Having watched the phenomenon at first hand, the Sacred Chef readily identifies the surging popularity of cooking classes as part of a greater trend toward creativity and excellence in the home. Why sit in a restaurant and be treated like a spectator when you can learn to master the culinary skills yourself and take centre stage as an artist. The Sacred Chef’s new book House Therapy – Discovering who you really are at home recognises aspects of this world wide phenomena.

Cooking schools here on the sunshine coast  are seeing substantial increases in the number of attendees. They are also witnessing a new type of cooking class attendee, one who is better informed and more highly skilled in the kitchen. The number of cooking schools here in Maleny  has also increased and the range of cuisines being offered  is larger than before. Thai cooking classes are very popular; as are Spanish cooking lessons; Regional Italian cooking classes ; and more inclusive programs offering a mix of cuisines from different ethnicities.

Watching the pride participants take in eating their lunch or dinner, after the cooking class experience, is a real eye opener when comparing it to the passive consumption in restaurants and cafes by the milling crowds. People want to be involved, doing and creating, rather than just filling an empty hole by buying stuff. Learning a useful skill that you can share and take pride in the expression of – is what good cooking is all about!

By Sudha Hamilton

House Therapy is Sudha’s soon to be published new book.

The Kitchen

The Ancient Greeks, who gave us many of the founding principles upon which we base our modern societies – democracy; logic; philosophy; literature and poetry to name but a few salient examples, had  a rich collection of gods and goddesses. Hestia was the goddess of hearth and home, older sister to Zeus and first born of the titans Kronos and Rhea – perhaps not as well known today as her siblings Demeter, Hera, Haides and Poseidon.  This may have been due to the fact that she was swallowed first by her titan father Kronos, who in  a bid to avoid being overthrown by one of his children, as prophesied, ate all his children, she was thus the last to be regurgitated, once Zeus had forced his father to do so.

The Romans also worshipped her in their homes and knew her as Vesta. The areas of responsibility for which Hestia was worshipped and sacrificed to, were most aspects of domestic life and in particular what we now call the kitchen. For it is around the cooking hearth or kitchen that a home or house builds up or out. Hestia was always toasted at the beginning of a meal in thanks for the hospitality proffered. She was probably where the early Christians appropriated their ‘saying of grace’ before dinner from.

Homeric Hymn 24 to Hestia (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th – 4th B.C.) :
“Hestia, in the high dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you have gained an everlasting abode and highest honour: glorious is your portion and your right. For without you mortals hold no banquet,–where one does not duly pour sweet wine in offering to Hestia both first and last. And you, Argeiphontes [Hermes], son of Zeus and Maia, . . . be favourable and help us, you and Hestia, the worshipful and dear. Come and dwell in this glorious house in friendship together; for you two, well knowing the noble actions of men, aid on their wisdom and their strength. Hail, Daughter of Kronos, and you also, Hermes.”

Interestingly Hestia was a virginal goddess and refused the suits of both Apollo and Poseidon. Perhaps this is where we get the separation of the sexual roles of the wife and mother in the home and the focus on providing nurture and hospitality instead. Hestia was seen as the giver of all domestic happiness and good fortune in the home and she was believed to dwell in the inner parts of every home. She was also the first god mentioned at every sacrifice, as she represented the hearth where sacrifices took place – this is the direct link to our kitchens today and the genesis of the sacred chef. There are very few temples of Hestia extant and this is thought to be because every home was her temple in the Hellenistic world. I think we can draw some intuition from this in our view of our homes being places of divine inspiration.

The kitchen has of late become a popular focus of interest, with TV chefs and groovy restaurants grabbing the public’s imagination. For House Therapy the kitchen represents our centre, our practical and instinctual selves. This is where we prepare food for family and ourselves. It is also often where food is stored in the refrigerator and pantry cupboards. Food is about survival and security. There is no bullshit about these things and the kitchen is a place where the elements of nature still regularly intervene. Fire on the stove and in your oven; water at the sink, earth in the bench tops and structure; and air in the extractor, fan forced oven and all around. You can be hurt in the kitchen if you do not pay attention to what you are about. Unlike the faux furies vented in the kitchens on TV, you can experience some real passions in these hot and pressurised places at home. You might be burning fingers and dishes, dropping scoldingly hot plates and crying bitter tears over chopped onions. The kitchen is where we show our real reactions to strong emotions, pressure in our lives and our appetites and jealousies.

Have a look around now at your kitchen, the colour of the walls and general lay-out of things. What is your first impression? What does it say to you about your instinctive self? Are you clinical or passionate? Are the walls white/neutral or vivid/strong colours? Is it large or small? Is the instinctual, raw and pragmatic you an important part of your life? Or is it hidden away or missing? The trend in studio apartment architecture now, to build them without kitchens and have neutered mini servery’s instead, is a reflection of a missing essential in sections of our culture. Stripping away the practical ability to fend for yourself by cooking your own food and becoming dependent on pre-prepared meals is symptomatic of us having lost our way along the journey. Is your kitchen well equipped? Can you cook? Do you enjoy cooking for friends, family and yourself?

Returning to the rich historical connection our modern day kitchen has with Hestia’s hearth, as mentioned earlier it was the place where the highly necessary ritualised sacrifices took place. These sacrifices usually involved a calf or some other domesticated animal and those involved with the sacrifice would share in eating the meat of the roasted animal. So the power of the sacrifice would be in the ritualised slaughtering of the animal in dedication to the goddess for a particular purpose – to bring good fortune upon whatever was so desired for example. Today the cook or cooks go into the kitchen, risking cuts, perspiration and burns, to prepare a celebratory meal for our friends and or family – Christmas, birthdays and other days of ritualised festivities. We may not consciously invoke Hestia or any other gods but the overall intention is the same, we wish to share good cheer with those we love and bring good fortune upon us all.

It is interesting to ask oneself what is true sacrifice and what does it mean in our lives today? When we think of sacrificing something, we tend to see it as foregoing or missing out on something so as to have something else. “You cannot have your cake and eat it too.” Which I have always thought was an incredibly stupid saying, because what is the point of possessing uneaten cake? A sacrifice I hear you say, perhaps a slice for the gods. Interestingly the Greeks and Romans would eat the cooked flesh of their sacrifice, offering the bones and fat to the gods and goddesses, but it was the life itself, that was the real sacrifice in my view. The word sacrifice means to make sacred, so whatever we offer up in dedication to the gods becomes sacred. Actually the word anathema, was the Greek word for laying-up or suspending something in wait for the gods, and it is has now taken on the meaning of something that is accursed, through its contact, down through the ages, with the jealous Hebrew  god, Yahweh; the Christian god. Our language, and lexicon of words, have taken an interesting journey over the last four millennia, and it is no wonder we are all a little confused at times. So we could make  a correlation between sacrificing something in our life and that thing, which  has been sacrificed becomes anathema to us or accursed. How do you feel about the things you have sacrificed in your life? A person’s love; a relationship; a career; types of food; alcohol; drugs; sex; lifestyle; freedom?  We do not live in a particularly sacrificial age, more of a ‘you can have it all’ age, but can you really enjoy it all and be present for entirely disparate things in your life? Do we appreciate things more when we make room for them in our lives? Perhaps sacrifice still has a part to play in our lives today, better sharpen those knives.

The kitchen is also a place of transformation, where base elements are turned into the gold of love and nourishment. Is your kitchen a space where magic like this happens, regularly or just on special occasions? Domestic kitchens have a great tradition throughout the West of being incredibly impractical, lacking preparation space and adequate and functional cupboards. This is now being addressed in more modern homes, as the passion is returning to the kitchen. I think that we suffered for a few decades from the ‘American wonder of white goods’ syndrome, where no home was complete without these wonderful space and time saving machines and that a mentality of faster was better grew up around them. Fast foods, sliced white bread, whipped cream in a can, all these travesties were accorded the haloed status of modernity and progress. When in actual fact they were soulless short cuts that ripped the heart out of good cooking. Yes we still do have a lot of gadgets in the kitchen but we also now understand that good food still needs dedication and application. Bread makers are great, but bread cooked in a wood fired oven tastes better and if it is naturally fermented sour dough even better. Espresso coffee from your home machine tastes a lot better than instant coffee.

Your kitchen is a place where you can practically respond to the basic needs of living. Is your kitchen letting you do this? Is your kitchen supporting you in feeling centred and secure in dealing with the vicissitudes that life often throws up? Are your knives sharp and well balanced? Do you have enough bench space when preparing meals? Does your stove cook the way you want it to cook?  If not then you are letting yourself down and going around with a bloody great hole where your centre should be. As a member of the human tribe you need to be able to fend for yourself, and the kitchen can empower you to be grounded in the here and now. Not wafting around on the ceiling hoping for the crumbs of human kindness to drop your way.

Things we can do to transform our kitchen

As a chef, who has owned and managed a number of restaurants and cafes, I know all about kitchens and their design downfalls. First and foremost it is about space and in particular bench top space where most kitchens, especially older kitchens, are lacking. Storage space comes a close second and it is in these areas that a solid beginning can be made in transforming your kitchen from a frustration trap into a pragmatic pleasure dome. Cooking is never completely easy, if it is, it isn’t real cooking, in my opinion, there must be some blood, sweat and tears in every great dish but not too much. Unnecessary suffering is not on anyone’s menu by choice.

