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Recipe Review – Star Anise Cookies in “The Illustrated Cook’s Book of Ingredients.”

I have long been fascinated with the spice called “Star Anise.” It is used primarily in Asian cuisine but also in Malay, Indian, Pakistani, and Vietnamese. It is a recent newcomer to the West with a flavor like that of Anise, although they are unrelated plants.

Star Anise

Recently having purchased some Star Anise I have been looking for a dish I could use it in. Today, while browsing through a new book, I was reading the section about Star Anise and it had a recipe for cookies made with this spice. The recipe is simple and so I could not resist.

Illustrated Cook's Book of Ingredients

The recipe is from the book “The Illustrated Cook’s Book of Ingredients” which was given to me as a gift.

I liked the results and so am sharing them with you here. Two things however, I will change with the next batch I make will be to reduce the baking temperature to 350 degrees because the cookies baked a little bit too much even with checking and rotating at 5 minutes and taking them out at 10.  I will also increase the amount of Star Anise in the dish because I find this amount providing too subtle a flavor. I would like to taste more of the Star Anise flavoring in the cookie.

Here is the recipe:

STAR ANISE COOKIES

Ingredients
8 Star Anise Seeds

1 c Self Rising Flour*
1 t Baking Powder
1/4 c Brown Sugar

4 T Honey
7 T Butter, melted

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Star Anise ready for grinding

Remove seeds from pods and finely grind in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle.

Star Anise seeds

Combine flour, baking powder, and brown sugar with ground Star Anise seeds. Stir in the honey and then the butter. Mix well until smooth.

Lightly grease a baking sheet (or two) or line with parchment paper. Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheet, lightly pressing with your hand keeping 2 inches between to allow for spreading.

Star Anise Cookies ready for baking

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until just beginning to turn golden. The cookies may still be a little soft when they come out of the oven, but will become crisper as they cool.

Star Anise Cookies

These are good served with a glass of dessert wine.

* I did not have self-rising flour on hand so I substituted with 1 c flour, 1 1/2 t Baking Powder, and 1/2 t Salt.

Review of Crab Bisque recipe by Paula Deen

A friend who is a big fan of Paula Deen found a recipe by Paula Deen for Crab Bisque and asked if I could make it. I am also a big fan of Paula Deen. However, the recipe calls for adding canned soup and I prefer not to use pre-made items in my food preparation. I’m sure the recipe by Paula Deen for Crab Bisque would taste really good and is designed to make the preparation easy. However, I decided to add my own personal touches to the recipe.

Using the recipe by Paula Deen as my inspiration, I went about concocting my own without using canned soups. It turned out quite tasty and I have no doubt it is something you will want to try for yourself, your family, and friends. My friend took what was left to work and everyone loved it.

Crab Bisque

Here is my recipe:

CRAB BISQUE

Ingredients
2 T Butter
2 Green Onions, chopped
1 stalk Celery, thinly sliced
1 lb. Asparagus, chopped
½ lb. Mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced

3 T Butter
4 T Flour
2 c Cream
3 c Chicken Broth
1 t Salt, Kosher
1 t Cracked pepper

12 oz. Crabmeat (this can be two 6 oz. cans)

Instructions Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a pan and sauté the green onions and celery. Once they have begun to soften add the asparagus and cook until heated, then the mushrooms and garlic. Do not overcook the vegetables. You want them to have a crunch in the soup.

Chopped Veggies

While the vegetables are cooking combine 3 tablespoons of butter with the flour and stir until smooth. Add the cream and chicken broth and whisk making sure all is combined and there are no lumps of flour.

Cream Sauce

Continue cooking on low heat until warm. Once the vegetables have been sautéed to the correct degree, remove half and puree them in a blender (I used my nifty Ninja which was given to me for the holidays).

Pureed Vegetables

Pour the puree into the cream mixture and stir until thoroughly heated. Add the rest of the vegetables, salt and pepper and fold to combine.

When all is heated through add the crabmeat.

Do not stir heavily, especially if you are using canned, because you want to retain some of the crabmeat in bits.

Continue cooking until heated. Be careful not to let it boil.

Serve with garlic bread.

