Gluten Free: Not a Fad But a Necessity for 18 Million Americans

Posted on May 22, 2012 by bilrob

Gluten Free: Not a Fad But a Necessity for 18 Million Americans

Gluten free products seem to be everywhere — from pasta and cookies to bread and even ice cream. Major food retailers such as WalMart, Whole Foods, Wegman’s and Target carry a number of gluten free products, and PF Chang’s, Outback, Chili’s and other chain restaurants have added several gluten-free menu items.

Although it may seem as though gluten free is a fad in a society obsessed with new diets, the reality is that for those who suffer from gluten intolerance, gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, this is not a choice, but a necessity. In fact, experts estimate that 1 in 16 Americans have some form of gluten sensitivity.

So what is gluten and why is it such a big deal for nearly 18 million Americans? Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley that is responsible for the elastic nature of dough. For many individuals this protein is easily digestible and has no effect on their overall health. But for those with any type of gluten sensitivity or intolerance, the ramifications of consuming gluten can range from constipation and bloating to diarrhea and malabsorption, which can result in malnutrition and severe weight loss. While there is a diagnostic test for celiac disease, there are no tests or a defined set of symptoms that identify gluten intolerances.

The increasing population of gluten free eaters has not gone unnoticed by food manufacturers. Those that suffer from gluten intolerance have a much wider array of gluten free foods to choose from today. The once small selection of gluten free foods now makes up a $6.3 billion industry and growing.

The increasing availability of gluten-free foods is especially important to those that suffer from the most severe form of gluten intolerance, a condition called celiac disease. This autoimmune disease is a genetic disorder that affects 3 million Americans. Untreated, celiac disease can lead to a number of other health issues including malnutrition, osteoporosis, infertility, neurological disorders and other autoimmune diseases, according to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA). Seventeen percent of family members of celiac patients also have celiac disease, making it one of the most commonly occurring lifelong, genetically determined diseases.

People with celiac disease suffer on average for nine years before they are correctly diagnosed.. For this group, a strict gluten-free diet is the only treatment. There are no pharmaceutical or surgical cures for celiac disease, so finding gluten free foods are key to maintaining their health. This is why accurately labeling gluten free food is crucial.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if you or a loved one suffers from gluten intolerance, gluten sensitivity or celiac disease:

Look for certification. Growing awareness about gluten intolerance has prompted manufacturers to step up their labeling practices and indicate products that contain gluten; however, without gluten labeling mandates from the FDA this practice is inconsistent across products and manufacturers. As a consumer, it’s important to look for the certified gluten free seal issued by Quality Assurance International (QAI), and the healthcare nonprofit National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA). This seal ensures consumers that the food was produced in a facility without gluten and that it has gone through a supply chain free of gluten. Similar to the certification for organic and kosher foods, gluten free certification is now much more commonplace.

Be aware. Some things that contain gluten are obvious, such as wheat pasta or bread. But gluten is also found in foods that aren’t as apparent, such as soy sauce, beer, some salad dressings and gelatin. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires food manufacturers to list the eight most common ingredients that trigger food allergies on labels: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat. Gluten is not included on that list because technically it’s not an allergen, but there are efforts being made now to change this in the near future. In the meantime though, it’s still necessary to be hyper vigilant about reading labels. If you see ingredients including wheat, rye and barley or ingredients made from these grains such as malt (made from barley), then it means there is gluten in the product.

Keep it fresh. Talk to any dietician and you’ll hear that the best way to shop in the supermarket is to stick to the outer aisles, the thinking being that everything in that location — fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy, etc — is not processed, and therefore less likely to contain gluten. Certainly there are some processed foods, such as some cookies and potato chips, that are gluten free and therefore safe, but as a rule the more processed it is, the more likely it is to contain gluten.

Living with gluten intolerance, gluten sensitivity or celiac disease isn’t easy, but it’s manageable. It requires a complete change in diet that lasts a lifetime. It doesn’t have to mean a life without flavorful and exciting foods. By knowing what to look for — in the supermarket or on restaurant menus — eating a gluten free diet is accessible and can be a pain-free and healthful transition.

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HCG Diet Experts Reveal why 800 Calorie Plan is Better than the 500 Calorie Plan

Posted on May 22, 2012 by bilrob

HCG Diet Experts Reveal why 800 Calorie Plan is Better than the 500 Calorie Plan

The 800 calorie diet is a recently developed option for HCG dieters. With the 800 calorie diet, dieters experience less side effects, hunger pains, and are allowed more daily exercise.

Orem, UT (PRWEB) May 21, 2012

EZ Wellness LLC has recently revealed why dieters would choose the 800 calorie HCG plan over 500 calorie plan.The HCG diet often contains recommendations for individuals to eat 500 calories each day. HCG diet experts have started to suggest individuals eat 800 calories per day instead, contradicting the old thought processes. While both diet plans are seriously restrictive, experts say the 500 calorie diet is nearly impossible for some people to follow through with.

The diet employs the human hormone HCG or Human Chorionic Gonadotropin to help convert the body’s stores of fat into usable fuel, resulting in rapid weight loss. In fact, many individuals have experienced weight loss of between 1 and 3 pounds per day. While many individuals completed the diet consuming only 500 calories, experts are now touting the benefits of the 800 calorie plan.

“With 800 calories, dieters can be a little more relaxed with what they’re eating,” says Dave Sherwin, owner of www.hcgezdrops.com. “It gives them the freedom to choose additional foods that can stave off hunger, and keep them motivated. With the 500 calorie diet plan, too many dieters feel deprived, which can lead to failure on the diet.”

