Israeli Chickpea Croquettes (Falafel)

Falafel are spicy chickpea croquettes. The original Egyptian variety contained dried white broad beans and were called ta'amia/ta'ameya. In Israel, chickpeas were substituted for the broad beans. Falafel are delicious served stuffed inside split Middle Eastern flatbreads dressed with tahini sauce or hummus and accompanied by green salad. Makes: 14 to 16 falafel

1¼ cups chickpeas, soaked overnight and drained,
½ teaspoon yellow asafetida powder,
3/4 cup finely chopped parsley,
1 teaspoon ground coriander,
1 teaspoon ground cumin,
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper,
1½ teaspoons salt,
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper,
½ teaspoon baking powder,
oil for deep-frying.

Process the chickpeas in a food processor and mince finely. Scrape the minced chickpeas into a bowl. Fold in the herbs, spices, salt, and baking powder. Mix well, knead a little, and leave for a few minutes.

Form the mixture into 14 to 16 falafel balls. Repeat until all the mixture is rolled.

Heat a heavy pan or wok with ghee or oil to a depth of 6.5 - 7.5 cm (2½ - 3 inches), until moderately hot 180°C/355°F. Deep-fry 7 to 8 falafels at a time, turning when required, for 5 or 6 minutes, or until they're evenly golden brown. If your pan is big enough and your heat source is strong enough, you can cook the whole mixture in one batch, but be careful.

Remove and drain on paper towels. Cook the remaining falafel if there is any mixture left. Serve hot, as recommended above.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The most important rule in falafel-making is DO NOT USE CANNED CHICKPEAS!! They will not work, they are cooked! You must obtain raw, dry chickpeas, and soak them, drain them, grind them, spice them, and then fry them. If you boil the chickpeas, you are wasting your time. The frying falafel will disintegrate in a spectacularly miserable mess.

 

The Higher Taste - Chapter 1

The Higher Taste - BBT Publisher
Chapter 1

Health and a Meatless Diet

The central question about vegetarian diets used to be whether it was healthy to eliminate meat and other animal foods. Now, however, the main question has become whether it is healthier to be a vegetarian than to be a meat eater. The answer to both questions, based on currently available evidence, seems to be yes.

- Jane E. Brody
New York Times News Service

Today, with increasing evidence of diet's critical effect on good health and longevity, more and more people are investigating this question: Is the human body better suited to a vegetarian diet or one that includes meat?

In the search for answers, two areas should be considered - the anatomical structure of the human body, and the physical effects of meat consumption.

Since eating begins with the hands and mouth, what can the anatomy of these bodily parts tell us? Human teeth, like those of the herbivorous creatures, are designed for grinding and chewing vegetable matter. Humans lack the sharp front teeth for tearing flesh that are characteristic of carnivores. Meat-eating animals generally swallow their food without chewing it and therefore do not require molars or a jaw capable of moving sideways. Also, the human hand, with no sharp claws and with its opposable thumb, is better suited to harvesting fruits and vegetables than to killing prey.

PHYSIOLOGICAL COMPARISONS
MEAT-EATER	HERBIVORE	MAN
Has claws	No claws	No claws
No skin pores, perspires through tongue	Perspires through skin pores	Perspires through skin pores
Sharp front teeth for tearing, no flat molar teeth for grinding	No sharp front teeth has flat rear molars	No sharp front teeth has flat rear molars
Intestinal tract 3 times body length so rapidly decaying meat can pass out quickly	Intestinal tract 10-12 times body length	Intestinal tract 12 times body length
Strong hydrochloric acid in stomach to digest meat	Stomach acid 20 times less strong than meat-eaters	Stomach acid 20 times less strong than meat-eaters

Digesting Meat

Once within the stomach, meat requires digestive juices high in hydrochloric acid. The stomachs of humans and herbivores produce acid less than one-twentieth the strength of that found in carnivores.

Another crucial difference between the meat-eater and the vegetarian is found in the intestinal tract, where the food is further digested and nutrients are passed into the blood. A piece of meat is just part of a corpse, and its putrefaction creates poisonous wastes within the body. Therefore meat must be quickly eliminated. For this purpose, carnivores possess alimentary canals only three times the length of their bodies. Since man, like other non-flesh-eating animals, has and alimentary canal twelve times his body length, rapidly decaying flesh is retained for a much longer time, producing a number of undesirable toxic effects.

One body organ adversely affected by these toxins is the kidney. This vital organ, which extracts waste from the blood, is strained by the overload of poisons introduced by meat consumption. Even moderate meat-eaters demand three times more work form their kidneys than do vegetarians. The kidneys of a young person may be able to cope with this stress, but as one grows older the risk of kidney disease and failure greatly increases.