Kernel Season’s Popcorn Spritzer – Review

In a previous post John shared his secret to make Perfect Popped Popcorn, it is a very good method to make a healthy, low cost snack.  For the longest time I didn’t like popcorn, but lately I’ve been a ravenous popcorn addict, sneaking a small pot here and there just to get me by until I could make a big pot.  It has become my favorite snack in a hurry.

I like my popcorn with butter and salt, both of which are not known for being healthy.  Well I think I’ve solved the butter problem.  Enter Kernel Season’s Popcorn Spritzer!  I saw this in the popcorn section of our grocery store when I was gathering kernel’s to feed my addiction but I ignored it, thinking it would taste chemically, artificial or just bad.  In a day of weakness I picked up a bottle to try when my craving was at it’s peak.  Below is the product you are looking for in all of it’s splendor.

kernel seasons popcorn spritzer

I came home and made a small batch just to test this spritzer out, I didn’t know what to expect.  It was FANTASTIC!!!  The flavor is very close to real butter without the fat, calories and cholesterol.  No chemically, funny or otherwise displeasing taste or smell.  It is “lighter” is the best way I can explain it, it doesn’t have the dense feel butter leaves on popcorn.

I really enjoy the aerosol concept of applying it, it just seems like a good idea to me.  However that is one drawback, it seems to have too much propellent and comes out almost violently.  They suggest doing short bursts, which I agree with but I wish it was a gentler misting style discharge than an aggressive mist.  My other complaint would be that it does leave your fingers greasy and I don’t like that.  I’m not entirely sure about if this increases or decreases salt/seasoning adhesion or not.  They claim it does, however I notice a lot of loose salt on the bottom and sides of the bowl.  This could be the seasoning/salt adhering to the overspray on the bowl but it seems fairly loose.  Whatever the case it’s not enough of a short coming for me to have it disuade my usage.

I’ll stress the technique mentioned in John’s post about using fine salt.  We have the Perfex Salt and Pepper Mills which allow the user to control the size of the grind, from powder to whole peppercorns or sea salt crystals falling out as you turn the handle.  While these are expensive, I’ll certainly admit that, they are the last salt and pepper mill you will ever buy.  If you’re purchasing special salt this will pay for itself quickly and you can use it for other cooking as well and who doesn’t love cool cooking toys!  If you have to John’s food processor method is a good substitute, but I prefer sea salt/kosher salt to iodized salt, it has a mellower flavor and is more forgiving.

On the salt/seasoning front I’m going to continue testing the seasonings I find and report back with any findings worth sharing.  I’m also looking into salt substitutes, but so far they all taste “off” but I remain optimistic that I’ll find a way to make this a healthy snack!

Any suggestions of toppings I should try?  Lets take popcorn to the next level!

Movie Review “Forks Over Knives” – Part Two: The Problem

In Part One of my review of the documentary “Forks Over Knives” I presented an introduction to what the documentary is about. In this, the second part of my review, I will present the problem as it is expressed in the documentary.

The problem, as I see it, is organized in two categories: 1) There is a growing healthcare crisis in the United States, and 2) There is a direct correlation between the incidence of the diseases which are the basis of this crisis and diet.

This documentary was written and directed by Lee Fulkerson, who admits he has not always lived the healthiest of lifestyles and has eaten more than his share of fast foods. The documentary begins with a number of startling statements about the current state of the health of Americans: This Year Heart Disease and Stroke will claim the lives of 460,000 American Women; The average American now carries 23 extra pounds; Diabetes, Hypertension, Bone Disease and Osteoporosis are rampant health problems plaguing Americans; Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer in American men (there are 215,000 new cases of prostate cancer a year); Doctors say we really need to eat less red and processed meat because it can lead to Arteriosclerosis, Cancer and Autoimmune disease; There are unprecedented amounts of type 2 diabetes in our children and we’re starting to see hypertension in our children in grammar school.

