Entries tagged "cooking"

I love to cook. There are very few artistic mediums in which the artist specifically crafts his work in full knowledge of who will consume it, and the emotion the artist shares for the consumer is immediately infused and transmitted into the work. Sushi at a ready-made counter isn't nearly as lovingly crafted as sushi made for a customer sitting at a sushi bar, for the human connection between who is cooking and who is eating becomes part of the food creation. I get the pleasure every evening of cooking for my little family, and it's one of my greatest daily joys.

My biggest complaint so far with the Paleo Challenge is that it's limited my cooking options significantly. Ordinarily, I get to wield a wide variety of flavors and textures: sweet, savory, salty, creamy, tart. Eliminating both creamy and sweet from that list has stifled my creativity in the kitchen. Last night I made a slow-roasted brisket, and my intuition was to make a nice braising liqueur of roasted tomatoes, apple-cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, molasses or honey, mustard, garlic, and soy sauce. Leave out the Worcestershire sauce and the honey, and it's still good, but instead of a slightly sweet glaze on the outside of the meat, which was dry-rubbed with coarse sea salt and cracked pepper, the tomato/vinegar/mustard/garlic/soy left us with salty and slightly tart. It wasn't nearly as satisfying.

Breakfast today was a lightly-sea-salted avocado half, a handful of raw pecans, and two scrambled eggs with fresh dill and sea salt. A cup of black coffee washed it down. Lunch yesterday was a salted/peppered pan-fried pork chop, a broccoli crown steamed and tossed with bacon grease and lemon juice, and napa cabbage stir-fried in soy sauce and champagne vinegar. Salty, savory, and tart -- all of it. All I'm drinking is black coffee and chilled tap water with lemon juice.

I'm just getting bored, and I hate getting bored with food. It's far too much of a joy and pleasure to make and consume to be so unenthusiastic. I would love suggestions on how to broaden the flavor palette while staying true to the challenge.

My mood hasn't improved much, but I'm willing to blame it more upon the sweltering heat. My building hasn't kicked on the condensers for building air-conditioning, so I've been fighting the 95° heat and sweating profusely day and night. It's made sleeping much harder, and I've had a headache for three days. Supposedly this morning they're repairing a water pump leak in the condensers, so once that repair is complete, we should be able to cool this apartment down.

This is part 4 in a series. Part 3 - Entire series

The Science of Paleo - The Misunderstood Macronutrient

One of my general frustrations with the public policy and advocacy of nutritional information is that if nutritional advice can't be distilled down to a single sentence, it won't be able to reach and inform a wide audience, but if it does get distilled down to a single sentence, it loses so much accuracy it's not necessarily helpful. Nowhere is that more true than with fat.

Among popular understanding of nutrition and even among some nutritionists, fats are a pejorative, and we have an awful love/hate relationship with them. Bottom line is we need fat. It makes up the membranes and connective tissue of every cell in our body. It insulates us and keeps us warm. It provides protective cushion around our vital organs. And it is the most energy-dense nutritional molecule we can process. But when we carry too much excess body fat, or adipose tissue, it seems incredibly difficult to get rid of and it forebodes the onset of a plethora of diseases. Common sense and common dietary advice has for decades prescribed that if you eat less fat, you'll be less fat. The reality is not quite so simple.

While our understanding of carbohydrates, fiber, and insulin metabolism has grown quite mature, our understanding of fats and their role in various biomechanics is relatively elementary. We have identified specific functions of specific types of fats, but for the most part our understanding of dietary fat's impact on our health operates can only be described in "black box" statements -- we know that if you put this much of this kind of fat into your body, certain results are likely to follow, but we don't really know why or even if the dietary fat are causal or correlative. So even among nutrition scientists, wrapping our heads around fats and what they do means sifting through a lot of vague and contradictory black box studies. So let's do some sifting, but first I want to talk about two major health concerns that come along with fat - obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Does Eating Fat Make You Fat?

Body fat, or adipose tissue, is just loose connective tissue - cells that serve as warehouses for excess fat. These warehouses insulate the body from cold and store energy for when it's needed later. Humans store body fat in very specific areas called adipose depots. Body fat that collects under the skin (subcutaneous fat), around the abdomen protecting internal organs (visceral fat), in bone marrow, and around the breasts (yes, even in men). Women have additional adipose depots in the buttocks and thighs, due to sex hormone differences.

The simple relationship with caloric intake and body fat development basically holds true - if you consume more calories than you burn off or excrete, you'll store the excess as fat, and if you consume fewer calories than you burn off or excrete, you'll rely upon your stored fat to make up the difference. As with all things nutritional, it's a little more complicated than it seems.