Heart Disease

The inability of the human body to deal with excessive animal fats in the diet is another indication of the unnaturalness of meat-eating. Carnivorous animals can metabolize almost unlimited amounts of cholesterol and fats without any adverse effects. In experiments with dogs, up to one half pound of butterfat was added to their daily diet over a period of two years, producing absolutely no change in their serum cholesterol level.

On the other hand, the vegetarian species have a very limited ability to deal with any level of cholesterol or saturated fats beyond the amount required by the body. When over a period of many years an excess is consumed, fatty deposits (plaque) accumulate on the inner walls of the arteries, producing a condition known as arteriosclerosis, hardening of the arteries. Because the plaque deposits constrict the flow of blood to the heart, the potential for heart attacks , strokes, and blood clots is tremendously increased.

As early as 1961, the Journal of the American Medical Association states that ninety-seven percent of heart disease, the cause of more than one half of the deaths in the United States, could be prevented by a vegetarian diet.¹ These findings are supported by an American Heart Association report that states, "In well-documented population studies using standard methods of diet and coronary disease assessment ... evidence suggests that a high-saturated-fat diet is an essential factor for a high incidence of coronary heart disease."² The National Academy of Sciences also reported recently that the high serum cholesterol level found in most Americans is a major factor in the coronary heart disease "epidemic" in the United States.³

Cancer

Further evidence of the unsuitability of the human intestinal tract for digestion of flesh is the relationship established by numerous studies, between colon cancer and meat-eating.⁴ One reason for the incidence of cancer is the high-fat, low-fiber content of the meat-centered diet. This results in a slow transit time through the colon, allowing toxic wastes to do their damage. States Dr. Sharon Fleming of the department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of California at Berkeley, "Dietary fiber appears to aid in reducing ... colon and rectal cancer."⁵ Moreover, while being digested, meat is known to generate steroid metabolites possessing carcinogenic (cancer-producing) properties.

As research continues, evidence linking meat-eating to other forms of cancer is building up at an alarming rate. The National Academy of Sciences reported in 1983 that "people may be able to prevent many common cancers by eating less fatty meats and more vegetable and grains."⁶ And in his Notes on the Causation of Cancer, Rollo Russell writes, "I have found of twenty-five nations eating little or no flesh, none had a high rate."⁷

Some of the most shocking results in cancer research have come from exploration of the effects of nitrosamines. Nitrosamines are formed when secondary amines, prevalent in beer, wine, tea, and tobacco, for example, react with chemical preservatives in meat. The Food and Drug Administration has labeled nitrosamines "one of the most formidable and versatile groups of carcinogens yet discovered, and their role ... in the etiology of human cancer has caused growing apprehension among experts." Dr. William Lijinsky of Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducted experiments in which nitrosamines were fed to test animals. Within six months he found malignant tumors in one hundred percent of the animals."The cancers," he said, "are all over the place; in the brain, lungs, pancreas, stomach, liver, adrenals, and intestines. The animals are a bloody mess."⁸

Dangerous Chemicals in Meat

Numerous other potentially hazardous chemicals, of which consumers are generally unaware, are present in meat and meat products. In their book Poisons in Your Body, Gary and Steven Null give us an inside look at the latest gimmicks used in the corporate-owned animal factories. "The animals are kept alive and fattened by the continuous administration of tranquilizers, hormones, antibiotics, and 2,700 other drugs," They write. "The process starts even before birth and continues long after death. Although these drugs will still be present in the meat when you eat it, the law does not require that they be listed on the package."

One of these chemicals is diethylstilbestrol (DES), a growth hormone that has been used in the U.S. for the last twenty years despite studies that have shown it to be carcinogenic. Banned as a serious health hazard in thirty-two countries, it continues to be used by the U.S. meat industry, possibly because the FDA estimates it saves meat producers more than $500 million annually.

Another popular growth stimulant is arsenic. In 1972 this well-known poison was found by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to exceed the legal limit in fifteen percent of the nation's poultry.⁹

Sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite, chemicals used as preservatives to slow down putrefaction in cured meat and meat products, including ham, bacon, bologna, salami, frankfurters, and fish, also endanger health. These chemicals give meat its bright-red appearance by reacting with pigments in the blood and muscle. Without them, the natural gray-brown color of dead meat would turn off many prospective consumers.

