Why do bananas ripen after they are picked? Avocados, Pineapples? Ugali!

What I do best is research topics, especially topics about food. That and teaching are probably the skills I enjoy using most. Writing is a skill I wish I practiced more.

So, the question came to me, why do avocados and bananas ripen after they are picked? This question led me a few directions, and I'm going to share them.

The first was to find a paper that also tossed pineapples into this group of fruit. As I searched I ran across a paper from the University of California at Davis. It revealed the biochemical workings of the banana and avocado. UCofDavis article.

Still not quite satisfied that the deeper meaning of my why had been answered I went to the source of most of my initial searches, Wikipedia.

This led me to a side-discovery of the existence of banana flour, and now my search had turned into the idea of trying to find the traditional cuisine of the geographic regions of the world that have had bananas at least for the last 200 years so that the banana would be embedded in their cuisine. (and, of course that led to a quick side run into banana juice)

I then went on a fascinating trip to Brazil, since Brazil and India are the top two producing nations of bananas in the world. I started wondering how bananas and cheese were combined. Bananas taste good in yogurt, so I would imagine some cheeses would go especially well with bananas on a cheese plate. I found a cheese called Queijo Minas in Brazil, but I found it on a page from the United Nations... I'm excited because the depth of information is substantive, and I may have found another very useful food research tool.

My last thought on this journey which is not over with this post was sparked by the discovery of ugali, which is a boiled mixture of milk whey and flour (corn flour in Kenya and Tanzania). Boiled water and flour is a method of making couscous, which made me think, "How would cheese and corn couscous be, would they combine those ingredients in cuisines with bananas or plantains in any way?" Then I drifted into wild realms of small balls of couscous surrounding a middle of cheese

Food articles and links of interest

I read so many food links and articles during my day, one might think I'm mildly obsessed. One would be right.

Links of interest:

Food Trends for 2007

Harold McGee on new studies regarding the effect of light on olive oil, butter, and beer

Kitchen Chick's review of the best of her blog in 2006 (includes the Zingerman's Roadhouse Harvest Tomato Dinner!)

As much as three-quarters of the state's [California's] citrus crop withered in the field during the cold snap, but nearly every winter crop, from avocados to fresh-cut flowers, has suffered severely.

Orange Marmalade Mustard with Tuna

The Mustards Tasting is over, which means that the ration of food thoughts in my life can direct more towards the blog again rather than be completely immersed in my tasting. I think the most surprising taste combination for me and one of the combinations that pleased most people at the tasting was the clementine marmalade mustard. It's a very simple combination, about half of a very good marmalade (in this case a San Giuliano Clementine Marmalade) and a good dijon mustard. That taste combination happens to transform the taste of tuna into a new realm, which makes me think it would be not only a surprising addition into a tuna salad but also could quickly be transformed into a glaze or a sauce to serve with a tuna steak.

Following is a recipe for one of the mustard desserts, a spiced chestnut cream, from The Compleat Mustard by Rosamond Man and Robin Weir, which I wouldn't copy so directly if the book didn't happen to be out of print. We didn't taste this dessert at the tasting, I just rearranged the flavors so we could appreciate the combination and I could show everyone what mustard does to chestnuts (makes them taste like chocolate). At the tasting I just pureed candied chestnuts, dijon mustard, and a dash of cocoa powder and whipped it into mascarpone to inspire the cooks at the tasting to go explore (that's part of eating fearlessly), but the original recipe is:

8 oz chestnut puree
4 oz unsalted butter
4 oz sugar
2 teaspoons cacao
1 tablespoon mustard powder
1/4 pint double cream, whipped
6 fl oz cream, chilled, to serve

Heat the puree with the butter and sugar, stirring constantly until melted. Add the cacao and mustard powder and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for 30 minutes.

Whisk in the whipped cream very thoroughly, then spoon into small bowls...and chill overnight. Serve with chilled cream handed round separately.

This could be altered in such a way as to use prepared mustard instead (I certainly would because I could then create dozens of variations on this by using different mustards). A prepared cognac mustard would do interesting flavor changes to that.

Mustards 101

French Mustards and Vinaigrettes, with Solomon (that's me)
Wednesday, January 24^th, 7-9 pm
Zingerman's Deli-Next Door, $20/person
Call 734-663-3400 to reserve your spot(s)!

I'm obsessed with mustards. I've been studying them for months now, hunting down obscure books to learn more about them. Join me to learn more about mustards than you thought possible and to create/taste some incredibly intriguing and flavorful vinaigrettes.