Buy an island bench if you lack bench top space and cannot easily create more, they are great and I have several of them, and you can take them with you when you move.

Sharp knives, that are also well weighted in the overall heft of the knife, can bring a smile to any good cook and I always say, “happiness is a sharp knife.”

Obviously kitchens need to be clean and cleaned regularly for all sorts of reasons, hygiene, health and happiness. Clutter in the kitchen causes chaos and calamity, food takes longer to prepare and the energy around it is bad.

Trapped dead energy, in the form of rotting and old produce in fridges and cupboards, does not augur well for happy kitchen gods and thus producing yummy healthy and nutritious food; so clean out and clean up.

©Sudha Hamilton

Cooking school on the sunshine coast, the Sacred Chef cooking classes, for fun learning in the kitchen, creating sensational food, eating, drinking and meeting new like minded people.

For more articles www.sudhahamilton.com or www.sacredchef.com

By Sudha Hamilton

Published in WellBeing Magazine

Food allergies and intolerances in children have become the topic du jour in parenting circles and among health professionals. Whether the increase in interest is merely a raising of awareness or the true cause of the intolerances and allergies is the preservatives, chemicals and additives found in foods separates the experts. There has also been speculation that a generally more chemical rich environment can add to susceptibility to allergies in food, with so much pressure on our immune system, it is hardly surprising that allergies are affecting children’s immature immune and digestive systems much more than in the past.

Eating organically can reduce the stress on children’s immune system, by removing the stress of unnecessary chemicals, pesticides, phosphates in the fertilisers, not to mention the practice of picking the produce unripe, not allowing the important nutrients to fully develop, providing vital nutrition for growing immune and digestive systems.

Allergies and intolerances have a different physiological base and vary in severity and implication for the child’s health. An intolerance is an unpleasant reaction to food, such as runny nose after a hot curry or a particularly antisocial aftermath to a bean casserole, some intolerances are more severe and symptoms may include bloating,

An allergy on the other hand is a function of the mast cells which are found underneath the lining of the skin, gut, lungs, nose and eyes. These cells are our protective force against worms and parasites. In allergic people, these cells react to the allergen when it presents itself. “Mast cells are like “land-mines”, and contain “bags” filled with irritant chemicals including histamine. Mast cells are armed with proteins called IgE antibodies, which act as remote sensors in the local environment”

A person allergic to peanut, for example, will have IgE antibodies capable of recognizing the shape of peanut protein (the allergen), in much the same way that a lock “recognizes” the shape of a key. When this happens, mast cells are triggered to dump their contents (such as histamine) into the tissues, causing an allergic reaction.

Kristina Hoffman Philpott, M.D. on childhood food allergies

“The most common form of food intolerance is lactose intolerance, resulting from a lactase deficiency. Lactase is an enzyme made by the cells lining the stomach. It is responsible for breaking down lactose, the simple sugar found in dairy products. The symptoms of lactose intolerance are gas, bloating, abdominal pain and sometimes diarrhoea.

The most common food allergens for American children are milk, eggs, peanuts, soybeans, wheat and fish. In adults with food allergies, the most common culprits are shellfish (such as shrimp, escargot, squid, crab and clams), peanuts, tree nuts (such as walnuts, pine nuts and almonds), fish and eggs.

A true food allergy is an abnormal response to a food, triggered by the immune system. When the immune system overreacts to a food protein, an allergic reaction may result. Food intolerances differ from allergies in that they do not involve the immune system. It is important to identify true food allergies because these reactions can be severe and even life threatening”.

Of course allergies and food intolerances grow up with their hosts and remain active in adult life and it is fascinating to speculate on their origins. If genetic predisposition is the first answer, where did it have its genesis in the generations before? Is it a mixed race issue? With lactose intolerance being far more common in non-Caucasian races for instance. Or perhaps the degradation of our environments and the continuing costs of mechanised mass production have changed our essential relationships with foods?

Eating food, ingesting nourishment – nutrition – the thing that we do everyday, mostly three times a day and often without thought. I wake up in the morning and break my fast with fresh juice, toast and coffee. I have lunch and later on dinner and hopefully leave it at that for the day, before sleeping and repeating the cycle once again, until one day I sicken and die and have no more need of food. What is the essential nature of this most banal of activities? What secrets lie at the heart of understanding – nutrition? When we do things unconsciously, or without considered thought, we are prone to repeat the mistakes of our forefathers – why am I eating toast for breakfast? Because my father did and his father before him. Is there intrinsic nutritional value in coming from a long line of toast eaters? Well if it is organic sour dough perhaps. So many of the basic and most important human activities like eating are handed down generationally, and like a taboo they come with many strings attached. If you eat differently from your parents in many cases they will be initially offended by your decision and will see your new nutritional path as a rejection of their values and upbringing of you. I am sure that many readers will have experienced this and that the differences can continue to grate in shared social settings, and as our parent’s age and sicken one of the most frustrating things is trying to get them to eat better themselves. Traditions are like walls that keep people in and people out.

The Greek root of the word diet is diatia, which refers to a way of life toward wellness, and is more than just a regime of eating do’s and don’ts. It understands the link between how you live your life and what and how you eat. Epicurus the Greek philosopher of BC 341-270 stressed the importance of eating with friends, and I personally know that when I eat with good friends that I eat with a greater degree of joy and don’t eat as much as when I eat alone. Good conversation and the sharing of gratitude for a well prepared dish is the reason why, I think, that we first started eating out at friends places and restaurants in the first place. The level of noise in most restaurants in Australian cities has taken much of the joy of keen conversation away, above the ‘night club’ yell, “how’s the steak?” Where we eat and how we eat impacts on our digestion and therefore ability to benefit from good food. Dishes in restaurants have to be designed to excite and rise above the clamor of the hustle and bustle of busy eating houses, they are therefore usually rich and high in sugar and fats. How do you get noticed in a crowded room? By being extra spicy or so sensual that I melt in your mouth. The ambience within restaurants is part of a cyclical fashion trend and I am confident that it will shift again, away from the current din.

So what actually happens on a physiological level when we eat? As I understand it once we have ingested the food and it has travelled down the gullet into our stomach, having been chewed into smaller bits and coated with saliva, the digestive process begins with acids and small particles that have been released from the stomach, liver and pancreas called enzymes. At this stage foodstuffs have been reduced down to a liquid by mastication by the muscles of the stomach wall, working in conjunction with acids and enzymes. Here the food’s large molecules of carbohydrates, proteins and fats are broken down into even smaller particles that the body can absorb. Complex carbohydrates are reduced into simple sugars by the enzymes sucrase, amylase, maltase and lactase. Fats are separated into fatty acids and glycerol by the lipase enzymes. Protein becomes amino acids transformed by the enzymes pepsin, trypsin and chymotrypsin. Moving then to the small intestine, which on average receives around 6.5 litres of fluid from the stomach, salivary glands, pancreas and liver on a daily basis. This fluid is absorbed by the small intestine and then transfered by means of osmosis through the cell walls, this being totally dependent upon the level of sodium present within the cells (the vital importance of salt in our diet). The small intestine is responsible for virtually all the absorption of nutrients into our blood, which includes electrolytes such as sodium, chloride and potassium, and all the organic molecules, which include glucose, amino acids and fatty acids. The small intestine is lined with hairlike projections called villi that are close to many tiny blood vessels and nutrients are passed through the villi into these capillaries.

So the starchy foods we eat like bread, cereals, rice, pasta and potatoes are broken down from complex carbohydrates into simple sugars or monosaccharides, as are carbohydrates derived from lactose and sucrose. We are left with glucose, galactose and fructose from maltase, lactase and sucrase respectively and these make their way into our blood stream and give us energy. Proteins are almost always not absorbed directly but are digested into amino acids or dipeptides and tripeptides and these are likewise absorbed into our blood. One exception to this is for new born babies who are able to acquire passive immunity through the absorption of immunoglobulins in their mother’ colostral milk. Fats are broken down by bile salts and the enzyme lipase through the process of emulsification and become fatty acids and monoglycerides. These are absorbed differently to the simple sugars and amino acids by diffusion across the plasma membrane. One well known lipid trygliceride is cholesterol which is vital to cell membranes, sex hormones and in digesting fats; it is however carried through the blood stream by lipoproteins and low density lipoproteins in particular. The build up of these in the blood can of course cause plaque deposits on artery walls and lead to heart attacks and strokes. Fatty acids are generally divided into three groups: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated – and these terms refer to the number of hydrogen atoms attached to the carbon atoms of the acid chains in the molecule of fat. The polyunsaturated fats are further defined by the number of carbon atoms in their acid chain and so named Omega-3, Omega-6 and Omega-9.