Unfortunately, these chemicals do not distinguish between the blood of a corpse and the blood of a living human, and many persons accidentally subjected to excessive amount have died of poising. Even smaller quantities can prove hazardous, especially for young children or babies, and therefore the United Nations' joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee of Food Additives warned, "Nitrate should on no account be added to baby food." A.J. Lehman of the FDA pointed out that "only a small margin of safety exists between the amount of nitrate that is safe and that which may be dangerous."

Because of the filthy, overcrowded conditions forced upon animals by the livestock industry, vast amounts of antibiotics must be used. But such rampant use of antibiotics naturally creates antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are passed on to those who eat the meat. The FDA estimates that penicillin and tetracycline save the meat industry $1.9 billion a year, giving them sufficient reason to overlook the potential health hazards.

The trauma of being slaughtered also adds "pain poisons" (such as powerful stimulants) into the meat. These join with uneliminated wastes in the animal's blood, such as urea and uric acid, to further contaminate the flesh the consumers eat.

Diseases in Meat

In addition to dangerous chemicals, meat often carries diseases from the animals themselves. Crammed together in unclean conditions, force-fed, and inhumanely treated, animals destined for slaughter contract many more diseases than they ordinarily would. Meat inspectors attempt to filter out unacceptable meats, but because of pressures from the industry and lack of sufficient time for examination, much of what passes is far less wholesome than the meat purchaser realizes.

A 1972 USDA report lists carcasses that passed inspection after the diseased parts were removed. examples included nearly 100,000 cows with eye cancer and 3,596,302 cases of abscessed liver. The government also permits the sale if chickens with airsacculitis, a pneumonia-like disease that causes pus-laden mucus to collect in the lungs. In order to meet federal standards, the chicken's chest cavities are cleaned out with air-suction guns. But during this process diseased air sacs burst and pus seeps into the meat.

The USDA has even been found to be lax in enforcing its own low standards. In its capacity of overseeing federal regulatory agencies, the U.S General Accounting Office cited the USDA for failure to correct various violations by slaughterhouses. Carcasses contaminated with rodent feces, cockroaches, and rust were found in meat-packing companies such as Swift, Armour, and Carnation.¹⁰ Some inspectors rationalize the laxity, explaining that if regulations were enforced, no meat-packers would remain open for business.

Nutrition Without Meat

Many times the mention of vegetarianism elicits the predictable reaction, "What about protein?" To this the vegetarian might well reply, "What about the elephant? And the bull? And the rhinoceros?" The ideas that meat has a monopoly on protein and that large amounts of protein are required for energy and strength are both myths. While it is being digested, most protein breaks down into its constituent amino acids, which are reconverted and used by the body for growth and tissue replacement. Of these twenty-two amino acids, all but eight can be synthesized by the body itself, and these eight "essential amino acids" exist in abundance in non-flesh foods. Dairy products, grains, beans, and nuts are all concentrated sources of protein. Cheese, peanuts, and lentils, for instance, contain more protein per ounce than hamburger, pork, or porterhouse steak. A study by Dr. Fred Stare of Harvard and Dr. Mervyn Hoarding of Loma Linda University made extensive comparisons between the protein intake of vegetarians and flesh-eaters. They concluded that "each group exceeded twice its requirement for every essential amino acid and surpassed this amount by large margins for most of them."

For many Americans, protein makes up more than twenty percent of their diet, nearly twice the quantity recommended by the World Health Organizations. Although inadequate amounts of protein will cause loss of strength, excess protein cannot be utilized by the body; rather, it is converted into nitrogenous wastes that burden the kidneys. The primary energy source for the body is Carbohydrates. Only as a last resort is the body's protein utilized for energy production. Too much protein intake actually reduces the body's energy capacity. In a series of comparative endurance tests conducted by Dr. Irving Fisher of Yale, vegetarians performed twice as well as meat-eaters. By reducing the non-vegetarians' protein consumption by twenty percent, Dr. Fisher found their efficiency increased by thirty-three percent. Numerous other studies have shown that a proper vegetarian diet provides more nutritional energy than meat. Furthermore, a study by Dr. J. Iotekyo and V. Kipani at Brussels University showed that vegetarians were able to perform physical tests two to three times longer than meat-eaters Before exhaustion and were fully recovered from fatigue in one fifth the time needed by the meat-eaters.

References

1. "Diet and Stress in Vascular Disease," Journal of the America Medical Association, June 3, 1961, p. 806.
   
2. "Diet and Coronary Heart Disease," a statement developed by the committee on Nutrition and authorized for release by the Central Committee on Nutrition and authorized for release by the Central Committee for medical and Community Programs of the American Heart Association, 1973.
   