Here's what the tasting "menu" will include...

a review of how made mustard is created
anchovy mustard
quince mustard
aioli made with avocado or artichoke, anchovy and mustard
a couple of mustard butters
orange marmalade mustard
honey mustards
vinaigrettes
a chestnut, cocoa, mustard and cream dessert
a moustarde violette, mascarpone and honey dessert

We will also use several different vehicles (i.e. apples, pears, cauliflower, broccoli, clementines, bread, salamis) to enjoy the mustards.

If all of the above seems a little strange, remember,

Eat fearlessly!

Cheese Reality TV

I'm mainly a Dry Goods guru, so I don't often speak of cheese, but...

Cheese Reality TV

They say 'good things come to those who wait' – well West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers are so proud of the year it takes for their perfect-tasting cheddar to reach maturity that they have put a single cheese on a
round-the-clock webcam for the whole world to see.

From 1 January 2007 you will be able to log on to http://www.cheddarvision.tv/ and watch one of our handmade-on-the-farm West Country Farmhouse Cheddars maturing, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

The West Country Farmhouse Cheddar featured is one of just 14 UK products to
carry the prestigious Protected Designation of Origin status, ranking it alongside world famous food and drink treasures such as Champagne, Parma Ham and Cognac.
At the site you will be able to examine the delicate intricacies of the mould on our beautiful cheese as it develops and download a bespoke screensaver snapshot of the cheese for your computer.

Internet giant Google's free, gourmet global cuisine powers its workforce while offering chefs and producers a place to shine

Old news, perhaps, but since Google is trickling into Ann Arbor, worth remembering.

Now Google's cooking / Internet giant's free, gourmet global cuisine powers its workforce while offering chefs and producers a place to shine:

With its dedication to providing free and largely healthful, organic and artisan-produced meals three times a day to its employees, Google may well be leading the way in corporate food-service programs in the same way it has set the bar for search engines.

By the sheer numbers of its employees -- Google is mum, but estimates put it at 4,000 and growing -- and its purchasing power, the company will likely affect the survival rate of local, small, organic farms as well as what ingredients appear in local markets and, down the line, how much agricultural land is saved from development.

Besides the impact on the local economy and food producers, Google is creating a new model for how corporate cafeterias serve their employees, both by the wide variety of offerings and the creative freedom allowed its chefs.

Pickled eggs using olive brine

Well. New discoveries are just always available, aren't they?

I ran across this astounding idea (well, astounding to me, at least) while surfing. Quite simply, making pickled eggs using the leftover brine from olives. This of course makes me want to make pickled eggs from other things also: I wonder if I can find enough garum colatura? Or maybe I could use the salt that anchovies are stored in to make pickling brine for eggs.... hmmm.

(hat tip to An Obsession with Food for the link.)

I'm Mad and I Eat: CSI Petaluma:

On the right is one of my favorite discoveries, a repeat of an appetizer Cranky and I carted to a party last night (and it seemed to meet with general approval): eggs in leftover kalamata juice. You know all those jars of olives you go through, and then when the olives are gone, you just throw out the juice? Don't! It makes the most tasty, tan, tender eggs. This one is an immediate classic in the Crankycrumb household. (We'll see whether the addition this time of a clove of garlic is thumbs up or down.)

The Omnivore's Dilemma vs. Whole Foods

Mark your calendars: Whole Foods’ John Mackey to face off with Michael Pollan

This is scheduled for February 27, and I'm hoping will be captured through YouTube or something similar.

via Ethicurean

A beautiful picture of an olive oil bottle

From Kitchenchick. And it just happens to be Pasolivo Nuovo. And I'm mentioned in the post, woo hoo!

What did Santa leave under your tree?

Dessert at my mustard tasting

At my last tasting, I finished with a dessert that was a variation of a dessert that inspired the creation of The Compleat Mustard. In The Compleat Mustard, the dessert which inspired it was 2-3 tablespoons of a quince mostarda (another link with pictures) on top of 2-3 tablespoons of mascarpone, chilled slightly. My last tasting, as with my upcoming tasting, involved French food so an Italian mostarda was out of place, but the dessert intrigued me so that I felt I had to at least give it a nod, especially given how much I'm treasuring my new book.

