Monthly Archives: April 2012

F A S T I N G … the lowdown on the slowdown

Talofa … Sister Rasela simmering on the hotplate today in the belly kitchen, bringing you more tantalising talk about food … or in this case – lack of it.

Each week we strive to bring you a show packed with tasty fillings and informative, inspiring stories surrounding food, and my inspiration this week came from an article article i read in the Sunday paper regarding a woman who had managed to starve herself to DEATH after embarking on a FAST.

How is this possible you and i both may wonder ? In the Western world, where foods of all descriptions and flavours are available to us on tap, where food is shared with friends and family and if you are lucky enough to live in a community such as Byron, you are able to get a free meal every day of the week through volunteer organizations and donations.

Added to all of that, food tastes so good. It’s delicious and tempting, nourishing and warming, fresh and alive (hopefully) and if it’s not then it’s not so bad that you would just stop eating … surely ?

Fashionably fast living ... did you forget to eat ??

Well, there are many of us that share this world of ours and it’s clearly obvious that we are not all the same. Our views and thoughts and beliefs all depend on how we were raised, with what values and ethics, what country we were born in, how our childhood panned out, any number of changeable issues can determine what we decide is best for us.

This particular lady, who was the victim of self starvation, decided that she wanted to go on a fast. There were no details of how heavy she was before she started the fast that killed her, no history into her eating habits (or lack of), no story that lead to the tragic outcome. It was a 5 line story about how she went on a fast and after a couple of weeks, after plees from her children, after her body must have been begging her mind to feed it … she died.

Many people might read this and jump to the uneducated conclusion that fasting is dangerous. The same as you may put on the tv (if you have one) and believe every single thing that they want you to. “It must be true, i heard it on the tele!!” Oh, is this the same tele that provides you with misleading advertisements and promises of extremely fast weight loss if you buy their product ? The same one that guarantees you youthful looking skin even if you are 85 and covered in wrinkles ? Oh and my favorite – sugar free, chemically sweetened, ‘healthy’ foods ? Same story … different angle.

A huge part of my love of community radio is to help share information and knowledge. To encourage listeners and readers of this show to think for yourselves. To question what you read and see and to make educated or at the very least informed decisions on what is best for YOU.

In the same way that i don’t believe (or even watch) anything i see on tv, i present the information on this show in a way that leaves it up to you to do whatever it is you will, with whatever information i share with you. Some things may apply to you, some to your neighbour, and some to the old lady that lives in the bush 30 km’s from you. You might be visiting town, you might have lived here all your life, you might even be about to leave, whatever your story is, that’s the most important thing to remember … that it is your story and it is the one that enables you to make the decisions you think are best for YOU.

... but is seeing believing ??

I wonder what this starving woman’s story is and i wonder if her story may have had a different outcome if she had have listened to belly today !!

Without further adieu … let’s get some info on FASTING and PURIFICATION.

Fasting and Purification have been described as very uplifting experiences that can enhance your mental well being and overall attitude IF it is done correctly.

A few different types of fasting can be considered depending on your specific need and desired outcome. You can eat nothing, a single food, or you can simply eliminate one or more foods in your diet.

Fasts can last anything from a day to several weeks or months. Most religious and healing traditions recommend fasting for therapeutic or spiritual advantages.

Fasting has been noted way back in history when the Winter supplies ran low for our ancestors and they were forced to go without, living sometimes on no more than water and fresh greens.

My, how life has changed ...

Contemporary fasts however, usually consist of abundant vegetable and fruit juices with combinations that create names such as ‘detox’, ‘liver cleanser’, ‘immune booster’ … unfortunately, many of the methods of juicing are not conducive to the purpose as much of the nutritional value can be lost in the process or afterwards. The best method of juicing is by using a cold press juicer which slowly squeezes the juice out of the vegetable or fruit, allowing it to retain the majority of it’s wholesome goodness. Fresh and organic produce is by far superior of course.

All of this said though, fasting just on juices can seriously impair both the digestive strength and metabolic rate of certain individuals and have been known to cool and weaken the body resulting in abnormal weight gain after the fast. This is not said to scare you but rather to remind you that we all need to be aware of what is best for us and that your fast, should you choose to do one, should be matched to your individual body type.

The word FAST indicates an important feature of the fast itself, It signifies the speeding up of the cleansing and renewal process by slowing down the normal digestive routine. The fast and the slow … nice balance !

Beware of fast fasts !! Anything that is slow and sustainable is far better for you and your beautiful body and in the long run teaches you better eating habits that you will hopefully be able to maintain throughout your luscious life.

