People food for thought Part XIII; Frozen vegetables,frozen sea food
In the previous entry titled "Cooking with fresh ingredient Part II", I wrote that since Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution campaign;bring
fresh food to school lunch menu, I have started noticing many more
celebrity chefs are working on their own project to encourage people to
eat fresh food not processed food.
Also, as I have written in the previous entry titled "Raw feeding 911 Part VII", first lady Michelle Obama has started organic garden at the White house, and hope to encourage people to eat fresh food more. According to cbs news article (For the full article, please click here), the organic garden has 55 kinds of vegetable,berries,and herbs.
With this big fresh food movement, I think more and more people would take a moment and review what they really are eating and what they really are providing to their families and make an effort to provide fresh, healthy,delicious food to their family and furriends.
However, process food comes with convenience, and for some people, convenience is such an temptation.
If you were always be in hurry, here are some tips for you. You can still make a healthy food of choice and you do not have to stack up all those processed food in the freezer.
I came across a news paper article written by Jennifer Motl on frozen vegetable, and I thought it is interesting article with useful tips and I thought I would share it with you.
Locally grown fresh vegetable vs store bought fresh vegetables ...
Every fresh produce has its own peak seasons and, peaked seasons are the best time for the taste and best time to stock up because peak season is the cheapest of the year for the specific produce.
If you grown vegetables at home, vegetables from your gardens would have better nutrient amount compared to store bought vegetables,because the vegetables you grow does not have to travel long distance,and they do not have to be picked unripe and picked as needed when they are ready to be picked.
I used to grow sweet peppers,herbs, berries and I do remember that taste of the fresh picked sweet peppers tasted so much different than store bought vegetables.
According to Jennifer Motl, locally grown foods tends to retain more Vitamin C and B because those are very delicate vitamins that degrade over time,and some of the vitamins are sensitive to heat and light.
When you think about where the produce is coming from and how much they have to travel to get to your grocery store, you will see that many vegetables and fruits are picked unripe at farmer's place and then travel long distance to get to your grocery store,which might get effected by heat and lights and since they were picked unripe, it might had less nutrient to start with and degrade over time during the travel time.
If you cannot have time and space for growing vegetables at your garden, next best place to get the vegetables,fruits from are farmers market.
Fresh produce there would not be traveling long long distance like the vegetables you get from grocery stores and, good advantage of using the farmer's market is you get to see the person that grow their vegetables etc and know where they are coming from, and if they were happened to be the person that sell meat, you get to see how the animals are raised and, you get to have more information about the products.
And,I bet that the produce you can get at the farmer's market will be the ones that are at peak season,so it must be tasty.
I have not found the farmer's market for myself yet,but if I found one near our house, it will be definitely the place I would like to check out.
Fresh vegetable vs frozen vegetables
Jennifer points out that many frozen vegetables are almost as nutritious as fresh vegetables and some canned food such as tomato products are more nutritious than raw tomatoes.
Do you know how the frozen vegetables are packed?
She explains that many vegetables are blanched first (they are dipped into hot boiling water to destroy the enzyme that spoil the vegetables), and flash frozen (cooled to bellow zero temperature in a few minutes to prevent ice crystals from forming inside the food).
When I use frozen vegetables,such as frozen green beans, I will put a little bit of water in the sauce pan, put the vegetable steamer in,and handful of frozen green beans and steam them.
She points out that the less water you use to cook the frozen vegetable, the better nutrient amount you will get because some of the vitamins can leach out in the water.
Another suggestion she makes is that not to over cook the vegetable till it gets limp because by cooking to that point destroy Vitamin C&B,and best texture of the vegetable with better nutrient is to cook till tender crisp.
I think if you were leading the busy life style, buying a bag of frozen food is good option because it is already washed,peeled,and cut and you could take only the amount you would need and keep the rest in the freezer for later use, and it might be able to shorten the cooking time also.
One of the frozen vegetables I tend to have in our freezer is spinach. Sometimes, I like to make greek dish called spanakopita (spinach and feta cheese mixture with seasoning in phyllo dough), or spinach artichoke dip etc and those use good amount of spinach and, it is always handy if I already had frozen spinach in freezer.
That being said, you cannot get every kinds of fresh produce in frozen vegetable bag,and when you need fresh produce, you can chop onion or sweet peppers beforehand like before you go to bed, and you can use that along with frozen vegetables when you come home.
Also, if you make meatballs, burger patties, Gyoza dumplings (Pot stickers) etc, make a lot of them, and use only needed amount on the day and freeze it for later quick meal. This process would shorten your cooking time for later.
Canned vegetables..
Canned vegetables are again, product with convenience in mind.However, often time you will find salt or sugar under ingredient list.
If it were canned green beans, ingredients are green beans,salt, water. When canned whole kernel corn, it is corn, sugar,water.