For a typical 500-calorie day, individuals might have black coffee for breakfast, then 100g of meat at lunch or dinner with one serving of vegetables, one serving of fruit and one breadstick. This can leave individuals feeling rather deprived. For a typical 800-calorie day, individuals can add to their meat portions or vegetable portions, or have small snacks after lunch and after dinner. This enables individuals to feel fuller for a longer period of time, so that they’re less likely to give up on the diet and binge eat.

The diet is considered relatively safe, because the HCG converts the stored fat in the body into usable energy. This adds an additional 2,000 calories each day to the 800 calorie diet, so that individuals are not starving their bodies, simply using the stored fat that exists within the body rather than outside sources of calories. The diet is typically done for one month, and then a resting period occurs where the dieters eat whatever they want aside from processed sugar, white flours, and starches like potatoes.

Some individuals have reported losing tremendous amounts of weight while on the HCG diet. In fact, there have been reports of weight loss up to 40 or 60 pounds in one month. The individual results will vary since not everyone loses weight at the same speed and not everyone will react to the diet in the same way. During the diet, individuals are not permitted to have condiments, sweeteners (other than the all-natural sweetener Stevia), starches or white flour. They are encouraged to have plenty of vegetables, fruits and lean meats.

To learn more about the HCG diet and how the 800 calorie plan works effectively to help individuals lose weight and keep it off, readers are encouraged to visit http://hcgezdrops.com/hcg-diet/hcg-1-2-3-diet-menu

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/5/prweb9507754.htm

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Super Diet Genius app puts superfoods to work

Posted on May 22, 2012 by bilrob

Super Diet Genius plans your meals based on super-healthy superfoods.

Super Diet Genius plans your meals based on super-healthy superfoods.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET)

Super Diet Genius app puts superfoods to work

Diet apps are a dime a dozen. And with good reason: your smartphone is the ideal mobile companion for counting calories, managing exercise, and tracking overall health.

The latest entry into this crowded field: Super Diet Genius. What separates this $3.99 app from the likes of Lose It, Calorie Tracker, and MyFitnessPal? It’s all in the “super.”

Specifically, Super Diet Genius puts you on a diet that relies heavily on superfoods — stuff that packs the maximum vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and overall nutrition goodness. (You know: not pizza. Not candy bars. Not French fries.)

Getting started with SDG is much like getting started with any other diet app: you supply details about your age, activity level, current and desired weight, and so on.

But then you’re asked to choose the foods you like from lists in five categories: protein, carbs, fat, fruit, and veggies. This takes a few minutes, but I must admit it’s kind of fun. (Oatmeal? Yes! Tofu? Um, no.)

From there, SDG generates a meal plan for you, rather than just leaving it to you to choose the foods you eat and enter them into the app (a task I find both tedious and difficult, as a lot of prepared dishes are borderline impossible to record).

For any given meal you can swap out an individual item, add a fruit or veggie (they’re “free,” apparently, just like with Weight Watchers), or refresh the entire meal to get different foods.

A tap of the Planner button takes you to the meal plans for your entire week, which is helpful for shopping, and even gives you the option of e-mailing them to yourself.

Tap Kitchen and you’ll see a list of all the foods you “liked” during the initial setup. If you’re out of a particular food, switch it to “off” and SDG will add it to your shopping list — and exclude it from your meal plans until you restock. Neat.

In my history of trying to eat smarter and lose weight, I’ve found that I do much better when I plan my meals in advance. SDG makes that a snap while keeping me on the superfood straight and narrow. It also takes calorie counting out of the equation, which is nice.

The flipside is that the app allows you no deviation. If you sneak, say, a handful of MM’s, there’s no way to add them in so you can subtract something else. Also, there’s no way to record your exercise (which would help make those MM’s allowable).

Those gripes aside, Super Diet Genius might be the ideal solution for those looking to lose weight and improve their overall health, as it takes a different — and, some would say, easier — tack than most other apps. (Also, I like saying the name in my Wile E. Coyote voice: “Sooo-pah Diet Geeenius.”)

Have you found a diet app you like better? Tell me about it in the comments. Personally, I think MyFitnessPal is the gold standard, but I’m keen to give SDG a try.

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Italian Cheese Valued at 250M Euro Ruined by Earthquake

Posted on May 22, 2012 by bilrob

Italian Cheese Valued at 250M Euro Ruined by Earthquake

Northern Italy is rich in a lot of things, from art to agriculture to cuisine. Along with its world-renowned wines and cured meats, the country’s northern region is famous for unique cheeses like the Parmigiano-Reggiano of Lombardy and Grana Padano of Veneto. But this past weekend dealt a serious blow to northern Italy’s cheese industry – a 6.0 magnitude earthquake ripped through regions from Emilia-Romagna to Veneto, leading to the collapse of historic buildings and factories alike. Among the casualties: massive amounts of northern Italy’s famous cheeses.

The UK’s Mirror reported on the wreckage, along with painful photographs of toppled shelves and cracked cheese wheels from a Parma-based Parmigiano-Reggiano factory:

The region’s cheese industry has been devastated by the magnitude-6.0 earthquake, with tonnes of Parmesan and Grana Padano lost. A single wheel of cheese can weigh up to 90 pounds.