I’ll give you a sneak peak into 5 different fasts i know about. You may have tried one or all of them or you may be considering starting one of them. I embarked on a fast about 7 years ago to help combat a sinus infection that was unbeatable with conventional medicines. It was meant to last 2 weeks but i was so euphoric and happy on it that i ended up staying on it for about 3 months. I was buzzing, beaming, high, clear headed, a little light headed, a bit skinny and not hungry at all. Quite scary actually.

I guess i got to the point where i felt starving, but at the same time i felt almost terrified to eat anything. I didn’t know where or how to start again. It was as though i had trained myself off of food. All i had been eating was selected steamed veges, raw salads, a bit of oat bran and lots of water along with some supplements/super foods.

The moment i realised i was starving was the same moment i realised that this is how an eating disorder could start. Through my fear of eating. Wanting to and knowing that i should but just not being able to. I had no cravings, no desire to eat, my mouth didn’t water for anything … these were all things i wasn’t used to !!

Inside me though i felt hollow, empty, airy, and i instinctively knew that i needed food. Something warm, wholesome, flavoursome, savoury …. so i headed to my favorite macrobiotic vegan cafe and ordered the vege lasagne.

When i remember back to this moment and describe it, it was like i tasted food for the first time in my life and realised what i had been missing out on. The second i put a mouthful of the layered, tasty, creamy, dreamy lasagne in my mouth, the very millisecond it touched my tongue, i felt my whole body absorb each ingredient in that decadent dish and pull it into my starving cells. I let out a low moan with each slow chew and the volume increased with each new spoonful. I smiled, i felt the colour come back to my cheeks, i felt that warm, wholeness in my spirit again, i felt grounded and complete.

I never looked back.

Let’s look forward instead and take a look at 5 popular fasts that may tickle your fancy –

  1. Raw fruit, vegetable or liquid fast
  2. Steamed vegetable fast
  3. Whole-Grain fast
  4. Micro-Algae fast
  5. Absolute fast

I’ll be back with the lowdown on all of these just as soon as i feed my pet aligators. If i’m not back soon, please let someone know ….

See ya later aligator !!

 

 

 

Planning a kitchen

On air on bayfm 99.9 community radio, Byron Bay, on 23 April 2012

 

Today on belly we talked about designing the most important room in your house, the kitchen, with Don Hansen. We spoke about materials and budgets and environmentally friendly options, but also a lot about one of Don’s big passions, good communication.

 

FRESH REPORT

 

A couple of ideas about this week’s best in season fruit and veg.

A budget choice,  CHOKOS are everywhere.  One stallholder had a sign at the markets, “choko apppreciation society meeting in the Bangalow phone box” .  I will be there, yes they can be a bit tasteless if just boiled into submission but chokos can be a really good ingredient. . Try online searches for chayote recipes, their Central American name.  Just like the avocado, which is also beginning its season, it was a favourite of the aztecs. Or look for mirliton recipes from Luisiana, or christophine from Trinidad.  I tried choko Italiano this week, testing the idea that it takes on other flavours. It was really good in an onion,capsicum and tomato pasta sauce. The taste team approved, saying choko chunks did take on the flavours, but made the sauce lighter and juicier.
For an exotic choice try JIKAMA (Don says this should be pronounced ‘hikama’), it looks like a giant white water chestnut or a fat beige turnip. Just peel it and eat raw, or quickly cooked. It has crunchy juicy and sweet white flesh.  Great raw in salads and keeps its crunch in stir fries, so can substitute for water chestnuts.  Could be interesting in a sushi roll.  Also from Central America, in Mexico it is used to dip in salsas, much healthier than corn chips.
Plentiful choice – lemons, limes, mandarins – citrus time, yum

 

CHOKO ITALIANO – Belly Lab recipe by sister Tess

 

For 4 people

 

1 pack penne or spaghetti

1 can tomatoes and/or very ripe tasty tomatoes (I prefer a mix of both)

1 red onion, chopped or sliced

1 large red capsicum, sliced

garlic, good olive oil, salt, pepper

capers, anchovies, chilli,  freshly grated Parmesan to taste

fresh or dry oregano

1 beautiful large choko, peeled seeded and cut into smallish chunks

 

Fry onions in oil until soft, add capers, chilli and chopped garlic, fry a couple more minutes.  Add capsicum and choko, salt, pepper, cook on fairly high heat.  Add tomatoes, oregano, anchovies, cook gently until the sauce is quite dense and tomatoes are cooked. Skip or change any of these ingredients that you aren’t really into.