Thankfully, I have a French mustard which shares that sweet, spicy, fruitiness of the fruit mostardas, and happens to be one of my favorite tastes of all time, moutarde violette. This had its start as a way to use up excess grapes at the end of wine season in Burgundy. Instead of a vinegar or verjuice being used as the base acid in a made mustard, cooked down grapes (or grape must) are used as the base, along with keeping most of the mustard seeds whole or cracked. This mustard is not nearly as sweet as an Italian mostarda, though, so moutarde violette and mascarpone by itself was more of a savory treat than a sweet... which was magically transformed with the addition of some fir tree honey.

The dessert was wonderful and will be one of the features during my tasting on the 24th, though quite probably with chestnut honey this time.

FRENCH MUSTARDS AND VINAIGRETTES TASTING
January 24th, 7-9 pm, $20
Zingerman's Deli
422 Detroit St.
Ann Arbor, MI
Call 734-663-3400 to reserve a spot

Collection of Walnut oil links

In service to one of my coworkers, who was having a hard time finding information about nut oils, I went on a search for artisanal nut oil info. I'm still in the searching process, but this is what I've found so far:

La Tourangelle hazelnut oil
La Tourangelle walnut oil
What's Cooking America
Veg Paradise
SF Gate
The Epicentre
Kitty Keller Imports

2006 Best Food Blogs Award Winners

Wellfed.net just released the results of its annual food blogs awards, and you can see them all here, Well Fed Blog Awards

Be careful food porn lovers (be especially careful if you don't know about food porn), this list will suck you into the depths of culinary excess. For those of you who think that's a positive, the 12-step meeting is held as a potluck on the 3rd Thursday of each month. :)

Artisanal is the enemy of artifice and complexity.

That's a great sentence in an anthropologist's look at the cultural components of the artisanal movement; worthwhile reading for anyone interested in artisanal food. He identifies 10:

1. a preference for things that are human scale.
2. a preference for things that are hand made.
3. a preference for things that are relatively raw and untransformed.
4. a preference for things that are unbranded.
5. a preference for things that are personalized.
6. a preference for a new transparency
7. a preference for things that are "authentic"
8. a preference for things that have been marked by locality
9. a preference for the new connoisseurship
10. a preference for the simplified

PS - Don't expect the author of the article to kneel at the altar of artisanal.

Pasta competition, or Bronze, Teflon, and Bullets: the industrial production of pasta

I ran across a spaghetti tasting article in the L.A. Times (hat tip to slashfood). They tasted 16 pastas (four of which I sell and extol the virtues of) and found one clear (unanimous) winner, one clear second-place, and then lots of narrower victories. The winner was Latini's spaghetti (not their Senatore Cappelli variety) and second place was Rustichella d'Abruzzo. From the description of the way they tasted, they showed a lot of respect for both the food and the tasting process. This led me on a quest to find some of the perfect sites to explain why the tasters would have such different experiences with spaghetti, which then led me chasing other feral geese.

I'll bet more people in the CSI-rich United States could explain to me why a bullet has markings left on it from the barrel of a gun than could explain to me why some spaghetti is rich with texture and some are smooth as teflon:

As all manufactured items have inevitable variations, it is often possible for a forensic firearms examiner to match a bullet or cartridge case to a particular firearm based on these variations. Most often these are due to marks left by a machining process, which can leave shallow impressions in the metal which are rarely completely polished out. Wear due to use will also cause each firearm to aqcuire distinct characteristics over time, though this same process will also alter the "fingerprint" of the firearm.

These same variations in the manufacturing process of bronze dies used to make pasta, and the fact that bronze is never perfectly smooth, leave marks on pasta dough as it is pushed through a die. Bronze dies wear over time and slow the process down, so teflon dies have been replacing bronze for most industrial pasta makers. Teflon dies leave pasta very smooth, however; the pasta won't pick up as much sauce and be a conduit for as much flavor.

My quest for information on dies led me to gold:

The most complete website on the industrial production of pasta I've ever seen (woo hoo!)

A site on industrial production which is more concise but unfortunately falls into the mistaken belief that "the total drying time can take from six to 24 hours depending on the drying technology used"--but it also lists production methods for lots of foods, so I want to remember it as a starting point for other searches I might have.

And, of course, Zingerman's "Pasta: Everything you wanted to know and some things you didn't"

Go explore.

WORLDBLU List of Most Democratic Workplaces ™ 2007

I do love my workplace. I just received this email saying my workplace "has been asked to participate in a search for the most democratic workplaces conducted by a company called WorldBlu. It is a great honor to be invited, because it shows that as a company we are highly regarded for our democratic work practices."

