Eat the Ostrich

The first time I ever had ostrich was right where these round, flightless, tiny-brained and hugely sympathetic birds come from: in Africa. Ever since then, the culinary world has seen an ostrich boom, and by now it has become a common alternative to the other well-known types of red meat.

Rich in proteins and iron and low in fat (1–2g per 100g of meat), the fat that it has mostly consists of polyunsaturated fatty acids (as compared with saturated fats, in case you’re hysterical with the types of fat you’re stuffing down). This means it’s healthy. Not only is the nutritional content ideal, but its short muscle fibers also allow for much easier digestion. The high glycogen content also makes the flavour of ostrich quite sweet, and thus creates a perfect contrast with vegetables or rocket.

Add to this the fact that with its tiny head dangling at the end of its thin neck, and its huge body (about 90–130 kg) held in the air by its straw-strength legs, it looks like it’s the walking meat factory of the bird species, whose looks just scream “eat me!” (Although the meat yield is actually quite low, which has kept the price relatively high.) For me, ostrich was the first bit of red meat I’d had in eight years.

Fast forward to a couple of years later, to Montreal, Canada. I had ostrich in two different restaurants, both BYOB – bring your own bottle, as is customary there. Two very different approaches, the other one very rustic and old-fashioned, the other one modern and stylish. Both delicious. I was sold.

Ostrich with Endives (serves 2)

300g Ostrich Fillet
3 Endives
1dl Cream
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp Corn Starch for thickening

Boil the endives in salted water, outer green leaves removed, until just done. Cut in half. Dry. Cut the ostrich in 1cm slices. Heat the olive oil on pan. Quickly fry the slices with the endives. Add the cream and the thickening. Boil until thickened. Serve with some South African red wine to make the birdy feel at home.

Leaving You, Honey

Tapping into Maple Syrup

By the time I was 6 years old, I had discovered that maple syrup made almost everything my mother cooked taste better. It wasn’t that my mom was a bad cook, it was just that when I tasted that lush golden syrup on pancakes and French toast, I wanted it on everything [...] over oatmeal and omelets, on cooked carrots and peas and even drizzled her over chicken and fish. As I look back, my creative use of maple syrup might well have been the beginning of my culinary career.
[...]
I started by sauteing sliced carrots in a mixture of butter and syrup. As they cooked and the sauce reduced, the carrots took on a deep golden glow. When I tasted them, I was wowed by the complexity and depth of flavors the syrup produced.

I duplicated the combination with cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Although the pairings sounded odd, as each vegetable cooked and caramelized, the flavors became deeper and more complex. Unlike honey and brown sugar, reducing maple syrup enhances its flavor but doesn’t necessarily make it sweeter.

–Marlene Sorosky Gray, San Francisco Chronicle

I got excited when I read this article and ran out to buy some maple syrup. Seek the Canadian brands, as Marlene warns us about Mrs. Butterworth or Aunt Jemima – their sweetness comes not from maples, but corn, and they use maple extract for flavor. “Maple Joe” is one brand of pure maple syrup we get here in Finland.

I tried frying some cooked Brussels sprouts and red pepper using a little maple syrup and liked the outcome, but here’s my own recipe, as served to our saturday dinner guests, along with some lamb steaks and red wine sauce:

Sweet Rosemary Potatoes (serves 4)

6 Potatoes (the floury type, I used the big, red-skinned Rosamunda)
2 tbsp Maple Syrup
1 tbsp Butter
4 Fresh Rosemary Sprigs
Salt (ground Sea or Mountain Salt)
Black Pepper (freshly ground)

Wash the potatoes, leaving the skin. Cut into quarters (or smaller if the potatoes are big). Melt the butter in a pan. Fry the potatoes on medium-high heat until they brown slightly. Add the maple syrup and fry a while longer. Pour the potatoes and the mixture of butter and syrup into an oven pan, add the rosemary sprigs, salt and pepper. Bake, covered or wrapped in foil, in the oven under medium heat for an hour or until the potatoes are soft. (It’s not easy to overcook them.)

The Healthiest Diet: Food.

Unhappy Meals

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

[...] A little meat won’t kill you, though it’s better approached as a side dish than as a main. And you’re much better off eating whole fresh foods than processed food products. That’s what I mean by the recommendation to eat ‘food.’ Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.

– Michael Pollan, NY Times, January 28th, 2007

A Blog? How Original!

Here’s something you haven’t seen: a blog by me!

This one’s about good food: where to get it, how to prepare it, and, above all, how to enjoy it.

I’ll write about interesting books and magazines, restaurants, recipes, foodstuffs, wine and spirits, cigars, kitchenware, cutlery, music, arts, even tablecloths or whatever interesting I find that has something to do with food.

Me, me, me

I’ve always enjoyed food, but only in the last few years have I really started to get into cooking. Now I cook at least once a day – sometimes three times a day – depending on how busy I am. And as time passed, I got bored with just getting the pasta perfectly al dente – I got experimental and dishes of far away places and especially recipes from long ago started to interest me more and more.

I started to look for great restaurants in my home town and the cities I was travelling to, and started gathering interesting books and magazines I could find that were even remotely food-related.

There’s always a “But”

It’s not going to be just a foodie blog, a gourmet blog, a recipe blog or a restaurant blog, though. It’ll probably turn out to be a mixture of all of those, but I’ll also keep an eye on the health side of the matters.

Some years ago I started going to the gym and, in between work-outs, reading Men’s Health magazine. (I guess it felt appropriate given the surroundings).

After a while I started to notice that while the article on page 26 would tell you to eat more oranges, page 57 might suggest replacing the oranges with whatever the tireless researchers had found that particular month to be more effective for weight-loss, keeping blood sugar levels balanced, or giving you more stamina in the bedroom. Next month there would be yet new discoveries on how oranges help you lose weight in some new ways.

(Weight loss. Sigh. Magazines, papers and internet sometimes make you wonder if the only purpose of eating is to optimize the shedding of grams off your waist while devouring as much as you can.)

So I’ll just occasionally throw in findings the modern science is making on the field of food and nutrition. When looking at the big picture, those findings (not unlike common sense suggests) seem to prove again and again, that you should enjoy modest amounts of as many different types of foods as possible to stay healthy.

…And that’s not all!

Of course it doesn’t end there. There’s always the question of ethics (killing for food, feeding the starving nations) and environment (the effects of farming on nature, recycling). These all affect what we eat, whether by a conscious choice or unknowingly.

The odd article about health, nutrition, ethics or environment doesn’t mean that this will be the blog for weight watchers, body builders or tree-huggers, though. The emphasis of Foodström will be on the pleasure the food brings – whether to the eye, the nose, the palate, or to the body.

Although ultimately it’s not possible to separate enjoyment, health and environment when talking about food.