The concept of eating in season — the way our forefathers ate — has gained a new respect and following in recent years as restaurant chefs and home cooks have returned to preparing meals using locally harvested ingredients. The local bounty is generally fresher and more nutrient dense than foods harvested in distant locals and transported to area stores.
Traditional Chinese medicine, which respects food for its medicinal qualities, relies heavily on the idea of eating seasonally.
“Eat with the seasons,” says Hedy Watrous, a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine who owns the Eastern Arts Center for Health and Wellness in Deep River. “You want to eat foods to nourish the organ systems in your body or to put into balance any organ that you might have a problem with. If you eat for the seasons, your body will stay well.”
The seasons also dictate the kinds of foods that the body craves and needs, says Watrous, who teaches a healing foods cooking class, based on Chinese medicine principles, at her restaurant, the Whistle Stop, in Deep River.
“As the seasons change, our palates change,” she says. “Your body will tell you what you want to eat, but you have to listen to your body.” The body changes to adapt to the environment as the seasons change. The weather determines whether the body needs cooling or warming foods. “Come inside after shoveling the driveway, and you want beef stew, not a salad with chicken,” she says. “Long, slow-cooked foods warm you up.”
In summer, cooling foods such as salads, raw foods and grilled fish are more palatable than heavy stewed or fried foods.
“They cool the body naturally, and the body assimilates the food more easily,” she says. “Eat a salad with grilled fish and you’ll feel cool, but eat corned beef hash and you’ll sweat.”
If cool is good, icy isn’t necessarily better, however. Foods are easier to digest — and taste better — when they lose some of the chill from the refrigerator. Ice water, which seems like a good idea on a hot, humid day, can interfere with digestion, says Watrous who advocates room temperature water. “When ice water hits the gut, you can feel the stomach contract and reject it,” she says. “Warmer water makes the body ready to accept foods.”
The goal of eating well is to keep the body balanced. “We want to stay in the center of yin and yang,” Watrous says, referring to the concept of opposite forces that complement one another. Yin is more female, peaceful, quiet and soft, while yang has masculine qualities and is powerful, open and dynamic. “We all have qualities of both,” she says. “Think of the room we are in,” she says of the small restaurant where the evening class took place. “There are lights and energy as opposed to the outside, which is dark.”
Cook ‘Intuitively’
In traditional Chinese medicine, food is respected for its medicinal qualities and curative effects. The belief is that certain foods benefit specific organs in the body. The ancient Chinese believe that the world was composed of five elements: water, wood, fire, earth and metal. These elements also represent the five major organs in the body. For example, fire foods, which are beneficial to the heart and small intestines, include bitter and red foods such as lamb, tomatoes, strawberries, dark chocolate and arugula.
To illustrate the seasons and the elements, Watrous displayed large bowls overflowing with fresh vegetables, grains, beans, herbs and condiments. Fresh fruits and vegetables make up about 70 percent of an optimum diet. The winter bowl, which also is the water element, contained foods good for the kidneys: onions, ginger, beets, parsnips, celery, dried kidney beans and soy sauce. “Some foods carry over, like onions and mushrooms, which we eat year-round,” she says. “But green foods like Swiss chard, which we find in early summer, are so perfect for summer eating. Anything red and green are perfection for the heart.”
The world around us affects our bodies, Watrous told the class, and sometimes we do not have control of emotions or environmental factors such as leaves, trees and grass. “Food, we can control,” she says. “When you become in touch with what’s going on in your body, you can make good choices about what you eat.”
During the cooking portion of the class, Watrous encouraged her students to cook “intuitively” — that is, without recipes. She asked the class to choose ingredients from the bowls to prepare with boneless chicken breast, which was cooked on a griddle. Watrous sprinkled the chicken breasts with coarse salt to create a barrier that would prevent them from sticking to the hot grill.
The mushrooms, onions, baby bok choy, Swiss chard, scallions and roasted beets chosen by the students also were cooked quickly on the griddle, then seasoned with coriander, cumin, crushed red pepper, turmeric and a touch of soy sauce. The dish illustrated the preferable mix of an abundance of vegetables to animal protein on the plate.
The following are recipes from Watrous’s healing foods classes.
PORK CHOP WITH PEAR, APPLE AND CRANBERRY CHUTNEY
>>1 shallot, chopped
>>4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
>>3 tablespoons brown sugar
>>2 tablespoons butter
>>1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root, unpeeled
>>1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
>>1 tablespoon curry powder
>>Salt and crushed red pepper to taste
>>4 medium pears, peeled, cored and chopped
>>2 medium apples, peeled, cored and chopped
>>1/4 cup dried cranberries
>>8 bone-in pork chops, medium thickness
To make chutney, combine all ingredients except pork chops in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer until fruit is tender. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
Grill or pan-fry pork chops on both sides until meat is still slightly pink in the center. Serve chops with a spoonful of chutney. Serves 8.
SPICY CAULIFLOWER
>>1 head cauliflower, cut into 1-inch thick slices
>>1 tablespoon olive oil
>>1 small onion, peeled and chopped
>>2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
>>1 or 2 chili peppers, chopped
>>1/4 cup vegetable stock
>>Cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger (see note)
>>Chopped fresh cilantro
>>2 teaspoons of Tamari or soy sauce to sprinkle
Heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Brown cauliflower, remove from pan and set aside. Add onion, garlic and chilies to the pan, and saute for 2 minutes. Add vegetable stock and spices and cook, stirring, until stock is hot. Return cauliflower to the pan and cook until heated through. Sprinkle with cilantro and soy sauce and serve. Serves 2 to 4.
Note: Begin with 1/4 teaspoon each of the spices and adjust to taste.
CHICKEN WITH ROASTED BEETS AND FENNEL
>>6 boneless chicken breasts
>>2 tablespoons butter
>>2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
>>2 large onions, chopped
>>1 fennel bulb, sliced
>>8 medium beets, roasted, peeled and cut into chunks
>>2 bags baby spinach
>>Kosher salt and pepper to taste
>>1 cup brown rice, cooked as directed on package and kept warm
Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and grill or pan-fry on both sides until fully cooked. Remove from heat, set aside and keep warm.
Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic, onions and fennel and cook until fennel is tender-crisp. Add beets and cook until warmed through. In a separate pan, steam spinach just until wilted.
To serve, arrange spinach leaves around the edge of a serving platter. Spoon brown rice into the middle of the platter. Top with vegetable mixture. Place chicken breasts on top of vegetables and serve. Serves 6.
Hedy Watrous will conduct more healing foods classes at the Whistle Stop through the winter. The next class, which will focus on the spring season, metal as an element and eating to keep the liver and gall bladder healthy, will meet March 30 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Whistle Stop restaurant, 108 Main St., Deep River. The cost is $75. The Whistle Stop is now closed for vacation and will re-open March 6. For information, call 860-526-4122.
