From my kitchen

Carrageenan The Thing You Don’t Need in Your Ice Cream

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on April 4, 2023 12

My daughter loves her ice cream.But fortunately frozen desserts don’t work for her.Any thing with vegetable oil in it (chocolate,ice cream etc) may cause problems for her. This we found out the hard way.

When Summer comes you can’t stop the ice cream cravings.I love ice cream.But it comes with its own share of troubles.Besides the calories,sugar and artificialcolours ,commercial ice cream items has thickener added to it .That thickener causes the ice cream to stay solid even in less than perfect conditions.

But luckily for us Amul India went to court and got the right definition for ice cream and frozen dessert properly explained.

My daughter can gulp down Amul ice cream with no trouble at all.But we strictly ration ice cream trips because even our favorite brand of commercial ice cream contains ingredients which we may not want inside us.Today I am going to talk about one such food additives. It’s a thickener .

What’s the name of this thickener?

It’s called Carrageenan.If you didn’t know it’s a common chemical agent .Carrageenan,is made from red seaweed, is added to make the cold ice cream creamy.It’s mostly used in dairy products but may also be added to sauces ,jellies,jams etc. Stabilizer 407 or E407 is its name.

3 Ingredients Easy Home Made Ice Cream

As I promised ,for the three ingredients home made ice cream you need

1.Amul cream:Doesn’t list Carrageenan as an ingredient.

2.Honey or jaggery

3.Flavour of your choice.I used Almond butter,vanilla extract and chocolate shavings .

Whip them all together using an automatic hand blender or a manual one.I whipped the cream for 20 minutes.Then froze it .

Freeze for 30 minutes covered.Whip again
Freeze overnight and eat it .I poured it in small disposeable paper cups (ones you use for the office coffee ) and needless to say it was a hit.

3 Ingredients Easy Home Made Ice Cream

Why is Carrageenan bad?

It decreases the cellular integrity of the gut wall and changes the permeability changes of the gut.That can make your gut have many problems .Carrageenan is a class of food additives which is classified as a GRAS or generally recognized as safe for human consumption.But many studies over the years since 1980 s have found them linked to gastrointestinal problems,inflammations and allergies.The problem is,they are hidden under cover of regular ingredient and are hard to spot.

Carrageenan changes the intestinal microflora.This destroys the mucosal barrier causing leaky junctions between cells. They make the gut wall leak large molecules including proteins,triggering immune response.Carrageenan also directly activate our body’s inflammatory cells .This leads to colitis and inflammatory bowel disease

Which food commonly contain Carrageenan?

Since Carrageenan is a GRAS or generally recognized as safe for human consumption,it’s use and presence in food products is never advertised or given prominence. But the ingredient list on the product packaging will mention E407.Be a smart consumer and check the product information label carefully before buying.

Nut and soy milks,
protein shakes and powders
Pre-made packaged chocolate milk,cold coffee
Frozen yogurt
Popsicles,
Frozen pre-cooked prepared meals
Most ice cream
infant formula.
Cottage cheese
Creamers
Vegan cheeses
Nondairy desserts
Meat products
Jams,Jellies,Jelly lozenge
Ready made puddings,custards ,custard powder
Ready made cakes and cake mixes
Sauces
Some pet foods
Even Toothpaste

This list is not complete and occasional ice cream or Carrageenan containing product will hardly cause trouble.But if you have a sensitive gut and suffer sudden bouts of bowel trouble ,you would definitely want to check what you are eating.Its common practice to talk about gluten sensitivity,lactose intolerance but few check the hidden ingredients.

What is the effect of Carrageenan?

Though Carrageenan is “natural”,it’s effects are not something you would want in your body.These effects include .

Inflammation
Irritable bowel syndrome
Unknown food allergies often occurring randomly
Bloating
Glucose intolerance
Colon cancer

In 2016, the American National Organic Standards Board voted to remove carrageenan from their approved list.

Carrageenan is usually categorized in emulsifiers, stabilisers, thickeners and gelling agents.

*List of Food Usually Listing Carrageenan/ E 407 as an Ingredient*

Remember that carrageenan-free plant based milks may separate. You just need to shake it well and it should be ,just as good.Carrageenan has no nutritional utility and not having it in your diet is a smart move .Avoiding Carrageenan is as easy as making your own almond milk or skipping products with this additives.I prefer to keep a look out on things which may slip under the radar when it comes to allergies.If it’s not proven safe by people who don’t have a commercial interest, I do the research.After all its a multi million dollar industry and we all know what happens when it’s a question of economics .

Resource list

Food-grade carrageenans and their implications in health and disease

Fang Liu et al. Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf. 2021 Jul.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34146449/

Guo J, Shang X, Chen P, Huang X. How does carrageenan cause colitis? A review. Carbohydr Polym. 2023 Feb 15;302:120374. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2022.120374. Epub 2022 Nov 21. PMID: 36604052.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36604052/

These American foods are banned in other countries

This Blog post is part of Blogchatter AtoZ and the Ultimate Blog Challenge

Bottle Gourd: Did you know we eat the entire vegetable?