Serve on al dente pasta with grated parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.

 

 

BELLY BULLETIN

There is an egg fight going on in Australia. Consumers love free range eggs, they are nearly 40% of eggs sold in Australia and were the biggest growth category in eggs last year. The Egg Corporation, the main egg producers association, announced its plans to change the allowable outdoor stocking density for free range chickens from 1500 to 20,000 per hectare. The consumers association Choice says that the RSPCA and Humane Choice set a limit of 1500, while the Free Range Farmers association sets 750 chooks per hectare as a limit. Choice says consumers will stop buying free range if they are not confident they are getting what they pay for. the egg corp is concerned about overseas competition, and says stocking density is not as important as appropriate farm management, and that this density allows chickens to display all their natural behaviours, like scratching in the dirt. Check the links below to make up your own mind.

http://www.choice.com.au/media-and-news/media-releases/2012-media-releases/free-range-eggs-not-all-they-are-cracked-up-to-be.aspx

http://www.aecl.org/

 

You may remember a lot of discussion about the proposed new markets policy in byron shire, including a big meeting here in the community centre. The council has now revised the policy, it is open for viewing and comment until May 18, 2012 in various public places and online. Council would like anyone who has already commented to submit any comments on the new policy, as well as the rest of us of course.    For a direct link to the policy on the council’s website click here.

From Federal to Cape Town

On air on Byron Bay’s bayfm 99.9 community radio on 16 April 2012

 

Today two wonderful cooks are coming on belly, Belinda Jeffery and Cecile Yazbek.  Belinda and Sue Kelly will talk about the campaign to save the Federal Hall, a lovely village in the Byron hinterland.  Belinda has kindly offered to help in the campaign to raise money for the Federal Community to buy the old Anglican Church and land see www.federalhall.org.au.  She will be teaching pastry making, a subject close to the bellysisters’ heart, especially at the moment, on May 2.  Here’s the basic info:

Morning Tea & Cooking Demonstration with Cookbook Author & Delicious Magazine writer Belinda Jeffery.

Belinda shows you how to make perfect pastry every time, and turn it into fabulous tarts

Wednesday 2nd May 9.30am

@ Federal Hall, Federal

$20 includes tea or coffee and selection of yummy homemade cakes

Come along on the day, you can also reserve your spot

or book a table with friends call – Sue 66884465

email suekelly50@gmail.com

For more information go to www.federalhall.org.au

 

My next guest today  is Cecile Yazbek, who grew up in South Africa in a Lebanese household, in the days of apartheid.  She has just published her latest book, “From mezze to milk tart”.  It has hundreds of wonderful vegetarian recipes, many very simple, but inspiring enough to turn anyone vegetarian, at least until every recipe in the book has been made and tried.  Many are Lebanese, others from the varied cuisines that inspired Cecile to start cooking from a very early age in South Africa.

Here is a couple of seasonal suggestions from the book, inspired by Cecile’s love of local markets.

 

 

BANANA SAMBAL

 

The Indian lady at the banana farm on the highway near Bangalow

sometimes presents me with a whole box of ripe bananas, ‘for cakey’.

One day I gave her one of my banana cakes, but she wrinkled her nose

and said, ‘Is good for you; Indian people no like.’ Anytime one shops

there, she always piles extras into one’s bag!

4 ripe bananas, sliced

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon fruit chutney

1 level teaspoon curry powder

 

Mix together well and serve immediately.

 

POTATO AND MACADAMIA CURRY PIES

 

Sweet potatoes, cooked and roughly mashed, may be used instead.

 

2 sheets ready-rolled puff pastry

4 large potatoes, boiled, cooled, peeled

and coarsely grated

1 cup macadamia pieces

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 teaspoons fragrant curry powder

1 vegetable stock cube, dissolved in

100 mL hot water

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

 

Heat oil and fry onion until shiny. Add seeds and curry powder and

stir about. Add the stock, mix well and add potato and nuts. Fork

through until all coloured. Set aside to cool. Fill

puff pastry – either as one large pie with top and bottom crust or 8

small pastie shapes, and bake at 220 °C until browned. Serve with

Banana Sambal.