“The earthquake was very strong and heavily damaged the structures of many warehouses as well as thousands of tonnes” of the two cheeses, said Stefano Berni, head of a consortium that protects the Grana Padano designation.

“It’s a very heavy loss, but there have been no casualties, which is a great relief at this worrying time,” he told the ANSA news agency.

Reports continue that the initial estimate of 250 million Euros’ worth of damage may be a rather conservative estimate – what’s more, any aftershocks could make matters worse if still-intact wheels are made unsalvageable.

But while the loss of so much delicious cheese is obviously devastating, Berni also noted in the report that no lives within the cheese industry were lost as a result of the earthquake. The Mirror article points out that three hundred were lost in a similar earthquake that hit Italy in 2009. With that considered, losing a few tons of dairy is a very small price to pay.

[SOURCE: Mirror]

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Young teens need more cheese, please

Posted on May 22, 2012 by bilrob

Young teens need more cheese, please

The suggestion that cheese cannot be advertised on television during children’s viewing hours has sparked controversy.

It’s seen by many as taking the “nanny state” approach to tackling obesity a step too far.

But the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland believes most cheeses are too high in fat.

However, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has come up with a compromise.

It points out that calcium intakes are crucial for bone development in children during puberty (aged 9 to 18 years).

“However, research shows up to a third of this age group in Ireland has inadequate calcium intakes. During puberty children need at least five servings of dairy foods every day in order to meet calcium requirements.”

Its own research found children entering the pubertal growth spurt (9 to 13 years) have the greatest difficulty achieving an adequate calcium intake.

“This is because, compared with older, bigger teenagers, their capacity to consume large volumes of milk and yoghurt is limited by their small body size. Cheese can be invaluable in bridging the calcium-gap for this age group.”

It said ideally low-fat milk and yoghurt were the ‘best’ dairy foods to choose because they provide calcium without excessive amounts of saturated fat but certain types of cheese can also form part of a healthy diet.

Its solution is to allow calcium-rich cheeses that are lower in fat /salt to be advertised during children’s programmes but these would not include all cheeses.

So which cheeses should be allowed to be advertised? The watchdog’s list includes:

low-fat cheddar; cheese strings; brie; light cheese triangles. Cheeses which would not be included are: cheese slices; edam; feta; gouda; cheddar; parmesan

There would be an incentive on the makers of cheeses to reformulate their products by lowering fat and salt content if they knew they would be allowed adverterising time during children’s programmes.

The Broadcasting Authority’s draft code suggesting the ban is open for submissions until the end of this month.

Originally published in
cheese

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Did slaves catch your seafood?

Posted on May 22, 2012 by bilrob

Did slaves catch your seafood?

PREY VENG, Cambodia, and SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand — In the sun-baked flatlands of Cambodia, where dust stings the eyes and chokes the pores, there is a tiny clapboard house on cement stilts. It is home to three generations of runaway slaves.

The man of the house, Sokha, recently returned after nearly two years in captivity. His home is just as he left it: barren with a few dirty pillows passing for furniture. Slivers of daylight glow through cracks in the walls. The family’s most valuable possession, a sow, waddles and snorts beneath the elevated floorboards.

Before his December escape, Sokha (a pseudonym) was the property of a deep-sea trawler captain. The 39-year-old Cambodian, his teenage son and two young nephews were purchased for roughly $650, he said, each through brokers promising under-the-table jobs in a fish cannery.

There was no cannery. They were instead smuggled to a pier in neighboring Thailand, where they were shoved aboard a wooden vessel that motored into a lawless sea. His uncle had fallen for the same scam five years prior and escaped to warn the others. But Sokha told his son, then just 16, that this venture would turn out differently. He was wrong.

“We worked constantly, for no pay, through seasickness and vomiting, sometimes for two or three days straight,” he said. “We obeyed the captain’s every word.”

Near-daily death threats reinforced the captain’s supremacy. So did his Vietnam War-era K-54 pistol, and the night he carved up another slave’s face in view of the crew. “For 20 hours a day, we were forced to catch and sort sea creatures: mackerel, crabs, squid.” It’s back-breaking work, under the searing tropical sun. “But the fish wasn’t for us,” he added.

So who was it all for?

The answer should unsettle anyone who closely examines Thailand’s multi-billion dollar wild-caught seafood industry and the darkest links in its supply chain.

“It’s an export-oriented market. And we know the countries where these products are exported to,” said Lisa Rende Taylor, chief technical specialist with the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking or UNIAP. “Do the math.”

For Americans, the calculation is worrisome. Thailand is the United States’ second-largest supplier of foreign seafood. Of America’s total seafood imports, one out of every six pounds comes from the Southeast Asian nation.

In 2011 alone, Thailand exported 827 million pounds of seafood worth more than $2.5 billion to the US, according to National Marine Fisheries Service figures. The only nation that consumes more Thai seafood exports is Japan.

Murder is an occupational hazard. But a monotonous job assembling iPads is heaven compared to slavery on a Thai trawler, where conditions are as grueling and violent as any 19th-century American plantation. The lucky escape within a year or so. Less fortunate are those traded several times over for years on end.

Denying that the fruits of forced labor reach the biggest importers of Thai seafood — Japan, America, China and the European Union — has become increasingly implausible.

The accounts of ex-slaves, Thai fishing syndicates, officials, exporters and anti-trafficking case workers, gathered by GlobalPost in a three-month investigation, illuminate an opaque offshore supply chain enmeshed in slavery.