First, the rate at which we burn off calories is not constant. Our rest metabolic rate shifts throughout the day depending on how much we've eaten, what we've eaten, and our body composition. Your metabolic rate is in fact the lowest when you simply don't eat - your body goes into a conservation mode and only expends the minimum base of energy necessary to keep vital organs functioning, which is why you may have heard people say that skipping a meal may not actually help you lose weight at all. Some foods require more energy to digest than others - fiber and protein require the highest amount of energy to process while dietary fat requires the least. Correspondingly, different types of tissue in your body require different levels of energy to maintain - more lean muscle increases your metabolic rate far more than adipose tissue does. so while exercise does increase your metabolic rate during exercise, it has not been shown to raise your base metabolic rate, however if your exercise includes resistance training that builds additional lean muscle mass, your base metabolic rate should go up.

Second, what you eat and when changes how your body processes those calories. As we discussed in the previous section, when your blood glucose levels rise, your pancreas secretes insulin to signal your cells to process that glucose, but at the same time that insulin signals your cells to take any fats you've just eaten and store them away in adipose tissue. Absent this insulin spike, fats will be metabolized and used as energy so much as they're needed. This is in part why obesity is so common in a high carbohydrate diet, even though it's relatively low in fat - all of those fats just get stored away.

As visceral fat buildup grows, we start to fill out around the midsection and grow a gut. Once visceral fat buildup begins, it can easily go from bad to worse very quickly - if you're slightly pudgy, it's a lot easier to get fatter than it is to get slimmer. The reason is that fatty adipose tissue also releases hormones, and visceral fat is more hormonally active than most - releasing more adipokines and resistin than other fat cells. Increased adipokines can cause glucose tolerance - glucose levels in the blood remain high despite the presence of insulin, and increased resistin can cause insulin resistance - reduced glucose uptake into cells despite high presence of insulin. High levels of glucose and insulin in turn cause you to store more fat, creating more visceral fat buildup, complicating the problem further. It's no wonder that high visceral fat amounts are very positively correlated with metabolic syndrome - cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, and more.

Stress makes matters worse. When you're stressed out or panicky, your body releases a hormone called cortisol which, evolutionarily, primes your body for physical exertion anticipating the stress has a life-threatening environmental cause. If you've ever watched Star Trek, it's your body's way of calling out "red alert". Normal function shifts, and everything moves toward self-preservation. The activity of your digestive system, reproductive system, and immune system shut down. Mental acuity goes up for storage of short-term emotional events. In our modern life where stress comes from deadlines, rush hour, and bills rather than lions, tigers, and bears, these biological responses over time have sharply negative consequences. Cortisol breaks down collagen in the skin, which is why you look tired and aged when you're overstressed. And the digestive system shutdown drives your body to store energy as fat rather than consume it, which is why they say that stress can make you fat.

Cholesterol and Artery Cloggage

Another massive oversimplification comes from the dietary guidelines on cholesterol. Thirty years ago, the prescription was to simply keep your blood cholesterol level down below 200mg/dl. Around ten years ago, the prescription gained a nuance in differentiating between your HDL levels ("good" cholesterol) and your LDL levels ("bad" cholesterol).

The first problem with that is that there's really only one kind of cholesterol. Cholesterol is a kind of fat, and it's absolutely essential that your body have cholesterol. It's a critical component for making cellular membrane, bile acid, certain steroidal hormones, and certain vitamins. Cholesterol has to be transported around your body by your bloodstream, but since cholesterol is oily and your blood is water, cholesterol is not soluble in blood, so it requires a transport molecule called a lipoprotein. Lipoproteins also transport other fats around your body stored as triglycerides. The amount and makeup of the fats carried in the lipoproteins affect its density. High-density lipoproteins (HDL) are cholesterol hungry, and in the presence of excess cholesterol in cells or in the bloodstream, HDL will suck up that cholesterol and transport it to the liver and steroidal glands (like the adrenal gland, ovaries, or testes) for other uses. Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) transports cholesterol from the liver to cells around the body as they need them.

