10 Flavors That Can Save Your Life and Linzertorte

Spanish eggplant with pasta

Food Diary (August 10, 2011)

Breakfast: Polenta porridge with banana and sunflower seeds

Lunch: Spanish eggplant with pasta

Dinner: Pickled apple and sauerkraut salad, sourdough

Baking/sweets: semolina pudding

The pickled apple and sauerkraut salad was excellent. I pickled raw apples so it was a bit tart. It went sparingly well with the sauerkraut, the salad was a salty tart party. I will certainly be having this on a regular basis until the tart apples are out of season. Unlike offseason fruits which you can buy throughout the year, raw tart apples are a bit harder to find.

Yesterdays favourite photo featured a brownie with orange salt. Some of the readers wondered about orange salt and went to the source to find how it was prepared. The source site is not in English. According to the author to prepare orange salt all you need to do is to mix sea salt with orange peel. This sounds interesting plus orange salt sounds impressive too.

Today's Favourite Photo

Source: Angie’s Recipes

Linzertorte with Port Stewed Damsons

Today’s Favourite Blog

Source: Daily Meal

An interesting article titled “10 Flavors That Can Save Your Life”. According to the author, in the Western world, people have started asking where food is sourced from and how it’s grown in order to determine how healthy it is. On the other hand Eastern food philosophy has always focused on what food does for the body. Here are the 10 flavours that can save your life:

Improve Memory: Rosemary

A powerful source of antioxidants, like oregano and basil, rosemary is also believed to improve memory and cognition. It’s known to have purifying effects as well.

Prevent Diabetes and Lower Blood Sugar: Cloves

Because cloves and clove oil are the best sources of anti-oxidants, according to one study, eating them can have a ton of different benefits including controlling blood sugar and reversing the tissue damage caused by diabetes.

Lower Cholesterol: Laksa Leaf

Known as Vietnamese mint, laksa leaf is thought to be a blood-thinner and help lower cholesterol. It’s an ingredient in various Southeast Asian curries and soups.

Treat a Cough: Thyme

Oregano, basil, and rosemary are often used to treat colds, but thyme is especially helpful for coughs. Try making an herbal infusion tea.

Help an Upset Stomach: Ginger

The compounds called gingerols in ginger can relieve nausea and indigestion.

Fight Alzheimer’s: Cinnamon

Cinnamon is known to have anti-viral properties, but a recent study suggests that it can prevent Alzheimer’s and slow down the debilitating disease.

Lower Blood Pressure: Black Pepper, Cayenne (and All Chile Powder)

Because these are the “warming” spices, along with allspice, nutmeg, ginger, star anise, and cinnamon, they are believed to improve circulation by equalizing blood pressure, moving blood from the center of the body towards the skin and extremities.

Improve Digestion: Banana Leaf

The banana tree is technically an herbaceous plant, and its trunk and leaves, which are used for cooking, release an enzyme when heated that aids digestion. Try wrapping fish in a banana leaf and then steaming or even just serve hot food atop a clean banana leaf.

Heal Wounds, Burns, and Sprains: Turmeric

Turmeric is been found to be a cure-all for everything from cancer prevention, bowel disease, and asthma to arthritis and tendinitis. Aside from its anti-inflammatory properties, its value as an antiseptic also makes it useful for treating wounds, burns, skin problems, and sprains.

Treating the Flu: Star Anise

Many might not realize that star anise played a starring role during the influenza pandemics of the past decade. The Chinese variety (as opposed to the Japanese variety) contains shikimic acid that is used in Tamiflu, the antiviral drug that countries stockpile for influenza outbreaks, and has been traditionally used in Chinese medicine and cooking.

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