A long trail of offshore operators — slave boats, motherships and independent fishmongers — can obfuscate the origins of slave-caught seafood before it ever reaches the shore. While the industry’s biggest earners rely on clannish and violence-prone fishing crews for raw material, they’re distanced from the worst abuses by hundreds of nautical miles and several degrees of middlemen.

The result is that many Thai factory bosses have no idea who caught the seafood they process for foreign consumers.

There are caveats. The majority of Thailand’s two largest seafood exports to the US — tuna and shrimp — are sourced differently. Most “Thai” tuna is actually imported from overseas and processed for re-export. The shrimp industry, though routinely accused of abusing poor migrants, is at least vulnerable to spot checks on seaside farms.

The same cannot be said for deep-sea trawlers, the favored vessel of slave-driving captains.

The species caught by Thai trawlers legal and illicit alike include sardines, mackerel, cuttlefish, squid, anchovies and “trash fish,” tiny or foul-tasting catch ground into animal food or preserved to create fish sauce. Americans consume these breeds en masse. One in five pounds of America’s imported mackerel or sardines comes from Thailand, according to US government records. For processed fish balls, puddings or cakes — made from trawlers’ trash fish — the figure is one in three pounds. Thai fish sauce supplies nearly 80 percent of the American market.

All that trawler catch ends up in familiar American fare: anchovy pizzas, squid linguine, smoked mackerel salads and fish fillets on ice. Even pets are entangled: trash fish is a common dog- and cat-food ingredient. But industry representatives in Thailand admit there’s often no way to tell whether a particular package of deep-sea fish was caught using forced labor.

Using bar codes, American shoppers can track packaged Thai-exported seafood to its onshore processing facility, said Arthon Piboonthanapatana, secretary general of the Thai Frozen Foods Association. “You can trace it back to the factories.”

But exporters, he said, are not in the business of policing the fishing syndicates that supply their factories. “We only have the power to enforce our members,” Arthon said. “We have no power to enforce other stakeholders such as boats or fishermen.”

American seafood importers consider themselves similarly powerless in overseeing far-flung Thai boats. “Western regulatory agencies have little or no reach, or authority, over various parts of the value chain,” said Gavin Gibbons, spokesman for the National Fisheries Institute, America’s chief seafood trade organization and lobbying group based outside Washington, DC. The institute will promptly respond to allegations against specific factories, he said. But so far, it has not found an effective way to monitor conditions on deep-sea boats catching US-bound fish.

“We have started discussions with our members about just how far an audit could realistically go and whether, perhaps, there are dockside audits that could be developed,” Gibbons said.

The “nature of boats being at sea,” he said, presents a major challenge to industry’s self-policing efforts.

International pressure to rid Thailand’s seafood trade of slavery is mounting. Thailand teeters just above the US State Department’s worst human-trafficking ranking and could be downgraded this summer. Last year, during a visit that vexed Bangkok officials, a UN rapporteur declared that forced labor is “notoriously common” in Thailand’s fishing sector and even alleged police complicity.

“It’s not like monitoring brothels, plantations or factories … all this labor is at sea,” Rende Taylor said. “So it’s essentially a universe where captains are king. Some are out to make as much money as possible by working these guys around the clock and being as cruel as they want to be.”

Fish & Seafood with Bill & Sheila

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Paella - ZuZu back in the tapas game

Posted on May 22, 2012 by bilrob

Paella – ZuZu back in the tapas game

A decade ago, when one asked friends if they’d been to the new tapas and paella bar in downtown Napa, a smirk often preceded the inevitable rejoinder: “There’s a topless bar in downtown Napa?”

Mick Salyer, proprietor of ZuZu Tapas Paella, the downtown bar and restaurant serving small plates of Spanish-style cuisine, heard it all back then. Today, however, he’s being congratulated for having the foresight and courage to open a tapas joint at a time when First and Main wasn’t exactly boomtown. For the moment, he’s deservedly taken on the mantle of something of a culinary prophet.

Napans, as well as visitors, fell in love with tapas and paella from the get-go, and the intimate eatery at 829 Main St. fed eager crowds of diners, some of whom, especially on weekends, patiently waited curbside for an opportunity to dine.

Salyer and his staff are celebrating ZuZu’s 10th anniversary this spring, as well as a facelift dictated by a government-mandated seismic retrofit of the Main Street property. During a break between lunch and dinner the other day, Salyer took a few minutes to discuss ZuZu’s facelift. He said the paella restaurant closed for six weeks shortly after the first of the year.

While a construction crew pulled off the building’s facade and installed a number of steel girders in the existing structure, he led a group of the culinary team and staff to northern Spain to find inspiration for ZuZu’s menu. He returned to find a new “burnt cedar facade” installed on the front of the 100-year-old building, one that does double duty as a fireproofing technique. The relatively small restaurant kitchen was modernized at the same time, Salyer said. “We redid the floor, replaced a kitchen wall and added a new walk-in (refrigerator).

“As far as the (dining room) interior was concerned, we wanted to keep it the way it was. There are a few cosmetic changes and we removed the arched windows upstairs. That allowed us to put in floor-to-ceiling windows, opening up that upstairs dining space to the park and river across the street.” Salyer said the 10 days he and his employees spent in San Sebastian, Spain, is reflected in ZuZu’s new menus.

A chef’s determination

Armando Ramirez is the relatively new executive chef at ZuZu, although he’s been employed there since the paella restaurant opened.