So why would having more LDL be bad? Basically, doctors and nutritionists have observed that people who have high levels of LDL and lower levels of HDL are more likely to develop atherosclerosis - the development of fatty deposits on the interior of your arteries that can cut off blood flow or release clots, causing heart attacks, aneurysms, or strokes. The fats in LDL, like many fats in the body, can become oxidized by the presence of free radicals. When oxidized LDL bounces off an arterial wall, it causes inflammation and the immune system gears up to respond. White blood cells called macrophages attack and absorb the oxidized LDL but cannot process them. The macrophages rupture, spilling oxidized cholesterol into the bloodstream. These ruptured macrophages and oxidized cholesterol are sort of "sticky", and once released they stick to the arterial wall causing further inflammation. More macrophages are summoned, and the process repeats. When these sticky foam cells accumulate in a single spot, they begin to form an atheroma. Calcium in the blood bonds to the outside of the atheroma, and a hard cap forms on the outside. The atheroma can cause sufficient inflammation to close off the artery or the atheroma can burst, releasing the hard cap into the blood stream and potentially causing a harmful clot. Since HDL is cholesterol hungry, it interrupts this cycle because it absorbs and delivers to the liver the free-floating oxidized cholesterol, reducing the risk of a cardiovascular event.

If we look at this logically though, we see there isn't a causal relationship that can be established. People who have higher levels of LDL and lower levels of HDL tend to be at higher risk for atherosclerosis. But that doesn't mean having high LDL and low HDL causes atherosclerosis, and it seems like it's the oxidation of LDL by free radicals and the inflammation of the arterial wall that is a necessary condition for atherogenesis - the creation of an atheroma. And while it may seem like common sense that increasing your dietary cholesterol increases your blood cholesterol, there has not been a clearly established causal link - and in fact in some studies raising dietary cholesterol decreased blood cholesterol.

So if we're aiming to minimize our risk of atherosclerosis, we ought to:

1. ... eat foods that optimize our blood cholesterol profile - higher HDL and lower LDL.
2. ... make sure our diet is rich in antioxidants to counter the harmful effects of free radicals.
3. ... make sure our diet has anti-inflammatory properties, not inflammatory ones.

Know Your Fats

Almost fats we eat are composed of three fatty acids joined by a module of glycerol to form a triglyceride molecule. But not all fatty acids are the same, and they have wildly different properties. There are seven main kinds of fatty acids, and nutrition scientists have been able to make black-box observations about their effects on blood cholesterol profile, susceptibility of LDL to oxidation and macrophage uptake, inflammatory/anti-inflammatory properties, and general risk of cardiovascular disease, and since they're black-box and subject to interpretation, I'm actually going to cite studies for your own edification.

Trans-isomer Fatty Acids

While some trans-isomer fatty acids appear in nature, the vast majority of the ones in a human diet are manufactured. An unsaturated fat (a fat not fully stocked with hydrogen atoms but instead with some double bonds remaining) is chemically processed with additional hydrogen atoms to increase its saturation to partially or fully hydrogenation. The structure of the resultant trans-isomer fatty acid, or "trans fat" for short, is more resistant to rancidification so it lasts longer without spoiling and is solid at room temperature. Trans fats were first introduced into the market in 1911, as the Procter and Gamble Company brought to market its crystallized cottonseed oil, or Crisco. The predominant cooking fat at the time was lard, beef tallow, or butter, but Crisco's inexpensive cost and longer shelf-life quickly made it a popular commodity.

However, trans fats cannot be processed by the enzymes in the body due to their unique structure. The enzyme lipase, which is essential in digestion and transportation of fats in lipoproteins, is ineffective on trans-isomer fatty acids, and so lipoproteins containing trans fats remain in the blood stream for longer periods of time, rendering them more likely to be oxidized, to deposit themselves in the arterial walls, and contribute to plaque formation. Concentrations of LDL increase with dietary trans fat intake and concentrations of HDL in the blood decrease.

It is because of the clearly and unambiguously deleterious effects of trans fats on your health that there has been such a backlash against their presence in foods. Trans fats are found in shortening and margarine - the best way to tell is to look at ingredients. If you see "hydrogenated vegetable oil", partially or fully, there are trans fats lurking within. Your diet should be free of trans-fat, if possible. There are no redeeming nutritional effects to consuming them.

Saturated Fatty Acids

Next to trans fats, saturated fats receive the most disdain from nutrition scientists, and for good reason. But it depends on what kind of saturated fatty acid. There are four we find in our diet: stearate, laureate, myristate, and palmitate. They operate on our bodies with different effects.

Palmitate is why saturated fats get such a bad reputation - seldom do you see the term "saturated fat" without the descriptor "artery clogging". Palmitate lowers HDL and raises LDL. There are many hundreds of studies all indicating the link between saturated fat and poor blood cholesterol profiles, however in the western diet, this means palmitate. Palmitate is the primary saturated fatty acid in grain-fed animals, both their meat and their dairy products. A number of studies that focused on populations with rich saturated fat content in their diet but low palmitate content found low incidences of cardiovascular disease. Palmitate is the culprit.

