Spice up!

What's a better food to eat in the middle of a cold winter than chilli? Spicy food makes you feel warm and chilli also has numerous health benefits. The component in chillies which is responsible for the hotness is a chemical called capsaicin. Capsaicin is what causes the wonderful effects chilli can have on your health.

Chilli has been found to lower blood sugar levels.This way it helps to control insuline levels and can be helpful for people who are overweight or suffer from diabetes. Chillies can lower high blood pressure since they are high in vitamins A and C which help strengthen blood vessels. Capsaicin protects your heart by reducing cholesterol levels. Eating chilli can also increase metabolic rates and help you burn fat.

Capsaicin can provide pain relief by targeting pain receptors and inhibiting a neuropeptide, Substance P, which is the key brain pain transmitter. It does this without affecting nerve cells and having the numbing side-effects that painkillers usually have. So chillies have a relaxing effect on your body and can even help with migraines.

 If you have a flu, eating chilli can be benefitial since it opens up nasal passageways (we all know how uncomfortable it is when you order a hot dish in a restaurant and suddenly your nose starts running). Chillies contain loads of Vitamin C (one 73g chili pepper contains 83% of your daily needs!) which strengthens your immune system and helps your body fight off the viruses.

But these are just a few of the health benefits that chillies are recorded to have. There is even some research that chilli can limit the spreading of prostate cancer and prevent stomach cancer! So if you care for your health there are plenty of resons to treat yourself with chilli but for me the taste is a good enough reason on its own.

When you're handling hot chilli peppers (like habanero) you have to remember to be very careful! The chilli oils inside the chilli peppers contain plenty of capsaicin and if you're not careful while cutting the peppers you'll get chilli oil on your hands. The capsaicin is especially dangerous if it ends up on your eyes or mucous membranes. Use rubber gloves since the chillies can sting, burn and irritate your skin. Rinse the peppers and dry them. Scrape out the seeds. After cutting the chili discard the gloves, wash the knife and the cutting board very carefully and wash your hands with plenty of soap. If you didn't use the whole chilli pepper you can leave it to dry for a couple of days and use it for cooking later on. If you get chilli oils on your hands a good idea is to soak your hands with vegetable oil and then wash with soap (instead of rubbing your eyes or picking your nose, trust me). Capsaicin is fat-soluble so by using oil you can wash it off completely.

If you burn your mouth with chilli, drink a glass of cold milk. The protein found in milk called casein works as a detergent against capsaicin and soothes the burns effectively. If you burn your hands soak them in a bowl filled with milk and ice cubes. If there is no milk available rinse your mouth with cold sugar solution until the pain has stopped. I've also found chewing on white bread very helpful. This trick I learned as a kid when I was in Tunis. I was quite young and not used to spicy foods. We were eating out and I accidentally ate too much harissa (very spicy Tunisian hot chilli sauce). Luckily the waiter understood why my face was all read and I was nearly crying so he gave me a piece of white bread and told me to chew on it until I feel better.

This chilli recipe I've come up with by putting together different elements from a few different recipes. You can use pretty much any beans you like. If you're using dried beans instead of canned ones, remember to soak them the night before and boil them before starting to prepare the food (you can find the instructions and boiling times in the packages). If you're not a fan of bell peppers or corn you can use other vegetables instead, e.g. carrots or potatoes (note that different vegetables take a different time to cook). But don't use too much of different kinds of vegetables. Chilli is best when it's kept simple.

Chilli sin Carne (4-6 portions)

• 4 decilitres boiled/canned beans (I used azuki beans but you can use whichever beans you like)
• 1 decilitre (frozen or canned) corn
• 1 bell pepper (whichever colour you like, I prefer the red ones)
• 1 onion
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 habanero chilli pepper or 1-2 mild chilli pepper(s)
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes (à 400 grams)
• 70 grams tomato purée
• 2-4 decilitres water
• 1 tablespoon dark unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar, honey or maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• red bell pepper powder
• herbs (e.g. oregano, marjoram)
• salt, pepper

Chop the onion, garlic and chilli (be careful, especially if you're using habanero!). Heat some oil in a pot and add the onion. Cook it for a couple of minutes and add the garlic and chilli. Be careful when cooking the chilli. You might not want to breath the evaporating chilli oils or you'll find yourself coughing for quite some time. Add the coriander and cumin (since everyone has their own taste, the amounts of spices are just directional). Don't forget to sprinkle some red bell pepper powder and herbs as well. Now add the crushed tomatoes and the tomato purée. Let it stew for 10-15 minutes. Add the beans, cacao powder and whichever sweetener you're using. Add some water if there's too little of it. Let it stew now for 20 minutes but remember to stir it once in a while. Add the bell pepper and corn and sprinkle some salt and pepper. Let it stew for 10 more minutes.
Serve with rice, quinoa, bread etc.