Ramirez was hired as a dishwasher when Salyer and opening chef Charles Webber first brought tapas and paella to the attention of hungry Napans a decade ago. A native of Oaxaca, Mexico, Ramirez has been a resident of the United States for 11 years.

“I lived in Sunnyvale when I first moved to California … (where) I worked as a housekeeper,” he said.“Because I used to farm in Mexico, I decided to come to Napa to work in the vineyards. But it was not the best time when I came. … It was raining and there was no work. I saw that ZuZu was opening, so I applied for a job. That was when I wasn’t speaking much English. I was hired as a dishwasher, then asked to do some prepping and then help (cooking) on the line.”

Ramirez worked with Webber and his successor, Angela Tamura. It was Tamura who saw Ramirez’s potential and offered him the job as one of her sous chefs. When he wasn’t working at ZuZu, Ramirez was learning what he could from chef Jeff Mosher at Julia’s Kitchen and also spent time with the culinary team at Hog Island Oyster Company at the Oxbow Public Market. After a few years in the ZuZu kitchen, Ramirez brought on his parents, Marisol and Armando Ramirez, to help with various tasks at the restaurant. They are still on the payroll, as is his brother, Carlos. “I convinced my brother it was important to finish school, and he graduated from Napa High and just graduated from the engineering program at UCLA,” Ramirez said. “He’s working with us for a few months so he can pay his bills. … It’s not that easy for college graduates to find jobs today.”

When Tamura left ZuZu last year to accept the post of executive chef at the Pebble Beach restaurant, Peppoli at the Inn at Spanish Bay, she asked Ramirez to take over as executive chef. Today, he’s being assisted by sous chefs Thomas Hartwell and Lindsey Glasson.

Basquing in the kitchen

“We were inspired by the bright seafood dishes we found in San Sebastian,” Salyer said of the ZuZu group’s 10-day trek through Basque country in northwest Spain.

He was particularly fond of paella made only with seafood, compared to the paellas of southern Spain that incorporate a variety of meats.

Newly added to the ZuZu menu is a calamari paella, with the rice colored by squid ink, and freshly sautéed seafood layered over the earthy “arroz negro.”

Ramirez advised that diners are enjoying house-cured California red anchovies that he places on grilled bread, topped with pequillo and piparas peppers, as well grilled Pacific sardines complemented by fresh herbs, lemon and a pickled fennel aioli.

Salyer has high praise for the kitchen’s take on dishes they enjoyed in San Sebastian, like braised cod cheeks, an escabeche of seared scallops finished with Basque apple cider vinegar, as well as lamb’s tongue pancetta on a bed of frisée topped with a poached Hudson Ranch egg.

“A new focus for us is using a variety of pig parts … pork jowls cured like pancetta, pork escabeche that will be added, and we just featured a dish with pig tails. Suckling pig is also making an appearance on our menu.”

Salyer noted that ZuZu has its own garden at Copia and, with some crops purchased from Boca Farm, the restaurant has a larder full of peppers — from the padrons that are sautéed and sprinkled with salt for a tasty appetizer, to the espelette, piquillo and piparas that are used in a variety of dishes.

At present, the culinary crew is serving pan-roasted asparagus with spring garlic, almonds, manchego cheese and sherry vinegar; white asparagus soup garnished with truffle oil and crème fraîche; shaved artichoke and portobello mushroom salad with lemon-truffle vinaigrette and Sao Jorge cheese; chilled avocado and cucumber gazpacho with bay shrimp and jalapeños; and a ceviche that would be enjoyed as much by a native of San Sebastian as a native of Mexico.

Prices at ZuZu range from $4 for the red anchovies plate to $15 for Sonoma Coast lamb chops with Moroccan barbecue glaze.

The restaurant also offers traditional wood-fired paella for off-site parties of 20 and up. Salyer said he’s the contact for all private events.

Lunch is served at ZuZu from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Dinner is offered from 4:30 to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, and until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. For information and reservations, call 224-8555.

ZuZu Sea Scallop Escabeche

Aramando Ramirez, executive chef, ZuZu Tapas Paella

Preparing the marinade:

1 pound carrots

1 pound onions

2 jalapeño peppers

4 piquillo peppers

2 ounces sliced garlic

1/2 ounce red chile flakes

1 cup apple juice

1/2 cup Spanish apple cider vinegar

Makes 1 quart, which will marinate at least 20 scallops, about 2 ounces in size.

Julienne carrots, onions and peppers, and thinly slice garlic.

Heat a large sauté pan and add a little oil of your choice.

When pan is ready, lightly sauté all vegetables and garlic. Then add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 6 minutes, remove from heat and strain vegetables.

Set vegetables aside and reduce remaining liquid by half. Save 1/4 cup of escabeche reduction to marinate seared scallops and pour remaining liquid over vegetables.

Preparing the scallops:

Scallops (2 ounces each)

Sea salt

White pepper

Olive oil

At the restaurant, we usually serve one scallop (about 2 ounces in size) per person. You will have plenty of marinade, at least enough to serve 20 portions or more.

Clean scallops and pat dry. Season with salt and white pepper.

Heat sauté pan with 1 ounce of oil until just smoking.

Add scallops and sear until nicely browned, about 1 minute on each side. Remove from pan and let rest.

When cooled, thinly slice scallops and place in escabeche reduction. Marinate for 2-5 minutes.

Remove from liquid and serve over escabeche vegetables at room temperature. Garnish with sea salt and olive oil.