3. "Diet and Coronary Heart Disease," Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 222, no 13, (Dec. 25, 1972), p. 1647.
   
4. Michael J. Hill, M.D., "Metabolic Epidemiolgy of Dietary Factors in Large Bowel Cancer," Cancer Research, vol. 35, no. 11, part 2 (Nov., 1975). pp. 3398-3402; Bandaru S. Reddy, Ph.D. and Ernest L. Wynder, M.D., "Large-Bowel Carcinogenesis: Fecal Constituents of Population with Diverse Incidence Rates of Colon Cancer," Journal of the National Cancer Institute, vol. 50, 1973, pp. 1437-41.
   
5. Dr. Sharon Fleming, personal correspondence, Feb. 26, 1981.
   
6. Los Angeles Herald Examiner.
   
7. Quoted from Cancer and Other Diseases from Meat Consumption, Blanche Leonardo, Ph.D., 1979, p. 12.
   
8. Statement of Dr. William Lijinsky, U.S. House of Representatives' hearing "Regulation of Food Additives and Medicated Animal Foods." March 1971, p. 132.
   
9. "Arsenic in Chicken Liver to Be Reviewed by Agency," Wall Street Journal, Jan. 13, 1972.
   
10. Jean Snyder, "What You'd Better Know About the Meat You Eat," Today's Health, vol. 19, Dec. 1971, pp. 38-39.
    
    

 

Sourdough Bread

Sourdough Bread By Kurma das

It's been over a year since I baked my last sourdough loaf. I am hoping to re-commence soon.

Here's some photos of my last sourdough adventure here in my Sydney kitchen, and some rationale behind sourdough as opposed to commercial yeasted bread. It might re-enliven any old sourdough bakers out there.

                                              

Firstly I start with my flour. In this case I added flax seeds and black sesame.

Salt is a very important addition for successful leavening.

Purified water goes in next.

 

Then the most important ingredient is added - the starter culture.

I commence mixing.

The flour is stirred in with a spoon rather than my hands, in a beating motion - I prefer a moist dough.

I think that's sufficient.

The dough must be left for many hours to double in size.

Meanwhile I oil my bread tins. There is no oil in my dough.

Then I flour the tins so my bread does not stick.

Finally my dough is spongy and more than doubled.

I divide the dough carefully into two and pop it in the tins. One kilo of flour makes me two medium loaves.

After the required time my dough has again doubled in the tins.

There's a couple of nice loaves!

And it's sliced, ready for consumption.

Natural Leaven or Commercial Baker's Yeast?

There are two methods for leavening bread and they differ totally in the way they act on the flour, as well as on the taste and nutritional effect of the resulting bread and, in the end, on the health of the consumer. The aim of bread fermentation is to transform the various nutrients freed by the milling of the grain and to modify them for optimum assimilation during digestion.

A Definition of Natural Leaven

Wild yeast, or multi-micro flora are the natural air-borne ferments that are generated or seeded in a dough left exposed to a clean and cool atmosphere under specific conditions of moisture and temperature and the exclusion of larger specimen. Within that fertile medium, lactic bacteria of the various beneficial types are found: B. Pastorianum, B. Delbrucki, B.Ternoas well assaccharomyces such as S.Pastorianus, and S. Cervisiae. This type of microflora consumes little energy and multiplies quite slowly. Its growth duplicates the cycle of human breathing and that of wheat embryo germination. Wild yeast also naturally enriches the bread, due to an additional development of nutrients by the beneficial enzymes and ferments.

Baking by Principle

In baking as in all natural processes, the laws of life must be respected; it is vital for the fermented bread to retain the dynamic character that originally develops within the wheat berry as it evolves toward its germination. Just as the breathing cycle consists of an oxidation, followed by a reduction, the same cycle is reproduced in the five day cycle of the germination of wheat. Natural leavened bread (seeded with wild yeast or natural leaven) also duplicates this cycle: The rising of the dough corresponds to an oxidation (like wheat germ growth), followed by a reduction (during the baking of the loaf) identical to the development of the miniature sprout of wheat. We readily see that of the two methods available for leavening bread, only natural leaven faithfully follows God's laws of the universe.

Beware of White Sourdough

There is also the question of sifting out the bran: Today, many loaves of sourdough 'French' bread are being offered but they are made with white flours that are almost totally demineralized. The pseudo mycelium(vegetative part of the thallus of the fungi, composed of several filaments) cannot feed on such debilitated flours and the bread tastes excessively sour which tells us that, besides lacking the essential nutrients, it is unfavorable to the digestive process.

