturbing, body of research out there that is linking higher intakes of soy with a variety of unwelcome health outcomes, including thyroid disorders in susceptible people, increased rates of food allergies (especially peanut), intolerances and asthma, and the potential for sexual development problems in children fed soy formula.  If the body of evidence continues to grow and proves these associations more definitively, there are probably a few different biological mechanisms at work here.

• Soy may influence the sexual development of children (especially children fed soy formula as infants) and the hormonal balance of women through the effect of naturally-occurring compounds called “phytoestrogens.” Phytoestrogens are plant estrogens similar enough in structure to the hormone estrogen produced in humans that they can actually bind to our estrogen receptors; soy isoflavones are one of several phytoestrogens present in soy.  Phytoestrogens appear to have potentially beneficial and potentially detrimental effects, which complicates the matter of evaluating soy’s healthfulness.  One one hand, researchers believe that phytoestrogens may compete with more biologically potent human estrogen for receptor sites in our body’s various tissues, and in so doing, it may DECREASE the risk of estrogen-linked cancers like breast cancer in adult women.  But in infants who are still developing, introducing high levels of soy phytoestrogens through soy formula can build up in their tiny bodies quite quickly and possibly influence their sexual development adversely.  Virtually all data on this possible association comes from animal studies– not human studies–so the evidence is not iron-clad that soy formula will increase the risk of problematic sexual development in human children.  However, animal studies suggest that possible side effects could be low testosterone leading to infertility in males and early-onset puberty in females.

• An effect of soy on the thyroid could be mediated by compounds in soy called goitrogens, naturally-occurring compounds that suppress the thyroid’s function by blocking its ability to take up iodine.  In soy, the isoflavone called genistein (which may be one of the same compounds responsible for soy’s beneficial effect on protecting against breast cancer), is goitrogenic.  To be sure, soy is not the only food in which similar goitrogenic compounds naturally occur: cruciferous vegetables (including broccoli, cabbage, turnips and brussels sprouts), millet, and strawberries also contain various types of goitrogens.  So what makes soy different than these other foods?  For starters, the goitrogens in most of these other foods are generally deactivated by the cooking (or fermentation) process.  What’s more is that we tend not to eat these foods in such quantities that the goitrogens in them–neutralized or not–will have any sort of adverse effect on us.  Unlike these other foods, however, the goitrogenic isoflavones in soy are not neutralized by typical cooking and fermentation processes.   In the case of, say, infants, whose sole source of nutrition is soy formula… or adults who are knowingly or unknowingly eating multiple foods everyday “fortified” with soy protein, the levels of goitrogens may become problematic and wreak a bit of havoc on the thyroid… particularly in people with underlying thyroid problems or who are genetically susceptible.  Low-levels of thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism) can cause attention-deficit disorders, memory problems, depression, loss of energy, thinning hair and weight gain.

• The third may be attributable to the fact that, since the launch of genetically modified (GMO) soy in 1996, >90% of soy grown in the world is now GMO, meaning that genes from different species of plants/animals are artificially injected into the soy plant to create novel proteins that our bodies have not before encountered in nature.  Some researchers suspect that in susceptible people–like young children who have immature digestive systems or people with weak/inflammed digestive systems (’leaky guts’)– these unfamiliar proteins can trigger immune responses to both themselves and to similar proteins which result in food allergies and intolerances, which are notably on the rise for some inexplicable reason.

One would have hoped that the FDA might have forced GMO soy developers (like Monsanto) to show evidence that their products did not, in fact, result in such outcomes before allowing them to unleash their products en masse into our food supply in the mid 1990s–as was done in many European countries.  But one would be disappointed to learn that this did not, in fact, come to pass.  And so, 13+ years after we’ve all been slipped GMO soy protein in everything from our infant formulas and granola bars to our breakfast cereals and fast-food burgers, evidence is just now trickling in that confirms some of these suspicions on the safety of processed soy in general–and GMO soy in particular.

So what’s an eater to do?