Zuzu House-Cured Red Anchovies

Armando Ramirez, executive chef, Zuzu Tapas Paella

1 pound fresh red anchovies

1/2 pound kosher salt

2 ounces sherry vinegar

2 ounces fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp. espelette pepper powder

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Roasted piquillo peppers and pickled Basque piparras chiles, for garnish

Fresh black pepper, to taste

Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Filet all anchovies and rinse. Pack in kosher salt and let cure in refrigerator for 12-24 hours.

Rinse very well, letting cold water run over them for 10-20 minutes. Once rinsed, pat dry and marinate in sherry vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil and espelette powder.

Anchovies are now ready to serve and will stay fresh and delicious in the refrigerator for up to one month.

Serve on grilled baguette slices with roasted piquillo peppers and pickled Basque piparras chiles. Garnish with cracked pepper and olive oil.

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The Basics of Planting Herbs

Posted on May 22, 2012 by bilrob

The Basics of Planting Herbs

Herbs can add so much depth to a dish, but those bunches from the grocery store never seem to last long and though not expensive individually, those figures do add up. Wouldn’t it be great this summer to read a recipe, note the ingredients, and head out to the garden to freshly snip those flavorful elements? Herb gardening can be a resourceful tool for the kitchen as well as a lovely enhancement to any vegetable or flowering garden.

A surprising fact about herbs is that they can be planted as perennials or annuals. With that in mind, don’t plant perennial herbs in the middle of a vegetable garden. Place them in a protected space or bed near the house. For annual herbs, they benefit from the rich soils and sun provided with vegetable gardens and will thrive amid tomatoes and zucchini.

The Basics of Planting Herbs

Herbs thrive in well-drained soil, prefer mostly sun, and moderate to low fertilizer. Fertilizers can speed growth but can dilute the flavor of many aromatic herbs. The general rule of thumb with herb usage is that dried herbs are far stronger than fresh, so when using plants from the garden you may need to use more than you would from the spice cabinet to achieve the same effect. Because many herbs are slow growing, they are perfect for containers and by doing so, extend the life of the more tender ones by bringing them indoors out of season.

Perennial Classics

Rosemary is favored by most gardeners. It is nearly winter hardy in this area and by a foundation or near the ocean, it will often survive the winter. The plant sprouts dainty blue flowers along spiky green branches, and can be used for giving meats and vegetables a unique flavor.

Lavender is a great landscape herb with a unique, familiar fragrance. The leaves and blossoms of lavender are edible and its aroma is used in everything from soaps and perfumes to insect repellents.

Thyme is another spicy kitchen enhancer with tiny leaves growing in carpets along tiny woody stems. It can sometimes have a lemony fragrance or tend toward the sultrier scents. Thyme is most often found creeping amid patio stones and along rock gardens.

Sage comes into its own in the fall and adds a fresh touch to many winter soups.

Mint is a wonderful culinary herb popular in many beverages and is a common choice with certain springtime and early summer foods like English peas or Middle Eastern yogurt dressings. Mint is an especially good performer in containers due to its propensity to spread vigorously

Annual Favorites

Parsley is indispensible in the kitchen. For years relegated to salad bar garnish status, true cooks find a way to incorporate parsley into many dishes. Parsley can be grown over the length of the season and can be cut and re-cut several times.

Basil is the herb that gets most gardeners excited as it is the true taste of summer. Easy to grow and easy to use, basil loves hot, sunny soil and to be picked regularly to promote more branching growth. Simply pick the leaves and layer with garden fresh tomatoes and mozzarella cheese, and to really impress the family, blend with olive oil, pine nuts and/or Parmesan cheese for a perfectly decadent pesto sauce.

Dill is another seasonably long performer. Its leaves are the perfect garnish to fish dishes and of course pickle flavoring. Its flowers are distinctive chartreuse in a flower bouquet and its seeds are even edible when fresh.

This is just a short rundown of some of the more popular herbs that are hard to go wrong with in the garden, and the best part is, when in doubt, try any of the above on potatoes. Any of these choices will impart their unique taste to a basic starch and educate taste pallets. Herbs can become the most popular item in the garden and kitchen this year!

Information for this column was contributed by Volante Farms, 292 Forest St., Needham.

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THE HEALTHY PLATE: Recipe for creamy potato salad with artichokes and herbs

Posted on May 22, 2012 by bilrob

Recipe for creamy potato salad with artichokes and herbs

Potato salad is a dish made from boiled potatoes, the versions of which vary throughout different regions and countries of the world. Although called a salad, it is generally considered a side dish, as it usually accompanies the main course.

Potato salad is often served with barbecue, roasts, hot dogs, fried chicken, hamburgers and cold sandwiches. It is generally considered casual fare, and as such is typically served at picnics, outdoor barbecues, and other casual meals and events.

It is a popular menu choice of cooks preparing food for a large number of people, because it is easily made in large quantities, it can be prepared in advance and refrigerated until needed, and requires inexpensive ingredients.

But you also know that no American summer barbecue is complete without a creamy and rich potato salad. Except you also know just how unhealthy a potato salad smothered in mayonnaise can be. The good news is that you can enjoy a great potato salad without sacrificing your commitment to healthy eating.

Here are our tips for making that happen.

First, make sure you leave the skins on the potatoes. Potato skins contain much of the potatoes’ fiber, as well heaps of vitamins and minerals, including a crazy amount of potassium (even more than bananas).

