Duck Fat : Ingredient Guru

Good? Yes. Healthy? No.

Duck Fat is not a good fat though it is a highly respected way of cooking food. It is high in cholesterol and not recommended by doctors or nutritionists to use in cooking. Chefs love it of course and it can be useful in frying or sauteing potatoes, legumes or other vegetables.

If you prefer flavour and want to cut down on cholesterol then use 1 tsp of duck fat to 1 tablespoon of olive or canola oil. It will give your veggies a nice flavour, but will reduce the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in your diet.

Use wisely.


It won't help your waistline, but this is one of the most common ways to cook potatoes using duck fat.

Baked Potatoes

About a pound or two of potatoes can be used.
Salt
Pepper
Rosemary or Thyme (tablespoon each if fresh, a teaspoon each if dried)

Heat the oven to 425°F/220°C. Toss wedges or slices of potatoes with 1 tsp of duck fat in a bowl and 2 tablespoons of canola oil in a bowl. Sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, and dried or fresh thyme or rosemary. Bake, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are very browned and crisp, 30 to 40 minutes.

The bottom line is if you are watching your cholesterol, you should avoid most animal fats in general. Canola and Olive oils are good to use as they have a good balance of mono, polyunsaturated fat content. Olive oil even has the benefit of flavanoids though has a lower smoking rate, and isn't good for frying as Canola is.

I'm sick of Pomegranate

It's time to vent about an ingredient.

Make no mistake about it, a pomegranate is a really healthy food. Curried by a level of mainstream media reporting on the health benefits of an ingredient on the order short of Oat Bran, studies of the antioxidant levels of the pomegranate have been pouring out like nutrition industry bought a condo in crazy town. It practically comes in pill form, except that you have to suck medicine off of it.

A safely assessment study even showed there's limited adverse effects from over dosing too. Oh good, because I've been having these nightmares about dying from fruit.

It inhibits prostate cancer growth and has anti-inflammatory properties and cardiovascular disease prevention, teeth strengthening super fighting power and not to mention prevention of erectile dysfunction for good measure. Bacterial infections and anti-biotic resistance are also the default health line for these kinds of healthy foods.

It's called cellular antioxidant activity or (CAA) and it's a quantifiable level of activity in a cell. Pomegranate and berries (blueberries, blackberries etc.) have the highest, whereas bananas and melons have the lowest.

Since this upsurge in science, recipes that have capitalized on the ingredient requiring pomegranate juice. You wouldn't seriously ask for someone to squeeze all the seeds from that thing would you? Then there's the juice/sludge you can buy from a pretentious bottle in which you can read an entire (early) Harry Potter book before the stuff makes it all the way down your throat.

Healthy and nearly perfect; except for the part where it's kind of tart, doesn't taste that good and there's only a slightly tangy so bad it's good quality to the flavour, I'd say it was a pretty good ingredient.

So full confession: I hate those things! I'm sick of seeing pomegranates stocked up on some pre-fabricated display of desperation that I buy them or risk sudden death from malnutrition. I value the exercise gained and calories burned as I maneuver around them in the grocery store.

Hot tip: How to remove the seeds Cut off the top of the fruit. Score the skin in quarters from top to bottom. When removing the seeds from the fruit, submerge it in a bowl under cold water in the sink and soak for a minute or two. Break the sections apart with your fingers and thumbs. This will keep yourself and your kitchen cleaner as the juice will stain just about anything. The seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl in the process, the rest will float away. Dry the seeds and enjoy.

Or not.

Romanesco: Eating Mathematics

Cauliflower or Broccoli? Broccoli or Cauliflower? The Romanesco something was discovered in Italy in the 16th century and is believed to actually be a variant of cauliflower but is green just like a broccoli and is often sold as such.

Heralded for its anti-carcinogenic properties, like most Brasssica genus, it's heavy in vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, riboflavin and fibre. This ingredient makes a fabulous center piece in any dish or meal.

One study noted its level of isothiocyanates (ITC's) which are bioactive compounds that inhibit the growth of colon cancer cells. Only black and purple cabbage showed higher levels.

The florets grow from a pattern called the Fibonacci series which is a fancy way of saying the sum of two numbers is equal to the two previous. It is also a premise for a bad Dan Brown novel, but this post is supposed to be about cool vegetables and not sour grapes..

Years ago back in film school, a professor got bored showed the class a documentary on fractals and the nature of chaos and how evolutionary biology can be understood mathematically. Well he wasn't very good anyway but that was eye opening.

I like the Romanesco because it's both broccoli and cauliflower and yet something completely different all at the same time. That is an outlook I find both philosophically comforting and pithily descriptive of myself in many ways. All of nature should give me this much satisfaction wrapped in a vibrant green parcel, but alas that is not always the case. Besides, any vegetable could do math better than I could and yes I'm anthropomorphizing but every so often I like to think nature has a sense of humour.

There is more to be learned from its complex replication of simple fractals patterns which make this healthy vegetable (broccoli or not) a mesmerizing substitute for the ordinary offerings at the big box grocery store. It's almost a shame to chop.

Mmmmm... this needs a song.

Are Barracuda good to eat?

I'm not sure if this is a good ingredient, but the idea seems interesting enough. Here is video footage that I took in Saona Island south of Dominican Republic in the town of Manu Juan.



Apparently they are very oily and have a strong fish taste. That may account for a high degree of Omega 3 fatty acids which are quite healthy and are responsible for the fish taste.

Perhaps it was best I didn't get a taste as they have a toxin (ciguatoxin) in them that can cause diarrhea and even neurological problems according to this health warning. Cooking doesn't help as ciguatoxin has a high tolerance for heat. People have died from eating it though so I'll likely stick to salmon.