Enzymes are present in just about everything we eat and they are necessary for most of the chemical reactions within our bodies that make life possible. As proteins they are the catalysts for so many of the metabolic functions that give us our energy and the spark of life. With over 5000 now identified, they are involved in all the bodily processes that lead to movement, thinking, digestion and maintenance of the immune system. Cooking food at temperatures over 52C kills off the enzymes and so we derive most of our enzymes from raw plant life. New research is now positing that a diet poor in raw foods places a strain on the pancreas to keep producing enzymes for healthy digestion and metabolism. Studies have also shown that as we age we produce less of our own enzymes and diet becomes even more important for healthy functioning. Research has also shown that the body recycles enzymes by absorbing them through the large intestine and colon and then sending them back up through the bloodstream to the small intestine to be used again. Which may indicate their vital importance to the human body.

Lactose Intolerance

Lactose intolerance or lactase deficiency is an inability to break down the carbohydrate lactose, usually found in milk and dairy products. This can cause digestive problems resulting in abdominal pain and diarrhoea. The enzyme lactase is responsible for breaking down lactose into simple sugars so that we can derive the energy benefit from the carbohydrate. Without enough lactase in the mucus of the small intestine, the lactose finds its way into the large intestine and is partially broken down by the bacteria there. This can be experienced painfully as bloating and bowel problems.

If you think that you may be lactose intolerant, you can check by firstly eliminating foods that contain lactose – like dairy foods that are predominantly derived from cows and foods that contain milk solids, like milk chocolate; milk breads; processed foods that contain milk products and soups and sauces that are dairy based. If your physical reactions cease during this break and then re-appear when the foods are re-introduced then this is a very good case for lactose intolerance.

Some of the things that you can do to manage this condition, apart from a complete avoidance of these highly nutritious foods, are to eat fermented milk products like cheeses and yoghurts as these do not cause as much problem. . In particular goats or sheep milk products like fetta ( be warmed most fettas are not made from sheep’s milk unless stated on the packaging); pecorino cheese made from ewe’s milk and goats cheeses are delicious and do not contain the same level of lactose.

Avoid low fat milks as they move through your digestive system quickly causing a reaction, as the fats in full cream milk actually slow down the process and give the lactase more time to break down the lactose.

Soy food products are a good source of calcium and can be used in some cases as an alternative.

Acidophilus is a natural source of lactase.

There are some natural enzyme supplements that help the body’s own lactase enzymes to digest the milk products and studies are proving these very effective.

Coeliac Disease and Gluten Intolerant

Although two different conditions they obviously share a problem with the digestion of the wheat protein gluten. In Coeliac Disease it is an apparent autoimmune reaction that causes  the destruction of the villi, which are hairlike projections of the mucosa into the small intestinal lumen and are actively involved in the digestion of sugars and proteins. It is posited that when the gliadin wheat protein is ingested by Coeliac Disease sufferers, the glutamine found within that binds to tissue transglutaminase and forms glutamic acid and the resultant gliadin epitopes are recognised as foreign by the host cells. This causes inflammation and mutation of the villi structures within the lumen. The consequences of this are varied and symptoms can range from many to none at all.

Symptoms can be:

Bloating and stomach cramping.

Nausea and vomiting.

Fatigue and lethargy.

Weight loss.

Anaemia.

Diarrhoea or Constipation.

Basically the absorption of the nutrients is not occuring and there is an inflammatory reaction that can manifest across a broad spectrum in different people. The only treatment for Coeliac Disease is a gluten free diet. Wheat is not the only grain to cause this reaction, as rye; barley and oats contain proteins called prolamines which have a similar effect.

The control of this amazing digestive system is achieved by electrical and hormonal messages in concert, coming from both the digestive functions own nervous and endocrine systems, and from the central nervous system and the adrenal gland. The body is a finely tuned instrument of incredible complexity that is continually interacting within itself and from without – meaning that the ability to digest and metabolise food into energy and life maintenance is effected by a myriad of things, thoughts and circumstances. In my opinion to simply focus on one particular aspect in exclusion of all others, for instance a particular food or chemical ingredient within a food, is often missing the whole picture. It is not only what we eat, but how we eat and under what conditions, both externally and internally we eat, that can seriously impact upon our health. Like an extremely delicate fulcrum we are all about balance and it may involve adjustments in not just what is ingested but in lifestyle and influences upon your life. Awareness of food allergies and intolerances may be just the beginning and they are quite likely pointers to a whole host of changes that may involve deeper introspection and attitudinal shifts from the current status quo. Our often defensive attachment to what has been scientifically proven and our quickness to ridicule any thing outside of the known scientific paradigm is in my opinion evidence of our resistance to the expansiveness of enlightenment, so many of us have an investment in keeping our world small. For what is scientifically known is forever changing and what we know now about nutrition is only beginning to unfold. My experience in all of this is that new nutritional answers are being revealed all the time like pieces of a jigsaw in a puzzle that nobody knows in its entirety.

Innovative, healthy organic recipes for precious little digestive systems, taken from Organic Baby & Toddler Cookbook by Lizzie Vann of Baby Organix produced in consultation with the OFA (Organic Federation of Australia Inc)

Spicy Bean Burgers

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely grated

1 green pepper, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

½ tsp ground coriander

½ tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp tomato purée

1 egg, beaten

60g (2oz) dried breadcrumbs

60 g (2oz) mature cheddar cheese, grated

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 x 400g (13oz) tin beans such as haricot, flageolet, kidney, or chickpeas, rinsed or drained.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C, 400 degrees F, Gas 6

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and fry gently until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the carrot, green pepper, garlic and spices and cook for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, mash the beans and tomato purée together with a fork. Mix in the onion mixture, egg, breadcrumbs, cheese and seasoning. Divide the mixture into golf ball sized portions and shape into burgers with your hands.

Place the burgers on an oiled baking sheet and bake in the oven until crisp, about 25 minutes. Turn the burgers half-way through cooking to crisp both sides. Serve with jacket potato and peas – or burger style in a wholemeal bun.

Makes 8 burgers. Preparation 15 minutes + 20 minutes cooking time.

Dahl

1 tbsp good quality vegetable oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp ground coriander or cumin seeds

125g (4oz) red lentils, washed and picked over

1 carrot, finely chopped

300 ml (1/2 pint) water

small handful shredded cabbage

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and fry gently until soft, about 5 minutes. Mix in the spices and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Add the lentils, carrot and water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, until the lentils are soft and the Dahl has a smooth consistency. Add the cabbage and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.  Serve with boiled rice or a flatbread such as pita or naan.

Preparation 10 minutes + 25 minutes cooking time.

Mild Vegetable Korma with Couscous

1 tsp olive oil

1 small leek, well washed and sliced

½ tsp each ground cumin, gram masala and turmeric

1 carrot, diced

½ eggplant, chopped

1 small green pepper, diced

60g (2 oz) small broccoli or cauliflower florets

60g (2oz) sliced mushrooms

60g (2oz) fresh or frozen baby broad beans

200ml (7fl oz) water or stock

2tbsp tomato purée

60g (2oz) creamed coconut

125g (4oz) couscous or basmati rice

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the leek, cumin, garam masala and turmeric for 2 minutes. Add all the other ingredients, except the creamed coconut and couscous or rice and stir to mix.

Cover, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.

Cook the couscous or rice according to the directions on the packet.

Stir the creamed coconut into the korma and heat for a further 2 minutes.

Arrange couscous or rice into a ring shape, then spoon the korma into the middle or it to serve.

Fresh and Fruity Shakes

300ml (1/2 pint) milk (cows, rice, soy, goats) or freshly squeezed juice of 2 oranges.

½ glass crushed ice (ice cubes crushed with a rolling pin)

For Banana Shake: add 1 sliced banana

For Pear Shake: add 1 cored and chopped pear

For Berry Shake: add 1 handful strawberries, raspberries, blackberries or blueberries, or a combination.

For Peach Shake: add 1 stoned and chopped ripe peach or nectarine.

Put the milk or OJ and crushed ice in a blender. Add the fruit of your choice. Blend the mixture at high speed until smooth, thick and bubbly. Pour into glass and serve immediately. Makes 1 serving, preparation time 5 minutes.

References

Organic Baby & Toddler Cookbook

Lizzie Vann, Penguin, Camberwell, 2005.

Fundamental Physiology and Anatomy of the Digestive System

http://arbl.cvmbs.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/

The Coeliac Society of Australia

www.coeliac.org.au

Allergy Capital

www.allergycapital.com.au

©Sudha Hamilton

Chia Seed Article PDF

A Summer of Salt

By Sudha Hamilton

Published in WellBeing Magazine

Summer is, if you boil it down to one of its essential components, all about salt. The salt on your skin from perspiration that tastes especially good when making love; the salt of the sea after a day at the beach; and of course the salt in your food. Salt accentuates tanginess, and it is refreshing tang that we often seek in our summer fare. It’s that salty, spicy lift that when combined with a splash of coldest fluid revives and relaxes us at once.

Standing outside on your patio, balcony or in your backyard, summer is also a time of celebration. When we gather together as families and friends and seek the sensual heat of the sun to toast our good health and good fortune. It falls here, in the southern hemisphere, at the same time as the calendar signifies the greatest Christian festival of them all, Christmas the nominal birthday of one Jesus Christ. This date was of course borrowed by the Christian church and replaced the earlier pagan celebration of Saturnalia. So this December time of year has been a focus of good cheer for eons.

Unlike our northern hemisphere cousins this time of celebration is not climatically conducive to lashings of roast turkey and pudding, rather it cries out for salad, seafood and skin all to be salted and spiced.