My vegetarian and vegan friends rely heavily on soy as a high-quality, complete source of vegetarian protein.  And health authorities keep telling those of us who eat meat to eat less of it… so wouldn’t soy be a lower-fat, healthy substitute?  It’s confusing to be sure.  I’ll be the first to admit that science has yet to offer a definitive answer on soy, but since this column is called “What I’m Eating Now,” I’ll give you my informed opinion, based on the state of the science and expert opinion today as I have come to understand it, on what I recommend with regards to soy. (And I should mention as a caveat that I don’t eat soy protein at all, since I have a digestive intolerance to it.  It’s worth mentioning that soy can be a difficult-to-digest protein for many, which is why the Asian cultures needed to ‘tame’ it through fermentation in many of their traditional foods.)

RED LIGHT SOY FOODS: Foods that just about everyone should avoid.

1. Soy infant formula. The figures I’ve seen show that 20%-25% of babies are being fed soy formula in this country, despite the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends only TWO
   

   Soy infant formulas are not recommended for milk-allergic babies unless they can't tolerate hypoallergenic, hydrolyzed cow's milk formulas, either.

   indications for the use of soy formula for feeding infants.  1) For vegan infants who are not breastfed; 2) For infants who suffer from a very rare and serious condition called galactosemia, in which they cannot digest lactose (milk sugar) at all, and therefore cannot have any milk-derived formulas. Unfortunately, it’s common practice for pediatricians to tell moms who think or know their babies have a sensitivity to cow’s milk protein (casein) to automatically switch to soy formula.  In fact, it is recommended to first try a hydrolyzed cow’s milk formula, in which the long milk proteins are “pre-digested” into smaller fragments called peptides that should not trigger allergic responses.  There are partially hydrolyzed formulas that contain peptides (small chains of a few amino acids) and elemental formulas, in which the milk proteins are completely broken down into individual amino acids (for hypersensitive infants).  It is always recommended to try these formulas in a milk-allergic baby first before resorting to soy-based formulas; however, their significantly higher cost (and stronger smells) may be prohibitive for many.  Because formula is an infant’s sole source of nutrition, the effect of some of soy’s more problematic compounds can be magnified in such large quantities in such tiny bodies. Soy protein can be difficult for babies to digest owing to the presence of naturally-occurrirng compounds called protease-inhibitors, and the phytates in soy can inhibit the absorption of various minerals, including calcium, iron and zinc. (Note that fermenting soy eliminates these latter problems, which is why traditional Asian foods are able to avoid these problems).   The use of soy formula also appears to be linked to higher rates of peanut allergy and other food intolerances than the use of cow’s milk formulas, so I’d recommend to exhaust all other options before using soy infant formulas if you can… especially if your baby is at high risk for developing food allergies.

YELLOW LIGHT SOY FOODS: If these are daily staples in your diet, I’d cut back to a few times/week for the whole lot combined.  But probably no need to avoid them altogether.

1. Processed foods and drinks containing soy protein isolate (SPI) or soy protein concentrate (SPC), like frozen veggie burgers (Boca Burgers, Gardenburgers, Morningstar Farms Garden Veggie patties), vegetarian meat substitutes made with “TVP” (textured vegetable protein), protein-fortified breakfast cereals (yes…this includes the wildly popular Kashi GoLean…please don’t shoot the messenger!), high-protein shakes or soy protein powders, most meal replacement/”energy” bars (and even some Granola bars, sadly), and soymilk.  (This has been the hardest paragraph I’ve written to date, as I know that many people are fiercely loyal to some of these products for their taste, convenience and ‘healthy’ halo…and frankly, I’m scared of the fallout I’m likely to get.) The fact of the matter is that (1) few Americans (even vegetarians) are protein deficient, so all of this added soy protein in our diets is nutritionally extraneous, (2) unless it’s labeled organic, the soy protein in these foods comes from GMO soy that has NOT been safety-tested in humans and is starting to be associated with some negative (but not life-threatening) health outcomes, (3) it is a highly-processed ingredient subjected to a host of unsavory chemical solvents that may retain toxic residues that can add up when consumed in large quantities, and (4) these foods contain 2-6x more isoflavones than traditional soy foods, delivering a concentrated dose of phytoestrogens that may mess around with your hormonal balance in an as-yet-unknown and possibly unwelcome way.  Now I’m not suggesting that it’s necessary go cold-turkey by any means, but I am suggesting that if your daily routine involves a bowl of Kashi GoLean in Soymilk for breakfast, a high-protein energy bar as an afternoon snack, and a frozen veggieburger for dinner, it might be a good idea to inject some healthy variety into your diet.

