Sweet Potato

There are so many sweets and desserts associated with Autumn. Candy apples, apple pie, apple crisp, candy corn, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, sweet potatoes with marshmallows (yuck) - the list of Fall favorites goes on and on. What I find funny about this is that most of the fruits and vegetables used in these dishes are naturally sweet, and yet they are usually prepared with lots of sugar, masking their true identity as nutritional powerhouses. We could get so much nourishment from eating these fruits and vegetables if we just prepared them simply.
Sweet potatoes are the perfect example of this. Even though I have always liked sweet potatoes, they were never a part of my habitual diet. I always associated them with heavy preparations with lots of butter, sugar, and spices. They almost seemed foreign to me. But something changed this Fall, and I have been eating them often. One of the reasons I have been eating them so regularly is because I am trying to cut back on my intake of sugars and sweeteners. Sweet potatoes provide me with natural energy and a sweetness that hits the spot, which makes me not want dessert after my meals. When the weather changes and the leaves turn to their gorgeous hues of orange and red, I always crave warmer things that provide comfort and fill me up heavily. This fall I have not had any cravings for desserts or simple carbs, because the nutritional content of sweet potatoes is providing me with sustainable energy, and their natural sweetness is preventing any needs for finding refined sugar in other places.
Another reason that I have been eating them so regularly is their preparation and texture. I have to admit that I have been a bit boring in how I cook them, because all I ever do is wrap them in foil and bake them (usually at 375° F for 1 hour). Once they are baked, I can mash them up with seasonings and other ingredients, or just cut them into cubes and toss onto my salads. Tonight I added baked cubes to a pot with mustard greens and beans. Their texture is soft and mashable, yet they can hold their shape and get tossed in with other things.
Sweet potatoes are very nutritious. They are filled with vitamin A and C, both water-soluble vitamins that have antioxidant as well as anti-inflammatory properties. Vitamin A is definitely the vitamin for Fall, as it is found in so many of the vegetables in season-squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes are the most obvious examples of this. They are also rich in manganese, copper, fiber, potassium, and iron. Even though these beautiful tubers are native to Central America, they have made their way into the diets of many cultures. Christopher Columbus brought them back to Spain, from where they then went to the Philippines. The Portuguese brought them to Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. I was even surprised to find Japanese sweet potatoes at the farmers market today. They were white and starchy, their texture almost reminding me of yucca.
The bottom line is that we have all of these naturally sweet, yet incredibly nutritious vegetables in season now. My favorite of the moment is the sweet potato, but I encourage you to find your own. And try them without sugar!!!

Our new blogger friend, Marie-Claude, otherwise known as Banette, writes mainly about breads and baked goods on her blog: http://www.bombance.net. Although she is French, she has worked in New York for almost 20 years, and currently divides her time between New York state and Connecticut. One of her recent blogs was about Beltane Farm, where she bought fresh chevre and made a Rustic Tart with Chevre, Rosemary and Lemon. We were not lucky enough to try it ourselves, but it looks delicious! Her blog is in French, so if you would like to brush up on your language skills, it is a great opportunity. If you don't speak French, just enjoy the photos, they are pretty self explanatory!

I love Turkish breakfasts. Well, I love all Turkish food, but breakfast most of all. A typical Turkish breakfast consists of breads, olives, cheeses, jams, honeys, tomatoes and cucumbers. When I say jam, I mean rose petal and quince, and when I say honey, there are usually a variety of different floral honeys to choose from. Cheeses range from soft feta to hard Kasar. Turkish breakfasts are healthy and abundant with flavors. I remember being surprised the first time I traveled to Turkey, and saw vegetables (For all intents and purposes I am referring to tomato as a vegetable. Yes, I know it is a fruit!) at the breakfast buffet. I quickly adapted because I realized that eating savory foods was much healthier than the sugar-laden and subsequently sugary "sugar-free" junk food that is marketed to us as breakfast in the US. Also, it was not hard to conform to a new way of eating with such abundant beauty.
I will also never forget when I fell in love with Simit, a hollow, circular bread covered in sesame seeds, which is sold all over the country. I have never been a big bagel fan, which is probably the closest comparison to this type of bread. However, unlike bagels, simit is less chewy and dense, and is more "bread-y". Simits tend to be big, so most people will cut it into quarters and include parts in the bread basket. I ate my first simit with my friend Harika. She taught me to pair it with a soft cheese and drink Ayran (a yogurt drink) along with it. I will never forget that breakfast on the Bagdat Caddesi on the Asian side of Istanbul.
Turkish food is all about combining contrasting textures and flavors. Cheese is oven served with tomatoes and watermelon, as their salty and soft vs slightly sweet and crisp textures contrast in a way that combines beautifully. Another breakfast treat that we feature on the show this week is Tahin Pekmez, which is tahini (tahin in Turkish) with pekmez (a molasses made from grapes or carob). The nutty flavor of the tahin contrasts with the sweetness of the pekmez. This summer I traveled to Turkey again, and enjoyed this combination for the first time. Even though it was my third time in Turkey, I was discovering new things every day. Instead of pekmez, I would drizzle honey over the tahin on top of my bread. Side note: At dinner one night we had fried eggplant with tahin pekmez on top. The flavor combination does not have to be limited to just breakfast!
Another favorite breakfast food was poca, which I learned to make from my friend's housekeeper, Nur. Poca (pronounced poh-ja), are buttery breads filled with feta and herbs. When I caught her in the kitchen one morning throwing all of the ingredients together, using coffee cups and her hand to measure, I went in and estimated everything she was doing. One Turkish coffee cup I estimated to be 1/4 cup. When I returned to New York, poca was one of the first things I made.
My friend Ria and I have discussed breakfast in great detail. She lived in Turkey for some time and loves the food there as well. It is her theory that our obesity problem would be greatly reduced by making savory breakfasts mandatory. I have to agree with her. Imagine if we ate the Turkish way, and had tomatoes and cucumbers for breakfast, with a little bit of salty cheese and some freshly baked bread. How does that compare to yogurts with 18 grams of sugar per container and packaged cereals with ingredients we can't even pronounce? Or fried donuts covered in glaze?

Just some Turkish food for thought.

Purple Cauliflower

I feel like cauliflower slips under the radar sometimes. It is not an appealing vegetable- as its pale white color cannot compete with its seasonal peers the crimson beets, verdant broccoli, and flame-colored squash. But the other day I found purple cauliflower at the farmers market. I love white cauliflower too, but the purple variety just looked so much more enticing to me that day, so I had to take some home. Because of its versatility, I knew that I would be making it into soups, roasting it, or even eating it raw.

Cauliflower definitely has its merits, especially when it comes to health. It is a great source of vitamins C (think immunity) and K (think healthy bones), as well as dietary fiber. It is related to broccoli, kale, and cabbage, and like them, is known to play a role in cancer prevention. Its cruciferous compounds inhibit the mitosis of tumor cells, and its antioxidants disarm free radicals. It is also a detoxifier, and helps the liver do its difficult job of neutralizing toxic substances that come into the body.

What I love about cauliflower is the way it tastes. My favorite way to eat it is slow roasted over a long period of time. I simply cut the florets from their "tree", and then toss them with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast for an hour at 300F. That is what you see in the photo of this post. Slowly roasted purple cauliflower, which is subtly sweet and nutty.