Now salt has of recent modern times been given a bit of a bad name, health wise that is, and with good reason with salt being added as a flavour enhancer to just about every packaged food that you can think of, but really the bottom line is if you are eating a lot of packaged foods you are asking for trouble, and don’t really care about your health in my opinion. Preparing food is an opportunity to give creatively to those around you and to give to yourself as well, don’t you want to explore, discover and offer something wonderful in these circumstances? So with that little diatribe out of the way, lets move on to more about salt.

Salt or more exactly sodium chloride is the only rock directly consumed by humankind. It is an essential element in our diets and is an important part of digestion, as it increases the hydrochloric acid content of our digestive fluids. Sodium ion in our blood is one of four ions that we must have to survive, the others being magnesium, calcium and potassium. Sodium is a mineral that our body cannot produce itself and so must be ingested from external food sources. With salt, it is a balancing act, too much in relation to fluid levels in the body and we eventually die , too little and the same applies. So we excrete salt through our urine, faeces and sweat when the concentration becomes too great. Sodium also assists with the re-absorption of water in the kidneys, which would otherwise be excreted. Thus salt is an integral part of our biological make-up, in fact, our bodies need for salt links us to this earth, and is a clear example of the holistic connection.

So with salt being one of the bedrocks of humanity, it is easier to understand the numerous literary references to salt down through the ages that appear in every culture. Pythagorus said, “salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea.” For this is where we derive our salts from, with sea salt being evaporated or distilled from sea water. Geologists believe that all salt deposits were originally formed by the oceans before being covered by stratas of rock over time. Rock salt is mined from deposits that have formed salt domes. Unrefined it is grey in colour and contains many impurities, and these so called impurities are a source of many other essential minerals. How do we get our salt? Well, in underground salt mining, a shaft is sunk into the deposit, where the salt is drilled, and then the broken salt is carried to a place where it is crushed and screened into varying grades. The salt is then taken to the surface for packaging and shipment. In solution mining, fresh water is injected through a pipe into the salt deposit. A second pipe removes the brine formed when water dissolves the salt. The brine is then evaporated in large pans where the salt crystallizes into small granules. The salt is dried and sold in packages, like table salt, or bulk for food processing. The third method is solar evaporation of sea water or natural brine. Large earthen ponds are flooded with a shallow layer of sea water or brine. Sun and wind successively concentrates the brine by evaporation. The brine is moved from pond to pond, and finally, the salt crystallizes on the floor of the last ponds in the series. The salt is then harvested, washed and stored before shipping.

Historians record that the earliest known use of salt in China was around 6000BC, where a seasonally evaporating salt lake in Northern China left salt crystals that were gathered up by the local inhabitants. The Chinese however, do not generally sprinkle salt directly on their food, rather it is added through the use of various sauces and pastes. This is generally thought to be due to the great cost of salt at that time and that it was stretched through this process. Indeed I would say that salt was one of humankind’s earliest white crystal addictions with reports of primitive tribal men selling their wives and children into slavery in return for salt. Salt is of course the great preserver and fermenting fish in salt was popular in the ancient world from the Mediterranean to Southeast Asia. In China they began adding soy beans to ferment with the fish and this was called Jiang and over time they dropped the fish and it became Jiangyou or as we know it soysauce.

Soy is a legume that produces beans that are grown in 4cm long furry pods. Different varieties produce yellow; green; brown; purple; black or spotted beans and Chinese cuisine makes great distinction between them and for their culinary uses. Jiangyou is made from yellow beans. Soy was taken to Japan in the sixth century BC by Chinese Buddhist missionaries and by the tenth century BC the Japanese were making it and calling it Shoyu. The process that they used to ferment the soy beans in earthen pots is known today as lactic acid fermentation or pickling. This occurs as the vegetables begin to rot the sugars breakdown and produce lactic acid, which acts as a preservative. Without salt being added yeast forms and you get alcohol instead of pickles.

Pickled Lemons

Pickled lemons are a fantastic condiment to have handy to add to your cooking or to a finished dish. The complexity of flavour that a little pickled lemon creates really intensifies the enjoyment that your guests will derive from your food. Now this is the ultimate in slow food as it may take up to three months for these lemons to get really pickled. You will need a very big jar with a seal tight closure to hold as many lemons as you can fit, because if you have to wait that long you will want to do a lot.

12 med sized lemons

2kg rock or sea salt

1 bunch fresh rosemary

1 bunch fresh thyme

2 Tbsp coriander seeds

2 Tbsp whole black pepper

1 Tbsp whole cloves

1 Tbsp star aniseed

1 Tbsp cumin seeds

Take each lemon and make two incisions as if to quarter the lemon lengthwise but leave a couple of centimetres so that the lemon remains whole. Then mix your spices and herbs through the salt before packing this salty mixture around the lemons inside the jar. You will want the lemons completely covered by the salt before sealing your jar and storing in a dark place for its lengthy sojourn. You will notice after a few days that the salt leaches out the moisture from the lemons and that your jar fills with a brine solution, this leaching out takes the bitterness with it. At the conclusion of the pickling time you use the lemon peel not the flesh, as the flesh is very salty but the pickled peel is piquant and wonderful.

I like to add my preserved lemon cut finely and curled over fresh cheeses as a canapé topping. It is great in marinades for olives or added to fish dishes of most persuasions. It will pick up the pedestrian and make it interesting.

Salt is great on nibbles and here are a few taste enhancers to start a celebration with.

Kumera or Sweet Potato Crisps

In one of my restaurants I used to lay these out on the tables to start with and they proved so popular that I had to cease the practice as people started ordering less food.

If you don’t have a deep fryer just use a large heavy based frypan or saucepan and use a mix of peanut and olive oil. Peanut is great for frying & the olive is for flavour and health. Depending on the quantity of crisps you are aiming for — one medium sized sweet potato will make a couple of bowls. The key here is that you will need a certain volume of hot oil to deal with the inherent moisture in the sweet potato. Either hand slice or put through the food processor the sweet potato until you get very fine discs (machine is much easier to achieve the level required) Now you are going to get better results with at least a litre of oil brought to a good heat, just before smoking. You may like to dry off the sliced kumera with paper towel to reduce the moisture and then test your oil with one disc. When ready add in a proportion of the sliced kumera that the oil is comfortable with, it really is a case of testing the waters — most likely it will take you three lots. Fry the kumera until brown & crispy & then drain on kitchen paper. If you are very concerned about excess oil you can further remove excess oil in a warm oven. Salt liberally with the finest salt that you can afford before serving in bowls.

Mediterranean Chilli Popcorn

2 cups popping corn

1 cup olive oil

6 red chillies

6 large cloves garlic

6 sprigs of fresh rosemary

salt & black pepper to taste

In a heavy based large saucepan with a heavy lid pour in your oil & then your popping corn. Add to this chillies whole, garlic cloves whole & unpeeled, sprigs of rosemary & an initial salt & pepper. Cover with lid & place over a good heat. Things will soon start popping so keep your lid on. I like to give the whole saucepan a shake or two so that as much corn gets popped as possible. When the pops have died down, open your lid to be assailed by a wonderful aroma of olive, garlic, rosemary and popcorn of course. More salt & pepper before serving.

Warmed Kalamata Olives in Infused Oil

So that we don’t waste any of the wonderful oil that we fried our kumera crisps in, add a little of this still hot oil into a skillet or frying pan. Leave it to cool down a bit, say 5 minutes & then chop up a lime & 6 cloves of garlic & a piece of ginger & add this to the warm oil, before adding in 3 cups of kalamata olives. Stir through for 5 minutes & add salt & pepper to taste. Serve on a platter.

The Thais, of course, are great exponents of salty food and one of the simplest delights that I enjoyed while I was in Thailand, was the gracious way that your Thai hosts would bring you regular freshly prepared snacks.

Salted fresh pineapple was a favourite of mine and is a great way to experiment with the many new salts that are now available in the marketplace. Choose a ripe pineapple by its aroma, if you can find one that has not been too dulled by refrigeration, and cut it up into bite sized pieces and lightly salt with a special salt. Accompanied by a fresh lime soda or a cold beer — and heaven is right there on that tropical island inside your taste buds.

Cheeses were also derived from their contact with salt; the great preserver. On this occasion milk curdled through exposure to salt, thought to have first occurred when milk was carried in animal skins that had been cured by salt to become vessels. This was then found to be a way to preserve a source of nourishment that had before this quickly perished and gone sour.

Fish has however been the most well known beneficiary of its relationship with salt. Anchovies although not as salty today as they were when there was no refrigeration are a reminder of our salty past. Salted Herring were responsible for the beginning of the great wealth accrued by the Dutch as they traded these salty fish around the world.

Way before this however, comes a recipe from the fourth century BC by the Sicilian born poet and gourmet Archestratus, for Salty Baked Tuna:

“Take the tail of the female tuna – and I’m talking of the large female whose mother city is Byzantium. Then slice it and bake all of it properly, simply sprinkling it lightly with salt and brushing it with oil. Eat the slices hot, dipping them into sharp brine. They are good if you want to eat them dry, like the immortal gods in form and stature. If you serve it sprinkled with vinegar, it will be ruined.”

