Quarantine Food Diaries Soup Season, Bone Broth, why we all need it

 Bone broth is everywhere, the newest trend, everything from bone broth stocks to bone broth juices, supplemental bone broth powders and bone broth in capsules, but what is all the rage?

I sat pondering this clear broth and understood it was as old as time just repackaged and renamed for better marketing, so that all those who would could cash in on the new buzz word of our consumer culture.

Your mother's chicken soup is bone broth. It's that simple. Any soup made with the bones and connective tissue and fat simmered over two to three hours is bone broth. 

What's the fuss all about? Here's a few concise facts about what bone broth does and why it is said to support digestion, boost the immune system, act as a probiotic restoring the gut and reverse signs of aging like collagen loss and inflammatory responses. 

• It is rich in a protein called gelatin made from dissolved collagen. Collagen is found in connective tissue and digested in this way boosts collagen production in our bodies
• It is rich in amino acids called glycine and proline, neurotransmitters that have anti inflammatory properties and immune system support. Proline helps support joint health and collagen production.
• B vitamins: Niacin and riboflavin both of which play a role in metabolism, assisting in the breakdown of carbohydrates, proteins and fats and boosting the gut microbiome, it is a probiotic.
• rich in glucosamine and chonodrotin two nutrients that support joint elasticity and health.

So whatever your age, or gender, physical state bone broth has key roles to play as the fountain of youth from skin to gut to joints to immunity. 

Make sure you are giving yourself a broth made from humanely pasture raised animals as we carry the energy of that which we eat into our own cells, so making a broth from a chicken that hasn't run free and has been pumped with antibiotics and growth hormones will impart these traumas to you as well. 

I make a bone broth and like to add the umami to it, a few different ways today I'll give you one to play with. 

To increase the trace mineral content to your broth add ginger, and scallions, an onion and at the end you can saute' mushrooms, bok choy to give it a Ramen twist as I did. Just remember, good old chicken soup is also a bone broth!!

Ramen Broth

• 
  
• 2.2lb pork soup bones or if you can't find I used country ribs 
• 1 onion , peeled sliced 
• 3 shallots/scallions green part only
• 3cm/1¼” cube ginger , cut in half
• 2 cloves garlic
• 
  

 Ramen Broth

• 2 tbsp soy sauce or liquid aminos
• 1½ tsp mirin
• salt to adjust flavor
• 2 cups Ramen Broth in this recipe , boiling hot

 Ramen Noodles and Toppings 

• 80-100g/2.8-3.5oz fresh thin buckwheat noodles cooked separately and held until ready to compose soup
• a few shredds of the boiled pork or if you want to work harder, thinly sliced sautee'd pork (prettier)
• shredded raw red cabbage
• 2 baby bokchoy sautee'd with 6 shitake mushrooms sliced in sesame oil, garlic and chili, for a little kick. Add soy or aminos to steam slightly at the end. 
• Instructions

Ramen Broth

1. Bring 4L/8.5pt of water in a pot to a boil. Add pork bones and boil for 10 minutes. A lot of scum will surface.

2. Drain and wash the bones under running cold water one by one, removing coagulated blood.

3. Add the cleaned bones, the rest of the Ramen Broth ingredients excluding bonito flakes to a large pot with 4L/8.5pt water, and bring it to a boil.

4. When scum surfaces, occasionally scoop it off gently using a ladle (note 5). Do not mix the broth with the ladle when removing the scum as it will cause the broth to become cloudy.

5. After removing the scum 4-5 times, turn down the heat to simmer gently.

6. While simmering, remove scum a few more times in the beginning if required.

7. Simmer for 2 hours with a lid on but allowing for slight ventilation

8. Turn the heat off. Put the broth through a sieve and collect only the liquid.

9. Makes about 1.6L/3.4pt of soup 

Making Soy or Amino Ramen 

1. Place soy sauce or aminos and mirin in a serving bowl. 

2. Boil water in a sauce pan and cook noodles and drain.

3. Add Ramen Broth to the bowl, mix. Taste test the soup and adjust with salt.

4. Add the noodles. Place topping of your choice and serve immediately. 

Stinging nettles, shaman plant medicine and mustard green salad with rainbow trout

The change of season always reminds me my body needs different attention. The shamans of Northern American tribes used plants to treat everything, some of our modern day medicine has its roots, literally, in plants as well. 

Stinging nettles (urtica dioica)  are one such herb I have added to my anti inflammatory arsenal of weapons to fight the big fight against the stiffness and soreness that threatens to invade my joints. 

The indigenous people of America would use this fantastic plant leaves, stems and branches in one of three ways. They discovered that the fine hairlike prickles on the stems of the nettle plant released a natural antihistamine that blocks histamine production in the body when literally flogging the skin. Histamine is a protein that causes inflammation, redness, and irritation. It is produced in response to environmental or dietary proteins. 

If you shy away from modern day flogging no worries, you can make a tea of the dried leaves and roots and this is readily available online or if you’re in Philly, Penn Herb sells it in bulk! 

https://www.pennherb.com/

I absolutely love Gold thread tonics as well, for a super hydrating body and brain pick me up, they are always in my cabinet, they don't contain any sugar either but have just a tad of sweetness from erythritol.

If you can find fresh nettle you can use it as you would spinach, make a nettle soup with miso or a risotto with stinging nettle. 

I’ve chosen tea for our purposes and am cooking with mustard greens which are more readily available, fresh, during this season and contain polyphenols and flavonoids also responsible for anti inflammation and anti oxidation in the body.

Mustard greens have a bite stronger than arugula ( rucola)  when eaten raw which I love! 

Simply dressed with an avocado as dressing works best to temper their peppery nature.

Butterflied broiled Rainbow trout and mustard greens

1 butterflied rainbow trout 

Za’atar seasoning (see quarantine diaries day 5)

Himalayan sea salt

Campot pepper ground with a mortar and pestle

1 bunch Mustard Greens

Roasted beets ( Beets done three ways post) 

1/2 avocado 

juice of 1/2 one lemon

Olive oil extra virgin, cold pressed to taste

Heavily pepper, and Za’atar season the butterflied trout, place on parchment and on a cookie sheet to broil.

Roast beets even a day earlier and slice, bring to room temp.

Roughly chop mustard greens and massage with 1/2 avocado, lemon, olive oil salt and pepper.

Broil trout for 8-10 minutes, it’s thin you don’t want to dry it out.

Serve next to beets and dressed mustard greens and a cup of nettle tea... find and feel inflammation melting away.

And a playlist to heat up a practice you choose, yoga, dance....you choose your healing.

Indigenous vibes