Christina Cooks; 813; Astringents

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I'm going to be able to do it, I don't know if I'm going to be able I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it, I don't know if I'm going to be able Closed captioning provided by the restaurant school at Walnut Hill College in Philadelphia When Christina cooks,

you'll be hooked when Christina cooks. Yeah, okay, do it. Thanks for joining me in my kitchen today. You know, if your liver is not happy, you are not happy. It's our most overworked organ. Our liver is put in a lot of OT detoxing dangerous compounds from our bodies. Road rage, temper tantrums, and overall impatience all indicate that the liver needs a break. Well, relief is as near as your kitchen. Our first recipe, stuff zucchini, features an astringent and abundant member of the squash family. Astringent foods have compounds and acids that break down the fats accumulating in the liver. You do not want to have a chubby liver, and neither do those who have to live with you. You can lose weight faster as well if your liver is working properly. An efficient liver metabolizes fat, protein, and carbs before they can permanently roost on your thighs and behind. You really want to stay thin? Be kind to your liver. We're going to start with a Sicilian recipe. When I was in Sicily with my husband recently, I was surprised to see how they do things, but then I

realized it makes perfect sense. My husband's aunt would saute her garlic and onions completely separately from the rest of the filling so that they didn't overtake the rest of the dish. Since I make this dish an honor of my husband's aunt Pina, I'm going to do it the way she did. She would just coarsely chop her garlic. Just kind of give it a little bit of a once over. Into the pan, although Aunt Pina would not use like one of these fancy little scraper, she just used her hands. But you know, in that went with a pinch of salt and saute these until they start to wilt. So while the onions start to saute with the garlic, we'll start the rest of it. So I'm going to take our zucchini,

cut it in half, and then with a melon baller, you just take out the center to create like a boat. This is where your stuffing is going to go. We'll do the other half. Aunt Pina uses a teaspoon, but she would laugh at me and say, oh my god, you American chefs. Then you coarsely chop this filling. So it falls apart into small pieces. And in another hot pan, a little more olive oil. There's a zucchini.

Let's get it all in there. Pinch of salt and saute. Now to this we'll add some bread crumbs, whole wheat bread crumbs, a little white wine. I kind of do the white wine thing, Aunt Pina did eggs, but you know, I can't go there, so I'm doing it my way. And then once this begins to develop, then the garlic and the onion can get mixed in. This way your flavors aren't compromised, or so they say. And since her stuff's zucchini was one of the best things I ever tasted, let me tell you, I'm guessing that she's right. And the last thing she did was she would grate some cheese into it. Now, being vegan,

bit of a challenge, but I found some vegan mozzarella that work really well in this dish. So they are out there, they're not all that refined, and they're really delicious. So you don't have to totally lose your ability to make this dish. You want the cheese to melt just a little bit. Turn off the heat. Then you take your zucchini, and you put the stuffing pretty abundantly into the little boat. Let's do the other one. And then you have options. You can bake this, smothered in tomato sauce, or you can bake it without, with just a little finish of olive oil, and add your tomato sauce later. So what I think I'm going to do

is just give it a little finish of oil. This will help to keep it moist while it bakes. And then this goes into the oven uncovered, and will bake at 350 for about 15 to 20 minutes. Comes out of the oven, and then, you're just going to lift these out. Let's do two. Some chunky tomato sauce right over top to finish them. And there you have it. And there you have it.

Ampena's stuffed zucchini. Perfect. Treat it properly. Your liver can supply a great energy boost. You know how you feel around three in the afternoon when you eat a candy bar or have another cup of coffee just to keep your eyes open? Don't even go there. When you're sluggish and ready to drop where you're standing, you need something sour to jump kick your liver. Train yourself to crave an astringent pick me up. Asian pairs can provide a tremendous energy boost, and they are delicious. Today I'm preparing them in parchment to retain their juiciness. I keep thinking of my husband's ampena when I do all these things. This is not a dessert she would prepare. It's a little fancy for her taste. She would love it, but in Sicily it's either pastries or fresh fruit on the table. Not so much, you know, things that are wrapped in parchment in the oven. So what you do for this is pretty easy. You're going to hold the parchment around the pear like this. Take the tiniest pinch of salt. This will help to actually