If you're interested in the health benefits of chillies and cooking them you can find more detailed information in the links below.

Sources:
http://www.chilli-willy.com/chilli-health-benefits/
http://www.chilipeppermadness.com/chili-pepper-health-benefits.html
http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/chili-peppers.html
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/how-to-cook-chili-peppers1.htm
http://www.asianonlinerecipes.com/cooking_guide/handling-fresh-chili-peppers.php
http://www.wikihow.com/Cool-Burns-from-Chili-Peppers
http://dave-dewitt.suite101.com/habanero-chile-peppers-used-in-the-kitchen-a109740

Shrove Tuesday Pulla

I finally got to make lakiaispulla (Finnish Shrove Tuesday buns)! Of course it's well past Shrove Tuesday but these buns taste delicious, regardless of the day. This recipe I have learned from my mother. It's easier than most pulla (Finnish Cardamom bun) recipes since in this one you add the margarine into the milk instead of having to knead it in the dough much later on. It's egg-free because we have had egg-allergy in our family. It seems to be a basic assumption that eggs are a vital ingredient in making pulla but that's simply not true. Just try making pulla without eggs and you'll be surprised, it's actually better! The dough is a lot softer if no eggs are used. The surface of the buns cracks more easily if the dough is egg-free but that is a minor issue. Egg-free pulla just tastes better. Period.

You can use organic milk or if you want to make the buns vegan replace it with oat milk. If you're celebrating Shrove Tuesday don't forget the jam, almond paste and oat (or organic) whipped cream! And here's a little tip for eating laskiaispulla: Take the top off and eat it first. This way the filling stays nicely on the bun.

If you want to make cinnamon rolls, roll the dough into a rectangle, spread some margarine on it and sprinkle  with plenty of cinnamon and some brown sugar. Then just tightly roll the dough into a big "snake". You can either make diagonal cuts to cut the dough in triangular pieces and press the tip of the triangle down with your fingers to make ear-shaped buns, or you can just cut the roll in slices and bake them as they are. If you're tired of cinnamon you can use pretty much anything to fill the roll, e.g. apple mash or dried cranberries and brown sugar.

Note that pulla is definitely not the easiest sweet bread to make! It takes a couple of hours and there's lots of kneading to do. But if you have some time and patience it's definitely worth it. If you have an electric dough mixer you can let it do the kneading.

Vegan Finnish Cardamom Buns (or Pulla)

filled with jam, almond paste and whipped cream (aka laskiaspulla)

• ½ litre oat milk (or organic milk)
• 150-200 grams margarine
• 1 tablespoon cardamom
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 1½-2 decilitres sugar
• 12-13 decilitres flour (I used 3 dl whole-wheat flour and 10 dl of all-purpose flour)
• Two bags (14 grams) of dry yeast
• oat (or organic) milk for brushing
• on top: pearl sugar

Filling:
oat/organic whipped cream
raspberry/strawberry jam and/or almond paste

Heat the milk and the margarine in a microwave oven until the mixture is hot, approximately 42° (this means that it's quite a lot warmer than your hand and feels hot). Add cardamom, salt, vanilla sugar and sugar into the liquid. Mix the dry yeast into 10 decilitres of flour. Beat approximately 5 decilitres of flour into the milk-margarine-mixture until the dough is smooth and elastic. Add the rest of the flour little by little. At this point you have to use your hands to knead the dough. Now this is the tedious part of making pulla. You have to knead the dough until it separates from the side of the bowl and your hand (you can also do this with an electric dough mixer, then you just have to try once in a while if the dough is still sticky). Note that when you don't use eggs the dough remains a bit stickier than with the traditional recipe.

Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave to rise in a warm place until it has doubled in bulk. This takes about 30-60 minutes. My trick is to put the dough in a microwave oven to rise. The microwave is of course not on but the dough rises better in a closed space.

When the dough has doubled in bulk place it on a floured surface and knead well. Knead the dough into a long shaped roll and cut the roll in smaller pieces. Roll the pieces into balls. Place the dough balls on a sheet covered with baking paper. Brush the dough balls with oat milk and sprinkle some pearl sugar on top. Bake the buns in 225°C for 10-13 minutes. Be careful while the buns are in the oven since they burn easily! You know the buns are ready when they have a nice golden brown colour.

If you're making laskiaispulla let the buns cool down before filling them. Cut the tops off and fill them with jam and/or almond paste and whipped cream. Best served after tobogganing.

Pancake Day

Last Tuesday was Pancake Day (also known as Shrove Tuesday), the last day preceding the first day of the Lent. In most traditions the day is celebrated by feasting on fatty foods like pastries, meat, or pancakes. In Finland the day is called Laskiainen and is celebrated by eating a pastry called pulla (cardamom buns) filled with whipped cream and jam or almond paste and going tobogganing. I would have liked to make some pulla but unfortunately I've been sick for two weeks now (even excessive use of honey and ginger don't make this flu any easier to beat). Because it takes such a long time to make pulla I decided to follow the English tradition instead and make some pancakes.