Archestratus – The Life of Luxury.

Salads are a delight in summer and the crunch of greens amid the tang of a vinaigrette or crudités dipped in aioli are all worthy offerings on my banquet table.

Fresh Asparagus Spears dipped in Lime & Cashew Mayonnaise

Whole free range egg or egg yolk mayonnaise with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard ;

1 Tsp honey

1 Tbsp white vinegar

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

½ cup roasted salted cashews

1 ½ cups olive oil drizzzled in slowly.

Freshly ground black pepper & sea salt to taste.

Whizz it by hand or in the blender adding in your oil slowly as you go.

Lightly steam or blanch your asparagus spears & serve accompanied by your tangy mayonnaise.

Fresh Fig & Goats Cheese Salad

Figs are a divine extravagance and for this dish you will only need a few.

3 Figs sliced lengthwise into quarters

150g fresh goats cheese

1 cup chopped fresh basil

3 Romano tomatoes sliced lengthwise into quarters

Dressing – ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tsp finely sliced preserved lemon

sea salt & black pepper to taste.

Gently arrange dobs of the goats cheese amid the figs & tomatoes & basil on a platter & lightly dress before serving.

Crunchy greens in the form of a mixed leaf salad with the great variety of lettuces we have available now & some rocket & perhaps some watercress. All lightly dressed with a fragrant vinegar & cold pressed macadamia or walnut oil.

The BBQ or grill holds a special place in my summer kitchen, where if possible the blue sky is my only ceiling. Preparation of a marinade is one of the best ways to give great flavour to the food that you create.

Tofu Yakitori

2 Blocks of firm tofu cut into squares or triangles

1 Pack wooden skewers soaked overnight

Marinade

½ cup soy sauce

½ cup lime juice

2 Tbsp mirin or dry sherry

2 tsp grated ginger

Marinate the tofu overnight for the best results and then skewer on your sticks. For best results dry the tofu pieces before barbequing.

Perfect with this is a Spicy Sate Sauce:

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp peanut or canola oil

1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

1 Tbsp grated ginger

1 tsp finely chopped birdseye chilli

3 Tbsp brown sugar

150g roasted peanut butter

1 Tbsp fish sauce

½ cup soy sauce

3 cups coconut milk

In a heavy base saucepan heat your oils & add in garlic & ginger & chilli, sauté for 5 minutes before adding in sugar; soy sauce; fish sauce & peanut butter. Stirring constantly as the peanut butter melts in, begin to slowly add in your coconut milk until you have a creamy consistency.

Colourful Mediterranean vegetables take to the grill particularly well, and all you need is a great olive oil, lemon juice and salt of course. Slice your pumpkin; any ripe variety will do, thinly into quick cooking discs; along with eggplant, treating this in the same manner. Red capsicum slice into long strips. Find some space on the grill & lightly oil them & salt them as they cook, turning them over when ready. Finish with lemon juice; a splash of soy & a little extra virgin olive oil on their platter as you serve them.

Salt is wonderful rubbed into the skin of meats & fish before baking or grilling as it seals the surface to keep the natural moisture in & enhances the flavour.

Whole Baked Pink Snapper on the BBQ

Every banquet table needs a star & a big fish emerging from an alfoil tuxedo with a steaming aroma of the Mediterranean all about, is that star.

1 whole pink snapper cleaned & prepared

1 large ripe peach stoned & chopped into pieces

1 bunch watercress, washed & destalked

2 tsp sliced preserved lemon

6 large cloves garlic thinly sliced

½ cup chopped continental parsley

¼ cup toasted almond flakes

2 tbsp virgin olive oil

2 tsp special salt of your choice

black pepper to taste

This is where we get to salt the skin of our big fish & then fill the cavity with all our ingredients. I like to wrap my fish in an inner layer of grease proof paper or edible leaves that will prevent the skin sticking to the alfoil. We will need to secure the fish reasonably firmly in its alfoil jacket. If you have access to the hot coals of the BBQ I like to really wrap up the fish in alfoil & place it in the coals – otherwise a lighter wrap & on top of the grill. Now this is going to take some time depending on the size of the fish. At least 40 minutes but you can always check with a little incision. As I said when you get your fish on the platter the oohs & aahs, well, it makes it all worthwhile.

Summer fruits are mouth watering & inspiring.

Mangoes; Paw Paw; Lychees; Cherries Tamarillo

Dress in a little lime juice & serve with double cream whipped through with roasted hazelnuts & some tangy gelato.

Bon appetit

WellBeing Magazine

• Grab your reader’s attention!  A suitably arresting image or illustration which has some connection to the advertised product or service. It can be one of beauty, or sensation, or something else, which engenders a visceral response. Makes the reader feel or think something!

• Do not crowd the space!  Whether your ad is a full page or something smaller, resist the temptation to include everything you know about your product or service. It is like meeting someone on a first date, do not compress your entire life into a short conversation, as you will most likely scare them off. Similarly readers will skip your ad if they see it is too dense and looks like too much work to bother reading.

• Decide on a hierarchy of importance for your textual information/copy.  This means is your tag or sell line more important than your brand or company name? When designing your ad, you need to have clearly decided on your marketing strategy in terms of how you are selling through this ad. Then you know what to accentuate and what to keep to a minimum.

• Include the essential!  Your ad is a portal to your business, product outlet, and or website. You are reaching the market that this publication services and you are attempting to bring back some of these readers, so make sure that you have clearly listed the necessary contact details and or stockists. Don’t ever waste money on ads or signage, that do not serve this purpose.

• A picture tells a thousand stories!  Images of faces, especially convey so much unspoken information in the most concise manner. Smiling happy faces related to your product or service or brand deliver the intangibles in spades. Images per se are always more powerful than copy, of course a judicious combination of the two is always optimal in successful advertising.

• Avoid too many boxes.  Boxing things, surrounding everything with boxes – images and copy – creates hard separations within your overall message and detracts from your ads appeal in the reader’s eye. Too many categories in the same ad are tiring for the reader.

• Avoid dark colours unless contrasted by appealing images or colourful fonts.  As a general rule light background colours are more appealing to readers and give the impression of spaciousness.

• We read left to right.  Remember when laying-out copy and images that our brains are trained to process information by reading from the left hand side to the right hand side. So we finish on the right hand side and this is where your lasting impression should be placed, like the sweet after-taste of dessert after a meal at a restaurant.

•  Design is about symmetry!  As human beings we find things that are balanced equally on both sides to be beautiful, like faces with two eyes, two nostrils and two ears etc. Asymmetrical designs we find more challenging and less appealing, so when laying-out copy and images within your ad bear this in mind.

• Check the details and spelling!  Sounds obvious but you would be surprised. People are critical and love to find fault with things, don’t let your ad be a focus for this inclination, as your product, service or brand will be negatively associated with errors.

For an ad that ticks all these boxes call designSauce 07 5499 9280 or email us

SKIN ARTICLE ECO LIVING MAGAZINEPDF

HEADING: SKIN

SUBHEADING: MORE THAN SKIN DEEP.

Our skin is our single largest living organ and it literally defines who we are. Without our skin, we would be a skeleton in a puddle of blood and that would take some getting used to, I imagine. Skin is often derided for being at the surface of things and thus incorrectly labelled superficial – so skin deep – but what this elastic covering achieves for our anatomical structure is more than just a tidy appearance. Skin breathes and like a baboon’s bottom its colour and appearance indicates our state of health – it is a barometer for all to see, of our moods, our level of hydration, our age and whether we are succumbing to disease.

We look outward in our search for beauty in our lives, we are conditioned to look out and not within, to seek beauty and meaning in romantic love, Art and nature. Beauty that inspires us to love or perhaps to begin the journey to find our heart, and meaning – to find meaning in that same quest for love or is there meaning in beauty itself? Much of our seeming obsession with appearing beautiful is, I think, the desire to be loved for who we are. As Louise Hay writes, “Our skin represents our individuality. Skin problems usually mean we feel our individuality is being threatened somehow. We feel that others have power over us.” I always think of adolescence and the eruption of skin problems at this time as a great example of this.

Our skin makes us uniquely who we are and no other. To touch another’s skin is an intimate act and usually the preserve of mothers and lovers. Skin to skin. The feel of your beloved’s skin is very important – it must feel right to touch for things to proceed from there. How one feels inside one’s own skin is another way of conveying the emotional response to one’s own existence. It is funny that we describe someone as ‘skinny’ when they in fact have less skin than someone who is not so svelte, but perhaps we are referring to them having less fat beneath their skin. Still we call someone a fatty when they have more fat but linguistically ignore the need for the extra skin to stretch over that fat. Skinny latte for me please.

Skin is portrayed in myth as often about magical powers, like the dragon’s scaly skin being impenetrable or the healing powers of the snake shedding its skin as renewed life. Skins were our first clothing in ancient times, to keep us warm and perhaps also to take on some of the properties of the slain animal – bear skins, sheep skins, fox, wolf, mink, cat, dog, buffalo, rabbit, kangaroo………..Shaman still today, wear skins of their totemic animal when performing rituals. When the beautiful white swans descend down to water, they remove their feathered skins to become frolicking naked ladies and if you can steal their skin they will follow you home and be yours forever – according to the myth that is.