sweeten it. Then you're going to take a touch of white wine. I know you're thinking she's going to pour wine in her hand. What a goofball. No, not really. It's just a drizzle. A touch of brown rice syrup. This is a little messy, but you know you're cooking. Deal. And a whole star anise. Then you take this, wrap the parchment and the foil around it, give it a little twist, set it into a baking dish. Want to see that again? I thought you did. Hold it together. You can start with just parchment, or you can do the parchment in the foil and be more logical in your thinking, but whatever. A little white wine. Pinch of salt. Brown rice syrup. Either in the bowl or a drizzle on top, whichever you prefer. A whole star anise. And you can even give it a squeeze of lemon juice. Whatever you like. Again,

fold it up, create a nice little package into the baking dish. One more time. By the time we're done showing you this, if you can't do this at home, it's time to take remedial cooking. A little white wine. Pinch of salt. You notice I do this in a different order every time it's just to keep your attention. A little drizzle. Star anise. The anise will give this such a nice flavor, almost like a smoky licorice taste. Wrap it into the baking dish. Now these need to bake for about 35 as long as 45 minutes at 350. And they still won't fall apart as like a baked apple wood. So they're going to go in the oven and bake off.

And the minute you take them out of the oven, you can smell the anise. And it's like this amazing aroma that just sort of lifts up onto your nostrils. And then to plate them, be careful, they're steam -involved. You open it up. Open your little parchment package inside. If you have as best as fingertips, lift it out all by itself. Do this again. Be careful of the steam. Gorgeous. One more. Do you ever wonder why chefs all plate things in threes? People usually go out in twos or fours, but it seems to look really nice on the plate, so I'm not going to break that tradition. Then we'll take some raspberry rice syrup, which is really quite yummy,

and has a different flavor than regular rice syrup. And we're just going to drizzle it over top and onto the plate, and just kind of bring a whole different kind of flavor into the mix of the dish. A few fresh raspberries for garnish. And you have one of the easiest, healthiest, most wonderful desserts you could ever have. Our resident musician, John Michaels, knows all about energy. So what are you doing you get sluggish? Just grab your guitar? Sluggish. Oh, a lot more than that, but I sing. I write. That's what I do. And Kristina, here's a song just for you. Let's go.

Lips that look like rubies, diamonds in her eyes. She'll look right through me and cut me down to size. She's an expensive little lady. She glistens glitters and shines. She's worth her way in gold, from her head down to toes, and she's all mine. Sophisticated lady, she knows what's going down. She leads me per rating. In every part of town, she's all expensive little

lady. She glistens glitters and shines. My, my, my, my, my, my. And she's worth her way in gold, from her head down to toes, and she's all mine. She gets my body pumping, like you to blame. I have to plead insanity, because she drives me so insane, and when she gets to loving, no, I cannot break her spell, because she doesn't so well. Are you listening, Kristina? All right, guys, let's bring it down.

If you're looking to find a lady just like mine, you've got to do better than just nickels and dimes, because they're expensive little ladies. They glisten that aren't shy. Yeah, that's right. And they're worth their way in gold, from their head down to their toes, and I've gotten mine. Yeah. Ah, that was gorgeous. I loved that. Tell me how much I love having musicians live in my kitchen. You know, on the surface, the expression cool as a cucumber seems dumb. What does a cucumber have to worry about?

In fact, it means that your liver is functioning perfectly. Your liver loves a good pickle every now and again, so I like to make brined cucumbers with radishes. I'm also going to make a green papaya salad, both of which are richness stringent compounds to help you digest well, and they're completely delicious. For the cucumbers, we're just going to take some curbies. Now, these are organic, so you don't have to peel them, and I really recommend that you try to use organic vegetables when you're peeling and pickling so that you can keep everything intact. So we have the curbies, and we're going to take six cups of spring water or filtered water, more or less, a little bit of white wine for some acid, peppercorns, depending on your taste, you may want more or less of them, a good amount of salt, so that things pickle, a good five or six pinches, some