Sunshine Burgers are a rare breed of veggieburger: soy AND gluten free.

Alternatively, there are plenty of great convenience products out there that don’t use any soy at all that you might consider trying as well: Larabars are soy and gluten-free; There are a variety of non-dairy, soy-free, calcium-fortified “milks” for your breakfast cereals, including Oat milk, Almond milk, and Rice Milk, Hemp milk (which is a fantastic source of omega-3’s); Sunshine Burgers are sunflower and bean-based frozen veggieburgers that are both soy and gluten free; Mix1 makes refrigerated soy-and-lactose-free shakes that are high in protein, vitamins and fiber.  If you’re a protein-powder person, try hemp protein powder or whey protein isolate as good soy-free, gluten-free, low-lactose alternatives to soy protein powder.

GREEN LIGHT SOY FOODS: Foods you can enjoy without worry.

1. Organic, fermented/traditionally-prepared Asian soy foods like tofu, natto, tempeh or miso. By choosing organic, you’re eliminating the big question mark hanging over
   

   When it comes to soy, do as your fictional Asian grandmother would do

   the use of GMO soybeans, and by choosing more whole, traditionally-prepared foods, you’re benefiting from the time-tested fermentation processes that help tame most of soy’s more problematic nutritional quirks.  As mentioned earlier, virtually all of the data that show a health benefit for soy foods in preventing breast cancer are based on studies of Asian women who ate these types of foods.  There’s no compelling data to suggest you should limit these foods in your diet that I have come across.

2. Organic edamame.  Edamame, or boiled young soybeans, contain a moderate amount of isoflavones and lower levels of anti-nutrients (the protease inhibitors and phytates discussed above) than mature soybeans do.  As a result, edamame make a fine snack whenever you get a hankering.  XXXXXXXXX
3. Soy oil (or vegetable oil containing soy oil) and soy lecithin: If you live in America today and eat anything that comes in a bag, box or wrapper, it’s virtually impossible to avoid these soy-derived ingredients.  Fortunately, you really shouldn’t have to worry about them.  Soybean oil, by definition, won’t contain any detectable protein, and soy lecithin is a phospholipid (also a type of fat) used as an emulsifier in foods (like chocolate, margarine or ice cream) to help keep fat and water from separating.  There shouldn’t be any actual soy protein in either of these ingredients; many (but unfortunately not all) people who are allergic to soy are even able to consume products that contain these ingredients.

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The Jewish New Year, called Rosh Hashannah, starts this Friday evening, September 18.  It’s traditional to eat apples and honey in order to set the mood for a sweet new year, but every family seems to have their own food traditions beyond these.

This year, I’m making a special effort to produce delicious gluten-free holiday goodies.  As it turns out, my darling stepsister seems to have gone and acquired herself a gluten intolerance (no, it’s not contagious), and this will be her first year experiencing the holidays wheat-free.  I’m quite determined for it to be a happy experience for her, gastrointestinally speaking.

If you’re getting ready for a sweet, fabulous and gluten-free 5770 of your own, check out the reference list below for links to some of the best eats of the season:

Apples: I’m having Honeycrisps. Lots of them.

Honey: My favorite for apple-dipping is Tupelo Honey from the Savannah Bee Company; it’s got a buttery texture and unique flavor that’s best enjoyed right from the bottle, rather than wasted in tea or baking recipes.  To find a store near you that carries it, check out Savannah Bee’s online shop locator or order it online…and tell Ted the beekeeper that Tamara sent you.

Gluten-free “Matzoh Balls”: I’m making my original recipe for Quatzoh Balls, made with naturally gluten-free (and nutritious) Quinoa Flakes.  We road tested it at Passover time this past year, and it was a bobbing, spherical success.  Look for Quinoa flakes in the hot cereal section of your supermarket.

