Drinking rainwater

Simon's mention of minerals made me think about my drinking habits ;-)
As some will know, I've recently got a rainwater harvesting system going on the boat. It's working really well so far, supplementing my fill-ups at BW points. What I didn't know was that if you're relying solely on rainwater, you have to remineralise it to get the various (she says vaguely) minerals that we need for good health. You'd think the stuff that falls from the sky was the most perfect drink but I guess that, in a natural state, man would drink from streams and rivers that flowed across rocks and through sediment. Even well water would have gone through this process.
I was talking to the friendly woman who works as a distributor of the 'candles' that are the filtering part of my purification system (British Berkfeld gravity filter). She told me her family have a lump of granite in their filter and hope for the best! I'd like to research it more even though I think I'm ok because my rainwater is mixed in with the stuff from the taps.

'you soak it overnight...'

I'm staying with friends in Somerset, it's always inspiring to stay with people who's approach to food (and plenty of other things) is thought out, informed. One major discussion has been about phytic acid, present in the husks of grains, and also pulses - it's reported than it combines with minerals and prevents the body absorbing them - calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc - all useful trace elements, and ironically the most valued by a vegetarian/vegan who is less likely to be getting direct sources of them (at least calcium & iron) from milk & meat respectively. Soaking overnight clears most of this, which is basically a slight fermentation - for example breakfast has been porridge made from soaked jumbo oats, which has a slightly sour (but not unpleasant) taste from the soaking.

Phytic acid is also in soya, and I've read before about people avoiding unfermented soya products. Sally Fallon's book 'Nourishing Traditions' claims on the front to be 'The cookbook that challenges politically correct nutrition and the diet dictocrats' and talks about this, and also that older cultures always used these foods in a fermented state - sourdough bread, miso and more, and also that the proteins in gluten which are harder to digest (and presumably cause problems for many who avoid gluten) are also broken down in soaking/fermentation.

All interesting stuff; the scientist in me wants to find out more rather than just take it from one source, but certainly worth more thinking & reading. It's always difficult with these kind of things to estimate the effect/scale of the benefits/downsides of one course of action or another - neglibility may come into it, or a known, acceptable risk. The health effects of alcohol are well known, but we choose to poison ourselves, as it's fun doing so... ;-)

Should also mention (as this is notes for me as much as a point for discussion) we visited friends Linda & Richard who are doing up an old house nearby, and are currently living in the (very nicely converted) cowshed next door. Linda runs Impulse Foods, makers of fine Tempeh available near you. The 'you start by saking it overnight' line became something of a running joke, which of course I strung out for as long as possible. It's good to be in a place where good food is prioritised, and good as in ethics & health rather than just in the foodie way - lots of local, seasonal food. Food for thought, literally.

Nuttolene Fritters

An occasional pleasure is deep fat frying; chunky chips, obviously, and normally balls of sosmix, with diced onion & pepper mixed in. No sosmix in the house tonight (it's probablty full of GM soya anyway, I really need to do some research on that one), but I did have a tin of Nuttolene, which has now been changed to be even blander, which was possibly the point, and also ever slightly less likely like tinned meat.

In a subconcious war rememberance moment I tried to make fritters - the batter (wholemeal flour & soya milk, water) was possibly a little too thin, but they were - OK.

I was going to post this one as a bit of a failure, but as as all good scientists know, there's no such thing, only a negative result to an experiment. Anyway, I suspect Spam Fritters weren't any nicer... ;-)

No Potato

Right, so I am now a contributor on a food blog, I know this will bring great hilarity amongst my locals as my food is known to be a bit hit and miss, but at least I can try to shine here!

I haven't been able to find Becky's allotment for beetroot, so the borscht isn't on my list, but being allergic to potatoes I thought I would mention that

Parsnip
Turnip
Lentils
and Sweet Potato are excellent substitutes

The all contain less levels of starch than potatoes and make a delicious soup.

New Pans

Chiswick car boot sale neatly fulfilled it's purpose of passing on the junk of the middle classes, and I now own two Le Crueset cast iron pans. I've had a frying pan from them for about fifteen years, and it's served me well, so it's nice to replace two rather basic Ikea pans with these. They're hardly used yet (by me), but are nicely 'slow' compared to the thinner precursors; whilst taking longer to heat up, they stay warmer for longer, too.

they guy who sold them to me said he was getting rid of them as he'd just retiled his kitchen floor, and didn't want to crack it by dropping a pan; I think that's a recommendation, and certainly not a problem for my old concrete floor.

A question for others; I'm tempted to buy some kind of electric whisk or food processor to try to make soups properly, but I'd rather not; would a hand whisk do the same kind of job, albeit with more elbow grease involved?

Becky's Borscht

Beetroot (from Becky's allotment!), potato, nutmeg & black pepper

Beetroot takes longer to cook than potato, so add first, whizz up in food proc or similar once cooked through. We added soya cream, but would have been just as good without.

Put in here to remind myself, and also point out that my urine's gone a funny colour... ;-)

let's start with a boring one...

I often finish work later than ideal, and this is probably a step up from bread and a tin of beans, or pasta & a jar of sauce but only just. Another major problem I have is shift work and being out all day/evening if not working (boat, if not elsewhere), so I don't always have a lot of fresh veg to hand.

Assuming I have potatoes - boiled potatoes, with other winter veg if to hand, or worst (and most common) case frozen peas. To go with that, a frozen supermarket beanburger. Mushroom ketchup (if I've been able to buy any recently) or some kind of chutney/relish for flavour.

This doesn't take too long, includes some fresh veg content, and some carbohydrate & protein. The potatoes/peas/winter veg are likely to be british in origin, the beanburger contents unknown.

the obvious improvment to what is basically fast food would be the beanburger - I have tried making my own and freezing them to varying degrees of success. I'm not obsessed with a daily obvious source of protein, but it doesn't do any harm - I generally put food together for colour/texture variation, which often gives the desired effect of a varied diet.;-)

I'd like to record beanburger etc attempts here in future, I think. Something similar would be home made falafel; I'm not sure I'd want to heat up oil every time I used some from the freezer, mind, so I'm assume it could be pre-cooked and grilled? Or just grilled to start with?