Category Archives: Kitchen

Preparations and Recipes

It Is Easy to Avoid Bromate (Bad for Us) in Flour, Bread, and Other Baked Goods

Health, Kitchen, , ,

Unbrominated bread flour DSC00651This is unbromated bread flour.

When we saw the word “unbromated” on our bread flour bag,  we decided to check the reason for this effort at labeling.  It turns out that potassium bromate is added to flour in the form of potassium bromate, in order to improve handling properties.   Potassium is a positive, elemental ion that is a sister element of sodium.  This ion is good for us.  Bromate, a negative ion, is made up of four atoms,  three bromine atoms, and one oxygen atom.    Until 40 to 20 years ago compounds containing iodine were added to the dough for the  improved handling purposes.

The problem is, that once the bromate gets into our bodies, the bromine atom displaces the iodine in our metabolic systems, and this reduces our thyroid function, because  our thyroid hormones are inactive when they contain bromine instead of iodine.

We have noticed that some bread flour that we have recently purchased is unbromated.   We had been buying  unbleached white all-purpose flour, but we have switched to unbromated, unbleached bread flour, because that surely is missing the bromine.    Much store bought bread is made with bromated flour.  We are keeping our eye on flour and all baked goods labels, and using unbromated flour to making more of our own bread in a bread machine.

 

 

For more information please check these:

  • Wikipedia: bromine
  • integrativemomdotcom/nutrition/unbromated-flour

 

Tomato Salad (Hungarian)

Kitchen, ,

DSC00549

This is a very simple salad.  Serves four.  The vinegar and salt “pull” some of the liquid out of, especially, the tomatoes.  Keeps well for up to three days in the refrigerator.  Hungarians consider that we need to eat something sour with our main courses.   The fat free dressing is very healthy.    Vary amounts and proportions according to need and taste.

Ingredients:

  • 2 tomatoes, halved, and sliced thinly
  • 1 bell pepper, seeded and sliced thinly
  • 1/4 red onion, or other onion according to your preference, sliced thinly
  • 3 tablepoons vinegar
  • salt  and pepper to taste

Assembly:

  • Place salad vegetables into a glass casserole
  • pour on vinegar
  • Season with salt and pepper to taste
  • Chill for a few minutes before serving

 

Steamed Plantain Shoots, A Trial to Harvest Another Vegetable from Our Garden

Kitchen,

Plantain shoots DSC00516Collected plantain shoots.

No difference was noticed after cooking.

Plantain shoots, cleaned DSC00519Cleaned up plantain shoots.

Put water into the steamer, and bring to a boil before slicing up the plantain shoots.  We have to slice with a good knife rather than with a food processor.  It is quick, and the fibers in the shoots cover over the food processor slicing blade.

Plantain shoots, sliced DSC00521

DSC00523  Add shoots to the steaming pot as soon as they are sliced, as we go along.  This keeps the slices from darkening, which they do very quickly.

DSC00528We ate these as a side with butter, salt and pepper.

We are saving the rest for a salad.

Raw, the plantain shoots seemed like a cross between celery and asparagus.  They must be cooked as soon as they are sliced, because unlike the actual plantains, these turn dark very quickly.  Cooked, they have a bland, very slightly bitter taste, similar to a very mild bitter green.  They are definitely edible, and are a by product of our very well producing plantains.  Within a few days of chopping them off they shoot up again, so they can probably be harvested from a single corm several times.