If others fill out the 10 page survey the way I did (and feel), we'll be high up in the rankings.

The WorldBlu website has this info sheet on it's site:

THE SEARCH: NOVEMBER 1, 2006 - FEBRUARY 16, 2007
The WorldBlu Search for the Most Democratic Workplaces™ is a global search happening from November 1, 2006 until February 16, 2007 to identify organizations in the for-profit, non-profit or government sectors practicing organizational democracy.

THE WORLDBLU LIST OF MOST DEMOCRATIC WORKPLACES™ 2007
On March 6, 2007, WorldBlu will announce the first annual WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™ as a part of the first Democracy in the Workplace Day. The WorldBlu List will be the result of WorldBlu's global search for organizations practicing democracy in the workplace. The WorldBlu List will be comprised of organizations that took the WorldBlu Democratic Workplace Scorecard™ and scored in the top level, identifying them as one of the most democratic workplaces in the world.

A GROWING GLOBAL MOVEMENT
We believe there's a growing global movement towards creating workplaces that fully engage employees, giving them a voice and a stake in the outcome of their work. And we believe great value -- as well as a community -- will emerge from shining a spotlight on organizations choosing freedom rather than fear, peer-to-peer relationships rather than paternalistic platitudes, and engagement rather than estrangement as their way of getting work done.

DEMOCRACY IN THE WORKPLACE DAY
Because of this growing global movement, we invite you to join us in celebrating March 6th as Democracy in the Workplace Day. Our hope is that people and organizations around the world will join us in celebrating both the presence and possibility of democracy at work on this special day.

RECOGNIZING THE MAVERICKS, INSPIRING OTHERS
The inspiration for the WorldBlu Search has come from democratic organizations themselves. Over the past ten years as Traci Fenton, WorldBlu Founder and CEO, has toured the world researching organizations that operate using democratic principles, she has seen many highly successful and profitable -- yet often unnoticed -- examples of democracy in the workplace. These organizations are defying convention, rewriting the rules of business and pioneering the next generation of organizational design and leadership in the process. The WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™ seeks to recognize these mavericks and inspire others in the process.

World Olive Oil Statistics

The universities in California are a rich source of information about olives and olive oil. I just discovered a Powerpoint presentation that includes production statistics, trends, consumption statistics, photographs of industrial mills, etc., separated out by country and in sum. I've found this type of presentation in a few horticulture course material online, but this one is rather rich with information.

I think I might hit a new motherlode if I went and explored universities in Italy, Provence, New Zealand, etc.... Of course, I'm limited to a large degree by only knowing English.

PDF of World Olive Oil Statistics

10 Best Cookbooks

One of the benefits of moving my food links from my browser to this web page is running across something I saved but haven't looked at in a while. My fear when I see old links like that is that someday they might disappear from the net and I'll have forgotten about them. So, I'll write this down here:

Clarissa Dickson-Wright's 10 Best Cookbooks:

First Catch your Hare by Hannah Glasse
A New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
The Greens Cookbook by Deborah Madison
Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book
The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden
The Classic Food of Northern Italy by Anne Del Conte
English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David
The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May
The Rice Book by Sri Owen
The Compleat Mustard Rosamond Man and Robin Weir



PS - I never want to forget this list because I found one of my favorite food books from this list, entry #10. [UPDATE: My wife pointed out to me that she was the one who found the book for me. Obrigado.] I'm a mustard freak, fascinated by almost all culinary and chemical aspects of the amazing seeds of this plant. But when I finally tracked this book down, it was better than I could have imagined; it was, in fact, one of the best food books I've read.

As some shameless self-promotion, I will be having a French Mustards and Vinaigrettes tasting on January 24th from 7-9pm in Ann Arbor. The cost is $20. Come taste some mustards (we'll have a mustard dessert!), let me fill your head with fun info, and share my passion with you. Call 734-663-3400 to register for it.

Postscript to Chicago's foie gras ban

The recent ban on foie gras in Chicago brought this response from chefs and health inspectors:

Chicago health inspectors paid a surprise visit to a previously warned River North restaurant last week to catch it in the act of selling foie gras -- only to find that the banned liver delicacy was being given away.

Bin 36, 333 N. Dearborn, managed to avoid a $250 ticket by offering foie gras “as a complimentary sidebar to another dish on the menu. . . . The menu made it clear that they were giving it away as part of a larger offering,” said Health Department spokesman Tim Hadac.