Now, you can see that canned foods are high in sodium, and because of high sodium amount in the can, products' shelf life is very long. Jennifer suggests to rinse the products before using them.
She also points out that some cans have inner coating that contains Bisphenol A.BPA is known for some health problem such as cancer.
One canned vegetables she says is good is tomato products. According to her, cooked tomatoes have higher level of antioxidant lycopene than raw tomatoes and if you were watching out for sodium intake, she states that since tomato paste is 10 times lower in sodium compared to canned tomato sauce, you can make your own low sodium tomato sauce by combining 1 can of water,and 1 can of tomato paste.
To read full article by Jennifer Motl on frozen vegetables, please click here.
Frozen seafood..
On the talk of frozen products, I thought I would write a little bit about frozen seafood.
When you go to grocery store, go to frozen seafood section and pick up a bag of raw shrimp and flip it over and look for the ingredients.
I had hard time finding the bag of raw shrimp with just "shrimp" under ingredients list. You too would find out that it is hard to find one with just one simple ingredients and, often times, ingredients have "shrimp" and some sort of sodium preservatives such as sulfite or STP (sodium triphosphate) to keep longer shelf life and to retain moisture in the products.
Recently, I have found one bag of raw shrimp that has just "shrimp" under ingredient list at local grocery store, and product description explain that the shrimp gets frozen within 6 hours after cleaned.
I wonder if the shrimp were not get cleaned and frozen within certain hours, they gets dry out a little, and to compensate for the loss of moisture, at the packaging place, they would soak them in sulfite or STP to keep the shelf life longer and retain moisture.
Recently, I was watching the food channel and one show called "America's Test kitchen" was talking about sea food and STP. They were going to show scallop recipe and it gave a little more information on seafood and STP on the segment.
Quick STP test for scallop..
Here is a test you can do if the scallop you got is treated with STP or not.
According to America's Test Kitchen, they say that you can tell if the scallop is treated with STP or not by placing a scallop on paper towel over microwavable plate and microwave for 15 seconds.
If the scallop were not treated with STP, it would exude little water. If the scallop were treated with STP, it will exude lots of water on paper towel.
They recommend to soak them in lemon water brine if the scallop were happened to be the one with STP.
To read the full article by America's test kitchen,please click here.
The article does not say about how to pick the scallops but, on the TV show segment, they recommended to pick the one with rose pink colored scallops over pearly white scallops if you happened to wonder which one to buy.
STP also can whiten scallops, other than making them absorb more moisture and it is one sign you can look at.
Or, you can ask the fish guy behind the counter to get you "dry scallop" which means, scallops are not treated with STP. The scallops treated with STP is called "Wet scallop".
Also, as I have written in the previous entry titled "Raw feeding 911 Part VII", first lady Michelle Obama has started organic garden at the White house, and hope to encourage people to eat fresh food more. According to cbs news article (For the full article, please click here), the organic garden has 55 kinds of vegetable,berries,and herbs.
With this big fresh food movement, I think more and more people would take a moment and review what they really are eating and what they really are providing to their families and make an effort to provide fresh, healthy,delicious food to their family and furriends.
However, process food comes with convenience, and for some people, convenience is such an temptation.
If you were always be in hurry, here are some tips for you. You can still make a healthy food of choice and you do not have to stack up all those processed food in the freezer.
I came across a news paper article written by Jennifer Motl on frozen vegetable, and I thought it is interesting article with useful tips and I thought I would share it with you.
Locally grown fresh vegetable vs store bought fresh vegetables ...
Every fresh produce has its own peak seasons and, peaked seasons are the best time for the taste and best time to stock up because peak season is the cheapest of the year for the specific produce.
If you grown vegetables at home, vegetables from your gardens would have better nutrient amount compared to store bought vegetables,because the vegetables you grow does not have to travel long distance,and they do not have to be picked unripe and picked as needed when they are ready to be picked.
I used to grow sweet peppers,herbs, berries and I do remember that taste of the fresh picked sweet peppers tasted so much different than store bought vegetables.
According to Jennifer Motl, locally grown foods tends to retain more Vitamin C and B because those are very delicate vitamins that degrade over time,and some of the vitamins are sensitive to heat and light.
When you think about where the produce is coming from and how much they have to travel to get to your grocery store, you will see that many vegetables and fruits are picked unripe at farmer's place and then travel long distance to get to your grocery store,which might get effected by heat and lights and since they were picked unripe, it might had less nutrient to start with and degrade over time during the travel time.
If you cannot have time and space for growing vegetables at your garden, next best place to get the vegetables,fruits from are farmers market.
Fresh produce there would not be traveling long long distance like the vegetables you get from grocery stores and, good advantage of using the farmer's market is you get to see the person that grow their vegetables etc and know where they are coming from, and if they were happened to be the person that sell meat, you get to see how the animals are raised and, you get to have more information about the products.
And,I bet that the produce you can get at the farmer's market will be the ones that are at peak season,so it must be tasty.
