What’s in your food?

Back to tradition with whole grain and high-fibre millets. Photo: P. V. Sivakumar

Geeta Padmanabhan : The Hindu :19 May 2013:

With lifestyle diseases so rampant today, shouldn’t we turn our attention to clean and safe eating practices, asks Geeta Padmanabhan

Watch carefully what you eat, said Anantha Sayanam, coordinator, Safe Food Alliance and founder-volunteer, Restore — a not-for-profit organic retail outlet. That's “clean eating”, right? 

Call it “safe eating”, he corrected me. But “clean eating” is the current buzzword — routinely tagged to tweets, found in blogs, posted on Instagram and Facebook, and seen on television screens. 

Is it a diet? 

A trendy lifestyle? 

A passing fancy?

Clean food is a simple concept; it's what eating was always about, said Dr. David Katz, Director, Yale University Prevention Research Centre. 

“Food that's clean is food that's for the most part real, not encumbered with things that compromise health: artificial flavourings, artificial colourings, sugar substitutes.”

Eat locally-grown, organic food, says clean eating pioneer, chef Ric Orlando in his book We Want Clean Food. This food doesn't need long commutes, so is less cruel on the environment. Look for natural chicken, sustainable seafood, grass-fed cow's milk. Fry food with non-genetically modified oils.

Michelle Obama's appeal for choosing homegrown food

Ingredient awareness

Clean eating is also seen as ingredient awareness. It is the antidote to the argument that population is increasing, land for growing food is shrinking; therefore walk into labs to “create” food, or “augment” food that is average in nutrients. 

So you have cornflakes with calcium, biscuits with protein, beverages with vitamins A-Z, bread with probiotics. We get packaged food with a list of ingredients we have no clue about. 

Books such as Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, the documentary Food, Inc. and the wide coverage given to Michelle Obama's healthy eating campaign (grow your own food, buy food at the local farmers' markets) have tried to check this trend.

You can't deny clean eating equals good health. Heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes have all been traced to what goes into what we eat. Ivy Larson, co-author of Clean Cuisine claims her multiple sclerosis symptoms were lessened when she went on a clean diet of whole foods and no packaged items. 

Start with one “clean” meal a day, she writes. Stock fruits and vegetables — even frozen ones — for a quick and safe meal. Buy food that has the shortest “ingredients” list.

Organic fruits and vegetables. Photo: K. Ananthan

Not a new thought

“Safe eating is a lifestyle, rather lifestyle correction,” is Ananthoo's explanation. New age, non-communicable diseases are called lifestyle diseases (NCD). Safe eating is correcting one's alienation and understanding of food and food habits. 

It is getting close to the production, processing and consumption of food. When you do that, you automatically set right your diet. Not a new thought at all, he points out. Full-length epic books were written about safe eating 3000 years ago. 

Ashtanga Hrudaya by Vaag Bhatt was one. 

Ayurveda has dincharyam, ritucharyam and diets for various ailments. Treatment and medication through food was tried by our civilisation long ago.

For forty-five minutes this self-health promoter shocked the audience at a Residents' Association meet with details of what goes into the processed foods we buy, what is done to keep imported fruits fresh, how fruit/vegetable growers poison their produce to increase shelf life. “I once distributed magnifying glasses,” he said, “and asked the audience to read the ingredients list on packaged food.

 I try to bring a quick insight into food, diet habits and how industrialisation of food is spinning out of control.” Safe food is a win-win proposition, he said.

 “Your insistence on healthy nutritious food results in best production practices and better livelihoods for farmers.”

Eat traditional food, go organic, do what you can to consume safe food, was Anantha's mantra to the crowd. High residues of toxic chemicals in fertilizers and pesticides are left over in the produce. 

More harm is added through additives, carcinogenic colours and un-named preservatives. “Both sugar and jaggery come from the same cane, but the process makes one harmful, the other safe.”

