Some Further Thoughts on Raw and Cooked; Step by Step Kim Chee Recipe

Happy weekend, everyone! The sun is shining here and it is so good to be home. Yesterday was a catch-up day and was also a south-westerly wind storm day. The wind was blowing so hard that I had difficulty applying toilet paper in the outhouse, and then the paper wouldn't drop down the hole--the wind blew it back up!! So, of course, Phil and I went for a beach hike in the crazy wind.

When it blows like this, you can see why erosion happens on our bluff. Here is the southeast corner of our homestead viewed from below--there were several mini-avalanches just while we were there, and the cliff face looks like a sculpture being carved out. I hope that the carving leaves our home up there! Look at the rocks calving out at the bottom.

It's hard to provide a visual for these intense winds, but here is the sand being blown into whorls and traceries--that hit you like bullets if you're downwind...

I was getting ready to talk more about my experiments with and thoughts on PUFAs, especially in aftermath of the Great Health Debate, but there were so many interesting comments on my first post, as well as follow-up thoughts that occurred to me, (things I forgot to mention!) that a revisit seems in order. Also, having recently mentioned kim-chee making, I'm going to share the recipe, step by step.

Raw Food Feel-Good and Appetite Reset
As Mindy and Raederle pointed out, eating mostly raw foods can provide a 'glow' and general sense of well-being for many people. Gena also pointed out that too many people don't eat enough fresh foods. Those people especially could benefit from more fresh plant foods and experiencing the 'glow.' Of course, it's also true that if you have a bunch of heavy food in your system and then eat a bunch of fruit on top of it, the resulting fermentation can make you feel very uncomfortable and not at all glowing. And then there's the whole 'detox' can of worms that can allow people to feel worse before they feel better as they improve their diets. I don't want to get too much farther into that right now.

I'm completely in agreement about the feel-good from fresh plant foods: what I have been wanting to suggest is that this feel-good is negated when it becomes an obsession and you start to view every other form of food as somehow poisonous. Per finding #7 in my 'this much I have learned' post, if you ram home a certain belief that demonizes a certain food or food group, your body is going to manifest symptoms to confirm it. I've noticed that strict raw-foodists (including myself for many years) are much more likely to manifest such symptoms around something of which they feel suspicious, or which is obviously 'cooked,' than around something ambiguous like coconut water (from a can or from a coconut?)

And of course, I'm appealing for openness to compromise. For example, this was my splurge from the Natural Pantry in Anchorage this time:

Powdered coconut water! Now there's no way in a million years I'd have been tempted to buy that when I lived in HI and could harvest my own nuts--or even when I lived in CA and could buy young coconuts for less than a dollar apiece. But it's a good way to get some of the goodness of young coconuts up here where they are so much less available. Similarly, I used to be afraid of eating frozen foods, thinking they were little better than cooked. Now, I'm not too interested in frozen berries when we have tons of raspberries outside in the fall, but the rest of the time, yes please! Freezing reduces some nutrients, but with long, hard winters up here, it's a very acceptable compromise.

The other point that I wanted to address was Lori's comment about resetting taste-buds and appetite. This is a really good point about the value of raw and otherwise minimally-processed foods and it brings us back to the whole 'Pleasure Trap' discussion. Eating lots of raw, fresh, fiber and water-rich plant foods ratchets down our tolerance for intense, artificially enhanced flavors and changes our relationship to foods so that even if we do indulge in 'junk' occasionally, it won't be quite so compelling. It doesn't happen overnight, but it sure is worth holding out for.

Cold Fats and Cooked Crucifers?
One thing that I didn't emphasize in the last post, although I'm sure I've said it before, is that one kind of food that it really is worth keeping raw is Unsaturated Fats. I'm less worried about coconut oil and other saturated fats, since they are less prone to oxidation and more heat tolerant. But as neutral as I try to remain about nutritional information, the oxidation and 'trans-ification' of unsaturated fats when exposed to heat, and the ways that they can affect our bodies in that condition, really do scare me. Please don't cook with vegetable oils! Even olive oil, mostly monounsaturated and therefore somewhat more heat tolerant, has enough PUFA in it to really benefit from being kept at low temperatures.

I also mentioned that the goitrogens in crucifers are not neutralized by making kraut--but other anti-nutrients are, and the krauting process itself improves the vitamin-C profile, provides beneficial bacteria and is otherwise delicious and good. And of course, the funny thing about goitrogens themselves is that there is some evidence that when they're not messing your thyroid up, they might be protective against thyroid cancer! Isn't nature funny?

Bitt asked for a link for the research showing that goitrogens are not neutralized by krauting: I dug around and found this one. It's from the Weston Price Foundation. Whatever you think about their espousal of animal products, they are really interested in traditional food preparation methods like fermentation, and this seems to be a carefully researched article.

There is mention that the goitrogens are most fully neutralized after long boiling--so, Raederle, there's more vindication for your boiled broccoli as beneficial!

Step by Step Kim Chee
I'm open to eating crucifers cooked, and this research helps me to go with my current (idiosyncratic) preference for them that way. But I still love my krauted veggies, and since Lori asked so nicely, I made kim chee again and took pictures! Here it is, step by step.

You need:
A big napa cabbage--pull off the outer leaves and set aside
A couple of carrots (or one very big one)
Scallions (to taste)
Ginger (to taste)
A tablespoon of good quality salt

Start by shredding up the napa cabbage with your chef knife as fine as you can. I like to cut in half lengthwise, then cut each half several more times lengthwise, then chop crosswise.

Then pound it down with something heavy (it's good to use a steel or enamel bowl for this, so it won't bust). My 'something heavy' is simply my upended chef knife--live dangerously, right?

Chop up everything else, and grate in ginger. Yes, for me 'to taste' is a lot! Can also add some crushed chilis. Sprinkle on the salt.

Then, get your hands in there and work the salt in and generally crush and smush everything up. In the above picture, the veggies are overflowing the bowl. In the below picture, they're below the surface.

Now, weight the whole lot down with a plate with something even heavier than your chef knife on top, and leave it to sit...

...until the liquid is up over the surface of the plate. And yes, in the meantime it got dark here. It's amazing how long the days are now--I started that project at about 6pm!

When it's nice and wet like that, stuff the whole lot into a mason jar or similar. Cover the veggies with the reserved outer cabbage leaves. Make sure the liquid is all the way up there and the veggies well tamped down. Weight down with something that fits--this very elegant wine bottle worked perfectly.

Leave out of direct sunlight for a few days and watch out for bubbles!
Enjoy!
Much love...