I have not found the farmer's market for myself yet,but if I found one near our house, it will be definitely the place I would like to check out.
Fresh vegetable vs frozen vegetables
Jennifer points out that many frozen vegetables are almost as nutritious as fresh vegetables and some canned food such as tomato products are more nutritious than raw tomatoes.
Do you know how the frozen vegetables are packed?
She explains that many vegetables are blanched first (they are dipped into hot boiling water to destroy the enzyme that spoil the vegetables), and flash frozen (cooled to bellow zero temperature in a few minutes to prevent ice crystals from forming inside the food).
When I use frozen vegetables,such as frozen green beans, I will put a little bit of water in the sauce pan, put the vegetable steamer in,and handful of frozen green beans and steam them.
She points out that the less water you use to cook the frozen vegetable, the better nutrient amount you will get because some of the vitamins can leach out in the water.
Another suggestion she makes is that not to over cook the vegetable till it gets limp because by cooking to that point destroy Vitamin C&B,and best texture of the vegetable with better nutrient is to cook till tender crisp.
I think if you were leading the busy life style, buying a bag of frozen food is good option because it is already washed,peeled,and cut and you could take only the amount you would need and keep the rest in the freezer for later use, and it might be able to shorten the cooking time also.
One of the frozen vegetables I tend to have in our freezer is spinach. Sometimes, I like to make greek dish called spanakopita (spinach and feta cheese mixture with seasoning in phyllo dough), or spinach artichoke dip etc and those use good amount of spinach and, it is always handy if I already had frozen spinach in freezer.
That being said, you cannot get every kinds of fresh produce in frozen vegetable bag,and when you need fresh produce, you can chop onion or sweet peppers beforehand like before you go to bed, and you can use that along with frozen vegetables when you come home.
Also, if you make meatballs, burger patties, Gyoza dumplings (Pot stickers) etc, make a lot of them, and use only needed amount on the day and freeze it for later quick meal. This process would shorten your cooking time for later.
Canned vegetables..
Canned vegetables are again, product with convenience in mind.However, often time you will find salt or sugar under ingredient list.
If it were canned green beans, ingredients are green beans,salt, water. When canned whole kernel corn, it is corn, sugar,water.
Now, you can see that canned foods are high in sodium, and because of high sodium amount in the can, products' shelf life is very long. Jennifer suggests to rinse the products before using them.
She also points out that some cans have inner coating that contains Bisphenol A.BPA is known for some health problem such as cancer.
One canned vegetables she says is good is tomato products. According to her, cooked tomatoes have higher level of antioxidant lycopene than raw tomatoes and if you were watching out for sodium intake, she states that since tomato paste is 10 times lower in sodium compared to canned tomato sauce, you can make your own low sodium tomato sauce by combining 1 can of water,and 1 can of tomato paste.
To read full article by Jennifer Motl on frozen vegetables, please click here.
Frozen seafood..
On the talk of frozen products, I thought I would write a little bit about frozen seafood.
When you go to grocery store, go to frozen seafood section and pick up a bag of raw shrimp and flip it over and look for the ingredients.
I had hard time finding the bag of raw shrimp with just "shrimp" under ingredients list. You too would find out that it is hard to find one with just one simple ingredients and, often times, ingredients have "shrimp" and some sort of sodium preservatives such as sulfite or STP (sodium triphosphate) to keep longer shelf life and to retain moisture in the products.
Recently, I have found one bag of raw shrimp that has just "shrimp" under ingredient list at local grocery store, and product description explain that the shrimp gets frozen within 6 hours after cleaned.
I wonder if the shrimp were not get cleaned and frozen within certain hours, they gets dry out a little, and to compensate for the loss of moisture, at the packaging place, they would soak them in sulfite or STP to keep the shelf life longer and retain moisture.
Recently, I was watching the food channel and one show called "America's Test kitchen" was talking about sea food and STP. They were going to show scallop recipe and it gave a little more information on seafood and STP on the segment.
Quick STP test for scallop..
Here is a test you can do if the scallop you got is treated with STP or not.
According to America's Test Kitchen, they say that you can tell if the scallop is treated with STP or not by placing a scallop on paper towel over microwavable plate and microwave for 15 seconds.
If the scallop were not treated with STP, it would exude little water. If the scallop were treated with STP, it will exude lots of water on paper towel.
They recommend to soak them in lemon water brine if the scallop were happened to be the one with STP.
To read the full article by America's test kitchen,please click here.
The article does not say about how to pick the scallops but, on the TV show segment, they recommended to pick the one with rose pink colored scallops over pearly white scallops if you happened to wonder which one to buy.
STP also can whiten scallops, other than making them absorb more moisture and it is one sign you can look at.
Or, you can ask the fish guy behind the counter to get you "dry scallop" which means, scallops are not treated with STP. The scallops treated with STP is called "Wet scallop".
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