At the end of the meet, a complete meal of millet dishes — Saamai Kootanchoru, Thinai sweet (jaggery) pongal, Varagu sambar rice, Samai curd rice, Keerai masiyal and paanagam — was served by Nalla Keerai volunteers. Yummy!

DOS AND DON’TS

- Buy pesticide-free organic food in your locality.

- Understand the ingredients; reject food with ingredients you don’t understand.

- Avoid pre-processed/canned/frozen foods.

- Avoid refined products such as maida, sugar, refined oils/rice.

- Consume whole grains. Always opt for plant-based, low-fat food.

- Opt for traditional varieties of rice, eat them unpolished.

- Include millets (foxtail, kodo, barnyard, ragi) for balanced nutrition.

- Avoid all soft drinks. Go for fresh fruit juices and tender coconut water instead.

- Most toothpastes have nicotine and even SLS — a proven carcinogen. Move to herbal tooth powders and non-foaming pastes.

- Imported food stuff has genetically modified ingredients. Watch out!

Home caterers - Chennai

Sangeetha Ramamurthy, specialises in delicious home baked goodies. Photo: R. Ravindran



Shruthi Abraham ;The Hindu :15 May 2013

Organising food for a party or a get-together could get taxing.

 Home caterers save you the trouble

“So see you Friday 7p.m., my place.” And just when you thought everything was set for your small get-together, the food muse laughs in your face. Maybe you can’t risk cooking, maybe you’re tired of that greasy feeling the food from that ‘good’ restaurant leaves in your mouth or maybe you just want to try something new. Laugh back at the muse because home catering comes as a ‘tray’ of hope. Over time, Chennai has witnessed the birth and evolution of this not-so-popular profession/ hobby. These home-based caterers lend their own kitchen space to make you that melt-in-your-mouth lasagne, that brownie or even that perfectly smooth cheesecake, with that heart-warming home-like flavour. Here are a few tried and tasted home caterers in the city.

Meeting Achu Kurian is not as easy as you think. Well not because she’s difficult to meet but because there’s a gleaming red strawberry cheesecake staring at me. Or rather, I’m staring at it. Achu Kurian’s catering unit began when a co-parent asked her to bake a cake for her son’s birthday. It has now evolved into a unit that makes a variety of delicacies including cheesecakes, cupcakes, mud pies and more. She prefers to use ingredients available in the local market thus avoiding unnecessary expenses for her customers. The current hot favourites are her coconut pudding, strawberry cheesecake and brownie.

Call 98411 44072 or mail achukurian@gmail.com for details.

This list seems to get better. Ever found yourself watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S and going, “I want to eat Monica’s bake!”? That wish just came true! Only difference is that this time it’s Susan’s bake. Susan Sapru’s catering endeavour has grown steadily over the past four years. She also offers what I call the ‘whole package’. She lays out for you the whole five course meal, right from soup to dessert. Some of her main course offerings include bakes, pies and prawn biryani and dessert offerings include pineapple upside down, cheesecake, brownie, cinnamon rolls, mousse and more. Susan’s dishes are heavily influenced by “how the customer wants it”.

Call 98849 59584 or mail sibs1610@gmail.com for details.

In today’s age of overdose of fondant figures and icing cupcakes, you may be in a fix about which one tastes as good as it looks. Sangeetha’s does. Lil’ Delights, Sangeetha’s baking unit began with cakes in 2011 and fondant cakes in 2012. Sangeetha makes a variety of cakes such as Ferrero Rocher cake, Kitkat cake, kiwi cake, cheesecakes, mousse cakes and cupcakes. She also incorporates fondant figures on regular frosting cakes. Sangeetha conducts baking and cupcake icing classes, too. Lil’ Delight’s lip smackers this season are Ferrero Rocher cake, Lindt chocolate cake and fondant cakes.

For details call 98416 70347.

Surabhi Foods was conceived when Sonya Haritha was inspired to convert her free space at home into an organic farm. Surabhi Foods, founded in 2010, predominantly provides organic fruits and vegetables. The farm is open for customers to visit and pick vegetables and fruits of their choice. She also makes pickles, jams, meals and cakes from the organic produce. Apart from the organic farm, she caters selected dishes in cuisines such as Thai, Chinese and Continental and has also ventured into making masalas, fries and provisions.

