Marlene Parrish - What Einstein Told His Cook 2

For skin-enclosed fruits, such as apples, tomatoes, pears, peaches, cucumbers, lemons, and oranges, a few drops of liquid dishwashing detergent applied vigorously with a brush and rinsed off well will do a good job of removing any contaminants. That’s an especially good idea for lemons and oranges if you intend to use their zest or peels in cooking.

One of the best defenses against bacteria on produce, which I employed when living in South America, is to wash the produce in a solution of about a teaspoon of chlorine bleach (a solution of sodium hypochlorite in water) per quart of water. Because the tapwater itself was suspect, I let the bleach solution stand for several hours before using it on the food, an unnecessary precaution here in the States.

Another safe and simple antibacterial treatment was devised in 1996 by food scientists at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. It consists of spraying the produce with hydrogen peroxide solution (the 3 percent strength sold in drugstores as a disinfectant) and then with white vinegar, or vice versa. The two liquids mix on the food and react to release germ-killing oxygen gas. Any residual hydrogen peroxide on your lettuce will decompose quickly and is, in any event, tasteless, while any residual vinegar will give you a head start on the salad dressing.

Both the chlorine bleach method and the vinegar-and-peroxide method will also disinfect cutting boards and other food-preparation surfaces, especially after a scrub with detergent and a brush. If your cutting board reeks of chlorine after you use the bleach, a vinegar rinse will kill the smell.

While we’re on that subject, there are many commercial sprays in the supermarket for disinfecting everything from kitchen counters to entire bathrooms—but they are not meant to end up on our food. They contain alkyl dimethylbenzy ammonium chloride, a powerful catalyst that greatly accelerates the decomposition of esters and amides, which are major components of all living organisms from microbes to people. In high enough doses this chemical will kill us, but it is present in commercial disinfecting sprays at a concentration of only 0.2 percent. Nevertheless, disinfecting sprays and wipes should not be used on surfaces such as cutting boards that will come in contact with foods.

Oh, yes, the definitions. A verminophobe is a person who is excessively afraid of germs; a mysophobe is a person who is afraid of dirt or contamination; a toxiphobe is a person who is afraid of being poisoned; and a sitophobe is a person who is afraid of food or eating, probably because he or she is already a mysophobe or toxiphobe.

For a list of other phobias, go to www.phobialist.com, unless you’re a logizomechanophobe, in which case you will probably never know what logizomechanophobia is.

THE FOODIE’S FICTIONARY:Swiss chard—burnt cheese

A YUKON GOLD RUST

Yukon Gold potatoes are my favorites, but it seems impossible to buy any that don’t have rusty-looking grayish-purplish marks in the flesh.

After I cut out these dark marks, the potatoes are only fit for mashing. I have yet to find potatoes that don’t require major surgery. What is the purple-gray mark, and why does this seem to occur in Yukon Gold and not in other potatoes?

Yukon Golds, along with cabbage, onions, and yellow rice, get their yellow color from chemicals called anthoxanthins. Anthoxanthins react with traces of metals such as iron and aluminum, which turn them blue-gray. A carbon steel knife can have that effect, so it’s best to cut and slice these vegetables with stainless-steel knives. Other varieties of potatoes contain smaller amounts of anthoxanthins and don’t stain as easily.

Storage at high temperatures can also turn anthoxanthins dark. So if some of the potatoes are already stained upon purchase, seek out a market that stores its supply at cooler temperatures.

Speaking of anthoxanthins (now there’s a segue you won’t see every day), carrots contain small amounts of anthoxanthins, the colors of which can depend on the presence or absence of metal ions (charged metal atoms) such as iron and aluminum. People who bake carrot cakes in cast-iron or aluminum pans are sometimes startled to find that the carrots have turned green.

As in the case of the Yukon Golds, the reaction product of a carrot anthoxanthin with iron or aluminum can well be blue. And guess what blue plus the carrot’s yellow makes? Green!

Spanish Mashed Potatoes

When garlic is sizzled in olive oil, the intensity of the garlic is toned down while the oil is flavored. To make this recipe for a crowd, use this formula: For each 2 cups mashed potatoes, add 2 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 sauteed cloves garlic, ½ teaspoon coarse salt, ½ teaspoon smoked sweet Spanish paprika (pimentón), ¼ teaspoon ground cumin, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 2 slices bacon, and 1 scallion. Leftover mashed potatoes are wonderful warmed up the next day as potato pancakes with a fried egg on the side. Serve with Sherry-Browned Chicken with Garlic (chapter 1).

4 large russet baking potatoes or 4 Yukon Gold or all-purpose potatoes, enough to make about 4 cups mashed potatoes

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, or more to taste

4 cloves garlic

4 slices bacon

1 teaspoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon smoked sweet Spanish paprika ( pimentón )

½ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 scallions, both white and green parts, thinly sliced

1.Make the mashed potatoes: If using russet potatoes, place a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Prick the potatoes with a fork, place on the rack, and bake for 1 hour, or until tender when poked with a knife. If using Yukon Gold or all-purpose potatoes, peel them, cut into 1-inch chunks, and simmer in salted water for 12 to 15 minutes, or until barely fork-tender. When the baked potatoes are done, remove from the oven, cut them in half lengthwise, and scoop the flesh out into a pot. When the simmered potatoes are done, drain and leave in the pot.

2.While the potatoes are cooking, pour the olive oil into a small skillet and add the chopped garlic. Cook over medium-low heat until the garlic sizzles and begins to take on faint color. Remove from the heat before it browns.

3.In a medium skillet, fry the bacon over low heat until done and crisp. Chop the slices into ¼-inch bits.

4.Add the olive oil and garlic, salt, paprika, cumin, and cayenne pepper to the hot potatoes. Mash the potatoes coarsely using a potato masher (see chapter 5). Taste for seasoning.

5.Pile the mashed potatoes into a warmed serving dish. (Or scoop the mashed potatoes back into the potato shells.) Top with the bacon and scallions.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

A RHUBARB OVER RHUBARB

A biologist friend tells me that rhubarb is poisonous. But I argue that that can’t be true because I’ve been eating rhubarb pie for years and am still kicking. Who’s right?

Both of you.

All parts of the rhubarb plant ( Rheum rhaponticum ) contain various amounts of oxalic acid and its chemical progeny, oxalate salts, ranging from 0.1 to 1.4 percent. That’s largely what gives rhubarb its prodigious pucker power, which must be tamed with sugar in the pie. Oxalic acid and oxalates are indeed poisonous.

During World War I, when fresh vegetables were in short supply in Britain, there were reported cases of people suffering oxalic acid poisoning from eating rhubarb leaves, which contain the largest concentration of oxalic acid anywhere in the plant. But inasmuch as you are still capable of arguing with your biologist friend, it should be obvious that the stalks, which are what you’ve been eating in your pies, contain much less oxalic acid than the leaves. Moreover, while there is no doubt that oxalic acid is poisonous, there is some doubt that it’s the oxalic acid alone that poisons rhubarb-leaf eaters.