Winter Cravings

Today I made a Thai soup with coconut milk, dried oyster mushrooms from the market and wild rice. It was the best thing I have ever made. Now I am eager to try my hand at more Thai dishes. I am craving clam chowder (Boston style of course), and Rhyzome's mac and cheese with mushrooms and Rooster sauce. I also made one of the worst things I've ever baked today. I was really excited about making cashew nut shortbread, but I should have cut the sugar by half. They are shriekingly sweet and so will end up in a graham crumb crust. My mood's been up and down today too. I had a fun time starting on my annual winter collages, but I'm frustrated that we don't have any color ink right now and it's so bloody expensive. I've been researching paper dolls to add that element into some of the collages. There are some cool vintage ones you can download from the web. I'm going to print some up for my niece and nephew.

I want to try to recreate the apple slaw at Crave. I think I may need a mandolin this year for Christmas.

The neighbors are having band practice again tonight. Arghh. Please stop.

Gerianiol Does a Body Good

I'm doing a bit of quick research on the plants that attract bees and find that geraniol seems to be an ingredient in the essential oils of many flowers that attract bees. Plants with geraniol (a monoterpenoid and an alcohol) attract bees and bees themselves use geraniol to mark nectar bearing-flowers and the entrances to their hives. Beekeepers used to rub lemon balm on the entrances to their beehives to help the bees find their way home. Ironically, geraniol is also reputed to be very good for humans in that it is anti-oxidant, anti- bacterial and it helps fight tooth decay which is why you'll find it in natural toothpastes containing monarda and/or ginger. Geraniol is also used in natural mosquito and blackfly repellents.

When I look at the list of herbs and spices containing geraniol there's an uncanny relationship to the list of my favorite aromas and flavors. Thai food, which contains lemongrass and ginger is reputed to be fantastic for your health, especially now that coconut oil is on the list of foods that are really good for you. In a raw food cookbook my sister gave me for my birthday called Ani's Raw Food Desserts by Ani Phyo the author uses coconut oil, another ingredient extensively in her recipes and says it even has anti-aging properties.

palmarosa 82%
citronella 23%
geranium: up to 17%
orangeflower: up to 7.6%
verbena 6.6%
artemisia vestita wall.: 6.2%
marjorum: up to 6%
lemongrass oil: 2.59%
Thymus vulgaris: 2.16%
turmeric: 1.13 %
clary sage: 0.3-1%
sage: up to .7%
oregano: 0.6%
rosemary .5%
ginger: 0.3-.6%
manuka: 0.5%
monarda: up to 0.5%
lemon verbena: 0.4 to 0.5%
cardamom: 0.2 to 0.4 %
grape: 0.1-.3%
lavender oil: 0.1 to 0.2%
grapefruit: up to 0.18%
nutmeg: up to .013 %
basil: 0.02%

Arunwatcharin, Supapipat, and Rachtanapun have studied the medicinal effects of geraniol in an essay called Antimicrobial activity of essential oils from Thai herbs against foodborne pathogenics and spoilage microorganisms. The scientists studied the antimicrobial activity of the essential oils in Thai basil, lemon grass, citronella, Kaffir lime, Kaffir lime leaf, black pepper and sweet basil and the phytochemicals boreol and geraniol. They tested these herbs on some nasty bacteria, including salmonella and found "geraniol and lemon grass essential oil had the strongest antimicrobial activity against the tested microorganisms (MICs ranging from 0.04 to 0.08% and from 0.1 to 0.5%, respectively)."

I'm definitely going to try to find more information about geraniol and its beneficial effects on humans and bees. Let me know if any of you run into some more information on this topic. It makes sense that cultures with hot climates would cook food with these herbs and spices high in geraniol to prevent spoilage. I'm all for any good excuse to eat more curry!