Another problem sometimes occurs in natural baking: An excess of lactic bacteria may develop and give the bread a definite sourness. Although these bacteria are natural, they have proliferated in excess because the starter or sour dough sponge was not cared for daily. Excess proliferation is a result of a lack of aeration or scrupulous daily feeding (refreshing) or else is due to the storage of the starter in warm areas or areas contaminated with vinegar or other acetic acid products. Since lactic bacteria are anaerobic, they can only develop in the absence of air. When these have exceeded their limit, a "lactic bread" or "acetic bread" is obtained, excessively sour that becomes more sour with aging, with definitely harmful results.

How Baker's Yeast Works

Commercial yeast is an isolate "mushroom-type" microorganism whose cells are high in moisture and consist of vacuolated protoplasm. Their reproduction cycle is extremely rapid and thus one gram of compressed yeast contains several trillions of yeast cells. In a dough seeded with 1% of commercial yeast, the number of these cells can double in 6 hours at 80 degree Fahrenheit. If the fermentation is allowed to continue, the proliferation will reach a concentration of 150,000,000 cells per cubic centimeter regardless of how little seeding was done at the start.

With commercial yeast, rising of the dough is lightning fast, coupled with a reduction (baker's yeast is a strong reducer), followed by a strong oxidation during the baking and often accompanied by an alkalinization. This is increased even more when a portion or all of the bran is removed. We witness here a phenomenon totally opposed to the normal laws of life. The end result of this biological decay (staling of bread), is a deficient oxidative energy that changes into a glycolysed energy, as evidenced by monster, or anarchistic, cells that are an exact duplicate of human cancer cells, according to the research of Dr. Warbourg, M.D.

Candida and Anemia are Related to the Consumption of Yeasted Bread

Rickets and anemia can be caused by the consumption of yeasted whole wheat bread. These chronic calcium deficiencies are corrected and even totally eliminated when the whole wheat bread is naturally leavened. In the natural leavening process, the phytic acid and the phytates are hydrolysed by the phytases of the bran in an acid environment and transformed into phytin and soluble phosphatic acids of magnesium, calcium and iron which are totally assimilable and beneficial.

In the case of yeasted bread, with a pH varying from 5.9 to 6.5, the reduction by hydrolysis of the toxic phytic compounds is insufficient, no better than 50%, a level that causes yeasted bread to be detrimental, especially for anemic people.

A full hydrolysis is possible only when the pH remains between 4 and 5.6 maximum, which is the case for natural leaven bread. At the median pH of 4.8 in a dough kept at a temperature of 64 degrees Fahrenheit; there remain only 0.78% (less than 1%) of the phytic acid compounds, which is a totally safe amount.

Sweet Tasting Bread Made with Sourdough Starter

It is quite easy to obtain a sweet tasting bread with a natural leaven fermentation for a base. The slower proofing of the dough at temperatures between 62 and 64 degrees Fahrenheit, made from a leaven always stored at low temperatures of 47 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit and regularly refreshed, will totally prevent the characteristic sour dough taste often associated with natural leavened bread.

Two Extra Benefits from the Natural Leaven Process

The limited growth of friendly lactic bacteria and the presence of other micro-organisms will add little to the acidity, yet will create a good swelling of the gluten as evidenced by small but regular air cells in the crumb. As it ages, natural leavened bread will retain its moisture and keep well without refrigeration, quite opposed from the yeasted bread that stales and dries out within hours after its baking. With natural leaven, no dried out bread need ever to be thrown out.

Bran Value

The high mineral and enzymatic value of bran is widely known and needs little elaboration. It is necessary however, to discuss the little known phytic acid and its detrimental effects on the body metabolism. Phytic acid is inherently present in whole rice and whole wheat and it can cause allergies and other severe illnesses. This toxic substance can only be neutralized and eliminated by the skillful fermentation of those cereal grains through highly principled baking. Thus, the natural baking method that drastically reduces phytic acid must be adopted universally if one is to obtain the most beneficial bread.

Digestibility

Bread and grain-based diets, especially at the beginning, give the illusion that they do not readily digest. Natural leaven bread, because of its inherent beneficial ferments, slowly recreates the population of friendly lactobacillus digestive bacteria in the absorption tract. The end result is a recovery of digestion and proper elimination by the effective action of friendly bacteria. Natural leaven bread provides more stable nutrition than that obtained mechanically by non-fermented (and thus non- pre-digested) bran and other raw or cooked roughage diets, since these only succeed in physically abrading and irritating the colon.