©Sudha Hamilton

Eco Living Health Aware

www.sacredchef.com

Appeared in Eco Living Magazine.

Midas Word

I taste love and warm, wet delight,

On this night, my night of nights.

You are the fragrant fruit on a laden tree,

And the night air as it passes me.

Touching the echo inside my heart.

You are the story rarely told,

Of beggars turned into emporers,

And the skidding, giddy clouds outside.

You are my homecoming and second sight,

As I enter slowly into this dark night,

Finding at last, sweet oblivion.

You are,

I am,

One.

Having multiple talents and pursuing them in the marketplace, is it a blessing or a curse? I have a number of interests and have invested time in each of them and have achieved a level of proficiency in several of these pursuits. Does this entitle me to express these in the marketplace as vocations or does one have to limit oneself to a single professional calling?

My experience in the marketplace, with this quandary, is that most people wish to associate you with one thing (whether this is  a reflection of their own simplicity in this matter is another question). I find that there can be an initial dropping off of respect, from potential clients, when they are informed of my multiplicity in this regard. So in many circumstances I remain mum, when discussing their needs and requirements, so as not to disrupt their professional equanimity when doing business with them. This can be frustrating when watching them make mistakes that could be avoided, but I suppose this is often the case anyway, as we all want to do things our own way and learn most from our own mistakes.

We are all familiar with the term, ‘Jack of all trades,’  I would posit, and that this is often used in the pejorative sense, as it is followed by the rejoinder, ‘Master of none.’ Is this saying a result of the sour grapes felt by the the majority of people, who have no second string to their bow, or is it based on some verifiable truth in the matter? Of course the world has greatly changed since the first coining of this, ‘so called,’ kernel of wisdom, and singular professional vocations have gone, to a substantial extent, the way of the dodo. A vast percentage of people are now forced by economic circumstances to pursue a second or third means of employment; but these are most often jobs not vocations.

When I was reading about the renaissance in sixteenth century Europe, I suddenly thought, ‘I am a renaissance man!” As at this time a multitude of Arts and Sciences were explored through the rediscovery of classical texts from ancient Greece and Rome, which had been suppressed by the Church for the previous ten centuries( ie the dark ages). Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest polymath of this fervently fertile time, homosexual? bisexual? vegetarian and blessed with an insatiable curiosity and creativity; along with great talent and technical expertise in drawing and painting. Still, I imagine during his own lifetime, that he was confronted with clients and friends who questioned his proficiency in some of his expressions of interest. Being dead and famous always makes things appear easier, I find.

The fact is, that we are not all suited to the narrowly focused exploration of a single pursuit, we are not all made that way, and indeed, are born with a degree of interest in a variety of directions. However, our education institutions are not designed to encourage this polymath approach to learning and life, our education institutions are still firmly rooted in the nineteenth century, in the way they educate. We are encouraged to sample a selection of pursuits at the beginning of our educations, which are then quickly removed to narrow the focus to a single vocational study as we progress through to tertiary levels of education. That this approach probably fails the majority of students has never been of particular concern to the proponents of this system, as they merely squeeze the round peg to fit through the square hole. Education, over the last hundred years, has been stripped of its classically well rounded approach to learning and our universities denuded to provide functional, technical college, style educations aimed at producing specialists with limited broad spectrum appeal. Giving us technicians,’ masters of the molecule’ who are unable to know the whole, unfamiliar with their own history and language, and easily manipulated by their political masters.

Tradition sits on our backs like a fat arsed Cardinal from the middle ages, holding back humanity and condemning it to repeat its mistakes, again and again. As a new grandmother generally wants her daughter to ‘mother’ just as she did, and is usually offended by any initiatives in this regard, our schools and colleges are just as miserly with their openness to real change. Schools, as we know them today, began in the eighteenth century, as places to mind the children of the newly wealthy middle classes and to provide them with a basic education; and it was not until the nineteenth century that a national system to include the children of the lower classes was instigated in England. Which is why schools are run along the lines of prisons or army barracks, their concern has been as much with the security of the children as possessions as it has been about education. By which I mean there has been very little innovative thought going into how and what is the best means of enlightening and ‘drawing out’ (which is the meaning of edukate from the Greek) – ‘know thyself’ was a motto of the Hellenistic times – the best for and from children and young adults in these institutions. Cramming as many as can be fitted into a room, seated at uncomfortable desks, and ordered to listen to the droning of an often less than inspired teacher, is the model followed still today by most schools. Perhaps having laptop computers and the Internet may change things for the better, but I doubt the core principles underpinning how the children are instructed to learn will alter that much.

We live in an age, where we are all conversant with a mega multitude of data, superficially acquainted with a surfeit of knowledge, and this is only increasing through our exposure to technology. Perhaps it is time to open up to the possibility that we can be good at more than one thing and that when we go to a party, and someone says, as they usually do, “what do you do for a living?” The answer may be more than the listener quite expected.

©Sudha Hamilton

Our Posthuman Future – Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution

By Francis Fukuyama

Profile Books, 2003.

Book Review

A disturbing orange cover, with a picture of what looks like a conveyer belt full of robotic looking babies stretching into infinity, possibly delayed my reading of this brilliant book. Its publication date accidentally synchronised with the birth of my own children and perhaps I was too involved in the real thing to have the time to read about biotechnology and its impact on humanity; well I am glad I finally have. Francis Fukuyama likes to invoke the heavy hitters of philosophy right off and Nietzsche’s ominous quotes are littered throughout at chapter beginnings, I suppose it is called getting your attention. Fukuyama weaves around all over the place  a bit at first, delineating things by way of reference to George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, before settling down and finding his stride. These two books were the two poles of possible fears for Fukuyama’s American baby boomer generation, representing the futuristic totalitarian IT nightmare in the former and the more creepy biotechnological nirvana in the latter. We have of course now arrived into a world where, both the technologies featured in these two books  are part of our reality, and the author goes on throughout his book to show, that it is the biotechnological possibilities of which we have most to fear.

He classifies biotechnology into three major parts: Neuropharmacology; Genetic Engineering; and Lifespan Extension. Beginning with Neuropharmacology Fukuyama paints  a vivid picture of now, in our Western urban worlds, with facts about the prevalence of antidepressant drug use through Prozac and its many SSRI cousins, and even more disturbingly the massive use of Ritalin being prescribed for our children. We are deeply involved in mind and behaviour control on  a societal level through our complacent acceptance of these drugs. Doctors are prescribing antidepressants and amphetamines to men, women and children at an alarming rate. Why is this happening? Why has something like ADHD suddenly gone from not existing at all to enormous levels within our communities? Fukuyama does not take a moralistic tone in his discussion about this but brings the facts and their ramifications into sharp focus. There are various forces at work within these situations: our expectations regarding happiness are very different now to twenty or thirty years ago and our reliance on medical science has been consistently encouraged by governments and the pharmaceutical industry during the last few decades. Economically we are all expected to provide maximum levels of productivity, whether you are a mother or a teacher, we do not have the same amount of time to devote to the care of our children in many cases and we therefore expect our children to be more cooperative at school and at home. When they are not we now classify them as deficient in attention and drug them.

At the same time, as we are officially giving happy pills to a substantial percentage of our population, we are condemning and prosecuting another large section as illegal drug users. You can see the strange hypocrisy in this fact, as Fukuyama points out the similarities, chemically speaking, between  many of these drugs, like Ecstasy  and the SSRI’s, and that Speed is an amphetamine like Ritalin. It is these fine lines of demarcation within our societies, defining what neuropharmacology is really for, that this book explores. Drugs are OK if we are sick but are bad if merely for pleasure and that certain levels of unhappiness then become sickness (depression), as do certain levels of not paying enough attention (ADHD). Who is deciding the points on the scale? Doctors and the medical industry? Don’t they have  a vested interest in all these matters and indeed a trillion dollar interest in pharmacology? A lot of what this book is about, is asking who in our Western civilised worlds should be making these decisions for society and is it really OK to let the market decide? Being an American, Francis Fukuyama is living in the nation, which has the most avaristic culture in the world, especially around technological developments; as we have seen in the IT industry. He postulates that we as a world need to think about the consequences of these biotechnological developments and legislate for them; for our own protection.

Moving on to Genetic Engineering, and the myriad of biotechnological challenges we now and in the very near future face, Fukuyama shepherds in Dolly the Sheep and its obvious pointer to human cloning. Human cloning is currently banned in most countries and faces a huge amount of legal discussion, as to the rights of  a clone within our societies. The whole genetic question raises the unholy spectre of Eugenics and the Nazis experiments on the weak and their racially judged inferiors. It was not only in Germany and Japan, where these ghastly experiments went on, scientists in the US in a Jewish hospital infected the chronically ill with cancer cells, in another case it was mentally retarded children with hepatitis and the more famous case (they made a movie about it) of 400 black men, many of whom were purposely not treated for syphilis with available medication to record the diseases progression. Fukuyama’s book indicates that this whole racial genetic argument is still very much alive in the US and that the nurture versus nature questions splits the sciences down the middle on political grounds. He states that the Left have always come down on the side of environmental factors affecting intelligence levels within races – not enough to eat so the brain doesn’t develop – where the Right have been firmly on the side of white people being genetically superior in terms of intelligence. Reading all this myself I wondered about the tests being utilised in all this so called intelligence testing, the criteria for intelligence and how it is judged? Scientists, politicians and bureaucrats all testing on the basis of their own preconceived ideas about what it is to be intelligent in a predominantly white Anglo Saxon culture. And even beyond questions of race what is intelligence anyway, is it IQ or Emotional Intelligence or Spiritual Intelligence?

