Today's
Recipe
If you don't know what to serve for dinner
tonight ...
The combination of lemon flavored fish with the sweet
peas in this recipe is a great way to enjoy a Healthiest Way of Eating
meal in just 25 minutes. The peas are a not only a great alternative to
rice but add extra health-promoting nutrients and flavor as well.
Enjoy!
Lemon Fish with Puree of Sweet Peas
Prep and Cook Time:
25 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1-1/2lb cod filets (thick cut)
- 3 TBS finely minced lemon rind
- 4 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 3 TBS chopped fresh parsley
- 1/4 tsp salt
- pinch cayenne
- Pureed Peas
- 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
- 4 medium cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- 1 TBS + 3 TBS chicken or vegetable broth
- 15 oz frozen sweet peas
- 4 TBS sunflower seeds
- salt and white pepper to taste
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Chop garlic and let sit for 5 minutes to enhance its health-promoting qualities.
- Mix together minced lemon rind, lemon juice, chopped parsley, salt, and cayenne.
- Rub cod filets generously with mixture and place in baking dish. Place fish in oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes.
- While fish is baking, heat 1 TBS broth in a 10 inch stainless steel skillet. Healthy Sauté onion in broth over medium heat for about 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until translucent. Add garlic and continue to sauté for another minute. Add 3 TBS broth, peas, sunflower seeds, salt and pepper, and heat for about 3 minutes.
- Purée pea mixture in blender, scraping the sides with a rubber spatula from time to time to mix well.
- Serve cod with peas. If there is a little juice in the pan, you can drizzle it over the fish and peas.
- Tomato Dandelion Salad
Molasses produced for human consumption in the United
States is made from sugar cane. The two main tasks required to make
molasses from sugar cane are to separate out the sugar cane juice from
the pulp, and then to extract the sugar (mostly sucrose) from the
juice. What's called molasses is the syrup that remains after the sugar
has been extracted from the juice.
It's not that easy to extract all of the sucrose from
sugar cane juice. After a first round of processing, which involves
spinning the juice in a centrifuge and heating (boiling), you can get a
lot of the sucrose out, but not all of it. The syrup that remains after
this first round of processing is the light molasses you see in the
grocery store. It's also called "first" molasses and has the mildest
taste of any molasses. Another round of processing is needed to further
extract more sucrose. (The removal of sucrose from the molasses syrup
is not all that significant on the nutrition side of things, but it is
important to the manufacturer on the economic side because the removed
sucrose can be further processed and sold as table sugar). This second
round of processing further concentrates the syrup and also darkens it,
resulting in the dark molasses you find in most grocery stores. Dark
molasses is also called second molasses.
A third round of processing is possible, and this is the
round that results in the product known as blackstrap molasses.
Blackstrap molasses is the thickest form of molasses, the darkest, and
the most dense in terms of minerals. Three rounds of heating are the
reason for the very dark color of blackstrap molasses, because even
though many sugars have been removed from the syrup, the sugars that do
remain get caramelized from three rounds of heating. Sometimes you'll
only find blackstrap molasses in natural foods stores. Because of the
superior mineral content of blackstrap molasses we prefer this version
of the product. You'll find significant amounts of calcium, copper,
iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium and selenium in blackstrap
molasses.
A secondary issue is related to the use of sulfur during
sugar cane processing. Sulfur dioxide can be used for a variety of
reasons during the processing of sugar cane or the production of
molasses. Most commonly, sulfur dioxide is used to lighten the color of
the molasses or to help extend its shelf life. It may also be used to
help with the processing of sugar cane when the cane has been harvested
at an early stage. We've been unable to find research studies showing
direct benefits or direct health risks in connection with the sulfuring
of molasses. In principle, it would make sense to us that a sugar cane
allowed to sun-ripen and develop would make for a more natural food
product than a sugar cane that was harvested at an early stage. We do
know that there is a relationship in sulfur metabolism between sulfur
dioxide and sulfites, and that sulfur dioxide has been identified as a
key problematic substance involved with allergic reaction to sulfite in
foods. This connection between sulfur dioxide and food sulfite
reactions raises some questions for us about the desirability of a food
processed with the addition of sulfur dioxide.
In addition, on the environmental side, we know that
sulfur dioxide is a primary component in the production of acid rain,
and is a pollutant of enormous concern to environmental scientists. The
idea of a sugar cane processing facility releasing more sulfur dioxide
into the air is not one we like from an environmental perspective.
To summarize, we recommend organic, unsulphured
blackstrap molasses as the molasses of choice. There is good research
showing the superior nutrition provided by blackstrap versus light or
dark molasses. There is not good research showing the benefits of
unsulphured molasses in any form. However, there is reason to suspect
potential health risks related to sulfite allergy and use of sulfur
dioxide in food processing. There is also an environmental reason to
avoid purchasing a sulphured molasses product, notably the contribution
of sulfur dioxide to the production of acid rain.
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