Excreta, etc, etc.

Saucyman, I had the ubiquitous 4th of July corn on the cob and on a subsequent trip to the bathroom…Well, why does that happen? – Dookie

Cellulose is the culprit here. Along with lignin, cellulose provides structure to a plant making it tall and strong, it is a skeletal(ish) structure for the photosynthesizing set. Humans don’t digest cellulose, so it passes through our digestive system largely in tact. It’s not just people, most animals can't digest it and cellulose is devoid of ethanol, meaning the corn kernel is prized by humans, fodder animals and now oil companies. Termites are the exception, they can and do break down cellulose, turning pulp into food, the ultimate lemonade from indigestible lemons.

Which doesn’t make cellulose useless, what it lacks in fuel it makes up for in fiber – Fiber is vital for our health, yet despite nearly a generation being raised reading the classic Everyone Poops, no one likes to talk about the subject - Except for when people do, they really shouldn’t and even then they should restrict their language to clinical terms.

The Europeans trade representatives recently agreed on a definition of fiber for trade purposes –
"[fiber's] carbohydrate polymers must have a degree of polymerization not lower than three (to exclude mono- and disaccharides)". And while that might seem all lawyerly and silly; especially since it took 15 years to agree on the standards but providing a clear interpretation of words that everyone can agree upon is good, whether for a dictionary or Eurocrats.

For those of us not dealing with tariffs, fiber comes in two forms, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and is thought to be beneficial to gut health and helps beneficial intestinal fauna – think probiotics. Cellulose is insoluble and remains intact as it passes through the digestive system – At this point, and science and understanding are forever changing, insoluble fiber is believed to bond with toxins and DNA damaging materials, removing them from the body.

For corn, the cellulose casing is what you see, but only if you look for it. While it might appear to be whole corn, in reality the edible pulp from the kernel has been digested and its fuel and nutrients have been absorbed into your body, leaving only a hollow yellow shell.

A short entry today because of the subject – to make up for the lack of words here is an article on a different kind of waste.

The Old Man and the River

My Dad is going trout fishing next week: After listening to all the talk of lures, reels, location and the temperament of fish, I will have free fish to show for my pain. Any ideas on how to prepare trout? – Fisherman’s Daughter

There is something about the activity of fishing for trout that inspires or perhaps provokes words. Hemingway wrote a novel about trout fishing called The Sun Also Rises: The book additionally explores the aftermath of war, disillusionment and the consequences of repressed desire. Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It is a love letter to fly fishing/trout. Henry David Thoreau, who surprisingly, on this occasion anyway, did not write as though he invented or at least appreciated trout like no one else ever had before or since, instead he pointed out, “some circumstantial evidence is very strong; as when you find a trout is the milk.” While National Book Award Winner, Paris Trout, is not a cookbook and the plot has nothing to do with either word in the title.

Trout is a pretty versatile fish - it can be fried, poached, steamed or have the BBQ Arts of smoke or flame applied to its preparation. For the old school Trout Au Bleu, a cook conks the fish on the head, removes the gills, treats the skin with vinegar and drops the whole fish into poaching liquid – causing the skin to turn blue and the fish to arch in a crescent – Served with hollandaise, it (the technique, the presentation and a sauce that overwhelms the subtle flesh) is overkill. The best meals are always about the ingredient, not the cook. Better to match flavors to the trout, rather than forcing your will upon it - steaming the fish with julienned ginger, scallions and fermented black beans gives the trout a Chinese flare. Stuffing the cavity with par-cooked rice noodles, fish sauce, shallots, shiitakes and cilantro and before placing in a bamboo steamer is cooking in a Vietnamese style.

The incomparable Richard Olney also stuffs trout, only with sorrel before he bakes his fish with white wine and butter. For those who don’t want to turn their oven on in the summer, there is grilling – keep the skin on and keep in mind it cooks quick, real fast, not enough time to drink half a beer fast. Smoking is better – resulting in a food that is close to lox and can be used to make clamless chowder.

Try a regional variation inspired by 2 French recipes: Meuniere, (coated in flour cooked in clarified butter) and Amandine (topped with almonds). Here this dish takes on a southern flavor as you lightly toast pecans, chop them until they become more like coarse flour than nuts. Fillet your trout, season with salt, coat the trout with pecans, sauté in butter over medium heat until the flesh starts to separate. Keep the southern accent going with a fresh ‘gumbo’ made of baby okra, garlic, cherry tomatoes, cooked red onion and thyme.

It might not seem like it when he is describing a $150 lure, at least your Pop fishes - He could golf, telling all the boring tales of equipment and expeditions without the meal at the end.

Fava-ism

Saucyman, We bought some fava beans over the weekend. I don’t know what to do with them – how to prep them, cook them or what to serve with any ideas? Chianti and beans

The fava has been around, it was the rare legume consumed by hunter-gatherers. As the world became civilized or at least civilizations developed, the fava was a staple of Egyptians and Romans (The Greeks weren’t so keen on the bean or bean eaters). For centuries, the fava was the backbone of nutrition in the Mediterranean, and the plant nourished in different ways: The bean, shelled and cooked, was an important source of protein and the plant, cultivated as winter cover in milder regions or grown next to row crops, doubled as green manure, fertilizing soil with nitrogen.

The importance of the fava has diminished: the domination of New World legumes, dietary changes - Fridays and Lent aren’t the fasting days they used to be and farming practices largely avoid natural fertilizers. Well that and preparing the fava for the table is the single most labor-intensive job involved in the field to table loop. Even the bean’s most ardent supporters gently caution of the work involved – and not the good kind of work either, more of a drudgery – that repetitive, painful, soul-crushing labor that one never sees on cooking shows.

Even if shelling fava beans is the grave digging of the culinary world, there are still a couple of reasons why you would shell, blanch, remove the seed coat and cook the bean. The taste, subtle and sweet, somewhere between a sweet pea and lima bean, it is worth trying. And only after you have personally prepped the beans can you decide if the labor to taste ratio was worth the effort.

It is going to take about 4 pounds of favas in their fuzzy jacket to feed, but not fill, two people. Split the pods open like a sweet pea and set the beans aside. Wait, there’s more: Discard or compost the pods, simmer the beans for about a minute in salted water then rinse under cold water. Take a knife, pierce the skin of the bean and remove the bean from the plasticy skin. Repeat 100s of times. And they still need to be cooked until they are tender - an additional 5 to 10 minutes in water or oil. When complete, that 4 pounds of beans @ $3+ a lb. will yield a little over 8-12oz of still uncooked fava. Yes, that is about $20+ a pound, not counting your labor.

Fresh favas are traditionally paired with lamb. For the veg inclined, simmered in olive oil until soft the favas are a good match with steamed artichokes (or asparagus), lemon, pureed garlic and sea salt. With spaghetti and sharp Romano (and maybe a little prosciutto), favas make a pleasant variation of Pasta e Fagioli; a appetizer type of way, more than a satisfying dinner. Personally, I would follow the lead of Thomas Keller and make my very own Succotash; extending the favas with corn, chives and bell pepper.

I applaud the optimism, curiosity or earnestness that made you pick up favas from the market. Even if you’ll want to weep at the amount of time and money you have sunk into what is ultimately and literally, a handful of beans, that instinct to try new things is a wonderful quality and it is possible you enjoy the beans too.