Stearate seems to be neutral with regard to blood cholesterol profile and beneficial at reducing unhealthy clotting. Laureate and myristate, which consists of up to 60% of the energy in the diets of certain Polynesian populations have no harmful cardiovascular effects from so much saturated fat.

So the saturated fats found in the tropics in coconut, palm, and palm kernel oil seem to be fairly neutral for consumption. The saturated fat in grain-fed meat and dairy seem to be problematic in increasing our risk for cardiovascular disease.

Monounsaturated Fatty Acids

Monounsaturated fats are healthful. Monounsaturated fats have been found to reduce LDL oxidation and inhibit macrophage uptake, which helps prevent atheroma formation. When substituted for saturated fats or carbohydrates in the diet, monounsaturated fats can combat insulin resistance and improve blood cholesterol profile. It also can reduce the risk of harmful blood clots. Numerous studies of Mediterranean diets that differ from the macronutrient makeup of the standard Western diet note that with higher fiber and antioxidant intake and with much higher consumption of monounsaturated fatty acids, incidences of cardiovascular disease are far more rare than the rest of the Western world.

I'll say again though that these are all black-box studies - they look at what goes in and what comes out with no comprehension of mechanisms or causal relationships. Most of the studies cited above substitute monounsaturated fats for carbohydrates, omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, or the saturated fatty acid palmitate. That being said, monounsaturated fats have no harmful effects and even if they themselves are not cardioprotective, they appear to be very healthful in the place of omega-6 or palmitate.

Cooking oils rich in monounsaturated fats include olive oil and to a lesser extent canola oil. Avocados and some nuts, particularly macadamia nuts, almonds, and pecans, are rich in monounsaturated fats as well. Grass-fed meats and wild game contain far more monounsaturated fats and far less palmitate than grain-fed meats.

Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

There are two families of omega-3 fatty acids - the awesome kind and the rock star kind. I can't really emphasize how unequivocally good for you omega-3 fatty acids are, yet 25% of Americans get zero measurable rock star omega-3 fatty acids in their diet. Zero.

The awesome kind is alpha linolenic acid, or ALA. Alpha linolenic acid has been shown to reduce heartbeat irregularities, and heart arrhythmias are very strong predictors of cardiovascular disease. It's been positively correlated with lower risk of heart attack and heart disease. And it can be used to synthesize a limited amount of eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA.

Eicosapentaenoic acid along with docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA (challenge: say those five times fast!) are the rock stars. They are the principal fatty acids in brain tissue, so they're great brain food. EPA and DHA are anti-inflammatory, reducing arterial inflammation and free radical action. They reduce blood triglycerides and LDL. They help prevent the formation of atheroma. There's some indication they may reduce cancer risk and neurodegenerative disease risk. I'm sure given enough time they'll be shown to create world peace and balance the federal deficit.

EPA and DHA are found in cold-water seafood like salmon, mackerel, trout, sardines, and oysters. They're also found in the muscle tissue of grass-fed animals and wild game, however grain-fed animals are nearly devoid of EPA and DHA. Depending on the chickens' diet, some eggs can be decent sources of DHA and EPA.

Omega-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

Omega-6 polyunsaturated fats are primarily two different acids - linoleic acid, or LA, which is the shorter chain and arachidonic acid (AA) which is the longer chain. The modern Western diet is far richer in omega-6 fatty acids than our paleolithic ancestors' diet - whereas it is believed our ancestors had an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of about 4:1, some Americans' omega-6 to omega-3 intake ratio is as high as 30:1.

The evidence on the impact of LA is mixed. In a study where monounsaturated fat and alpha-linoleic acid was substituted for LA and palmitate, incidents of cardiovascular disease went down sharply. One study suggested that LA reduced the frequency of atherosclerosis but there is some question regarding the accuracy of its methods. But a definite drawback to linoleic acid is that it interrupts EPA synthesis from ALA. All in all, you're probably better off limiting your LA intake. Arachidonic acid, while necessary for cell membrane manufacture and repair, has been demonstrated to promote inflammation - its effects are reduced with greater EPA concentrations in the diet.

Omega-6 fats are very highly concentrated in vegetable cooking oils, like safflower, sunflower, corn oil, cottonseed oil, and soybean oil, however there's another major concern with cooking with these oils besides omega-6 intake. Part of the reason polyunsaturated fats can be so inflammatory is they're especially prone to oxidation by free radicals. Polyunsaturated cooking oils, when old, exposed to sunlight, or heated at high temperatures, oxidize much more rapidly, and so consuming them basically begs them to do destructive damage to your body. Saturated fats like palm kernel oil or coconut oil are much more stable, even at high heats, and so are ideal for high heat cooking and deep frying. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats like olive oil or walnut oil should only be used for medium temperature cooking -- no more than about 375 degrees.

Fat Selection by Food Selection

In summary, it seems like we want to ensure we get plenty of EPA and DHA in our diet, some measure of ALA, and fill the rest with monounsaturated fats and non-palmitate saturated fats. We want to limit our omega-6 intake and come as close as we can to eliminating trans fats and palmitate from our diet. Doing that should maximize our cardiovascular health and minimize our body's inflammatory responses. So what should we eat?

It sounds like we should avoid grain-fed meats, grain derived oils, and certain seed oils. Other oils offer more tangible benefits like olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, or grass-fed animal fats. We want to include cold-water seafood without incurring risk of mercury poisoning and pastured, grass-fed meats. Eating the right seeds and nuts also seems like good ways to balance out our fat profile.

Surprise, surprise - it's what our paleolithic ancestors would have done. And to reiterate once more, you can optimize your body's metabolism of fats by defending against harmful insulin spikes caused by too high of a glycemic load - doing that will ensure that your body burns the fats you eat instead of storing them.

Ketosis

Following the general prescription closely - minimizing foods rich in carbohydrates, maximizing foods rich in fiber, protein, and fat - will shift the very basis of your body's metabolism. Your body will switch from glycolysis (use of stored carbohydrate derivatives as its primary energy source) to ketosis (use of fatty acids as its primary energy source). Ketosis is not uncontroversial. Mainstream nutritional dogma believes ketosis to be the body's "starvation" mode as it turns to fat in the diet and in adipose tissue to find the energy it is not getting through carbohydrates in the diet. It is often argued that long-term operation in ketosis is unhealthful, but there has been no laboratory evidence of that. Furthermore, some hunter-gatherer cultures have existed almost entirely on ketosis with no noticable impairment of health or function.

The Paleo Challenge we underwent these last five weeks had the goal of inducing a ketogenic state. We deplete our bodies of glycogen and function primarily off of fat.

When the cells in the body have stored sugars (glycogen), the energy production system (Krebs cycle) burns that stored glycogen. Absent carbohydrate influx into the diet, those glycogen stores will be used up. The body then cleaves fat, both ingested and stored as triglycerides, into acetyl-coenzyme A which can also be fed into the Krebs cycle bound to oxaloacetate. In the presence of excess acetyl-CoA, the liver morphs them into chemicals called ketones. The brain cannot use fatty acids directly for energy, but it can use ketones. The brain converts the ketones back into acetyl-CoA for the brain to use for energy.

What this means is that the first two weeks aiming for ketosis suck. The brain takes awhile to adapt to using the ketones for energy as opposed to using them for fat synthesis, and during that time it runs as if it's low on fuel. We felt sluggish, spacey, grumpy, and less mentally acute. Our bodies had a tough time too - we had a harder time with strenuous exercise and we had a few rough nights of poor sleep. After those first two weeks, however, we felt perfectly fine on ketosis. Our mental acuity returned, our energy levels returned to normal, and our bodies functioned at a more regular, constant metabolism throughout the day.

That's not to say I recommend ketosis for everybody. It has its benefits, and from looking at my peers who also took the Challenge, ketosis led to some impressive instances of weight loss. But I fully recommend you do your own research and talk to a physician or dietician before considering aiming for a ketogenic state.

Continued in part 5: So what the hell do I do?

Shifting your dietary framework is psychologically stressful. Food has such powerful cultural and personal contextual association. We eat when we're around family, and what we eat with family helps us define our culture. We eat when we're celebrating, when we mourn, and when we come together after a long absence. The foods we eat create a sense of home and a sense of identity. They make us feel safe.

So naturally, adopting Paleo (or vegetarianism, veganism, kashrut, or any other diertary framework) means more than shopping for different foods in the grocery store. It means confronting fears about whether we can have stuffing and mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, whether we can eat some of our own wedding cake, whether we can break bread on the sabbath, and even whether we feel like we belong when we share meals with family and friends.

Admittedly, I had less of a struggle with this. I had previously been vegetarian for years. I had limited my meat consumption to Certified Humane meats that I have good-faith reason to believe lived a happy life and faced a dignified death. My family and friends are used to my diet shifting, and they've been amazingly accommodating. My Grandmère saw making matzoh ball soup with humanely raised chicken as a way to show her love, and at pot luck suppers in my circles of friends people include a little sign next to their dishes to make sure people know it's "gluten-free, soy-based, non-dairy, contains nuts." I'm not the norm.