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on December 5, 2022 0

Did you know we eat the entire Bottle Gourd? Yes, we do. The main vegetable, the seeds, the peels, the shoots, and the leaves. Now bottle gourd is called Lau in Bengali and Ghia, dudhi, or Launki in Hindi. It’s popular all over India with various methods of cooking. Just like the pumpkin shell, the bottle gourd shell has various ornamental use too.

It’s a part of the pumpkin family and is one of those veggies which have helped me survive the lockdown. You will ask me why?

Well, the humble bottle gourd you will find growing on roofs of West Bengal countryside. The old and dried bottle gourd is used to make bori. It’s used as a dried condiment. Its fresh juice is popular due to its pharmacological properties.

It’s cooked as a delicious vegetable side dish. Bengalis cook it both as a vegetarian dish or with shrimps as a non-vegetarian dish.

The best part is this vegetable is versatile, it can be eaten with rice or phulka/roti. We use the vegetable peel as a delicious side dish with rice and even eat the greens and leaves of the bottle gourd plant. That’s the best ways to eat responsibly. Eat the whole vegetable.

Now I will tell you about Bottle gourd cooked as a vegetarian side dish.Its super easy,filling and nutritious requires very little oil ,spices and delicious too.

Bottle gourd /Lauki /Lau:Quick easy Healthy Recipe

How to cook the bottle gourd?

Peel the bottle gourd. Keep the peels separately. Now you need to dice the bottle gourd. Once it’s diced, get the spices ready.

Spices:

Bay leaf,
cumin whole,
red chillies(optional)
Ginger paste or grated
Haldi/turmeric
Cumin powder
Salt to taste

Others ingredients:

Green chillies,tomatoes

Steps of cooking

You need to heat oil in a big Kadai.
Mustard oil or sunflower oil works.10ml oil was used for a 1.5Kg bottle gourd.
Bay leaf and red chili or green chill, the whole jeera is used to temper the oil.
You can add the ginger now.
But I like the extra gingery taste and have added it a little later. Add the diced bottle gourd.
For a one and a half kilo bottle gourd I use 5mg turmeric,5mg jeera, salt according to taste, ginger paste, tomatoes, green chilies.

The Dont’s

Don’t cover and cook.

Don’t add water .

Don’t cook in high flame .

The tomatoes and the bottle gourd both release a lot of water and it gets cooked slowly. When it’s cooked just right, the water will all be dried. The bottle gourd will be slightly firm but cooked all the way.It’s spicy from the green chilies, tangy because of the tomatoes with lovely ginger and jeera flavoring.

If bottle gourd is bitter after peeling and cutting,dont eat it. Don’t drink bitter bottle gourd juice.

Growing Bottle Gourd in our Vegetable garden

In my next book coming up, I will be sharing bottle gourd cooked with milk, the nonvegetarian bottle gourd, and the vegetable peel recipe too. Can you guess what the book is about?

Poha Quick Recipe

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on February 11, 2021 0

Poha Quick Recipe

Bottle Gourd: Did you know we eat the entire vegetable?

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on October 18, 2020 6

It’s a part of the pumpkin family and is one of those veggies which have helped me survive the lockdown. You will ask me why?

It’s cooked as a delicious vegetable side dish. Bengalis cook it both as a vegetarian dish or with shrimps as a non-vegetarian dish.

Now I will tell you about Bottle gourd cooked as a vegetarian side dish.Its super easy,filling and nutritious requires very little oil ,spices and delicious too.

Bottle gourd /Lauki /Lau:Quick easy Healthy Recipe

How to cook the bottle gourd?

Peel the bottle gourd. Keep the peels separately. Now you need to dice the bottle gourd.

Once its diced,get the spices ready.

Spices:

Bay leaf,
cumin whole,
red chillies(optional)
Ginger paste or grated
Haldi/turmeric
Cumin powder
Salt to taste

Others ingredients:

Green chillies,tomatoes

Steps of cooking

You need to heat oil in a big Kadai.
Mustard oil or sunflower oil works.10ml oil was used for a 1.5Kg bottle gourd.
Bay leaf and red chili or green chill, the whole jeera is used to temper the oil.
You can add the ginger now.
But I like the extra gingery taste and have added it a little later. Add the diced bottle gourd.
For a one and a half kilo bottle gourd I use 5mg turmeric,5mg jeera, salt according to taste, ginger paste, tomatoes, green chilies.

The Dont’s

Don’t cover and cook.

Don’t add water .

Don’t cook in high flame .

If bottle gourd is bitter after peeling and cutting,dont eat it. Don’t drink bitter bottle gourd juice.

In my next book coming up, I will be sharing bottle gourd cooked with milk, the nonvegetarian bottle gourd, and the vegetable peel recipe too. Can you guess what the book is about?

