CANNELÉS

I made cannelés.

I am a bit perplexed because I've never tasted an authentic one before.

Did I get it right? Did I screw up? I dunno.



This is somewhat like my macaron experiment in that I've heard such good things about these treats that I had to try duplicating them at home as travelling to Bordeaux, France for the real thing is cost-prohibitive. By the way, did you know that the spelling of "cannelés" with two "n's" indicates that it is not an authentic recipe based on the original cake that is the official goodie of Bourdeaux? The original recipe is spelled with only one "n". You have to follow the original recipe (a closely guarded recipe I'm sure) to the letter in order for it to be a canelé. Hm. Well, I wasn't going to be buying beeswax and I didn't have copper molds, so let's use two "n's".
it looks burnt, but in reality, i need to bake it longer and make it more dark brown all over

First of all, I consulted 5 different recipes and settled on Helen's from Tartelette. Seeing as she's French and she knows her macarons, I figured she probably knows a thing or two about how to make cannelés too. I used her recipe and noticed that it conveniently called for 3 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks. This would be a perfect recipe to make in tandem with macarons because I do need 3 egg whites for my favourite macaron recipe too! Wow. Such baking karma.

Those red silicone cannelé molds I purchased recently work perfectly. My little canneles popped out of their ridged cups so easily! Mind you, being the worry-wart, I sprayed my molds with some baker's spray just to be on the safe side. I didn't want to be fishing out any remnants of cake from the ridges because it's such a pain. wanna bite? before you know it, you're taking 3 or 4 bites and you think you have to try another one just to make sure they were good.

With my first batch, baked for 45 minutes at 375°F, I thought that the cakes looked way too pale. A few of them had puffed up over the rim of the molds while they were baking, but a few didn't. So I kept adding time and looking through the window of the oven to check until finally, at 1 hour and 15 minutes, I decided to take them out. The golden brown cannelés looked picture perfect coming out of the oven. However, I discovered in a few seconds that they react just like popovers when taken out of the oven. They all kind of fell and lost a bit of height. Some buckled in at the middle area, creating hour-glass figures. They tasted pretty good though. The insides tasted somewhat like a crepe and the rum flavour was delicate and delicious. They looked a lot smaller than I thought they would.

For my second batch, I decided to really go dark brown, as I've noticed most pictures of cannelés depict them as dark brown in colour (verging on burnt!) and they all seemed to have straight sides. I figured I had jumped the gun and brought them out too soon and that's why my sides were all wonky. Baking them longer would help them stay straight, right?

My second batch I baked using my convection feature and I cranked it up to 375°F (which ends up kind of like 400°F in a regular oven). I ended up baking them for 1 1/2 hours total in order to get the dark brown crust. The sides were a tad wonky but they were more even than the initial batch. The insides were more firm but they were still moist and the flavour was the same. The crust though was better with this dark brown colour. It was crunchier and contrasted nicely with the smooth, custardy interior.

Yum. Though I had consulted Martha Stewart's cookbook, I didn't use her recipe. In the end, I realized that I ended up baking my cannelés as long as she called for in her recipe: 1 1/2 to 2 hours! It didn't look right at first, but I guess it is. It does take that long for these little cakes to get that dark. Her picture was inspirational because the cannelés were a uniform darkness all around and they were really uniform in shape. Mine were not. Perhaps this was due to the fact that I used silicone instead of copper. Ah well, they're pretty tasty. I'll have to try MS's recipe next and see how it turns out. Her recipe calls for salt too and perhaps the added salt will help browning.

More about → CANNELÉS

Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Kitava, Part II: Blood Lipids

The findings in the previous post are all pretty much expected in a population that doesn't get heart disease. However, things started to get interesting when Lindeberg's group measured the Kitavans' serum lipids ("cholesterol"). Kitavan and Swedish total cholesterol is about the same in young men, around 174 mg/dL (4.5 mmol/L). It rises with age in older Swedish men but not Kitavans.

Doctors commonly refer to total cholesterol over 200 mg/dL (5.2 mmol/L) as "high", so Kitavan men are in the clear. On the other hand, Kitavan women should be dying of heart disease left and right with their high middle-age cholesterol of 247 mg/dL (6.4 mmol/L)! That's actually higher than the value for Swedish women of the same age, who are far more prone to heart disease than Kitavans.

The fun doesn't stop there. Total cholesterol isn't a good predictor of heart attack risk, but there are better measures. LDL on Kitava is lower in males than in Sweden, but for females it's about the same until old age.  HDL is slightly lower than Swedes' at middle and old age, and triglycerides are higher on average. Judging by these numbers, Kitavans should have cardiovascular disease (CVD) comparable to Swedes, who suffer from a high rate of cardiovascular mortality.

Kitavan smokers had a lower HDL than nonsmokers, yet still did not develop CVD. Smoking is considered one of the most powerful risk factors for cardiovascular disease in Western populations.  I think it's worth noting, however, that Kitavans tend to be light smokers.

These data are difficult to reconcile with the hypothesis that certain patterns of blood lipids cause CVD. Kitavans, particularly the women, have a blood lipid profile that should have them clutching their chests, yet they remain healthy.

