By Lisa Gambino

Natural Sugar Substitutes: Stevia and Luo Han Guo

Cooking without sugar, whether by choice or due to Diabetes, leads to a myriad of artificial and natural sweetener choices. Two natural sweeteners are Stevia and Luo Han Guo. Stevia is an herb from the Chrysanthemum family that includes 300 species of plants. Stevia has been grown as a scrub and consumed all over the world since 1887 without any safety issues. Since it is 200-300 times sweeter than table sugar, the Japanese use Stevia in their version of Wrigley’s gum and pickle production. Beatrice Foods includes the natural sweetener in yogurt and diet Coke.

Stevia is ideal for cooking because it is low in calories, offers heat stability unlike aspartame and does not raise a diabetic’s blood sugar levels. But, this natural herbal product ran into a snag with the FDA. The FDA classified Stevia as a food supplement, not a sweetener. So, at the grocery store, it will not be next to the Splenda or an ingredient in your favorite product. However, it can be purchased at the local health food store or online and incorporated into your baking and cooking needs.

Luo Han Guo is a sweet fruit that grows in Southern China. Luo Han Guo is from the cucumber squash family. The sweetener contains mogrosides which are being studied as tumor suppressors and a possibly of reducing atherosclerosis. Currently, extracts are used to produce a natural sweetener that has 250% the sweetness of sucrose (sugar). Like Stevia, it too can be used in cooking, has no known side effects, has fewer calories than ordinary sugar and does not raise insulin levels.

So, one may want to take another look at foods that are free from sugar as well as artificial sweeteners since they provide the framework for controlling our diets. Sugar and artificial sweeteners provide a spectrum of disorders from tooth decay, degenerative diseases, depression and addictions. For instance, the sugar rush produces a euphoria feeling that quickly leads to depletion in serotonin resulting in depression.

Nature will work with us if we eat natural, healthy sweeteners like Stevia and Luo Han Guo in moderation. The habitat needs to be preserved and a balance has to exist so we can use what nature has given us without overharvesting. If wise informed choices are made regarding substitutions for foods we can have our cake and eat it too with the help of natural sweeteners.

The author of this article is the owner of http://gourmetxpress.googlepages.com/ The company offers a large selection of homemade, gourmet mixes including a sugar-free selection.

Article Source: Lisa Gambino – Cooking Without Sugar

By Heather Bettendorf

From the enchanting Venetian lagoon on the Adriatic sea in Italy, when Venice was the center of commerce with Asia from the 13th to the 19th centuries, organic baking traditions were born that are still practiced today by housewives and pastry chefs. Explorers and sailors carried foodstuffs on board the merchant and war galleons that would survive the long voyages in the perilous seas. Among these were sweet treats, simple to make, that in name and taste, reflected their Venetian origins. Not to mention that in those days, the only existing agriculture created organic food; no pesticides or additives were used in foods, except those from mother nature herself.

The Queen of these, and the most famous, is the organic cookie named “Biscotti Baicoli”. Created in the 1700′s, the word “baicoli” is Venetian dialect for sea bass. In fact, their long, oval, thin shape is very similar to the small sea bass, which inhabit the lagoon. At that time, bakers supplied them to coffee shops, or they were served to house guests along with zabaglione cream, hot chocolate or tea. Still others served them with a sweet Doge’s desert wine, the Venetian Moscato dei Doge.

Today they are considered a delicate, light, yet flavorful organic cookie to be enjoyed by everyone. In fact, almost every child in Venice today knows the poem in Venetian dialect which brags of the goodness of the Baicoli and its Venetian origins.

In the lagoon sits Burano, the fisherman’s island, famous for it’s rows of brightly colored houses. From this very small island comes the organic cookie “Bussola Buranello”, which translated, means the compass of Burano. Here too, the marine traditions date back centuries. Baked in a shape outlining a circle, or a backwards “s”, this cookie was a typical Easter treat, kneaded at home by the women of Burano, and then brought to the baker’s for baking. On feast days, it was dipped in holy wine “vin santo”, or in local whites. Packaged, they were placed in the middle of clothes drawers in order to scent them with the delicious aroma characteristic of this cookie.

Still today, considered a genuine and nutritional organic cookie, it is enjoyed in the same manner, or served to children.

Both organic cookies are easy to prepare, with simple organic food ingredients. The recipes follow:

Biscotti Baicoli

Organic Food Ingredients:
1-3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup melted butter (unsalted)
1/4 cup sugar
1 small glass of milk
One-half ounce of yeast

Dissolve the yeast in a small amount of tepid milk in a glass, and then mix it together with 1/4 cup of flour. Form a ball and leave it to rest, covered by a cloth, in a warm place until it doubles in volume (approx 30 min).

Mix together the remaining ingredients, starting with the flour and sugar, then the melted butter, and finally the tepid milk. (You may also add a bit of freshly squeezed orange juice for more flavor) Add the leavened dough and knead all together.

Leave the dough in the mixing bowl and place the bowl in a larger bowl of boiling hot water in the oven (turned off), for at least one hour.