Second, replace the commonly added hard-boiled egg. While eggs do add plenty of protein, if you’re barbecuing it’s unlikely that protein deprivation is your problem. And egg yolks also add plenty of unnecessary fat. So we replaced the egg with chopped canned artichoke hearts, which have a similar texture and a wonderfully subtle flavor that complements the potatoes.

Third, and possibly most important, you need to overhaul the mayonnaise dressing. Adding just 1/2 cup of regular mayonnaise can add 800 calories and 90 grams of fat to the salad. And really, who stops at just 1/2 cup? You certainly could dress a potato salad in a light vinaigrette, but we wanted to stick to the traditional creamy salad for this recipe.

So we reached for one of our favorite no-fat creamy dairy products, Greek yogurt. It is a versatile, healthy ingredient that adds significant creamy flavor and texture.

We finished with a handful of fresh herbs and some tangy vinegar to punch up the flavor, then we had a potato salad we could be proud of setting out on our (healthy!) barbecue table.

___

CREAMY POTATO SALAD WITH ARTICHOKES AND HERBS

Start to finish: 1 hour (20 minutes active)

Servings: 6

2 pounds red potatoes, cubed

Salt

1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar

5.3-ounce container fat-free plain Greek yogurt

1/4 cup low-fat sour cream

3 scallions, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons minced fresh dill

2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Ground black pepper

4-ounce jar chopped pimentos

14-ounce can artichoke bottoms, drained

2 ribs celery, diced

Place the potatoes in a large pot, then add enough cool water to cover by 1 inch. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, then bring to a boil and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until just tender when pierced with a fork. Drain the potatoes and spread out on a rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with the vinegar and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sour cream, scallions, mustard, dill, thyme and garlic powder. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in the pimentos, artichoke bottoms and celery. Once the potatoes have cooled, gently stir in until thoroughly coated. Chill until ready to serve.

Nutrition information per serving (values are rounded to the nearest whole number): 190 calories; 10 calories from fat (5 percent of total calories); 1 g fat (0.5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 5 mg cholesterol; 38 g carbohydrate; 7 g protein; 7 g fiber; 670 mg sodium.

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Wine - More than just desserts

Posted on May 22, 2012 by bilrob

Huon Hooke - Chateau Coutet and Aline Baly pics supplied

Changing the game … Chateau Coutet in Barsac, the French wine region that makes sauternes.

Wine – More than just desserts

‘Sweet wine with sweet foods” is an ingrained association for many people. Wines such as French sauternes and Australian botrytis semillons are often thought of as strictly for dessert. But it shouldn’t be so. To ignore savoury combinations with these great wines is to unreasonably restrict their possibilities. Aline Baly, whose family owns the sauternes premier cru property Chateau Coutet, says chicken is one of her favourite foods with sauternes. ”Roast chicken is our traditional Sunday meal,” she says, with Coutet of course. Her absolute favourite is lobster (”sweet wine with sweet meat”), but she recognises it’s not an everyday, or every-week, dish.

”I also love turkey rubbed with five-spice, garlic chicken, and dishes that involve lots of pepper and chilli – they’re great with sauternes,” she says. Another ideal savoury combination is cheese, especially creamy-textured blues, and roquefort is a no-brainer with sauternes because it’s local.

Chateau Coutet is in Barsac, a small appellation within the greater Sauternes region, in which Coutet and Chateau Climens are the only first growths. ”Every Barsac is a sauternes, but not many sauternes are Barsacs,” Baly says.

Ailine Baly, whose familiy makes sauternes in France, enjoys the wine with white meat as well as sweet food.

Aline Baly, whose family owns Chateau Coutet.

However, the appellation laws are the same for Barsac and Sauternes. The difference between the two is geographical area and soils.

”Barsac has red-brown clay soils over limestone; Sauternes has more gravel, which traps the heat,” Baly says.

All over France, the grape variety is chosen to suit the soil, and Sauternes is no different.

Sauterne from Chateau Coutet.

Chateau Coutet sauterne.

”At Coutet, we have 75 per cent semillon in the vineyard, 23 per cent sauvignon blanc and 2 per cent muscadelle,” Baly says. ”We try to stay true to these proportions when we make the assemblage.”

Because of soil differences, Chateau Climens is different: it’s 100 per cent semillon.

At Coutet, the sauvignon blanc is important. ”Planted on the limestone and clay, it gives the minerality, the raciness of Coutet,” Baly says. The name comes from the French word for knife: couteau. It’s a good descriptor as the wine usually has cut and vivacity.

That said, Chateau Coutet often breaks its own rules and releases a much richer, sweeter (and more expensive) super-cuvee named Cuvee Madame.

”We have just released the 2001 Cuvee Madame and it’s 100 per cent semillon,” Baly says. ”It comes from our best parcels of semillon from vines at least 45 years old.”

The wine of Chateau Coutet has been available in Australia for many years. However, the wines were different before the Baly family bought the property in 1977. They were considerably less sweet, lighter and usually had a fearsome level of sulphur dioxide. The chemical’s big advantage is to slow the ageing of the wine, but it is a two-edged sword. We had to wait years before drinking it but, on the other hand, it seemed to keep forever.

The sometimes hard and volcanic wines some readers may remember from the ’70s and early ’80s seem to be a thing of the past, no doubt thanks to the Baly family’s improvements, which are ongoing. A tasting of six vintages – 2008, ’07, ’06, ’05, ’97 and ’89 – showed a more luscious style, fresher and more fruit-forward, with delicious flavours and great balance.