My girlfriend is Cuban. That means rice and black bean soup - neither of which are Paleo. In her mother's house, that also meant Campbell's Chicken with Stars or ramen noodle soup any time she felt ill - she still craves those comfort foods even though she's moved out. Since we've both gone Paleo (and her brother too), her mom has been amazing at making sure there's always "dinosaur diet" compatible food around. But still the transition was more psychologically stressful for her than for me.

So usually when considering a dietary framework, the first thing people see are the things you can't have - the things you're giving up. "I have to give up bread? But I have a bagel every morning!" "I can't drink my coffee black - I need cream and sugar!" "But we go out for sushi every Sunday night - now you're saying I can't have rice?" Within that mindset, we approach new diets in ways that emphasize our dissatisfaction. When I was vegetarian, I looked for meat substitutes, and certainly there's a whole sector of the food industry that's spawned veggie burgers, veggie dogs, veggie sausage, veggie bacon and more. I've generally found the more we try to live with these substitutes, trying to cram our new dietary framework into our old recipe book, the more dissatisfied we are with the change. Veggie bacon just can't compete.

Cooking is one of my arts - not to say I'm any good, but it's certainly something I explore with passion. I love the kitchen, and I love how food has this incredible potential to be a medium of love. Every time I craft a dish and arrange the food delicately on the plate in a crudely amateurish attempt at skillful presentation, it's my way of saying to my family I love them. And seeing them plow through a meal I've made because it's so delicious to them floods me with a sense of fulfillment and purpose.

The way to see yourself to happiness in a new dietary framework is to learn how to cook all over again - not the mechanics of it, but the approach to creating flavor combinations. A traditional western kitchen has in its flavor arsenal sweet, creamy, savory, and salty as its mainstays. Mix any two of them together and you've got a crowd pleaser - a pork loin in an apple honey glaze, tequila lime shrimp in sour cream, candied bacon. In Paleo, you can't rely on sweet or creamy the same way. My first week cooking strictly Paleo involved a lot of savory and a lot of salty. It got boring really fast.

So I had to start over. I had to reapproach flavors, relook at different cultural traditions for inspiration, and come up with a new set of flavor families I could rely upon - ones that aren't used as regularly in more mainstream kitchens. So this series is my way of sharing some flavors and ingredients I've discovered (and rediscovered) that keep my cooking interesting and my family sending clean plates to the dishwasher. You can track this series by the tag paleokitchen.

Vinegar and the Joy of Acidity

Most vinegar comes from over-fermenting a sugary liquid. The sugar is fermented to ethanol, then the ethanol is fermented into acetic acid. Paleo is agnostic on vinegar - obviously the sweeter the vinegar the more problematic is becomes nutritionally. Balsamic vinegar is made from fortified wine, and the less they let the sugar acidify, the sweeter the vinegar but the less Paleo it is. But vinegar doesn't have to be sweet to be delicious. Vinegar's acidity helps us explore the tart spectrum of our flavor palate. It can be used in marinades to tenderize meats, in salads as part of a dressing, or on vegetables as part of the core flavor mixture.

Asparagus and Mushroom Tapas

Tapas provide a safe haven for both Paleo cooks and diners. Most dishes are prepared in olive oil, rich in monounsaturated fats. Garlic is used liberally, and most plates can be composed entirely from meats, vegetables, and spices. While portions may be small, the flavors are always rich and varied. In this vegetarian tapas dish, the dill weed brings out the flavor of the asparagus while the mushrooms soak up the olive oil and vinegar, complementing the otherwise mild vegetable with an accent of tart acidity.

The recipe:

• 1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and quartered
• 1 pint of cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 1 tsp of fresh dill weed, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
• 1/8 cup of olive oil
• 1/8 cup of white wine or champagne vinegar
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium-high heat. Add mushroom quarters and sauté until they begin to brown, about 2 minutes. Add asparagus and garlic, and continue to sauté until cooked tender, about 2 minutes. Toss dill weed into the mix, then drizzle vinegar onto vegetables while turning them to coat evenly. Simmer for about a minute. Once most of the excess liquid has been absorbed or evaporated, pull the skillet off the heat and serve immediately.

This is part of a series on relearning how to cook Paleo, exploring different flavor bases to work from.

The general supermarket advice given to the Paleo shopper is to "stay around the edges" - meat, produce, and eggs are usually in refrigerated areas of the supermarket surrounding the aisles of grains, legumes, sweets, and juices in the middle. Be that as it may, enjoying eating Paleo requires some trips to those aisles. When we do, it's very important to get into the habit of reading ingredients. You'd be astonished at the places that corn, wheat, and soy derivatives show up in products that have nothing to do with grains.

The basic mustard has four ingredients - ground mustard seed, vinegar, salt, and water. That's it. Varieties of mustard may have additional ingredients that distinguish it. Yellow mustard often has turmeric for color, spicier mustards may have garlic or horseradish for flavor, and Dijon mustards generally have white wine in them. For the most part, all of this is deliciously Paleo.

Mustard was a ancient Roman invention. They would mix unfermented grape juice, in latin mustum, with ground mustard seed, releasing its characteristic spicy flavor. They called it burning grape juice, or mustum ardens, from which the name mustard derives. It quickly spread through the Roman empire, and after its fall, as the fragments of the empire independently developed their own customs and languages, they also developed their own mustards. In England, mustard seed was blended with cinnamon and water to make dried mustard balls that were sold for consumers to add their own vinegar to. In France, mustard cultivation in the Dijon region took on the same sophistication as wine-making. Though now a brand owned by Kraft Foods, the Grey-Poupon line of mustards had been made in the same style for over 200 years before its sale.

For the Paleo eater, mustard makes an excellent condiment - I love to eat my pork chops with coarse, brown mustard on the side. But we can also use it in our cooking as a bark around meat or fish or as part of sauces for a little tangy bite. Here are two examples.

Mustard Dill Salmon

We used dill weed before in our tapas recipe. It's really a versatile herb that has such a subtle flavor of its own but enhances the flavor of so many things. Simply adding dill weed to eggs, salmon, or cucumber enhances the natural flavors, and the fresher the better. In this recipe we mix dill weed in with a garlic mustard to encrust wild-caught salmon filet. My girlfriend, who otherwise hates salmon because it tastes too "fishy" to her, loves this particular dish and doublechecks any time I say that I'm cooking salmon that it's the mustardy one.

When shopping for salmon, wild-caught salmon will generally have a better fat profile - more of those long-chain omega-3 fatty acids we need. Farms raise their salmon on corn and soymeal, and just like grain-fed livestock, grain-fed fish are less healthy. Be careful picking a filet by color - many times salmon farmers and fishermen will dye their cuts in order to give it that richer, orange hue. And buy the fish right before you leave the supermarket - that way it spends as little time as possible outside of refrigeration.

• 1.5 lbs of wild-caught salmon filet
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/4 cup of garlic mustard
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill weed
• sea salt to taste

Pre-heat your broiler to full temperature and line your broiling pan with aluminum foil. Spill 1 tbsp of coconut oil on the foil and spread it around to keep the fish from sticking. In a small bowl, mix the remaining coconut oil, dill weed, and mustard and mix until it has an even consistency. Lay the salmon filet, skin-side down, on the greased foil and salt it lightly. Then spoon the mustard mixture on top and spread evenly, coating the entire filet. Put the salmon under the broiler's heat for 8 minutes for every inch of the thickest part of your filet. Remove from broiler and serve.

Mustard Thyme Rubbed Eye Round Roast

The fats in grass-raised beef are far more beneficial for your health than grain-fed, and pastured cattle generally lead happier lives than their feedlot counterparts, so in our house we do our best to eat grass-fed, humanely-raised meats. Those standards come with a price, and it shows up very clearly on my credit card statement. To try to save without going to grocery store meat, we select cheaper cuts of meat and simply have to cook them better.

So look for chuck roast or eye-round roast. Both of these cuts are tough as leather if you cook them too quickly, but if you slow roast them right, they get a nice even color, succulent juices, and a rich flavor without getting too overly tough. It's still no prime rib, but it's also half the price per pound.

Dry rubs are a great technique for making flavorful roasts. Take off all of the surface juices and then massage a rich blend of spices into the meat's surface and let it be for 24 hours. The flavor of the spices permeates the roast and seals the natural juices inside. In this recipe, crushed mustardseed and thyme give this eye-round roast an aromatic spicy edge, and in our house we generally find ourselves eating the leftovers with our eggs the next morning as well as lunch the next day.

When you are selecting your roast, look for one with a nice crust of fat on one side - when combined with the dry rub, the fat will liquefy and seep into the meat as it cooks.

• 2-3 lb grass-fed eye-round roast
• 1 tbsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds, crushed (or pre-ground mustard powder)
• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme

Crush the mustard seeds and strip the thyme sprigs of their leaves. Combine the thyme leaves, mustardseed grounds, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Using paper towels, pat your roast dry of any residual juices. With your fingers massage the spice mix into all surfaces of the meat evenly, including the fatty sides. Wrap the roast in plastic wrap and refrigerate for as long as you can up to 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, and when it's at full temperature, place your roast fat-side up on a roasting pan and put it in the oven. Immediately turn the thermostat down to 400 degrees and bake for 7 minutes per pound. When that time expires, turn off the oven but do not open the door - leave the roast in the hot oven for 2 hours. No matter how much you may be tempted, keep that oven door shut.