There is a theory of the relationship between blood lipids and CVD that can explain these data. Perhaps blood lipids, rather than causing CVD, simply reflect diet composition and other lifestyle factors. Both on Kitava and in the West, low HDL and elevated triglycerides imply a high carbohydrate intake. Low-carbohydrate diets consistently raise HDL and lower triglycerides. On Kitava, carbohydrate comes mostly from root crops. In the West, it comes mostly from processed grains (typically wheat) and sugar. So the blood lipid pattern that associates best with CVD and the metabolic syndrome in the West is simply a marker of industrial food intake.

More about → Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Kitava, Part II: Blood Lipids

Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Kitava, Part I: Weight and Blood Pressure

The Kitavans are an isolated population free of cardiovascular disease and stroke, despite the fact that more than three quarters of them smoke cigarettes (although not very frequently). They eat a carbohydrate-heavy, whole-foods diet that is uninfluenced by modern food habits and consists mostly of starchy root crops, fruit, vegetables, coconut and fish. Their intake of grains and processed foods is negligible.

Naturally, when Dr. Lindeberg's group discovered that Kitavans don't suffer from heart disease or stroke, they investigated further. In the second paper of the series, they analyzed the Kitavans' "cardiovascular risk factors" that sometimes associate with heart disease in Western populations, such as overweight, hypertension, elevated total cholesterol and other blood lipid markers.

Kitavans are lean. Adult male body mass index (BMI) starts out at 22, and diminishes with age. For comparison, Swedes begin at a BMI of 25 and stay that way. Both populations lose muscle mass with age, so Kitavans are staying lean while Swedes are gaining fat. The average American has a BMI of about 28, which is considered overweight and 2 points away from being obese.

Kitavans also have a low blood pressure that rises modestly with age. This is actually a bit surprising to me, since other non-industrial groups like the Kuna do not experience a rise in blood pressure with age. Compared with Swedes, Kitavans' blood pressure is considerably lower at all ages.

In the next post, I'll discuss the Kitavans' blood lipid numbers ("cholesterol"), which challenge current thinking about heart disease risk factors.

More about → Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Kitava, Part I: Weight and Blood Pressure

Hanbagu

Ever since I started cooking for my family, I have been cooking dishes 'anyway' I like. I don't usually follow recipes closely and I have a tendency to take short cuts. Things started to change after I read a Japanese-Chinese cookbook. It is a great book, with many step-by-step photos to illustrate how to go about preparing the ingredients for cooking. It provides many useful tips and explains why certain steps have to be adhered to. It even includes details on when to turn up or turn down the heat while you are cooking the dish. For the first time, I was very disciplined and followed the recipe of a hamburger patty to a T.


This Hanbagu, the Japanese version of a hamburger, is served on a plate and not sandwiched between a bun. Besides the basic salt & pepper seasonings, eggs, onions, and bread crumbs are also added to the ground beef. Unlike most beef patty recipes I have seen, the minced onions are first sauteed before mixing with the meat. Although it seems like an extra step, I thought it is a good idea as I believe my kids would find the taste of the sauteed onions more bearable ;)


For a quick and simple weekday lunch, I served the hanbagu with some blanched french beans, carrots and cherry tomatoes. Thanks to the clear cooking instructions in the book, the meat patties turned out to be very juicy. The patties were 'steam-cooked' midway...this helped to retain the juice and yet ensured the patties were cooked through. I was quite skeptical about the instructions for making the sauce though. There was no cooking involved, the sauce was made simply by mixing some ketchup with Worcestershire sauce...it was too simple to be true. I tasted the mixture and it gave a real yucky taste! Nevertheless, I trusted the cookbook and went ahead to serve it with the hanbagu. To my amazement, the sauce actually went quite well with the meat patty! It tasted as if it was prepared with red wine?! As expected, my kids love the hanbagu, but made noise about the sauce :( I guess it would take sometime for them to acquire the taste, so in the mean time, I would have to look for another recipe for the sauce.



Ingredients:
(serves 4)

1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
400g ground beef
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
some pepper to season
4 tablespoons bread crumbs
3 tablespoons milk

sauce:
mix 2 tablespoons ketchup with 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce


Method:

1. Saute onion with butter, until onions turn transparent, set aside, let cool completely.
2. Soak the breadcrumb in milk, mix a little and set aside.
3. Place ground beef in a bowl, add beaten egg, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add in the cooked onion and breadcrumb mixture. Mix the mixture with hands until it becomes sticky.
4. Make four meat balls and toss each ball from one hand to the other hand a few times. This helps to prevent the meat patty from breaking into pieces during frying.
5. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the meat patties over medium heat for 1~2 mins. Turn over and fry for another 1~2 mins. When both sides are lightly browned cover the pan with a lid and turn to Low heat. Allow to cook for about 7~8 mins. Remove the lid and cook until both sides are evenly browned. You can insert a toothpick or a skewer into the centre of the beef patty. If the juice runs clear the patties are done.
6. Dish out the patties and serve with the the sauce.