When young, they smell of pineapple and other tropical fruits; when more mature, of marmalade and apricot jam. Of course, the style fluctuates according to season: the more heavily botrytis-affected years give richer, sweeter and more opulent wines, which age longer. And even the sweeter vintages seem to become drier when they are mature, which is one of the mysteries of sweet wines generally. The sugar doesn’t go away, but age modifies the wine’s balance so that it tastes less sweet. For this reason, older sauternes should be tasted after younger ones, and should be teamed with different foods – savoury foods are even more likely to suit.

In our tasting, the serving order Baly chose was ’06, ’08, ’05, ’07, ’97 and ’89. The ’89 was last not because it’s the sweetest but because it’s a great vintage, and mature, and it’s always good to finish on a high note.

As Baly says, it’s a wine for sitting in front of an open fire and thinking about changing the world. A meditation wine.

The ’07 is a great wine now, in all its youthful freshness and lusciousness, but Baly says she would cellar this one and, when it’s mature, treat it as a meditation wine like the ’89 is now. Well, you could do both very happily.

The ’07 ($175), ’06 ($135) and ’05 ($145) are currently available in the trade, which means the wholesaler Negociants has stock. Any top fine-wine retailer should be able to source them for customers.

My favourite of the group was the ’07, closely followed by ’05.

These are show-stoppers: lush, rich, sweet and beautifully balanced, a filled with different aromas and flavours. The one disappointment was the ’97, which was oxidised – this, Baly agreed was a problem of the bottle, not the vintage in general, attributable to cork failure.

I’m told cork taint reared its head at other Coutet tastings around town. Asked the obligatory question, of whether Coutet would ever consider changing to a different closure, her response was: ”We will consider it when Chateau Yquem does!”

Hell will freeze first. It’s a refrain one hears all over France: winemakers who have a lot to lose will not risk a massive rejection by consumers. Till then, we have to roll the dice. It’s a pity, as the wines are superb when the corks allow.

[email protected]

Match makers

The Baly family have an online cookbook with recipes designed to go with sweet wines, including savoury dishes. They invite people to share their food-matching ideas, especially chefs and sommeliers. See chateaucoutet.com.

TASTINGS

A FEATHER IN THEIR CAP

De Bortoli has unveiled a new cork-free closure for sparkling wine. It’s a screw cap, not unlike that on most Australian and New Zealand still wines. But, while the conventional screw cap can be used on lightly sparkling wines, such as moscato, it cannot be used on full-pressure sparkling wine. Now, new technology has brought us the Viiva closure system, which can withstand the traditional five atmospheres of pressure. The Viiva screw cap is used on De Bortoli’s modestly priced Trevi range and its catering sparkler, Willowglen. Catering is one area where the speed of the Viiva is likely to prove popular. Other benefits include avoidance of cork-derived taints, oxidation and the loss of carbon dioxide. And the bottle can be resealed easily. The Viiva closure was developed by Guala Closures Australia and the special bottle by glass maker O-I.

FRANCK ASSESSMENT

Star sommelier Franck Moreau has won yet another award, crowned Best Sommelier of Asia-Oceania 2012 at the recent Association de la Sommellerie Internationale contest in South Korea. This qualifies Moreau to compete in the Best Sommelier of the World contest in Japan next year. Moreau works as group sommelier for Merivale’s extensive restaurant and club interests in Sydney, which includes three-hatted Est., as well as one-hatted Felix and Uccello. He was admitted to the elite club of Master Sommeliers last year and was Sommelier of the Year in the 2010 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards.

THE COST OF GREATNESS

Tesseron Tres Vieux Extreme Noir is the greatest Cognac I’ve ever tasted. At between $4000 and $4500 for a 1.75-litre bottle, this Cognac is aimed fair and square at the collector market. Beautifully packaged in a flask-shaped bottle modelled on a demijohn, it is possibly the oldest Cognac available – certainly one of the oldest. The oldest Cognac in the blend is from 1865 and the youngest is no later than the 1920s. The bouquet and flavour are unimaginably complex, with extreme rancio character and an array of scents from polished wood to roasted nuts to various dried fruits, as well as vanilla and chocolate, toffee and old leather upholstery. The flavour is explosive: immensely powerful, concentrated, with silken texture and ballerina-like balance. Unlike very old fortified wines, there is no hint of senility, but instead, amazing vitality and freshness. For inquiries, phone 1300 610 919. Sepia restaurant in Sydney’s city centre has purchased one of the three bottles to come to Australia and is serving Extreme by the taste ($110 for 30 millilitres), or in a flight of three Tesseron Cognacs with Lot 53 and Lot 29 ($74).

A REAL WHIZ

From time to time, I am encouraged to improve my drinking experience by spinning wine bottles in an electric magnetiser, or other aerating gadgets. Usually they cost a lot and don’t appear to give any benefit. The American author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, Nathan Myhrvold, has come up with a free version. He uses his blender to ”hyperdecant” wine – he whizzes it on high speed for 30 seconds to 60 seconds, allows the froth to subside, then pours. Ever curious, I tried it with a Voyager Estate ’08 Cabernet Merlot. I compared the whizzed sample with the untreated wine in a blind tasting. The former had lost a little of its aroma, was slightly warmer and seemed creamier in texture – perhaps because the hyper-aeration had filled it with air, rather like a souffle. The surprising discovery was this abuse did not ruin the wine – both were equally pleasurable. To try it yourself, see tinyurl.com/6jyu3pj.

Bill & Sheila’s Wine

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