“We turned around and came back. . . . The ordinance prohibits the sale of foie gras. It does not address giving it away. That would be up to the framers of the law [to close the loophole],” Hadac said Tuesday.

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) is chief sponsor of the foie gras ban that Mayor Daley calls the “silliest law” Chicago aldermen have ever passed.

Foie Gras and me

I doubt that you would believe how much I've read about foie gras in the last few years of my life, but let me just say that it was a whole lot. For those interested and to cut to the chase, this is about the best article I've ever seen on the matter: Stuffed Animals by Jeffrey Steingarten

The longer version of this post is more biographical:

PART I - SALES

At my job, I am at core a salesperson. It is my job to sell you food (it even says so in my job title). I must admit that I enjoy selling but that throughout my life I have had an ambivalent relationship to sales. One of the key reasons for this is that my sales career started in newspaper advertising: for about five years it was my job to make whatever product was put before me seem as attractive as possible, eliminating all reference to its flaws, accentuating all reference to its strengths, as well as sell more advertising to clients. My ambivalence stemmed from the pull of how good I was at selling things versus the annoying fact that many times I didn't really believe strongly in the product and thus couldn't really say what I thought and keep my job or my clients. That ambivalence pushed me out of advertising (and, I thought, out of sales completely).

After reexamining my life goals, I realized that what I wanted to devote my time to was bringing more pleasure to people especially during their leisure time. After a circuitous route of jobs that met that description, I now find myself back in a true sales position again, yet this time I'm selling only products I strongly believe in. That just happens because the choice of product for the company I work for happens to coincide with my own personal beliefs in food--if it didn't I wouldn't have begun working there.

PART II - FOOD

For about ten years I was a vegetarian. For about three of those I was a vegan. The whys and wherefores of that really aren't all that interesting and went through lots of evolution, but all stemmed from my own ethical ambivalence about the origins of my food. But because of my interest in the origins of my food and my misguided belief that there were black and white answers about what one should and should not ethically eat, I've devoted about fifteen years of my life to amateur academic research about food. A side benefit of that along the way was discovering how passionately I loved the subject and that just learning about it filled me with pleasure.

I eat meat now, but rarely, and really only to taste it, to experience a cuisine, to appreciate a style of preparation, to understand the quality; not for steady nourishment. But I do endorse, praise, and advocate for the meat sold at my employer.

And we sell foie gras.

PART III - SELLING FOOD

PETA sells food. Animal rights activists sell food. They sell the negative aspects of one type and the positive aspects of another. In no case has this seemed so slanted to me than the case of foie gras.

I don't inherently dislike being persuaded. In fact, I rather like being persuaded if that persuasion is accomplished by introducing me to sides of an issue that I haven't thought about or considered or experienced. However, I do tend to react in violent backstep when I feel that someone is only presenting me with one side of an issue while pointedly avoiding acknowledging any truth to the opposing side. In other words, when I feel that I'm having done to me what I used to do to people when I worked in advertising sales.

That's why I like the article above, Stuffed Animals by Jeffrey Steingarten. It's difficult to find rational discussion about foie gras that doesn't dismiss all concerns of one side, but this article is. One paragraph that spoke to my feelings about food most was this:

Most of us are not vegans or vegetarians. When we buy the flesh of a mammal, bird, or fish in a restaurant or food shop, we are an agent in the slaughter of another living thing. We are taking life. This is a serious act, not a casual one. But our purpose is not survival or even sustenance; most of us can live comfortably without eating meat. No, our goal is pleasure, pure sensory pleasure. We chew on the succulent muscle of a steer, crunch through the crackling skin of a pig or turkey, suck out the marrow from the shin of a calf. If we are willing to kill for our pleasure, shouldn't we also be willing to force-feed ducks for our pleasure? It all depends on how much pain and distress we cause.

And then he explores pain and distress in gavage.

What I have found fascinating in all of my research about food is the finding that the less pain and less stress one causes an animal, the better that animal's flesh will taste, almost without fail [which is in remarkable contrast to the best tasting produce]. Because of that, since I work in a store that tries to sell nothing but the best tasting food, very little ethical conflict occurs.

Link list

The next few days will be spent trying to put all of the various food links I have in my browser at home onto the link list on this blog's sidebar. Having all of the links on my browser is helpful to me, but seems like it would be useful to my coworkers and readers of this site as well since researching food is my love and I have quite a few sites that I adore.