The horrors of rational fascistic science have lodged in the cultural consciousness and so there is a justifiable amount of fear around Genetic Engineering. In contrast to this are the things we now can do about diseases and conditions like cystic fibrosis and Down’s syndrome, which are now being screened for with preimplantation genetic diagnosis. The extension of this will be designer babies, where technology again offers the graduation from avoidance of sickness to ideas of perfection. Introducing questions of who will be able to afford it and will this become the province of the rich, thus increasing the gulf between the haves and have nots?  The author emphasises again that governments must play their part in making sure that genetic engineering does not disadvantage the already disadvantaged within our communities; and goes further to suggest that it could indeed be a technology used to improve things for these sections of the community. Fukuyama recommends international bodies for the guidance of biotechnology and offers the examples in the nuclear industry as proof of possible efficacy in this regard. The dangers of the nuclear industry (as seen by the crisis currently in Japan) are, I think he is inferring, on par with the dangers inherent in the biotechnology sphere.

Francis Fukuyama talks a lot about what it means to be human and the essential qualities of humanness. He invokes Aristotle and a whole pantheon of philosophers and moral judges in answering this question. In the end I think he comes down on the side of feeling, that it is our human feelings which define us as human. So we have the harsh and hostile world of Darwinian evolution and the men in white lab coats on one hand and the subjective consciousness of the feeling world on the other, his book may be an informed cry for help. An Achtung before it is too late and we have sold our humanness for bigger boobs, and smarter and taller, better looking kids. Stem cell therapy and the use of research involving embryos are or have been hot topics recently, with governments voting on legislation, and often doing so as votes of conscience rather than on party policy grounds. The ability to grow new cells and possibly limbs and other organs for the sick versus the rights of the unborn. This takes us back to abortion and how that is still used in many Eastern countries as a genetic engineering tool in favour of males over females in the human species. Abortion is a very volatile topic in the US especially, and anything to do with it opens up that great religious divide and debate. The genetic engineering argument embraces the scientist’s pragmatic view that if we are terminating unwanted pregnancies, and also if there are extra embryos left over from IVF, then we should be using these for embryonic stem cell research. Against this we have the Right To Life religious organisations and also non-religious anti-biotechnology groups, who see this work as a corruption of the rights of the individual, which opens the question -  at what age do we become human?

The third part of this whole dilemma, according to Fukuyama, is science’s work in prolonging our life expectancies. The twentieth century has seen the life expectancies raised in women from 46.3 and men from 48.3, in the US in 1900, to that of 79.9 for women and 74.2 for men in the year 2000. The author points out, when you combine this with falling birth rates in most Western countries we are now facing  a rapidly changing age demographic, meaning that fewer young people will be supporting many more older and infirm people in our communities and economies. In addition to the well publicised affect this will have on social security systems, there will be further ramifications with a growing divide internationally, with developing nations with higher birth rates having younger population demographics; more angry young men. Fukuyama posits that the US will have a decidedly older and more feminine population, as women live longer, and that this will contrast politically with their dealings with these young countries (I think it more likely to be a good thing as grandma is less likely to bomb people). Our Posthuman Future goes onto list many of the possible scenarios related to these population and demographic shifts related to life span extension, and in particular talks about our attitudes to the elderly, facing challenges; when we are forced to care for them on mass and they are taking our jobs – (which the baby boomers have been doing for years in Australia LOL). Fukuyama spells out the medical facts about prolonging life spans and that quality of life experience will not necessarily accompany this extension; and that our cultural worshipping of youth is very much about sexual reproductivity. Lives lived for the majority of years as aged, and non-reproductively,  will present clear cultural and psychological challenges for the participants and for all those around them. Medical science is taking us all down this path because nobody really wants to die and wants to see their parents die, and euthanasia is feared by many within our societies. We do and will need to have these discussions about death and what it means to have a life, beyond the ‘hands off’ and keep everything alive for as long as possible, which is the  current position of governments and medical science. I think we as a community will have to grow up and religions will need to pull their heads out of the sands of two millennia ago – which is when their religious texts were written.

Francis Fukuyama, being an American and working in the US education system, as the Professor of International Political Economy at John Hopkins University, in my opinion shies away from stressing the very large part that the free market in our capitalist economy plays in this. Despite the fact that the overall message of his book is that we need impartial democratic government bodies policing biotechnology, I still think the author misses out on emphasising the fact, that we as a society leave  a great deal of medical science in the hands of a market intent on making as much money as possible out of whatever situation they find or create. Our democratically elected representatives in government are too dependent on popular decisions and election campaign dollars from the pharmaceutical industry. Our scientists are equally dependent on private enterprise funded research grants and even the scientific journals, which publish the reports, are dependent on big pharma advertising dollars. If we value the dollar over everything else how will we ever get any impartiality in any decision making body and if every government department is only potentially lasting four or five years how can we carry out any far reaching legislation?

This is a really worthwhile and enjoyable book to read, drawing on our great Western philosophical canon to pose many of the questions, we as a society face in regard to the biotechnological revolution.

©Sudha Hamilton

Who Murdered Chaucer?

Book Review

Who Murdered Chaucer? – A Medieval Mystery

By Terry Jones, Robert Yeager, Terry Dolan, Alan Fletcher, Juliette Dor

Methuen, 2004.

Geoffrey Chaucer, poet and most importantly one of the earliest literary stars of the English language, was the author of The Canterbury Tales – a celebrated collection of verse pieces which have provided an incredibly rich source of historical information about the types of people inhabiting the Middle Ages. Many of us studied Chaucer at school, and I am afraid, that by dint of either my own shallowness or via unenthusiastic teaching, I was not a big fan at the time– the early English language was quite challenging I seem to remember – he remains however a major influence upon our Western canon. Like much of the history taught at school, a great deal of important information and context was omitted, thus denuding what could have been a powerful lesson about real life. You see, Chaucer seems to have been disappeared, in the same way, that more recently, people in South American countries have been disappeared by forces within their governments.

I don’t know if it is merely that the majority of people who study history and literature are averse to making waves, or that it is something else entirely, but we seem to get a dry, unquestioning version of history being passed down in our educational institutions. I know here in Australia, teaching was always the profession of choice for the less academically gifted and the ones who didn’t really know what they wanted to do at university. Perhaps the title of this essay should really be, Who Murdered History? As one of the primary integral qualities for teaching must be passion, if a teacher’s communication is not imbued with enthusiasm and real care for the topic, then who is going to listen to him or her?

Geoffrey Chaucer was a poet and scholar in the court of the English king, Richard the second, at the close of the fourteenth century. Now if you are at all familiar with medieval history, or Shakespeare, you will know that Richard II has a seriously sullied reputation as the fey, spoilt, generally unloved king, who was usurped by a far more deserving Henry IV. Here however, is a great example of the fact that history is written by the victor, and the disappointing thing in this circumstance is that in this case, it has been unquestionably accepted by historians down the centuries. I personally came across Richard II as an acting student, when I was doing my NIDA audition – I studied Shakespeare’s play of the same name and chose an audition piece, of Richard expressing his outrage and righteous indignation at being deposed. The whole experience made a lasting impression upon me and I found it very interesting to revisit this piece of history. Terry Jones and his co-authors make it abundantly clear, that Richard was not the despot history and Shakespeare made him out to be, citing chronicled evidence to the contrary. More importantly they show that these chronicles, kept by the religious orders within their abbeys (Westminster, Kirkstall), had been doctored and amended once Henry IV had taken the throne.

Richard II had ascended the throne at the age of ten, and so you can imagine the difficulties he had in establishing his authority as he grew into the role, with overweening advisors and power hungry barons all around him. Terry Jones posits, that far from being a weak and corrupt king, Richard was in fact a king who was at the forefront of new royal practises. He suggests that Richard was creating a uniquely English court, and that Chaucer, with his wonderful wielding of the newly flourishing English language(in contrast to Latin and French), was a big part of that. Richard resisted supporting the maintenance of  the military campaigns in France, that his father, the Black Prince, and grandfather Edward III and his forebears had campaigned so vigorously at. Indeed he wished for a peaceful reign and copped a great deal of flak from the more warlord like dukes around him. Similarly today in the United States, great chunks of their industrial wealth is based on armaments and technologies of war, and Presidents are lobbied to support these activities to maintain the economy (Donald Rumsfeld and George W Bush in Iraq). Likewise, several of the barons around Richard, depended upon constant military actions for their upkeep and any threat to this was viewed with great resistance, especially by Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, Richard’s uncle and the youngest son of Edward III. Often this military action was portrayed, especially to the poor, as courageous and brave behaviour to be admired in a man and a leader; manipulations utilising cultural assumptions that still exist today. So Richard reigned during a precarious time and his behaviour actually challenged the status quo, in ways, which we would now admire in our modern more peaceful world.