Flourless Honey Cake: This year, I tried out a recipe for a flourless honey-almond cake published in Eating Well magazine’s March/April 2009 issue.  (I clipped it 6 months ago for precisely this occasion!)  Save time and effort by substituting the freshly-ground almonds with 1 3/4 cups of almond meal (sold in the baking section or Bob’s Red Mill section of your local grocery store).  As if the recipe isn’t decadent enough (it actually is: 234 calories for 1/10th of the cake, half of which come from unsaturated fat), you can top it off with a warm apple-cinnamon compote to take the apples-and-honey theme from appetizer all the way through to dessert.

Gluten-free Challah:  After reviewing all of the available GF Challah recipes online, I chose this GF Challah recipe from “Gluten Free in the Greens” for its relatively short ingredient list which uses two whole grain flours (sorghum and brown rice) in addition to the usual litany of starches.  I did, however, make a few small tweaks (see below).  It’s very easy to make, so don’t be intimidated.  To make it dairy-free, use the almond meal instead of the powdered milk.  If you’re stumped by what “potato flakes” are, just look for instant mashed potatoes at your supermarket and be sure to buy a product whose only ingredient is  “dehydrated potatoes” (some of the national brands will be filled with all sorts of nonsense, including wheat starch).

The recipe’s developer cleverly uses a braided loaf pan to avoid the sticky mess that an attempt at actual braiding would produce; Lacking one of my own, I wound up using a small-ish loaf pan (4.5″ x 8.5″ x 2.75″) instead.  My first attempt, which was made in an 8″

Nothing says happy 5770 like a fresh-baked, gluten-free Challah bread for the Celiac members of your tribe

round cake pan, came out as a slightly sweet-tasting, delicious focaccia rather than a slightly eggy-tasting, delicious challah loaf.  After discussing the play-by-play with a very knowledgeable Williams-Sonoma sales associate, we decided that the fault lay in the cake pan (too much surface area), the rising strategy (inadequate rising time) and the skipping of the traditional step of ‘activating’ the dry yeast in warm water prior to adding it to the dry ingredients.  Plus, I felt the challah needed just a pinch of salt to bring out the bready taste.  Therefore, I made the following modifications to perfect upon a pretty great recipe:

• Add a pinch (or, 1/8 tsp) of salt to the dry ingredients to temper the honey sweetness of the bread
• Before adding the yeast to the dry ingredients as the recipe specifies, mix it with 1/2 cup of warm (not hot) water and let the mixture sit for a good 15-20 minutes until it starts developing filmy/bubbly patches (this is called ‘proofing’). Then, add the activated yeast mixture to the dry ingredients along with the wet ingredients as the recipe specifies.
• Cut down the amount of water you use to dissolve the potato flakes to just 1/2 cup (to compensate for the 1/2 cup you already used to proof the yeast)
• Rather than pre-heating the oven to 200 degrees, shutting it off and using the warmed oven to expedite the dough rising as the recipe instructs, simply leave the dough out, uncovered, for longer in a room temperature environment to give the yeast time to do its thing.  I let it rise for a good 90-120 minutes before sprinkling it with sesame seeds and putting it the 350-degree oven to bake.  As a reward for your patience, the extra rising time buys you a more developed bread-y (versus a sweeter, cakier flavor).  By the time I put my loaf it in the oven, the dough had risen to about double its original height, and it even gained a little bit more volume in the oven.
• Keep an eye on the baking time; mine needed closer to 40-45 minutes than the 50 minutes specified.  This will vary by oven and pan size, of course.

Of course, whether or not you’re Jewish, this recipe makes the perfect leftovers for a Sunday morning Gluten-Free Challah French Toast. I plan on slicing up any leftovers and freezing them for this very purpose.

Kasha Varnishkes: Using your favorite gluten-free short pasta (most brands are pretty good) and naturally gluten-free buckwheat groats is a great way to enjoy this traditional Eastern-European side dish.  Serve it warm for dinner and enjoy the leftovers cold the next day.  Get my stepfather Bill’s famous recipe for it by clicking here.