Call 94444 42662 for details.

And which food list is complete without biryani? Daawat-a-Biryani owned by Nigar Sultana began in 2012. Daawat-a-Biryani caters the regular mutton, chicken and even vegetarian biryanis that are popular for their perfect flavour. It also provides the accompaniments such as salad, brinjal curry and chicken 65. And for dessert she offers the traditional bread halwa and phirni. She ensures she takes personal care of the entire biryani-making process.

For details call 98403 18668 or look up http://www.daawat-a-biryani.com/

Brave new world of vegetables

Photo:  The Hindu :S.Subramanium

GOURMET FILES, Vasundhara Chauhan:The Hindu :19 May 2013

Those were the days… when you went to a Chinese restaurant and asked them not to fill the dish with green capsicum, Simla mirch. Now you have to say Please, no red, green or yellow peppers. 

I know they’re pretty, they’re crunchy and add lovely texture to a starchy dish of chow mien, but please, their flavour takes over completely and you don’t know whether you’re eating hoisin sauce or tandoori masala.

 Let alone steamed fish or vegetables. But this is the way of the world. When we’re eating out or even at home, when we’re entertaining, we feel obliged to use “exotic” vegetables. I miss the days when party fare meant stuffing Simla mirch with qeema instead of homely potatoes or cooked urad dal.

Bell peppers, Capsicum annuum, come in all colours — from green, red and yellow to purple, brown and black. Apparently all green bell peppers would eventually turn red, if allowed to ripen. 

All red and yellow vegetables and fruit contain carotenoids, anti-oxidants and a cupful of these red and yellow sweet peppers, raw, gives us almost a hundred per cent of our daily requirement of vitamin A, and three hundred per cent of our daily requirement of vitamin C.

Health benefits apart, the reason I tolerate them is because they look so lovely — as someone said, they’re the Christmas ornaments of the vegetable kingdom. Deep, vivid colour, shiny red, yellow or orange, smooth and firm, heavy for their size, firm to the touch, they look as if their vigour will add to ours.

 A handful of them, chopped raw in a salad, add freshness with their crisp bite. It’s only the smell, strongest in the green, which I find hard to take. Unlike chillies, bell peppers aren’t “hot”. They contain negligible amounts of capsaicin, which imparts “hotness” to peppers. Grilling them removes the strong grassy flavour and adds sweetness. So, grilled and marinated, a bell pepper’s personality changes: it becomes gentle while remaining beautiful.

And broccoli. Party menus meant serving early bhindi, okra, in April and gobhi, cauliflower, in September. Now it’s broccoli — in salads, “Italian”, even as a desi vegetable with turmeric, cumin andgaram masala, as a side dish with chicken curry and dal makhani. But somehow I don’t find broccoli offensive; apart from its heath benefits, it tastes so much like cauliflower.

The other bugbear is what we do with baby corn, a cereal grain taken from very young corn (maize). It’s delicious as it is, raw and sweet, in a salad; in this case, nothing can improve upon nature. But, like our clothes, we can’t leave well enough alone. The succulent, crunchy little thing is ornamented and embellished in curries, batter-fried as an hors d’oeuvres, basically, cloaked and masked to destroy its natural taste. It’s not a separate variety: it’s merely harvested early, while the ears are still immature and very small. Unlike mature corn, whose cob is tough and inedible, baby corn is eaten whole, cob and all. All corn produces baby corn but some seed varieties, developed specifically for baby corn, give higher yields. One of these is chosen and planted and, as soon as corn silk emerges from the ear tips — or a few days after — the ears are plucked off by hand. Corn matures very quickly, so the harvest of baby corn has to be timed carefully to avoid ending up with more mature corn ears. When a variety is planted to yield common sweet or field corn, the second ear from the top of the plant is harvested for baby corn, while the top ear is allowed to mature. In both cases, the ears are tiny — from 4 to 10 cm each.