Divide the dough in roughly 6 long, oval shapes, each roughly 3 inches in width. Cook in the oven for approx 10 minutes at 300°, and then increase the temperature to 430° until completely cooked (approx 1 hour). Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Then thinly slice the 6 oval shapes into organic cookies, and put them back in the oven to “toast” for approx 20 min at 120° – 175°.

Dip in hot tea, coffee, or hot chocolate. Or serve with zabaglione cream or a sweet desert wine.

Bussola Buranello

Organic Food Ingredients:
6 egg yolks
1 cup butter softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
A dash of extract (choose between vanilla, lemon or anise, the island tradition)
A dash of salt.

On a kitchen workspace, form a volcano shape with the flour, and in the middle create a crater where you add the softened butter (not melted).

In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the sugar. Then add this to the flour /butter mixture, and quickly knead /mix with your hands.

Take the dough and create the desired cookie shapes (outline of a circle or backwards “s”) and cook in the oven at 350° until done.

Modern versions add dark chocolate chips, raisins, or substitute a bit of the white flour with coconut flour.

Serve these organic treats at home along with your usual array of organic foods or try them on your friends at your next gathering. Bring to your table a culinary, organic, pastry delight which is centuries old, yet enjoyed every day by Venetians and tourists alike.

By Heather Bettendorf – President, PRIMA Organic Cookies http://www.primaorganic.com – Offering gourmet organic cookies from Italy. Our unique cookie formulations and combinations include Natural Lemon, Italian Almond, Venetian Classic, and Sunny Vanilla.

Article Source: Heather Bettendorf == Discover The Secrets of Traditional Venetian Cookies With Organic Food Baking Recipes

It is possible to cook approximately 85 percent of conventional oven recipes in the microwave. When cooking food by way of the microwave there is less need to use herbs or spices as the flavor tends to be retained easier by this method of cooking and it also tends to be more intense. When you choose to cook a conventional recipe in the microwave, always decrease the amount of spices and herbs needed by anywhere from 20 to 25 percent. The oils and butter that are often necessarily to saute a variety of foods are not needed when you decide to cook your food in the microwave. If you do enjoy the butter or oil flavor, add a tiny quantity to your food after it is finished cooking and it will quickly and easily be absorbed into it. Extra liquid, such as water for example is not a requirement of microwave cooking because there is no dry heat involved; therefore evaporation will not take place.

Microwave cooking helps to seal in moisture to food and because of the speed at which it cooks; very few vitamins and minerals are lost from the food. Often the fat content of meat can also be decreased or else eliminated all together. A microwave is an energy efficient way of cooking small quantities of food and it is also an excellent way to reheat something as well as to defrost frozen foods such as meats, fish, poultry as well as vegetables. The microwave tends to be one of the safest ways to defrost any kind of food. Not all microwaves have the same wattage but the industry standard is a 700-watt microwave oven.

For those who enjoy barbecuing their food outdoors, to make it faster and much tastier begin the cooking process in the microwave and then finish it up on your barbecue grill. Using 1005 in your microwave oven, cook meat at three to four minutes for every pound and as soon as the microwave stops, put it on the barbecue to complete the cooking process. The time you spend grilling your food in this case will be cut in half, if not slightly more. Do not give your food the chance to cool off because this could be a breeding ground for bacteria.

If you do not enjoy the process of peeling onions, allow your microwave to make it simpler for you. Place onions in a covered dish and microwave them for anywhere from one to two minutes at full power. Not only will this allow them to peel easier, it will also take some of the strong odor away from the onions if you plan to eat them uncooked, such as cut up for a salad or as slices for hamburgers.

If potato chips or crackers need to be freshened up, do so by popping two cups of them into the microwave for a period of approximately one minute. Make sure to leave them uncovered. Instead of buying croutons for salads make your own. Take dry or crisp bread that is older and microwave four cups at a time for approximately five to seven minutes. It is important to stop the microwave periodically in order to stir them so they do not stick together.

If you want fresh vegetables for your supper, blanch them in the microwave. Prepare the vegetables, as you prefer, whether that be as whole vegetables, chopped or so on, and then put them in a microwave casserole dish. Microwave the vegetables on high power (which means 100%)for three to four minutes for every pound of vegetables. Make sure the vegetables are covered as they cook and stir them or rearrange the dish once they have reached the halfway point of cooking. Once they have finished cooking, take the vegetables out of the microwave and cool them immediately by dunking them into water that is ice cold. Afterwards, drain the vegetables, pack them and then freeze them. Vegetables prepared in the microwave are very healthy as most of the nutrients and minerals are retained. This is especially the case with regards to vitamin C.

If you want to treat yourself to ice cream but find it too hard to scoop, soften it by placing it in the microwave oven for a period of 30 seconds. If a piece of yesterday old pie interests you, put a scoop of ice cream on the slice of pie and then pop it into the microwave for anywhere from 10 to 15 seconds.  Microwaving will bring out the flavor of the pie and make it both warm and fresh while the scoop of ice cream will be softened but not melted completely.