Happy New Year!

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Behold, the noble Honeycrisp. (Courtesy of New York Apple Association © New York Apple Association)

This time of year poses one of the greatest produce dilemmas one could fathom; a veritable Sophie’s Choice of  botanic proportions:

Should one allocate one’s finite capacity to eat high-fiber foods on a watermelon, peach, tomato and zucchini bender while these fleeting vestiges of summer are still available at the Farmer’s market?  Or should one get a head start on the too-short Honeycrsip apple season and eat as many as one possibly can before they’re gone?

Such is the quandry I find myself in this week, now that Honeycrisp apples have just made their first appearances in the New York City Greenmarkets.

Not all Apples are Created Equal

Let’s start with the birds and the bees of apples.  In our topsy-turvy world, apples are bred, not born.  In other words, you don’t just plant a Macintosh apple seed and grow a Macintosh apple.  When left to their own devices to reproduce in the wild, appleseeds produce rebellious offspring; the resulting fruits of apple trees planted from seed will not necessarily share the same characteristics as their parent trees’ apples.  As a result, commercial apple breeds are grafted: in other words, the tissue of one plant is placed into contact with the tissue of another plant, they fuse together to produce a single plant, and the fruit that is borne out can be predicted and controlled.  Unfortunately, the global apple gatekeepers underestimate our collective appetite for a diverse assortment of different apple varieties, and in their tyrannical quest for visually appealing, consistently-sized apples, they choose only to propagate a tiny fraction of the magnificent apple cultivars that once existed on our planet. And it’s not even the tastiest fraction at that.  (Yes, I’m talking to you, Red Delicious apples.)

(For an excellent–and entertaining–account of American Apple History and a state of the current global Applescape, I strongly recommend reading Chapter 1 in Michael Pollan’s book “The Botany of Desire.”)

Fortunately, the clever researchers at the University of Minnesota heard our collective cries for apple diversity, and bred a fabulous new variety of apple called the Honeycrisp.  They made it by grafting together a Haralson and a Honeygold to produce a hybrid, which they then combined with a Macoun.  (Don’t try to splice your own, though, amateur apple-breeders: the University of Minnesota owns the license.)  If you live in the Northeast and haven’t experienced the divine pleasure that is biting into a Honeycrisp, get yourself to a Farmer’s Market pronto. (While Honeycrisps are also grown in Minnesota, Michigan, Washington State and some other midwestern and East coast states, your growing season may be a little different, so check with your local farmers to see when they’ll arrive in a bushel near you.)   Better yet, check out your local U-pick farm and pick yourself a bushel of them this weekend. To find an orchard near you for picking, you can search the “All about Apples” website by state, and then call/e-mail an orchard near you that grows Honeycrisps to see when your favorite apple variety is being picked, and whether they allow self-picking.

Honeycrisps are among the first apple varieties to ripen, so by the time you start to get in the mood for apple picking around Halloween time, these delicious beauties will be long gone from the U-pick trees, and their days at the

September is the time to pick your own Honeycrisps at an orchard near you. (That's now!)

Farmer’s Market will be numbered, too.  Thankfully, their popularity has led farmers to plant more Honeycrisp trees, so the supply isn’t nearly as limited as it used to be;  Just a few years ago, Honeycrisps made only about a 3-4 week appearance in NYC before disappearing for the year.  If memory serves, last year, the local ones lasted through early/mid November in the Farmer’s Market, and were then supplemented by Washington State grown Honeycrisps in Whole Foods for another month after that.  Still, by the time the holidays roll  around, we’re still likely to be facing a solid 3-4 months of bleak, Honeycrispless winter months during which time we’ll just have to drown our sorrows in Clementines by the crateful.  Unless, of course, you hoard them as I do; Honeycrisps will last a solid 4-6 months in your fridge.