garlic, and you're going to start to bring this to the boil, and add to it a cucumber, and the red radishes. Now, to add a little bit of a fermenting agent, as well as a little bit of sweet, we'll take a little bit of brown rice syrup. Kind of stir this all together, and this needs to come to the boil, and that's it. After it comes to the boil, you let it stand in the hot liquid for about 10 minutes, and then you proceed with it. But in the meantime, we're going to start our green papaya salad. Raise our heat to high, take a little olive oil, we're going to toast some peanuts in the oil, along with our garlic, this way the garlic

won't burn, and the peanuts will start to toast. You get a nice little sizzle happening. We're going to add to this some green beans, just with the tips cut off. You want to keep these nice and long and graceful looking. We're going to add to it some red bell pepper. Just pull out the little seed bed, and you want to cut this now in thin ribbons, as thinly as your knife skills will allow you to do that. In they go. Just for a little bit of color. This is partly raw, partly cooked. Traditionally, the salad is made completely raw, but green

beans are so much more flavorful when you give them a quick sautee that it's kind of the way to go. You're going to season this with a little bit of salt, and literally at this point turn off the heat. That's kind of it for the sautee part. These are green papayas. What we're going to do is supreme them. What that means is you just take off the outer skin with a sharp knife, working really carefully to not take away too much of the flesh. You can't put with your fingertips because these are a little slippery. You split it in half. Now all these little seeds in the center are edible. They taste like peppercorns, and in fact are used in

folk medicine to keep you, oh, how shall I say this, in a delicate way, regular. So you want to take those out in this case. Both halves. You could add a few of them to the sautee for spicy taste, just kind of cool to do, as long as your guests like heat, or you like heat. So I'm going to take these couple that are on the board and just pop those in. See we have great color here. That's what you're looking for in this kind of salad. Now the key to this is to finally, finally slice the papaya. You want to create a ribbon -like effect. Oh, it's really good. Do the other

half. Okay, now we'll start the plating up process. Get your papaya all sort of opened up in your bowl. It'll break a bit, that's all right. We're going to add to it some cherry tomatoes for some heat, a poblano, just a couple of slices of it, right into the salad bowl, our sauteed bits, then you're going to just dress this with a touch of white wine, a touch of olive oil, and a little soy sauce.

Stir this all together. The color is astonishing, really gorgeous. Then you just plate this up and you have this sort of hot and cold salad, particularly if you chill the papaya before you plate it up. So there's our green papaya salad, and then come down here, and we're just going to take our pickled veggies, our cucumbers and radishes, a quick drizzle of olive oil, and we have our brined cucumber salad as well, just a sprig of parsley for digestion and freshness, and you've got two great side salads. So when in doubt, it's much better to eat something sour than go through life as a sour push. After all, you can cook your way to the life you want. Bye -bye. For today's recipes and more

information, visit our website at ChristinaCooks .com. Christina Porello puts the fun bag into healthy cooking and responds to her most often asked questions in her companion cookbook. Christina Cooks, everything you always wanted to know about whole foods but were afraid to ask. With lots of sound, useful advice, and over 300 recipes with the Mediterranean flair. To order a copy for 1895 plus shipping and handling, call 1 -800 -266 -5815. Plus, the music of John Michaels can be enjoyed with the companion music CD, I Am Who I Am. The cost is $15 plus shipping and handling. Support for Christina Cooks is provided by Pearl Soymilk, made from organic soybeans and flavored with natural ingredients, Pearl Soymilk, created by Kikamon, a nutritious way to add soy to your daily routine, healthy never tasted so good any time of day. Additional funding provided by Koon Recon, manufacturers of Swiss -made Dura Thurm Cookware. European cooks have been using the double -walled thermally insulated cookware for over 20 years. Dura Thurm from Koon Recon, working to bring you food that tastes as good as it is good for you. And by morey -new Silken

Tofu, Soymilk made into Silken Tofu inside a shelf -stable box. Morey -new Silken Tofu, a complete protein with all eight essential amino acids and free of saturated fat and cholesterol. Morey -new, and by Reviva Labs, producing natural skin care products for more than 33 years. Reviva Labs and skin care salons in health food stores worldwide. Reviva Labs, the natural skin care authority. Additional support provided by these fine companies. For morey -new Silken Tofu, please subscribe to

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