Baking Bread and Breaking Bread

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on September 17, 2020 4

Growing up, my mom insisted both of her daughters learn cooking. If not the fancy stuff but at least the regular everyday cooking. But my sister loved making all things exotic, delicious, and loved baking and cooking various dishes.

The white bread I baked on my fifth attempt

She baked cakes, cookies, brownies, and all sorts of deliciousness whose taste I enjoyed all through my teens and part of my tweens.

I had a discerning tongue when it came to food cooked with care.I was an expert taster.That was my main role in the kitchen ,back then.

Luckily, I picked up skills from both my mom and sister unaware. Though nowhere near their expertise and perfection levels, I can recreate recipes from food memories and bugging my mom over the phone.
That has kept me afloat since March. No cooking skills would have been traumatic for everyone concerned otherwise.

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But one thing I never tried making was bread with yeast. I can make roti/ phulka,luchi, paratha stuffed ones, naan, Gur ka paratha,lachha paratha. But never tried baking bread. After tasting a delicious loaf my sister baked last October, I even ordered some Active Instant dry yeast.
I didn’t dare use it. It was spoilt after sometime, and I threw it away. I thought that was the end of it.

Making roti everyday since March for breakfast and dinner was making me mentally tired. We never buy factory-made bread. In the small town we live in, that’s the only kind available. My daughter doesn’t like it, I get horrible acid reflux from it, and my husband would rather avoid it.
So, no store brought bread for eight years.

Now 2020 has seen all of us do a lot of crazy stuff, and this September, I broke my fear of baking bread and have already baked it four times. The last one was even whole wheat.

My sister told me it’s the bread bug. What can I say? My daughter liked it so much that after the first sweet milk loaf was baked, she was continually breaking off small pieces and eating them. It was challenging to make her eat tomatoes, and she made her own tomato and cucumber salad with two slices of fresh bread.I couldn’t believe my eyes.

What can I say, the best way to know whether you are cooking okay is when the people for whom you cook can’t stop eating it!
Sharing my bread activities for the last few days.
I never ever thought, this was something I wanted to do. But as they say, you never say never.

The things I changed
Bread baked in convection mode in a microwave oven (LG). I didn’t use butter, but olive oil. The honey and sugar were one-fourth of that recommended, and you can adjust according to your tastes.
I followed instructions from the manufacturer the second time around for the yeast’s proofing, and it rose better.
To sharing more bread stories.

The whole wheat bread:Fourth attempt at Baking bread

Here’s the recipe for the bread I baked for the first time.

Monday Mommy Moments week 16 :Healthy Snacks ?

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on April 17, 2017 8

Healthy Snacks almost sound like an oxymoron.Before I became a mommy I thought meals were when you had food ,snacks were stuff which my mother wouldn’t give me at home.But when I became a mommy ,I realized parenting and cooking is inseperable.If your little one eats right,the world is going fine.

When she stops eating ,nothing in the world can make you happy.The guilt trips that we subject ourselves too is bad enough, we worry about their growth.But the problem is not just what you are cooking.Its also what the little one wants to eat.I wrote about how tricky feeding your preschooler can be.I also wrote about how to tackle picky eating .The main problem is snacks not only need to stop their cravings .but also needs to be healthy.Childhood obesity is a worrying problem and affects their entire life.What we feed them today will mold their eating habits and health ,both physical and mental.

My top go to healthy snacks.

Fruits

You just can’t go wrong with these.Luckily my Rai loves all fruits.Banana for a snack makes her happy.Mangoes need to be just right.Firm and sweet .Apples and grapes are favourites too . Oranges are a staple during winters.Dried cranberries and figs she enjoys a lot .I am writing about A to Z of fruits .Dont forget to read .

Nuts and Raisins

A few walnuts or almonds made into small pieces by themselves or as toppings for her oats .Walnut has omega 3 fatty acids and is the best nut known.Almonds are great too.raisins are rich in potassium great for heart health.

Oats & Chia

I use it together with a spoon of raw cocoa mixed with milk and honey to make a porridge.This I garnish with raisins.
I make pancakes with aata(wheat flour) , oats , chia , eggs and adding curd instead of milk.It tastes yummy.I tried Tina’s easy banana pancake and the entire family loved it.
The mug brownie made by Tina is my recent favorite.I just substituted oats and chia ,with a little bit of flour, instead of the whole thing being made of flour.

I also make parathas using wheat flour, oats, and chia.

Veggies fries and fritters

Carrot fries and pumpkin fried in airfryer are an easy delicious crunchy snack.Even french fries airfried is healthier!

Eggs

Luckily my daughter loves having eggs and never likes salt in it.Whether its an omlette( cooked just right ),sunny side up or boiled, she loves them all.I also make noodle pakoda with eggs and veggies in the air fryer,Its crunchy delicious and makes for a quick snack.

Writing this for #MondayMommymoments prompt this week .

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Carrageenan The Thing You Don’t Need in Your Ice Cream

What’s the name of this thickener?

3 Ingredients Easy Home Made Ice Cream

Why is Carrageenan bad?

Which food commonly contain Carrageenan?