So what is it about the Honeycrisp that inspires such a cult following? Well, it starts with the texture.  Honeycrisps are a very hard, crisp apple.  In fact, the New York State Apple Association website captures it perfectly when it describes this variety as “explosively crisp” and having a characteristic ability to “shatter” when bitten into, as if it “snaps apart… and comes off the core in chunks.”  In that respect, think of biting into a Honeycrisp as producing the same effect as snapping off a piece of a perfectly tempered chocolate bar: that sound… that snap… it’s perfection.  Of course, that’s just the beginning.  Honeycrisps positively drip with juice, and they’re sweet with just the right balance of tartness.  They are a brilliant addition to the American applescape, and hopefully an example to apple-growers that if they offer us delicious new apple varieties, we will buy them and we will eat them.  In fact, the inside scoop is that the U of M researchers were so encouraged by their blockbuster Honeycrisp success, that this year they released a sequel called the SweeTango.  It should be piloting now in Minnesota, and if it does well, is planned to launch onto the national scene in 2010 or 2011.  You heard it here first!

An Apple a Day

The health benefits of apples are pretty well-established scientifically.

For starters, apples are an excellent source of fiber: both the cholesterol-lowering kind (soluble) as well as the digestive regularity-promoting kind if you eat the skin (insoluble).  Studies suggest that even just 3 apples per week (or, an apple every other day) is enough to have a LDL-cholesterol lowering effect.  1 medium apple (5oz) has 4g of fiber, but bear in mind that most apples you come across in the supermarket are likely to be bigger than this.  In fact, one large-ish apple can easily count as 2 fruit servings, which is an efficient way for you to meet your daily fruit intake targets… but a note of caution to people with diabetes who need to control their carbohydrate intake.  4oz of apple counts as 1 carbohydrate exchange for people with diabetes, which is roughly the size equivalent of a tennis ball.  (And let’s be honest, with American fruit being bred to look like it’s on steroids, when’s the last time you saw an apple that small?)

What you may be less aware of is the high antioxidant content of apples.   Apples contain multiple phytochemicals that have an antioxidant effect in the body, the most famous of which is called quercetin.  (This compound is also found in onions).  In fact, gram for gram, apples have higher antioxidant capacity than red grapes, strawberries and oranges.  Furthermore, apples appear to have among the highest levels of a particularly bioavailable type of phytochemical (called free phenolic acids), meaning that the antioxidants in apples are highly absorbable by our bodies.  Even better, apples hardly lose any of their antioxidant content even after months post-picking, so long as they are stored properly refrigerated.

As far as how this antioxidant content translates into actual health benefits, epidemiological evidence has linked 1-apple-per-day intake to a lower risk of developing lung cancer, particularly in women and possibly in men as well (so here’s a shout-out to all of you reformed smokers trying to undo the damage: eat that apple a day!). The lung cancer connection is suggestive of a more general benefit on pulmonary health that research has attributed to apple-eating.  Higher apple intake has been associated with decreased risk of asthma, lower incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and generally better lung function… even in smokers.

Other epidemiological studies have shown an inverse relationship between apple intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease: the more apples, the lower the risk.  Ditto for the risk of developing Type II Diabetes.

How about them apples?

Now, it’s important to remember that much of an apple’s antioxidant content is stored in its skin, so if you peel your apples, you’ll be losing a large percentage of the fruit’s antioxidant power.

But it’s also worth mentioning that apples have made the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list for being  among the most pesticide-heavy fruits out there.

So rather than peel away some of the fiber and most of the antioxidants from your apples, I’d recommend a) seeking out organic apple varieties whenever possible (especially for children), and b) in the absence of organic options, be sure to wash your apple very thoroughly before eating it… peel and all.

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Savory, soft, crispy, salty, sweet... this vegetarian bibimbap scratches every itch

If you’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to unearth that never-opened Mandolin you received for your wedding… or the perfect excuse to order a Titan Peeler off that TV infomercial… then your moment has arrived.  It’s time to try your hand, as I did, at preparing Bibimbap.

Bibimwhat?

