Eat Well Issue #33 2020

Peaches are thought to have originated in China, and today China is still the world’s most prolific peach producer. In Australia peaches are at their most abundant and freshest during summer and into autumn. There are thousands of hybrid peach varieties available but what they have in common is a velvet skin, subtle aroma and juicy flesh. You don’t need to do anything to a peach to enjoy it — just eating it raw is a delight. If you do want to go further, they go beautifully with ice cream or when grilled, poached or baked. If you want to really go over the top, you could make yourself a Peach Melba, famously developed at the Savoy Hotel London by French chef Auguste Escoffier (in honour of soprano Dame Nellie…

Kokoda (pronounced ko-konda) is a traditional Fijian dish that is usually served as an appetiser but which could be a meal in itself. Not only is it delicious and healthy, it is easy to prepare and requires no cooking. It is essentially a raw fish ceviche, similar to a South American ceviche, but the Fijian version is served in a half coconut shell or sometimes a giant clam shell. Your typical kokoda is made with fresh fish (usually mahi-mahi, cod or snapper) that is marinated in a combination of coconut milk and citrus juice (lime and lemon) for six to eight hours. After marinating, the fluid is drained and the fish is tossed through a salad combination of diced ripe tomatoes, diced onion, chopped green capsicum, sliced oak leaf lettuce,…

However you slice it or dice it, 2020 has been a hell of a year. Yet despite fire and pandemic, there is still lots to be grateful for and here at EatWell we want to help you find some gratitude to round off the year and start something new. In the mind of some, gratitude is a fluffy emotion, perhaps even indulgent, but in fact, feeling gratitude is one of most powerful and healing things that you can do. When you start to acknowledge the goodness in your life, you can’t help but acknowledge the source of that goodness. Mostly, that source lies at least in part outside of you, so gratitude helps you connect to something larger than yourself. Not surprisingly, the research tells us that gratitude helps people deal…

We want your foodback: EatWell is all about building a sharing community of people who care about the origins, quality and enjoyment of our food, so we want to hear from you. Let us know how you have found some of the recipes you have made from this issue, share the improvements you might have made or even send us one of your own favourite recipes. We will publish as many of your insights and contributions as we can. Send your foodback to Charlie at chale@umco.com.au.…

Lee Holmes Lee’s food philosophy is all about S.O.L.E. food: sustainable, organic, local and ethical. Her main goal is to alter the perception that cooking fresh, wholesome, nutrient-rich meals is difficult, complicated and time-consuming. Lee says, “The best feeling I get is when I create a recipe using interesting, nourishing ingredients and it knocks my socks off. Then I can’t wait to share it with my community and hear their experiences.” After being diagnosed with a crippling autoimmune disease in 2006, Lee travelled the world discovering foods that could be used to heal her body at a cellular level. After discovering many nutrient-rich and anti-inflammatory foods and changing her diet, Lee recovered. Her mind alive with ideas for new recipes, she wanted to share her creations with the world, so superchargedfood.com was born. Supercharged…

The pigments from blueberries are chemicals known as polyphenols. We know that blueberry polyphenols are antioxidant and can protect your heart, reduce inflammation and even improve brain function. Most of the research, though, is based on eating your blueberries raw and fresh, so what happens when, for instance, your blueberries are baked into a muffin? The polyphenols in blueberries include anthocyanins, procyanidin, quercetin and phenolic acids. Blueberries have been tested during three processes involved in making muffins and pies: cooking the blueberries, proofing (when the dough rises before cooking) and baking. What has been discovered is that anthocyanin levels drop, phenolic acid levels increase and levels of quercetin remain constant. It’s likely that yeast somehow stabilises some polyphenols which is how they survive, or are increased, by the baking process.…