ROASTED BELL PEPPER SOUP

(Serves 4/ Makes 6 cups)

5 red bell peppers

5 ripe red tomatoes, chopped (11/2 cups)

1 cup vegetable stock

Salt

Pepper

Heat oven to 200°C (400°F). Line a baking sheet with foil, arrange bell peppers and roast them for about 45 minutes or until very tender, turning them regularly so they roast evenly. They will get charred black. Remove from oven and let cool completely. If not using oven, char peppers on an open flame, turning regularly with tongs, until blackened all around. Remove skin and seeds, and roughly cut the bell peppers. In a blender, add bell peppers, tomatoes, stock and salt to taste. Blend until smooth. Add more stock or water if you want your soup to be less thick. Serve chilled, after refrigeration, or hot, after reheating.

GRILLED RED BELL PEPPERS ON BRUSCHETTA

(Makes 6 pieces)

1 red bell pepper

4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine

2 tbsp fresh basil leaves, chopped

Salt

Pinch of sugar

Juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Char bell pepper over a high flame, as you would a baingan for bharta. Remove charred outer skin, cut open into halves and remove ribs and any white fragments. Slice into thin strips. Add rest of ingredients. Serve on toasted, unbuttered slices of French bread.

After charring, seal bell pepper while still hot in a large food grade polythene bag, leaving enough room for the pepper to breathe. The steam loosens the charred outer skin, making it easy to remove. In five minutes, open and wipe clean with a paper towel. Conserve flavour — do not wash.

Yellow bell peppers or blanched, peeled tomatoes also make appetizing bruschetta toppings.

A nutritional crisis in India

Illustration by Jayachandran/Mint

Live Mint :Tue, May 14 2013. 09 51 PM IST

Some commentators have gone so far as to dismiss India’s nutritional crisis as a ‘hoax’

In a recent article, Columbia University economist Arvind Panagariya argued that India need not be ashamed of its malnutrition statistics as they are likely to be exaggerated.

Panagariya’s contention that international standards used to measure nutritional attainments of Indian children are inappropriate, as they fail to account for “genetic differences” seem to have found favour with other commentators, who have gone so far as to dismiss India’s nutritional crisis as a “hoax”. Just as reform critics see India’s malnutrition statistics as an indictment of the reforms process, Panagariya’s hypothesis of exaggerated malnutrition figures is seen as an exoneration of reforms.

There are several problems with such arguments. 

First, the hypothesis that genetic differences could account for growth differences is a very old one, and one that has been repeatedly dismissed by several studies, including the one by the World Health Organization (WHO) which led to the introduction of new international growth norms in 2006.

Second, while malnutrition sceptics emphasize India’s higher child survival figures as compared to sub-Saharan Africa—where the proportion of underweight children is half that of India—they tend to ignore the higher proportion of low birth weights in India. As several studies by nutritionists show, the root of high malnutrition in India (and much of South Asia) lies in the low social status of women. Unhealthy mothers, in turn, give birth to low birth weight children, who turn malnourished. 

Third, although malnutrition does not always lead to death in India, it can still be quite dangerous.

 A growing body of evidence suggests that low birth weights of Asian children are related to obesity related disorders, much later in life.

To be sure, it is true that eliminating the nutrition gap between India and the rest of the world may take several generations.

 But this is no reason to abandon international growth norms, nor does it imply a permanent “genetic difference”. Indeed, this gap should motivate India to redress gender inequities quicker, invest in cost-effective preventive health systems and reform her decaying nutrition institutions such as the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). 

Even if South Asian children were genetically predisposed to being smaller, it still does not explain why India should lag behind poorer neighbours such as Bangladesh and Nepal in nutritional outcomes.

Finally, India’s malnutrition figures must not be seen as an indictment of the reforms process; rather, they are an indictment of our unreformed public delivery systems, and of our long history of gender bias.