Terry Jones and co-authors make clear that Richard II, once he had taken personal control over the realm in 1389, made the pursuit of peace with France a priority. They cite the influence of Giles of Rome, the Italian theologian and philosopher, in Richard’s education, as a setter of kingly aspirations in the direction of peace. They also suggest that Richard may have been a more intellectual king than his predecessors, and one who fostered and encouraged men of letters; like Chaucer and his contemporaries. Jones makes a good argument for Richard’s court being one of new ideas and creativity; and in a cultural ferment with the recently flourishing English language at its centre.

‘Namoore of this, for Goddes dignitee,’

Quod oure Hooste, ‘for thou makest me

So wery of they verray lewednesse

That, also wisly God my soule blesse,

Myne eres aken of thy drasty speche.

Now swich a rym the devel I biteche!

This may wel be rym doggerel,’ quod he.

The Canterbury Tales, VII, II. 919-25

‘No more of this, for God’s dignity,’

Swore our Host, ‘for you make me

So weary of your total unlearnedness

That, just as God will bless my soul,

My ears are aching with your dreadful speech.

Now such a rhyme I’ll teach the devil!

This may well be doggerel rhyme, ‘ said he.

It is interesting to read the early English employed by Chaucer and in particular the spellings of the words – I found it threw new light and understanding about certain words and their origins. The piece above by Chaucer, is in the persona of the character Harry Bailey, and highlights the author’s opinions of the travelling minstrels, who were the traditional courtly entertainers before the advent of the poet/authors. A modern parallel for this evolution in courtly tastes would be the difference between the singer/songwriters of the sixties (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell) and the vocalists or cover bands of the previous decade , who did popular renditions of standards. So Richard II was a new type of ruler and under him there flowered a new language, new expressions and new ideas.

In the book Who Murdered Chaucer? the authors describe the effect this change had on those with vested interests in how things were, and the Roman Catholic Church was one organisation who had deeply rooted and very valuable vested interests in medieval England. The powerful leaders of the Church were busy protecting their own authority against forces for change, like John Wyclif, an Oxford theologian who translated the Bible into English and was against many of the commercial aspects of the Church. Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Arundel, eventually aligned the Church establishment in its reactionary crushing of all dissent and introduced the practise of burning heretics at the stake into England. Terry Jones and co-authors produce evidence, that it was the recently exiled Archbishop Arundel who joined forced with Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, another recently exiled by Richard II, to topple the young king and place Henry on the throne. Together they travelled from Europe back to England illegally, and became irresistible forces of conservatism, appealing to the barons and bishops who had been dismayed and offended by Richard’s new methods and associations. Richard II had been surrounding himself with men of ideas and letters, who were not necessarily from the aristocratic classes, and promoting these men of middle class into positions of power. This is suggested as one reason for the relatively quick and successful usurpation by Henry, as he and Arundel were able to unite the anti-Richard forces together and bring down the king.

Chaucer,  and his literary cohorts, had under Richard II been able to express a number of quite radical ideas in their work, ideas about the role of the Church and State. There are many Wyclifian concepts within Chaucer’s work, and in particular in the mouths of certain characters,  who inhabit The Canterbury Tales. The Poor Parson truly embodies Christ like behaviours in his holy thoughts and good works, and these sit in direct contrast to the avaristic exemplars of what Jones calls the ‘Church Commercial.’ Chaucer parodies other Church representatives,  like Friar Huberd in The General Prologue and the character of the Summoner in The Summoner’s Tale, conveying the well known corruption within the Church, being practised by these ecclesiastical officers. The selling of relics to the general public, pieces of the holy cross which crucified Jesus and a myriad of other bogus bits of rubbish, was rife throughout Christendom. In addition to this, people were encouraged to purchase prayers, and if they did not go on a pilgrimage they were expected to donate the dollar value of the journey to the Church in compensation. The Church collected taxes from everyone in the form of tithes, which could be 10% of their income or more. Basically the Church was  a vehicle for the systematic abuse and exploitation of the population. It was run by the disinherited children of the aristocracy, the sons who were not first born, and became their private fiefdoms – many bishops were ordained at the ages of twelve and fifteen. You had the irony of the Church being run by completely irreligious people, who were more akin to our corporate CEO’s today.

Archbishop Thomas Arundel, was like a Rupert Murdoch of the Church Commercial, conspiring to prevent the radical forces of change from interrupting the control exerted by the Church and the flow of revenue coming to it. Chaucer could be seen as a literary lion, who expounded with humour and style the lie of the land, and told those who would listen, what was really going on. During Richard’s reign this was permissible and Terry Jones would say perhaps even encouraged, but upon Henry IV taking over, it was now an entirely different universe. The rules had changed and it was unfortunate for Chaucer that he had a written body of work out there, which could act as evidence of his heretical beliefs. Like many usurpers Henry IV was insecure, especially just after murdering an anointed king in Richard II, and he looked to secure his newly stolen throne by  a policy of containment and suppression. Apart from the evidence of his sending out a directive to all chroniclers, that he wished to witness what they had written, an unspoken message that said you better write nice things about me and my new rulership of the realm or else, there was also a spate of mob executions of most of Richard’s friends and allies. Henry IV, with the help of the master strategist Arundel, was able to eradicate much of his opposition without directly bloodying his hands. The last known record of Chaucer, was that he had in the year 1400, just taken out a 53 year lease on  a house in the garden of Lady Chapel, in Westminster Abbey.  Westminster was a sanctuary of the Church, which meant that theoretically it was  a place you could go and not be touched by forces of the State, but in practise it did not stop determined agents riding in and dispatching whoever they were really after. Westminster became known as a place where people who were still loyal to Richard II gathered, and indeed the Abbey itself, was implicated in a plot to overthrow the new king and this was discovered by Henry IV not long after the usurpation; and there were deadly ramifications for some of those involved. So it was  a time of secrets and suspicions, a bit like East Berlin during the cold war, and those writers and liberals who had flourished in Richard’s court were under the microscope of Archbishop Arundel and Henry IV.

John Gower, a Chaucer contemporary, managed to rewrite sections of his Confessio Amantis, swapping praise of Richard II to Henry of Lancaster, and this rewriting of history to support Henry IV’s new regime was so successful that it was used by later historians to justify the Lancastrian view of English history. This was one example among many of the exorcising of Richard II from histories warm embrace and his consignment into no-speak and ignominy. Thus we have had six centuries of misinformation and unfounded slander upon Richard II and his reign. This book and its detailed referencing of available records and evidence, really showed me how easily history can be re-edited by those who control the information and records. If we do not ask the question and are not prepared to dig  a bit deeper then we will never know the truth.

There is no clear and incontrovertible evidence that Chaucer was murdered by agents on behalf of Arundel or Henry IV, but there is a long list of unexplainable facts.

• Why did Chaucer the literary star of his day just disappear?
• Why did he leave no Will, when he was a meticulous public servant?
• Why was no monument built to him?
• Why do none of his own copies of his work survive today?
• Why is his death eulogised as a tragedy by other poets?

It seems as if Geoffrey Chaucer, England’s most esteemed poet and public servant, just dropped off the face of the Earth. It is the very lack of recorded information about his death, which points to something decidedly suspicious having occurred and the likelihood that he may have died in Archbishop Arundel’s prison; like many other perceived heretics of the time. Arundel used the uncertainty of the times to eradicate enemies of the Church at home and managed through the threat of burning heretics at the stake to get many dissenting voices within the Church to recant and retract their statements. William Sawtre was the first man burnt at the stake in this new England, this religious police state. Sir Lewis Clifford, one of Chaucer’s oldest friends and one of the Church’s most outspoken critics , was persuaded to recant under the new regime and to bow before the unholy spectre of an agonising death amid the flames. Chaucer’s fellow poet John Montagu, the Earl of Salisbury, was ripped to pieces by the mob at Cirencester in the wake of an abortive revolt in 1400. This was a very scary time to be alive, if you held to an alternative view about Henry IV’s right to be on the throne and the nature of Church and State.

Nobody knows exactly when Chaucer died, whether it was the year 1400 or 1402, various biographers down the ages have drawn on misinformation and then compounded that by using that as mistaken sources for factual information. Like a few journalists today, I suppose these biographers thought why spoil a good story just because there are no concrete facts about the ending. Most commonly Chaucer is depicted as gently dying of old age, in a state of contentment at his own home, of course there is no evidence for this and a whole lot of holes in the story – what happened to his substantial library (books were very rare and valuable in 1400) and his own copies of his body of work? Why didn’t an old man, well versed in the law as a respected public servant in the employ of a king, leave a Will? Very strange indeed and highly unlikely. Who murdered Chaucer? The most likely candidates, Archbishop Arundel and Henry IV, have swept clean histories trail and left little trace, but the book concludes, that the glaring omissions of any recorded evidence regarding Chaucer’s final days and demise are highly suspicious, and considering that they quietly despatched Richard II with similarly no official announcement- it is, in detective speak, their MO – modus operandi.

©Sudha Hamilton

Cooking school on the sunshine coast, the Sacred Chef cooking classes, discover historical dishes, prepare delicious dishes, eat, drink and meet new friends.