 

CECILE’S TASTING AND BOOK SIGNING

 

Fundraising tasting and book signing with food writer and author of ‘Amore and Amoretti’, Victoria Cosford and Cecile Yazbek, cook and author or ‘Mezze to Milk Tart’ at the Liberation Larder Kitchen, Byron Bay Community Centre, 69 Jonson Street, Byron Bay. Inquiries call Helen: 0439409655

Tue, 17 April, 17:30 – 18:30

the Liberation Larder Kitchen, Byron Bay Community Centre, 69 Jonson Street, Byron Bay. Inquiries call Helen: 0439409655

 

 

Canadian cabbages? Choux pastry and a taste of Canada

 

I wish I could reach into the computer and snaffle one of these

 

CHOCOLATE PROFITEROLES – by Deanna

 

Choux
20g butter
¼ cup water
¼ cup plain flour
1 egg

Pastry Cream (Crème Patissiere)
I cup milk
½ vanilla bean, split
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour

Topping
150 grams dark or milk chocolate,  roughly chopped
Preheat oven to 220 degrees (200 fan forced)
Line baking tray with baking paper
Combine water and butter in a saucepan, bring to the boil.  Add flour, and beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes away from the base and side of the saucepan, and forms a smooth ball.
Transfer mixture to a small bowl and beat in egg  with electric mixer until smooth and glossy.
Spoon mix into a piping bag fitted with a 1 cm plain tube (or can fill a ziplock baggie and cut the corner off).  Pipe small dollops of pastry 5 cm apart from eachother on tray.  Bake 7 minutes and then reduce oven to 180 degrees/160 fan forced.  Bake a further 10 minutes until profiteroles browned lightly and crisp.  Cut small slit in side of each profiterole with sharp knife.  Bake a further 5 minutes or until profiteroles dried out.  Cool.
Make pastry cream:
Bring milk and vanilla bean to the boil in small saucepan.  Discard vanilla bean.  Mix egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in small bowl with electric mixer until thick.  With motor still running add hot milk mixture gradually.  Return custard mixture to saucepan and stir over heat until boils and thickens.  Cool.
Spoon pastry cream into piping bag fitted with 1 cm plain tube (or use ziplock as mentioned before). Pipe pastry cream through cuts in profiteroles.  Place on tray and cover with melted chocolate.
Melt chocolate in heat proof bowl or double boiler over pan of simmering water.  When melted, drizzle profiteroles with melted chocolate
Note: can also drizzle with toffee instead of chocolate, and may fill profiteroles with whipped cream instead of making pastry cream.

 

Apple pie - made by Deanna to her mum's recipe. Did it taste as good as it looks? Will they share the recipe? Listen to belly today and find out

Easter belly

On air on Byron Bay’s community radio station Bayfm 99.9 on April 2, 2012

 

Sister T and Miss April, Alison Drover from Fork in the Field, had fun today talking about Easter food.  We had eggs hidden around the studio, lambs and Easter bunnies running around, hot cross buns in the oven, smelling great… In the Byron area for many of us this time of year is also all about the Bluesfest, so most of the tracks today are from this year’s Bluesfest artists.

 

HOT CROSS BUNS

This year for Easter I thought I would focus on these delicious cross topped raisin and spice buns.  There is a really good recipe here, from the very reliable Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine.  They are pretty simple to make, a bit like muffins in that you mix all the dry and all the wet ingredients separately first, but yeast risen.   This makes them very easy to change, glam up, complicate or simplify.  Heston Blumenthal makes earl gray tea flavoured buns, a chocolate chip variation is apparently particularly Australian, you can get coffee, sour cherry, gluten free,  in  Newtown, Sydney, you can find them with frankincense glaze so you feel like you are in church – which is a bit odd becuase you shouldn’t eat in church.  Or even filled with flavoured mousse or bread & butter pudding.
Every year in Australia someone complains that shops are selling them in January, in the UK you can get them all year round.
For a sweet little bun, they were always controversial – in England at one stage forbidden by Protestants as too Catholic, then limited to Good Friday (maybe it was easier to get people to obey then – an eye for an eye, a head for a bun…)
Now there is also controversy among historians about whether they used to be made in honour of the goddess of light or of the moon, the cross originally the horns of a sacred ox.
Certainly there were many superstitions about them – if you bake them on good Friday they will never go off, you can hang one in your kitchen to bring luck, they were even used ground up as medicine.

Have a look at the recipe link,I love the mix of orange zest and candied orange in it, or try your own favourite hot cross bun recipe with one of these belly lab variations:

Tuscan bun – skip sugar glaze and sugar in dough, add rosemary

Pagan bun – The cross is normally made with a simple paste of flour and water (see recipe link).  Make a sunburst instead of a cross by adding 2 more lines, or  try other designs, moon, starts, happy face, flowers …,  colour the flour – or just leave the cross off, call them buns, eat them all year round

Ultra traditional bun – make cross  shape with a wooden ‘bun docker’ – see here for how to make your very own docker – probably useful to give yourself stigmata too…be careful

 

MISS APRIL’S BEST IN SEASON

 

Out with the nectarines in with apples it’ April!

