Why You Should Always Buy Organic Apples

October 8, 2012

When deciding what to buy organic in the produce section, I try to keep in mind both the EWG’s Dirty Dozen and the list of Genetically Modified vegetables and grains. Apples are one fruit that I always buy organic because of their high load of toxic pesticides. organic honeycrisp apples on tree

Today’s apples are vulnerable to pests because of the lack of bio-diversity in our apple orchards. The reason for this has to do with the way apple trees are grown and cultivated.

Apple trees are grown from clones where cut branches that are grafted onto a living tree to take root. This is why the apple industry can offer us the same varieties year after year. See, when you grow an apple tree from seeds, it is unlikely the resulting tree would produce anything like the apple that supplied the seeds. Cloning produces the same apples over and over. In one of my favorite tales, Michael Pollan explains the history of the apple in fascinating detail in The Botony of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World.

Farmers repeatedly spray apples during the growing season to keep the pests away and produce blemish-free apples. These pesticides are designed to be sticky and not rinse off in water. A 2004 study by the CDC found that 100% of the subjects tested had pesticide residue in their blood and urine that were 4.6 times higher than the FDA approved. Pesticides have been linked in humans to poisoning, infertility, birth defects, nervous system problems, and cancer.

No matter how well you wash it, every time you eat a conventionally-grown apple, you also ingest some of that pesticide residue. And that’s only from one source. Many other processed foods and produce we eat also carry pesticides into our bodies.

The good news is that organic apples are not usually hard to find, and the organic Honeycrisp apple season is in full swing! I look forward to the Honeycrisps every year – my favorite kind of apple!

Will a Full Dutch Oven Make My Oven Rack Sag?

October 4, 2012

Reader question: Anyone have trouble with the oven rack sagging under the weight of the pot? Is there a fix for that? ~ Molly S., Florida

Molly- I have never had the problem with the oven rack sagging under the weight of my full Dutch oven, but then again, I haven’t ever created a Glorious One-Pot Meal with larger than a 5 1/2-quart cast iron Dutch oven. Even my toaster oven‘s rack does not sag under the weight of a full 3 1/2-quart Dutch oven. When I teach cooking classes at The Seasoned Chef, we often have up to five or six 2-quart Dutch ovens on one rack without a problem.

If your oven rack is sagging, you may want to contact the oven manufacturer. Oven racks are made out of very strong steel and should never sag. I can’t imagine how large and heavy your Dutch oven must be to have this effect… I imagine it must be too heavy to lift easily when filled with food! Not to mention how long it would take to cook a huge pot of food in this method…

Other than that, I would recommend using two smaller Dutch ovens when cooking for groups larger than 6. For a family of ten who had this question for me I recommended they purchase two 5-quart Dutch ovens, assemble them simultaneously, and cook them together in the oven for about an hour.

Dr. Andrew Weil on Healthy Living

October 3, 2012

Dr. Andrew Weil and Elizabeth Yarnell, author of Glorious One-Pot Meals — I often like to gift a copy of my cookbook to authors I admire! Here I'm giving one to Dr. Andrew Weil as he signs a copy of his new book, True Food, for me.

Last week I got to attend a lecture and book signing by Dr. Andrew Weil, the famed integrative health practitioner. Integrative medicine is a healing oriented approach to health care which encompasses body, mind, and spirit. Dr. Weil’s mission is to merge natural healing methods with Western medicine.

Some interesting tidbits from the seminar:

– When Dr. Weil went through Harvard Medical School, he received all of 30 minutes of training on nutrition.

– The 35-page cardiovascular residency curriculum for a major medical center does not contain a single mention of nutrition or diet.

– Dr. Weil believes that direct advertising to consumers by pharmaceutical companies is having a widespread, detrimental effect on this country.

– When asked what two foods everyone should stop eating to be healthier, Dr. Weil responded: flour and fruit juices. Flour because it has been so highly processed that it no longer functions as a whole grain in the body, and juice because when you remove the fiber from fruit you basically mainline fructose.

– 1 in 9 Americans are on antidepressents. This amount of depression in a population has never been seen in history. While antidepressent medications may work in the short term, long-term use of antidepressents cause “tardive dysphoria,” when the body stops producing its own seratonin and greater and greater amounts of drugs are needed.

– One of the most interesting concepts Dr. Weil introduced to me was the cytokine theory of depression. In the 1990s doctors came up with the theory that depression was due to a lack of uptake of seratonin in the brain. The cytokine theory posits that maybe depression is due to cytokines, or inflammation, in the brain, and the reason we are seeing so much depression is one more result of the systemic inflammation in our bodies caused by our modern diet and food supply.

Fresh Salmon Burgers with Quinoa (Gluten-free)

October 2, 2012

There’s a guy at the farmer’s market in my neighborhood who sells frozen wild-caught, vacu-sealed, Alaskan Salmon steaks and fillets. This weekend I purchased a two-pounds of salmon filets; half of which we broiled and ate that night with farm-fresh organic green beans and organic garlic mashed potatoes.

fresh salmon burger recipe — Fresh wild salmon burgers with lettuce, avocado, and tomatoes.