Recipe source: 轻松学做菜: 烹饪秘诀195

More about → Hanbagu

3 Loopy Loops

We did this style, with three loops instead of 2. Ignore my messy parts, even us "pros" have off days. ;)

More about → 3 Loopy Loops

The Kitavans: Wisdom from the Pacific Islands

There are very few cultures left on this planet that have not been affected by modern food habits. There are even fewer that have been studied thoroughly. The island of Kitava in Papua New Guinea is host to one such culture, and its inhabitants have many profound things to teach us about diet and health.

The Kitava study, a series of papers produced primarily by Dr. Staffan Lindeberg and his collaborators, offers a glimpse into the nutrition and health of an ancient society, using modern scientific methods. This study is one of the most complete and useful characterizations of the diet and health of a non-industrial society I have come across. It's also the study that created, and ultimately resolved, my cognitive dissonance over the health effects of carbohydrate.

From the photos I've seen, the Kitavans are beautiful people. They have the broad, attractive faces, smooth skin and excellent teeth typical of healthy non-industrial peoples.

Like the Kuna, Kitavans straddle the line between agricultural and hunter-gatherer lifestyles. They eat a diet primarily composed of tubers (yam, sweet potato, taro and cassava), fruit, vegetables, coconut and fish, in order of calories. This is typical of traditional Pacific island cultures, although the relative amounts differ.

Grains, refined sugar, vegetable oils and other processed foods are virtually nonexistent on Kitava. They get an estimated 69% of their calories from carbohydrate, 21% from fat, 17% from saturated fat and 10% from protein. Most of their fat intake is saturated because it comes from coconuts. They have an omega-6 : omega-3 ratio of approximately 1:2. Average caloric intake is 2,200 calories per day (9,200 kJ). By Western standards, their diet is high in carbohydrate, high in saturated fat, low in total fat, a bit low in protein and high in calories.

Now for a few relevant facts before we really start diving in:

• Kitavans are moderately active. They have an activity level comparable to a moderately active Swede, the population to which Dr. Lindeberg draws frequent comparisons.
  


• They have abundant food, and shortage is uncommon.
  


• Their good health is probably not related to genetics, since genetically similar groups in the same region are exquisitely sensitive to the ravages of industrial food. Furthermore, the only Kitavan who moved away from the island to live a modern life is also the only fat Kitavan.
  


• Their life expectancy at birth is estimated at 45 years (includes infant mortality), and life expectancy at age 50 is an additional 25 years. This is remarkable for a culture with limited access to modern medicine.
  


• Over 75% of Kitavans smoke cigarettes, although in small amounts. Even the most isolated societies have their modern vices.

The first study in the series is provocatively titled "Apparent absence of stroke and ischaemic heart disease in a traditional Melanesian island: a clinical study in Kitava." In it, Dr. Lindeberg presents data from interviews and electrocardiograms (ECG) suggesting that heart disease and stroke are absent or extremely rare on Kitava. The inhabitants are entirely unfamiliar with the (characteristic) symptoms of heart attack and stroke, despite the sizable elderly population. This is confirmed by the ECG findings, which indicate remarkable cardiovascular health. It also agrees with data from other traditional cultures in Papua New Guinea. Lindeberg states:

For the whole of PNG, no case of IHD or atherothrombotic stroke has been reported in clinical investigations and autopsy studies among traditionally living Melanesians for more than seven decades, though an increasing number of myocardial infarctions [heart attacks] and angina pectoris in urbanized populations have been reported since the 1960s.

Dementia was not found except in in two young Kitavans, who were born handicapped. The elderly remained sharp until death, including one man who reached 100 years of age. Kitavans are also unfamiliar with external cancers, with the exception of one possible case of breast cancer in an elderly woman.

Overall, Kitavans possess a resistance to degenerative diseases that is baffling to industrialized societies. Not only is this typical of non-industrial cultures, I believe it represents the natural state of existence for Homo sapiens. Like all other animals, humans are healthy and robust when occupying their preferred ecological niche. Our niche happens to be a particularly broad one, ranging from near-complete carnivory to plant-rich omnivory. But it does not include large amounts of industrial foods.

In the next few posts, I'll discuss more specific data about the health of the Kitavans.

More about → The Kitavans: Wisdom from the Pacific Islands

Letter to the Editor

I wrote a letter to the New York Times about their recent article "The Overflowing American Dinnerplate", which I reviewed here. The letter didn't get accepted, so I will publish it here:

In the article "The Overflowing American Dinner Plate", Bill Marsh cites USDA data showing a 59% increase in fat consumption from 1970 to 2006, coinciding with the doubling of the obesity rate in America. However, according to Centers for Disease Control NHANES nutrition survey data, total fat intake in the US has remained relatively constant since 1971, and has actually decreased as a percentage of calories. The apparent discrepancy disappears when we understand that the USDA data Marsh cites are not comprehensive. They do not include the fat contained in milk and meat, which have been steadily decreasing since 1970.

The change Marsh reported refers primarily to the increasing use of industrially processed vegetable oils such as soybean oil. These have gradually replaced animal fats in our diet over the last 30 years. Since overall fat intake has changed little since the 1970s, it cannot be blamed for rising obesity.

More about → Letter to the Editor