Cook Out | A rolled-up pizza

Want to cut back on ordering out for pizza? 

Little Cheflings suggests you try out this recipe. 

They are sure you will never wait for a delivery boy again

 Live Mint Seema Chowdhry :First Published: Sun, May 05 2013. 04 31 PM IST

We asked Anjali Vohra and Bhavna Kishan, who run Little Cheflings, a cooking class for children in New Delhi, to share with us an easy recipe for children that can double up as a snack or lunch-box treat.

Pizza roll

Makes about 12 rolls

Ingredients

2 cups refined flour (maida)

A pinch of salt

6 tbsp butter, softened and cut into cubes

M cup of milk

N cup of ready-made pizza sauce

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Half a cup veggies, pepperoni, olives, or any other pizza topping

Method

Preheat the oven to 210 degrees Celsius and line a baking tray with non-stick paper. Sift flour into a large bowl, add salt and butter. Add the milk slowly, and mix/knead until the dough starts to stick to itself. Place on a hard surface and sprinkle some dry flour on it. Knead the dough until smooth, and then use a floured rolling pin to roll it out as thin as you can. Spread the pizza sauce on the dough, sprinkle cheese and other toppings. On the long side, start rolling up the dough into a log. Brush the edges with some milk to help them stick. Cut the log into 12 equal pieces. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven to cool. You can keep for two days when stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Chill the lassi

Boopathy Venkatesh 

Foodies Try This :

Ingredients :
1.5 cups yogurt/curd
7-8 tsp sugar
½ cup water or cold milk
½ tsp cardamom powder
1 pinch saffron (optional)
6-7 almonds, chopped or sliced (optional)
1 tsp rose water (optional)
ice cubes while serving the lassi
Instructions
take the yogurt, cardamom powder, water and sugar in a blender.
blend till the yogurt is evenly blended.
don’t over do as then you will get butter floating on top.
serve in tall glasses.
add crushed ice cubes, garnish with some cardamom powder and sliced almonds.
serve
you can also chill the lassi and then serve.

Eat Healthy Stay Healthy !!!
Have a Great Summer ['',] !!

Indian women entrepreneurs building businesses on a grand scale across multiple sectors

In a country where historically most women run businesses have been small, local ventures there is a small but perceptible shift underway. A handful of entrepreneurs are stepping up to show they have the appetite, skills and vision to take a shot at scaling their young ventures.

22 MAR, 2013, 04.24AM IST, RADHIKA P NAIR,ET BUREAU 

As Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg asks women across the world to "lean in" to their careers, her ideas are finding resonance in an unlikely quarter-India's women entrepreneurs.

In a country where historically most women run businesses have been small, local ventures there is a small but perceptible shift underway. A handful of entrepreneurs are stepping up to show they have the appetite, skills and vision to take a shot at scaling their young ventures. Across sectors as varied as technology, clinical research and retail these women are poised to burst a common myth that women-led businesses do not grow beyond a certain scale.

"I want to make Zivame a billion-dollar enterprise in the next five to seven years," says Richa Kar, founder of the online lingerie retail business launched in 2011 that is targeting revenues of $50 million (Rs 270 crore) next fiscal.

Industry experts say it is such ambition that is making the difference in a country where only a handful of businesswomen like Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon, Shahnaz Husain of Shahnaz Herbals Incand Vinita Jain of Biotique have successfully built large enterprises. While earlier most women would turn to entrepreneurship to support the family, now it is about self-actualisation, there is ambition, says Mahesh Murthy, founding partner at early stage fund Seedfund.

Multiple factors have led to this change, according to Kavil Ramachandran, the Academic Director of ISBGoldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneurs Programme. "Women now have greater corporate experience and skill sets that gives them confidence and also makes them effective entrepreneurs," he says.

However, even as they prepare to enter the big league, women entrepreneurs are finding that apart from the normal pains of starting up there are some challenges that are unique to being a woman. "It is not just cultural; even women themselves feel they should take greater responsibility at home," says ISB's Ramachandran.