Last night, I wanted to do something different with the second pound of delicious wild salmon, so I made gluten-free salmon burgers.

My family tries to avoid eating farm-raised salmon whenever possible. Farm-raised salmon is more affordable because the fish are raised unnaturally in pens, fed soy- or corn-based feed pellets (not their natural diet), liberally dosed with antibiotics and anti-parasitic drugs (necessary due to the close quarters), and fed dye to tint their flesh pinkish like their wild cousins’.

If we see salmon on a restaurant menu and it is not preceded by the adjective “wild,” we do not order it. If a restaurant has salmon on the menu for less than $17, you can be sure it is farm-raised fish.

Even worse, Genetically Modified salmon may be approved by the FDA and these unlabeled, untested-on-humans frankenfish could end up on your plate without you even knowing it.

Wild salmon, on the other hand, can live for years swimming through the oceans and then make a final migration up-river, fighting the current as they swim upstream to spawn where they were born. Their flesh is developed from activity, not unfamiliar proteins; they do not need antibiotics or other drugs to keep them healthy; and their flesh is naturally pinkish-colored from their natural diet in the sea.

After surveying a number of salmon burger recipes for inspiration, I started cooking my own recipe. I wanted to make them gluten-free, so I substituted quinoa flakes for the bread crumbs. How did it turn out? Loved by everyone!

PS: I call these “Fresh Wild Salmon Burgers” because many salmon burger recipes use canned salmon.

[print-me target=”.recipe”]

Fresh Wild Salmon Burgers with Quinoa (Gluten-free)

2 eggs, beaten
1 medium zucchini
2 tsp. horseradish
1 Tbsp. basil, chopped
1/2 tsp. sea salt
Freshly cracked black pepper
1 lb. skinless salmon
3/4 cup quinoa flakes
Coconut oil
Toasted sesame oil

Beat the eggs in a medium mixing bowl until blended.

Trim the ends and quarter the zucchini. Pulse quarters in a food processor until diced. Add to the bowl of eggs with horseradish, basil, salt and pepper.

Cut the salmon into large chunks and pulse in the food processor until diced (do not process into a paste). Add to the egg-zucchini mixture and mix in quinoa flakes to make a mixture that will hold together in patties.

On a cast iron griddle or skillet, heat 1 Tbsp. of coconut oil with 1 tsp. of sesame oil. Place the patties into the oil, flipping when needed until cooked through.

Serve with mashed avocados with sea salt and sliced tomatoes on a bed of lettuce or on a bun.

Do Glorious One-Pot Meal Dinner Recipes Freeze Well?

October 1, 2012

Reader question: Do the recipes in your cookbook freeze well after cooking? I’d like to prepare double or triple recipes since I have a 6 quart dutch oven, but there are only 3 in our family. ~Molly S., Florida

Chicken Satay Glorious One-Pot Meal

Hi Molly! Thanks for checking out Glorious One-Pot Meals! There are a couple answers to your question, so permit me to ramble a little bit.

1. Any food that freezes well after being cooked should freeze well in the same fashion from a Glorious One-Pot Meal. For example, if you freeze cooked chicken breasts and you are happy with the outcome when you thaw them, then this will work for you.

2. Some GOPM recipes are more stew-like, with more liquid. Like any stew, these should freeze and thaw again without a problem.

3. Some ingredients don’t like to freeze after being cooked. Personally, I’m not a fan of the texture of frozen-and-then-thawed cooked squash. But if it floats your boat, then by all means, freeze away.

4. You don’t have to cook such large quantities. You can cook meals for three in a larger Dutch oven as long as you follow your nose to know when the meal is ready, rather than the time listed on the recipe. In other words, you don’t have to double or triple the recipe each time.

Fundamentally, GOPMs are not like soups, stews, casseroles, lasagnas, or other types of dishes that are great for making in large quantities and then freezing for later. Not only is there not enough liquid, but the layers are not congealed together into a solid mass, either.

However, because GOPMs are so much quicker and easier to assemble, you might find that you can put one together in the time it takes the oven to preheat to 450 F, making it almost as convenient as pulling a premade stew out of the freezer and thawing it.

One way I do use my freezer, though, is to keep it stocked with raw, frozen ingredients, because you can use any combination of fresh, frozen, raw, or canned ingredients in a GOPM without thawing! Check out the entire chapter in the cookbook about stocking your freezer and pantry for convenient cooking any time.

Why You Should Always Buy Organic Apples

Will a Full Dutch Oven Make My Oven Rack Sag?

Dr. Andrew Weil on Healthy Living

Fresh Salmon Burgers with Quinoa (Gluten-free)

Fresh Wild Salmon Burgers with Quinoa (Gluten-free)

Do Glorious One-Pot Meal Dinner Recipes Freeze Well?

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