I often prefer to prepare my pancakes vegan. You can easily replace the eggs with soy-yoghurt, soy-flour or apple-mash (or just simply leave it out) and if you're a health-freak like me, you can use whole-wheat flour. Finnish pancakes are similar to crêpes and usually cooked on a frying pan but the batter can also be spread on a sheet pan and baked in the oven (then it's just called pannukakku instead of lettu). I've always been pretty good at cooking pancakes and usually managed to make them nice and crispy but this time something just didn't work. The batter burned on the pan even though I used plenty of oil and the pan wasn't too hot. It just simply refused to adapt a shape resembling a pancake in any way. The result looked like this:

I just had to comfort myself with the fact that I wasn't at home and I had to use the equipment of an unfamiliar kitchen. Because I still wanted pancakes I decided to add ½ teaspoons of baking powder and bake it in the oven. The pancakes did turn out delicious this way, but I would have preferred them fried. So if you want to prepare the pancakes on a pan I suggest you use a little less flour and choose apple smash or soy-flour as an egg-replacement instead of soy-yoghurt to make the batter easier to handle. Or you can just prepare the batter with grain/soy milk and flour without any other ingredients. You have to be careful while cooking to make the pancakes stay in one peace (it's easier if you make small pancakes), but I've done pancakes this way many times and they turn out delicious.

Vegan oven-baked pancake (or Pannukakku)

• 5 decilitres grain/soy milk
• 3 decilitres of (whole-wheat) flour
• 2 tablespoons (app. 1 dl) of soy-yoghurt
• ½ teaspoon of baking powder
• You can also add 1 tablespoon of sugar and/or 1 teaspoon of salt and/or few tablespoons of oil

Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl and let the batter rest for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Cover the sheet pan with a bakery paper. Spread the batter on the pan and bake it in the oven for 25-35 minutes or until it has a nice golden brown colour and feels somewhat firm. Let the pancake cool down for a while and cut it in squares. Serve the pancake with jam, fruit or berries.

Sweet as honey

 

In the honour of the flu season I feel like writing my very first entry about other ways of fighting those viruses than codeine and paracetamol. One of nature's miracle workers is honey. When you're sick your body consumes a lot of energy so the natural sugars in honey provide a healthy energy boost. The glucose gets your blood sugar up quickly to make you feel better and fructose provides more sustained energy.

But what makes honey so wonderful is not the energy it provides but its antioxidant and antibacterial properties. The antioxidants in honey can destroy harmful chemical agents that cause diseases. The antimicrobial properties of honey are caused by enzymes that prohibit the growth of certain bacteria. So if you have a sore throat why not try a spoonful of honey instead of some codeine-containing cough medicine? Honey soothes your throat and thanks to the antibacterial properties it can actually kill the bacteria that causes the infection.

I've always preferred to sweeten my tea with honey instead of sugar but if you want to get all the health benefits you shouldn't heat it too much. In fact, heating honey to just 37°C destroys nearly 200 components, parts of which are antibacterial, and one of the important enzymes in honey breaks down at 40°C. Heating honey to 70°C causes rapid degradation. The best way to enjoy your honey is room-temperature. So if you feel like you need an enzyme-boost, one good idea is to let your tea cool down a bit before adding the honey. You can also try preparing yourself an easy lemon & honey juice. Lemon provides you with vitamin C which is also vital for your health.

Lemon & Honey Juice

Ingredients:

• ½ (organic) lemon
• water
• (organic) honey

Cut the lemon in half and juice it. If you don't have a juicer just squeeze it with your hands. Add the juice into a glass of water. Sweeten with as much honey as you like. Stir well.

Having a glass of this juice in the morning really gets you ready for the day but I have to admit it doesn't feel as nice in your throat as a warm cup of tea. I do add honey into my hot tea even after reading about how the enzymes break down in honey when heated - I just love the taste of it! My favourite drink when I'm sick is rooibos tea with ginger. It is something you can use to ease your flu symptoms even if you're a vegan. Simply prepare a cup of rooibos tea and add approximately 1-2cm ginger root (grated or cut into thin slices) into the boiling water. If you don't like rooibos just boil the grated ginger in few decilitres of water for a couple of minutes and drink it. The spicy ginger soothes your throat and it also calms down your stomach while rooibos tea is filled with antioxidants that help you stay healthy. After preparing the tea I often sweeten it with honey - but not before taking one spoonful of honey raw to ease my sore throat and fight off the bacteria.

Sources:

http://www.extension.org/pages/44460/at-what-temperature-does-honey-have-to-be-heated-too-too-destroy-the-health-benefits-for-humans

http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/health-benefits-of-honey.html

http://annetterozen.hubpages.com/hub/Top-10-Health-Benefits-of-Ginger