Lee Fulkerson looking at his blood results Dr. Matthew Lederman

Clearly the Western diet is taking a toll. This should serve as a wakeup call. We have a growing problem and, the ones who are growing are us. No less than 40% of Americans today are obese; About half of us are taking some form of prescription drug; The best known statin drug, Lipitor, is the most prescribed drug ever in the world; Almost 1 in 5 America Four Year Olds are now considered to be obese; This could be the first generation of children in the United States that lives less that its parents; We spend 2.2 trillion dollars a year on healthcare, over 5 times more than the defense budget; We pay more per person for healthcare than any industrialized country in the world, yet we’re sicker than ever; Michelle Obama had this to say, “Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure are all diet related health issues that cost this country more than 120 billion dollars each year”

Every minute a person in the U.S. is killed by heart disease and 1500 people a day die from cancer – Combined these two diseases kill over 1 million Americans every year; Cases of diabetes are skyrocketing particularly among our younger population; One out of three people born in the U.S. today will develop this crippling condition (diabetes) during their lifetime; Millions of others suffer from a host of degenerative diseases; Millions more of us are so stimulated by sugar, coffee, and energy drinks that we mask our chronic fatigue.

That the United States is facing a healthcare crisis should be no surprise to any of us as politicians debate the best way to deal with it and the Supreme Court examines whether or not legislation that has been passed to address the crisis is Constitutional.

The second part of the documentaries’ presentation of the problem is that there is a direct correlation between the incidence of these diseases and diet. Much of the substantiation for this claim is based upon the work of two men: Dr. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and their observations of how changes in the American diet correlated with the rise of these diseases. Their observations are based upon comparisons with other parts of the world where diet had remained essentially unchanged during the same time period.

Dr. Colin Campbell at his childhood farm Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn

Here are some interesting statistics about changes in the American diet:

In the last century the American diet has changed dramatically; Near the beginning of the 20th century Americans ate about 120 pounds of meat annually. By 2007 that figure had exploded to no less than 222 pounds; In 1913 we ate about 40 pounds of processed sugar each per year. By 1999 our consumption of all refined sweeteners had risen to over 147 pounds; In 1909 Americans consumed around 294 pounds of dairy products apiece but by 2006 our yearly intake of dairy had more than doubled to 605 pounds; The late 50s was the heyday of the drive in burger joint and the supermarket was just beginning to thrive in the newly built post World War II suburbs. This is when the so called convenience foods were born like the legendary foil wrapped T. V. dinner not to mention a host of other tasty processed delicacies devised to make our lives easier and better.

A number of the changes in our diet have been to insure we got enough protein and getting enough protein has been most commonly associated with eating enough meat. However, this documentary points us to the incidence of Coronary Artery Disease which over time is caused when a fatty substance in the bloodstream called Cholesterol builds up in the arteries restricting blood flow to the heart. Cholesterol is a natural substance produced by all animals, including humans. It goes on to say that “When we consume dietary cholesterol which is only found in animal foods like meat, eggs and dairy products it tends to stay in the bloodstream. This so called plaque is what collects on the inside of our blood vessels and is the major cause of coronary artery disease.” Heart bypass surgery is used to go around these blocked arteries. Today over 500,000 Americans have this surgery each year at a cost of about $100,000 each.

An animation shows the working of a typical heart attack

In the mid 1960’s Dr. Campbell was in the Philippines trying to get more protein to malnourished children. To keep costs down he and his colleagues decided not to use animal based protein. While there Dr. Campbell stumbled upon a piece of information that was extremely important, it centered on the more affluent families in the Philippines who were eating relatively high amounts of animal based foods. They were the ones whose children were more likely susceptible to getting liver cancer. This was very unusual since liver cancers are mainly found in adults.

He and others began to ask themselves “Could some foods, including several that we think are good for our health, also be causing many of our most serious health problems?’

For the next part of this review we will present a claim of the documentary which is presented in the form of a question, “could there be a single solution to all of these problems? A solution so comprehensive, yet so straightforward, it’s mind boggling that more of us haven’t taken it seriously. Someone has to stand up and say the answer isn’t another pill: The answer is Spinach. A growing number of researchers claim that if we eliminate or greatly reduce refined processed and animal based foods we can prevent, and in certain cases even reverse several of our worst diseases.”

They say all we need to do is adopt a whole foods plant based diet. It sounds almost too simple to be true.

Keep reading Lukewarm Legumes and watch for the next installment of this Movie Review “Forks Over Knives” – Part Three: The Solution