A site for family and friends. The focus is on recipes and associated experiences from my travels. As I travelled I developed an interest in the food of struggling families from the mines of Cornwall, to the Pacific Islands, to the Outback of Australia where I grew up. Recipes can be shared for non-profit purposes.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Coffee in Food Recipes
Curry, Chili and Coffee
In previous postings there was an emphasis on low-cost foods. Those with limited money have learned to make maximum use of inexpensive meats and related sources of proteins. In different countries and cultures families have made tasty and healthy dishes with inexpensive and modest amounts of different meats. Two spices, curry and chili, help generate tasty meals with a modest amount of inexpensive meats.
Recently researchers have suggested coffee can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. The May 7, 2012, issue of U.K. Mail reported:
Drinking coffee regularly can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's 'by boosting caffeine levels in the blood.'
* Volunteers who remained healthy had twice as much caffeine circulating than those who progressed to the early stages of dementia.
* First direct evidence that coffee intake is associated with a reduced risk, or delayed onset, of dementia.
The findings, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, support previous studies which showed drinking three cups of coffee a day can significantly reduce the risk of this incurable illness. Researchers think caffeine may work by triggering a chain reaction in the brain that prevents the damage done by Alzheimer’s.
Drinking coffee regularly can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by keeping caffeine levels in the blood topped up, new research shows. Scientists who tracked elderly patients over a four-year period found those with the highest levels of the stimulant in their bloodstream at the start of the study were less likely to suffer the brain-wasting disease.
Volunteers who remained healthy had twice as much caffeine circulating in their systems as those who progressed to the early stages of dementia, according to researchers at the University of South Florida....... In a report on their findings the researchers said: 'Coffee would appear to be the major or perhaps only source of caffeine for such stable patients.
This case-control study provides the first direct evidence that caffeine/coffee intake is associated with a reduced risk, or delayed onset, of dementia.'
Other recent studies suggest a daily coffee can ward off depression in women and even slash the risk of a stroke by a quarter.
Increasing Coffee in Food Recipes
While not that common, coffee in liquid or instant powder form is used as an ingredient in meat sauces and similar dishes. At this time, we suggest you avoid the decaffeinated coffee powder until researchers give us more information on the effect of decaffeination and the findings listed above. Many really enjoy chili and curry dishes. These are often made with left-over meats and vegetables and fruit and often made quickly.
To help me prepare curry and chili dishes quickly I use curry and chili liquid mixtures with strongly brewed coffee as the base ingredient.
Curry Mixture Ingredients
10 cups of strong brewed coffee
10 tablespoons curry powder - I prefer the Madras combination of curry spices 1 tablespoon of chili powder 4 packets of Equal 2 tablespoons of Vegemite (optional) I buy mine in the USA at https://www.simplyoz.com/ 1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
Combine ingredients in a pot and simmer until there is a 20% reduction in the liquid.
Chili Mixture Ingredients
These are the same as the Curry Mixture, except replace curry with chili powder and chili with curry.
Using the Mixtures
I store the curry and chili mixtures in half-gallon bottles so that I can shake them well before using the contents. Rather than throw out unused coffee keep a half-gallon jar nearby and collect the left-over coffee.
For mild curry or chili dishes I use 1/4 cup of liquid for each quart of dish content. Equal in the recipe is used instead of sugar and enhances the flavor of the major spice.
See post "Outback Queensland Curry" Thursday, march 3, 2011 for information on a typical curry recipe.
See post "Sausage Gumbo," November 4, 2010. This is not a typical chili recipe but chili powder is the core spice.
Chili Legends and Myths (The following was included in an article by Linda Stradley in 2004.)
There are many legends and stories about where chili originated and it is generally thought by most historians that the earliest versions of chili were made by the very poorest people. J. C. Clopper, the first American known to have remarked about San Antonio's chili con carne, wrote in 1926:
"When they have to pay for their meat in the market, a very little is made to suffice for a family; this is generally made into a kind of hash with nearly as many peppers as there are pieces of meat - this is all stewed together."
According to an old Southwestern American Indian legend and tale (several modern writers have documented - or maybe just "passed along"), it is said that the first recipe for chili con carne was put on paper in the 17th century by a beautiful nun, Sister Mary of Agreda of Spain. She was mysteriously known to the Indians of the Southwest United States as "La Dama de Azul," the lady in blue. Sister Mary would go into trances with her body lifeless for days. When she awoke from these trances, she said her spirit had been to a faraway land where she preached Christianity to savages and counseled them to seek out Spanish missionaries.
It is certain that Sister Mary never physically left Spain, yet Spanish missionaries and King Philip IV of Spain believed that she was the ghostly "La Dama de Azul" or "lady in blue" of Indian Legend. It is said that sister Mary wrote down the recipe for chili which called for venison or antelope meat, onions, tomatoes, and chile peppers. No accounts of this were ever recorded, so who knows?
To hear most recent research tell it, coffee is a miracle drink. The magic beans will ward off skin cancer and Alzheimer’s, reduce heart failure and diabetes risks, heighten focus, and maybe even protect liver health. Oh, and decrease suicide risk, according to the newest study that validates our coffee addictions.
According to a study performed by the Harvard School of Public Health and published this month in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, people who drink two to four cups of java each day are less likely to commit suicide than those who don’t drink coffee, drink decaf, or drink fewer than two cups each day. The study followed over 200,000 people for at least 16 years. And it’s not just a weak link: the researchers found that the suicide risk was cut by around 50 percent for caffeine fiends.
This isn’t the first time that researchers have discovered that coffee and smiles might go hand-in-hand. A 2011 study found that women who drink coffee cut their risk of depression by 15 percent compared to those who don’t. Michel Lucas, the head researcher of the most recent study, told The Huffington Post that coffee addicts can thank caffeine for the good news. The drug may actually act like a mild anti-depressant by tweaking levels of happy hormones like serotonin and dopamine.
Of course, there’s plenty of research out there that doesn’t look so kindly upon coffee drinkers. Recently, the New Yorker published an article arguing that while coffee may heighten focus, that means it also puts a squeeze on creativity. And of course, coffee’s well-known negative effects like insomnia and disturbed sleep cycles still hold.
Regardless, we’ll raise our mugs to this most recent study for giving us one more validation for our vice.
10 tablespoons curry powder - I prefer the Madras combination of curry spices
Combine ingredients in a pot and simmer until there is a 20% reduction in the liquid.
According to an old Southwestern American Indian legend and tale (several modern writers have documented - or maybe just "passed along"), it is said that the first recipe for chili con carne was put on paper in the 17th century by a beautiful nun, Sister Mary of Agreda of Spain. She was mysteriously known to the Indians of the Southwest United States as "La Dama de Azul," the lady in blue. Sister Mary would go into trances with her body lifeless for days. When she awoke from these trances, she said her spirit had been to a faraway land where she preached Christianity to savages and counseled them to seek out Spanish missionaries.
No comments:
Post a Comment