I can get you to like sardines

Special Sardine Salad, see below

Three whopping years ago, I attempted to like sardines. I psyched myself up and tried them and even concluded, “I would give sardines a second date.” I must apologize to sardines because I didn’t revisit them. I felt I had faced a food fear and frankly fear and eating aren’t two things I enjoy at the same time. I have total respect for sardines, their impressive omega 3 content, low mercury and B vitamin offerings. Maybe the initial timing wasn't right. More recently, I got together with some friends to cook and one of the recipes was a sardine salad. It wasn’t just a run of the mill green salad with sardines but baby arugula with orange and fennel, other delicious additions and sardines. We were in good hands with chef and author Myra Kornfield who I have known and worshipped for years.

We all loved the special sardine salad but joked that we didn’t whip out the mandolin for our weekday lunches. Was there a way to enjoy sardines simply? Myra digested the challenge and then scurried around the kitchen. “Have you tried sardines mashed with avocado?” My fear was instantly extinguished, replaced with curiosity. “You can also do this with mackerel.” My food phobias were getting crossed off the list at rapid speed. Myra combined the sardines with avocado, juice from ½ lemon and some good quality salt. It wasn’t just fine; it was delicious.

Sardine Mash

1 tin of Vital Choice Sardines, no need to use oil that remains in can

½ ripe avocado, cubed

juice from ½ lemon

few pinches Himalayan or Celtic salt

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, mash with a fork. Eat as is or over greens.

I ordered both sardines and mackerel from Vital Choice. Full disclosure, when I made my own “mash” I wimped out and used only ½ tin with ½ avocado. Once I ate them in my own home, without sardine support and still liked them, ding dong sardine-o-phobia is gone. 

Have you tried sardines or mackerel? How do you prepare them? Any foods you want to like because of nutritional value but don't? 

Pie in the Sky and other Food for Thought

Maybe it’s just the way the cookie crumbles but it seems so many of our food expressions involve unhealthy foods. Cake and pie are popular for idioms; I’ve even been known to use “have your cake and eat it too” in weight loss sessions with clients. Have you ever thought about the origin of these idioms? Maybe you should use your noodle.

I chose some of my favorite foods to focus on:

In a pickle- which means in a quandary always seemed like a strange expression to me.  I love pickles and being inside a pickle doesn't seem like any more of an issue as being in any other food. In a pickle refers to stewed vegetables that are mixed up in order to become pickled. There is also a Shakespearian reference to being in a pickle from the Tempest (trust me I didn’t know this until I looked it up). Alonso says “how camest thou in this pickle.” And then there’s the slang word “pickled”, anyone know what this means?

Salad Days- this expression refers to youth. When I think of my younger years, I would call them Hostess Days, Fluffanutter Days or if I’m being poetic Ravioli Days. If anything, salad days are when you get older and need to watch things more carefully. However, Cleopatra (in Antony and Cleopatra) said “My salad days When I was green in judgment.” Here green, as in inexperienced, refers to green shoots of spring versus something consumed in an effort to be healthy.  

Salt of the earth- I love this expression and its connotations referring to people who are unpretentious, honest and good. There are many who trace this expression to biblical roots. An interesting explanation was that in the Moroccan city of Fez, the Jews, in the Jewish quarter, did much of the salt mining. They were considered very useful to the community and fostered this saying.

Eggs in one basket- Nothing beats a practical tip, I’m also fond of bigger fish to fry but thought I’d stay away from frying in favor of healthier foods. Eggs in one basket refers to when eggs were transported in baskets on wagons, if one basket fell off, presumably all the eggs in it would break. I like the idea of spreading risk but also appreciated Mark Twain’s alternative suggestion to “put all your eggs in one basket and watch the basket.”

Big Cheese/Cheesy- someone referred to as “the big cheese” is the opposite of salt of the earth. The big cheese is similar to what we commonly call “cheesy”. In culinary terms, nothing is more delicious than something cheesy but apart from food cheesy means something cliché’ or unimpressive. Even more unusual is that this term has its roots with the British in India coming from the Urdu word chiz meaning “thing”. So, do we have India to thank for cheese? That’s “bananas”

I hope you’re holidays aren’t “nutty as a fruitcake”, don’t “hit the sauce” and may you “bring home the bacon” in the New Year.

What’s your favorite food expression? Do you know what “pickled” means? Can you name 3 produce-centric idioms?

Take it With a Grain of Salt

I love blog requests, this came from a client last week:
  I'd like to know what you think about salt.  My husband says I shouldn't put it in anything, even when the recipe calls for it.  I know that my body reacts negatively to it and that it is better to avoid it (and given the paucity of salt we eat, things, especially fast food, tend to taste overly salty).  But soy sauce on sushi, salt on edamame, and even on some scrambled eggs, tastes good.  What do you think?  Is a sprinkle a good thing or a bad thing?

First, I think whomever is making the recipe gets the final say on what goes in it. Just so you don’t think your husband is the only one with questionable salt habits, my husband salts everything before tasting it. So we don’t all “shake” the same but I’m getting off topic.

We do need some salt. It's  particularly important for people, like yourself,  who bike and run outside in the heat. Salt or sodium is lost in sweat. The higher the temperature and humidity, the more sweat and the more sodium you lose. While I don’t think salt replacement during exercise is warranted for workouts or races under 90 minutes. I do think some salt does an athlete good.

While dangerous hyponatremia or low sodium is rare. Too little salt is as dangerous as too much. Salt is needed for muscle contractions (our heart is a muscle), salt moves nutrients and water into our cells and interestingly salt may be a mood food or mood mineral. Research from the University of Iowa showed rates deficient in sodium chloride (table salt) shy away from activities they normally enjoy.  I provided the link if you’d like to learn more about rat fun but let’s suffice it to say we’re very similar to rats.

The amount of salt we need isn’t all that much. The AI or “adequate intake” which differs slightly based on age is 1500 mg or about ¾ of a teaspoon of salt. The UL or “upper limit” is 2300mg and 2000mg is 1 teaspoon so this is a little over that. To put this into food context show how easy the AI is to hit:

• 1 medium pickle has about 800 mg of sodum
• 4 slices of smoked salmon have 500mg
• canned beans have 500mg in ½ cup (rinsing reduces this number almost in half).
• Sushi Roll (naked, sans soy) 500-1000mg per 6-piece roll.

As to what type of salt to use, there are a few I love. Himalayan Sea Salt is unrefined so it’s a more natural product in a more raw state and contains more minerals (84 different minerals) than processed table salt. I like the Himalania brand. I also used Kosher salt and received a gift of Sicilian Lemon Salt recently. Table salt contains iodine (can throw off taste) and can contain additives so look at your labels. The only ingredients should be salt.

So salt via soy sauce (unless you're gluten free) or with edamame or eggs is absolutely fine.  You mentioned “reacting negatively” and I assume you were referring to bloat. Bloat may be telling you you over salted. Salt can be sneaky, here’s a list of some surprising salt sources. So don’t close the salt cellar just hide it from your husband.

Are you pro or anti salt? What type do you use? What are your favorite salty foods?