Celebrate the new life with eggs and a roast lamb or if you are not a meat eater perhaps a fish pie for Good Friday.

Crack a real egg over a chocolate one and make a baked egg custard and serve with a roasted stuffed apple or simply the custard paying homage to the egg.

Give your garden a new life by getting in there and weeding and treating it to some worm juice make your own or look at the farmers’ market or community garden for some and see everything spring to life.

Miss April Alison Drover Fork in the Field X

 

What’s in season NSW

 

Almonds

Miss April in milkmaid mode

Apple

Avocado

Banana

Beetroot

Broccoli

Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage

Capsicum

Carrot

Celery

Chestnuts

Chilli

Coriander

Cucumber

Eggplant

Fennel

Fig

Garlic

Ginger

Grapes

Green Beans

Hazelnut

Lemon

Lime

Lobster

Mushrooms

Okra     Olive   Onion   Oregano

Papaya   Parsnip   Pear     Persimmon   Pistachio   Plums   Pomegranate   Potato   Pumpkin

Quince

Sage   Shallots   Silverbeet   Spinach   Squash

Thyme   Tomato   Turnip

Walnut

 

Northern Rivers Locally best is … silverbeet, basil, avocado, and tomatoes.

 

MISS APRIL’S EASTER RECIPES

 

EASTER POMEGRANATE AND YOGURT LAMB

 

Serve with crunchy rosemary potatoes

 

Shoulder of lamb – deboned approximately 1.6 kg or more

 

• 1 tsp. cumin

• 1tsp coriander

• juice of lemon

• 3 cloves of garlic (not imported) minced

• 1 tsp. fennel seeds

• 1 tsp. chopped thyme

• 4 tablespoons of olive oil

• 4 sprigs thyme

• 1 tsp. cinnamon

• 1 tsp. salt

• 3 cinnamon sticks

• 4 tablespoons yogurt

• 1 pomegranate – seeded

• 2 onions

 

Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3.

Take each onion cut top and bottom off (don’t cut off the skin).

Place onions in the bottom of baking tray. This will be used to rest the lamb on.

Place all the pomegranate seeds in a saucepan and 2 tablespoons of water and heat gently on a low heat on the stove for about 5 minutes or until the seeds have softened. This is a simply way of making a syrup to rub over the lamb.

Mix all the spices except the thyme and the cinnamon quills add the yogurt.

Take a paring knife and cut across the lamb. Ensure you have clean hands and then rub the spice and yogurt mix into the lamb. Take the pomegranate syrup/seeds and rub this all over the lamb.

Push the cinnamon quills into the lamb and then the thyme sprigs into the cinnamon.

Place the lamb in the oven and then cover the dish with a lid or the tin with a large piece of foil. Roast the lamb, undisturbed, for 3 hrs, then remove the lid or foil and continue to roast for 30 mins to give the lamb colour. When the lamb has had its time, pour off the juices, remove as much fat as possible, then pour the juices back over the lamb.

 

 

BAKED EGG CUSTARD

 

• 425ml organic full-cream milk

• 300ml organic double cream

• the zest of 1 orange

• 140g natural caster sugar

• 5 large, free-range eggs

• 4 large egg yolks

• a few drops of real vanilla extract

• a few gratings of nutmeg

• a 25cm deep ovenproof dish

Preheat the oven to 120 C/gas mark . Put the milk, cream and orange zest into a largish saucepan over a low to medium heat, and slowly bring the contents to a simmer. Immediately remove the pan from the heat, pour in the rum and leave the milk to infuse for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, whisk the sugar, whole eggs and yolks until thoroughly combined. Strain the milk on to the egg mixture (discarding the zest), stir well and add the vanilla extract.

Pour the custard mixture into the dish, grate on nutmeg, and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 1 hour, or until the custard has set (gently push the top with a finger to test). Serve at room temperature.

 

MUSIC

 

Love You More, Bobby Alu

Trouble Somehow, The Audreys

Rocksteady Woman, Nicky Bomba

Magdalena, Watussi

In the ghetto, Candi Staton and Elvis Presley

 

love and chocolate hot star buns, Sister T

 

ps – if this is all too much Easter sweetness for you, check out the Easter bunny and Ghengis Khan going head to head in a rap battle on Youtube here