Quelcy Kogel: Author of The Gluten Free Grains Cookbook
/EPISODE #18
Our guest today is Quelcy Kogel. She is a food and prop stylist, photographer, and cookbook author. Her recipes have been featured in Bon Appetit, BuzzFeed, and HuffPost Taste among others. She talks with us about her Gluten Free Grains Cookbook, which features numerous baked goods and desserts. Her professional website, Quelcy.com, like her cookbook radiates passion, skill and a dedication to the art and craft of food that few possess.
Click here for a link to this episode on Apple Podcasts.
SHOW NOTES:
I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Quelcy for being a guest on the show! You can learn more about her on her blog, With the Grains, where she shares her recipes and writing.
Recipes:
Quelcy’s Fried Pancake Horns recipe (photo below, it’s the one that looks like empanadas)
A classic fudgy Brownies Recipe I posted a while ago (features teff flour)
How to Reduce Food Waste
Here’s a tip on how to reduce food waste. I compost during the warmer months but something I’ve started doing is saving old vegetables, ends, and peels and then steaming them for my dogs (dogs are omnivores so they need vegetables too). It helps make them healthier and reduces food waste. Although there are a few items that are poisonous to dogs so watch out for those (like grapes, walnuts, or onions to name a few).
Another option is to compost during the warmer months (or compost indoors year round using vermiculture or an electric composter if you have renewable energy)
Irradiation
There are two criticisms of irradiation. One is that along with destroying harmful microorganisms it also destroys ones that are good for us. The second, and perhaps more important criticism, is that irradiation does not fix the core problem. Food often becomes contaminated because the growing methods or processing plants aren’t up to par. Some people fear that food processing plants use irradiation as a crutch rather than ensuring that facilities (or growing methods for that matter) have processes in place to ensure minimal risk of food borne illness.
As of 2018, here is a list of the foods that the FDA allows to be irradiated:
Beef and Pork
Crustaceans (e.g., lobster, shrimp, and crab)
Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Lettuce and Spinach
Poultry
Seeds for Sprouting (e.g., for alfalfa sprouts)
Shell Eggs
Shellfish - Molluscan (e.g., oysters, clams, mussels, and scallops)
Spices and Seasonings
Vote With Your Dollar
Also, if you want to vote with your dollar as we inevitably do, and if you’re new to eating organic, here is a list of foods that are especially important to eat organic because of their high pesticide use:
1. Strawberries
2. Spinach
3. Kale
4. Nectarines
5. Apples
6. Grapes
7. Peaches
8. Cherries
9. Pears
10. Tomatoes
11. Celery
12. Potatoes