Bibimbap is a colorful, delicious Korean dish that’s made up of sticky white rice and a whole slew of vegetables…some raw, some cooked…topped with a fried egg (or some meat) and tossed together with a spicy chili sauce.  It’s different than a generic stir fry in both the vegetables it typically features (zucchini, daikon radish, cucumber and spinach are common), and in its telltale flavor and crunch derived in good measure from a signature layer of crispy rice that’s been crunchified by being served in a sizzling hot stone bowl.  (A colleague of mine who is a Colombian dietitian told me that in many Hispanic households, they cook rice with oil and use a special pot for cooking rice called a caldero. This cooking method produces a burnt ”crust” of rice on the bottom that even has a name: concón.  The concón is reportedly fought over by everyone in the family.  I finally understood what she was talking about once I made my own concón, Korean-style.)  If you’ve ordered bibimbap at a Korean restaurant, you no doubt appreciated the beautiful, rainbow-like presentation of each individual vegetable pile placed separately on the contrasting bed of white rice… which you then proceeded to mix together into a divine, multi-textured, psychadelic mess.  Note to all of you OCD types who cringe when your peas touch the mashed potatoes on your plate: perhaps bibimbap isn’t the right dish for you.

Bibimbap isn’t hard to make so much as it is labor-intensive. There’s a fair amount of julienning (that’s where the mandolin or titan peeler comes in), and then a variety of treatments to the different vegetables to produce the gorgeous variation in texture and flavor.  Having taken on a Bibimbap project myself, I can only say that it was worth every last matchstick-sized piece of zucchini I julienned.  It was outrageously delicious.  And while the markets are still selling a bounty of fresh, in-season vegetables, this is a great time to try it yourself.

Making Bibimbap

The recipe I used is a vegetarian one from the chef at New York’s notable Korean Restaurant, Woo Lae Oak , printed recently in the New York Times. (Click on the link to access it.)  Many at-home recipes for bibimbap I’ve seen skip the part about crisping the rice.  It’s a crime!  Rest assured, this recipe provides an elegant workaround for the sizzling hot stone pot, and you’ll get your concón.     Also, I’ve included some pointers below to help make it gluten-free–and easier.

• If you don’t have/can’t find the vegetables it calls for, by all means substitute with whatever you have access to.  Also, I happen to think the spinach and mushrooms are among the most flavorful veggies in this dish, so next time I make it, I’m going to up the quantities on those.  While the recipe calls for shiitakes, feel free to substitute any mushroom(s) that you can slice into thin strips if expense/availability is an issue.

• Before you start slicing the veggies, get a nice big pot of water boiling and set aside a slotted spoon.  Keep the water boiling throughout, use the slotted spoon to rescue the cooking veggies, and you can reuse it to complete all of the blanching projects called for in the prep.

• To make this recipe gluten-free, substitute the soy sauce for a wheat-free Tamari sauce, such as San-J or Eden Foods

• You may have a hard time finding the signature fermented red chili sauce, called gochujang, unless you’re fortunate enough to live near an Asian grocery.  What’s more, some commercial varieites may be made with wheat or barley instead of fermented rice, which is the traditional ingredient.  If you can’t find a gluten-free version, just use a Sriracha sauce, which is much easier to find and always gluten-free.  It’s not a perfect substitute as far as the taste profile goes, but it’s still plenty tasty.  Plus, it’s got WAY less sodium.

• Although the recipe doesn’t call for it, make up a well-done fried egg for each person and serve it atop the bibimbap.  It adds a bit of protein and a shockingly delicious dimension of flavor and texture.

Approximate nutrition information per serving: (assumes the recipe serves 3 people and includes a fried egg for good measure.  Yes, I know the recipe claims it serves four, but you’re kidding yourself if you think 4 reasonably hungry people are going to be willing to divvy this steaming pile of deliciousness up fairly.): 480 calories, 65g of carbohydrate (of which 5g are fiber), 14g protein, 16g fat… and 5mg iron (28% of the daily value), 50% of the daily value for vitamin C and 20% of the daily value for women for Vitamin A.

A last parting word: this nutrition information is not valid for the bibimbap you’d get at a restaurant, where significantly more oil will be used to cook it and a lot more rice is typically served.  According to various sources, you can expect over 560 calories and about 90g of carbohydrate PER CUP of the typical Korean restuarant bibimbap.  Bibimbap eater beware!

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