After the two hours, pull the roast, slice, and serve - it should have an even medium to medium-rare color and running with juices. Enjoy.

Relearning to cook Paleo gives us the tremendous opportunity to engage our other senses in food preparation. Relying on aromatic smells and vibrant colors before we even taste our food heightens our sense of anticipation, and our food will automatically taste better. The best way to do this is to selectively include fresh herbs and spices into recipes.

The key word here is fresh. Your spice rack does not qualify. Dehydrated basil, oregano, dill, cilantro, and thyme are no match for the fresh, living herbs, and pre-ground pepper, cumin, or mustard seed lacks the punch of freshly cracked varieties. I used to only include fresh herbs and spices on special occasions when I made grocery store trips to shop specifically for a meal and a recipe. Now I barely touch my spice rack.

If you're relying on your grocery store's produce section for your fresh herbs, you're doing it wrong - not that those herbs aren't fresh, but they're obscenely overpriced and particularly so for the little plastic clamshell encased varieties. Far more cost-effective is to get your herbs from your local garden nursery. Keeping an herb garden gives you a plentiful supply of the freshest herbs possible, and it also fills your home with their fragrance. If you must buy your herbs from the grocery store, hunt among the leafy produce for bunch herbs - it's a far better value than the clamshell containers. Once you get home get a full-sheet dry paper towel, wrap your herbs, and seal them in a ziploc bag for freshness. I recommend keeping a supply of basil, oregano, thyme, dill weed, cilantro, parsley, and mint around at all times.

For spices, a set of grinders or a mortar & pestle is key. Grinding whole seed spices ensures you get the sharpest flavors and most aromatic smells. Try buying whole cumin seed, pan roast it with a little olive oil for several minutes, and then crush it with your mortar. Compare to pre-ground cumin from the spice aisle. You'll be amazed at how much more potent and pleasant the fresh varieties are.

Once you have your herbs and spices, figuring out how to use them comes next. My best recommendation is to experiment. Herbs and spices have such synergetic influences on food it's difficult to imagine how the final result will turn out until you've tasted them. Try making adding some fresh spearmint leaves to your salads, particularly if there are tomatoes and/or cucumbers involved. My morning eggs usually get spiced with dill weed or with cilantro & ground cumin. Fresh basil and oregano together automatically make for an Italian accent to a dish. Try roasting your pork with some fresh apple slices and thyme sprigs.

Beyond the flavor and aromatic sensations, fresh herbs have nutrients and phytochemicals that are antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Recent research has even shown herbs to be one of the best natural sources of anti-angiogenic chemicals which that research suggests can prevent cancer growth.

Lime Cilantro Flank Steak with Herb Chimichurri

Chimichurri is a sauce made from finely chopped fresh herbs and vinegar, originally from the steppes of Patagonia. When I make this recipe I tend to make extra sauce, just because it's so good - you can spoon it on eggs, other meats, or even vegetables long after you've eaten the flank steak. We particularly love to bring along a couple of these flank steaks to outdoor grilling parties with some chimichurri made in advance. Cooking the steak over charcoal and then serving it with the vibrantly glowing green herb sauce comes as a welcome shock to people expecting ordinary hot dogs and frozen burger patties. And there's nothing quite like the smell of the chimichurri right after you finish puréeing it.

For the steak

• 2lb of flank steak
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 3 limes
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp chopped cilantro
• sea salt and pepper to taste

For the chimichurri

• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp chopped basil
• 1 tbsp chopped oregano
• 1/2 small vidalia onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground cumin
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1/8 cup red wine vinegar
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: a few splashes of your favorite hot sauce

Pound the flank steak with a meat tenderizer (or the back of a skillet) to soften it a bit. Put it in a gallon ziploc bag with crushed garlic, squeezed limes, olive oil, salt and pepper and seal tightly. Shake and massage the bag to mix the ingredients and spread them around the flank steak. Marinate for as long as you can, up to 24 hours, turning and massaging occasionally.

Heat the broiler to full heat with the broiling pan inside for 5 minutes. Pull the pan while hot and put the steak flat onto the broiling pan. Broil about 6 minutes each side, turning once. Slice the flank steak perpendicular to the grains of the meat.

Combine the ingredients for the chimichurri into a food processor and purée to a bright green sauce. Pour a moderate amount over each strip of the flank steak and enjoy.