I created this blog with the intention of documenting my progress in gaining natural remedies for dementia based on common, or uncommon, available food and spices. Now we have come full circle to a point where – in the simple act of making a frittata – the revolutionary methodology struck me emphatically. Not to mention the frittata was the best one I’ve ever made.
There’s no progress greater than the addition of coconut oil. I have posted about this in the past but simply put, it’s a godsend. There’s no doubt in my mind the supplementing it gives as fuel for the brain is on the whole round better. My comment on this post, of an artist’s self-portraits through the course of having AD, reflects the kind of progress I can attest to. Several years ago it’s quite probable Linda could not have done many of the things she does now on a daily basis. Additionally her overall eating habits are significantly better.
So as for the revolution in the kitchen. For some time now I’ve been using the Indian method of roasting spices in oil, coconut of course, producing a wonderful base for most all my dishes. With the frittata this is my basic starting point, coconut oil, spices, often corn meal for a crust. This all blends together in the pan and roasts well, when it’s roasted then I spread it flat and build on that. This time however, before the oil mix was done roasting I threw in a juicy tomato, diced. The mix in the pan now had some liquid added, thus it was sautéing, and right there was the epiphany. Getting the spice mixture to combine with the liquid of the dish is essential. Oil and water won’t mix so you need to catalyze the process, the tomato filled the role excellently in this case. However, it wasn’t the tomato that shined the light, it was the liquid, for the liquid can be anything really. Saffron soaked in warm water will often be that liquid, and just the notion of sautéing the spices into the dish is true progress in my process of cooking.
Now lentils return to the large cast iron frying pan – just as I learned to make them in high school – where the slow integration of liquid creates a sautéd mixture out of the whole dish, and it becomes a truly different dish than one made in a large pot as I have been doing. This way there’s also far more control over the distribution of spices throughout so they don’t all end up at the bottom of the pot. This works well also because half the lentils are divided now. All have the base ingredients but Linda’s portion doesn’t get as many hot chilies as mine. This is another resolve for her, she’ll have a greater volume of mild chilies, instead of the hot ones, in her dishes.
This may not sound like a big deal, but it is, it’s one thing to have and use spices, it’s another to fully ingrain them into your dishes. Simply roasting them in oil is a start but it’s a somewhat commercialized idea. What started in the frying pan in India, undoubtedly had other veggies, garlic, fresh turmeric, in it, enough to provide some liquid. Now, at restaurants it’s undoubtedly big vats of oil and spices that get added in mass quantities to the various Dal and other lentil dishes in Indian restaurants. Don’t get me wrong, many are delicious and wonderfully spicy hot, (Lotus is one I can highly recommend).
I’ve been feeling of late that one of my greatest contributions to this world will be in the food, and I’m reasonably certain now this is what it is in The Way. So in the coming posts I will show this method in pictures as well as words. That will start with a pot of steel cut oats and millet, right now.
Fighting Alzheimers free radicals 