January ABODE: Your Kitchen

The world has wheeled past the winter solstice and the holidays seem to recede even more quickly than they arrived. If the end of the calendar year is heralded by bells and marked with sparkly lights and indulgent foods, the beginning of the next is draped in darkness, muffled by cold, and pierced with remorse and heartburn.

(File Photo)

Even if holiday menus revolve around local meat, dairy, and vegetable goodies, they tend to spin out of control in the Department of Drinks and Desserts. Who can say no to a chestnut biscotti dipped in Vin Santo? Or perhaps you’d prefer a black walnut meringue with your Champagne? So even seasonal eaters get the January blues, brought on by too much sugary food and drink and difficult to kick without an arsenal of fresh, healthy vegetables pulled from garden and market.

January is a wonderful time to reevaluate the sugar and the spice in your life. In nature, sweetness peaks in fruits and vegetables simultaneously with a spike in nutritional content and seed viability—so nature is begging us to pick up a piece of fruit, eat the flesh, and spit the seeds along our omnivorous way. Humans have developed as sweet-seeking missiles; just watch a child respond to a fingerful of sweet potato, a ripe peach…and then watch a splinter of a candy cane steal the show forever.

Sugar’s dirty secret: The more you eat, the more you want. Drop the sugar and, gradually, true flavor and honest taste will emerge from the sugar haze. (It’s true that there can be a rather unpleasant detox period, for sugar creates dependency just as drugs and alcohol do—let’s hope you aren’t too far gone!)

Tea is a great example of the muffling effect of sugar on flavor: Try brewing a cup each of green tea, black tea, white tea, and mint tea. Before sweetening them, smell each cup and take a small sip. The aromas offer an introduction to the flavors and qualities of each infusion, plus differing levels of astringency and plant oil content. A sip of each (without sweetener!) will build on the scent-sation and will cement a very distinct impression of each cup.

Now, sweeten each tea with white sugar to the point that the flavor becomes pleasantly sweet—and notice that the distinctive nature of each cup is muffled by the addition of sugar! Sugar has the same effect in foods, effectively making them more easily ingested but offering less of an impression. Remove the sugar and retrain your senses on the flavors other than sweet.

Sugar detox
If you want to take the plunge and see what the rest of the world tastes like, here’s a simple guide.

Know that fast foods and convenience foods are loaded with sugar. Just know that. White breads, breakfast foods, and conventional packaged items marketed to children are the most egregious examples of a screwed-up, skewed sweetener scale. Go for old-fashioned oatmeal, whole-wheat bread products, minimally sweetened cereals…or have eggs for breakfast!
On the liquid side, try a spicy ginger ale or a seltzer water cut with juice rather than soda—and rest assured that a visual representation of the sugar in soda would put you off it for good. Try sweetening your hot beverages with raw honey; it adds flavor and body to a beverage, and the natural sugars promote digestion.

Finally, indulge your sweet tooth after a healthful meal (not at snack time, not before bed, and certainly not first thing in the morning!).—Lisa Reeder

Our kitchen columnist, Lisa Reeder, is an educator and advocate for local and regional food production in Central Virginia. She received chef’s training in New York and currently works in Farm Services and Distribution at the Local Food Hub.

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

(File Photo)

Primer of sweets
Honey
Gentler on blood sugar than refined sugars; also contains enzymes that help digest carbohydrates. (Put it on your toast! Drizzle on your oatmeal!) Just think: By eating local honey, you are supporting all of the bees’ good work in orchards, fields, and gardens.

Molasses
A byproduct of refined sugar production. Some molasses contains many trace minerals and has a corresponding “deep mineral” flavor. Use it in marinades, mixed with syrup for breakfast foods, cooked in baked beans, or drizzled on greens such as collards.

Sorghum
Sorghum is a cereal grain that grows on a woody stalk (up to 15 feet tall!). Sorghum syrup is made in a manner similar to maple syrup, and has recently been cultivated, milled, and concentrated locally.

Maple syrup
Source matters. Try to find small-batch maple syrup that is made in the old-fashioned way (tapping trees, collecting sap, and boiling/evaporating it to a fraction of its original volume). The Highland County Maple Festival is worth the trip and occurs the second and third weekends in March (www.highlandcounty.org).

Stevia powder
The “e” is short, not long as in Steve. Stevia leaves are VERY sweet, and can be crushed or infused into a liquid for dilution. Radical Roots Community Farm grows and sells stevia—look for them at City Market or online at www.radicalrootsfarm.com.

(Collated from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig)