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April 30, 2005
Carolina Barbecue Quorn
On a recent trip to my dad's house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I became re-infatuated with Carolina Barbecue Sauce. Traditionally, it is served on pork, in a ritual that is called a "Pig Pickin.'" This is often colloquially referred to as a "Barbecue," and in North Carolina, when one says that one will attend or host a "barbecue," one means that a pig will be publically roasted over a giant open pit or in a portable large fire throwing oven type of thing, and then its flesh will be slathered in a vinegar based barbeque sauce and served on paper plates with coleslaw, hushpuppies, and extraordinarily sweet iced tea. this lead to much confusion when I first arrived at college in the North and saw a poster for a "Hillel Barbecue!" It took a good few months before I found out that when Northerners say "Barbecue," what they mean is a "Cook-Out!" A "Cook-Out" involves cooking hamburgers and hot dogs, quite possibly all-beef hotdogs or even tofu pups, on a grill outdoors. You see my confusion.
Anyway, what makes North Carolina barbecue special is that it is vinegar based, not tomato based. It's therefore much lower in sugar and it's very salty and vinegary. I love salt and vinegar... pre-CR, I often thought that I was the person for whom the salt and vinegar potato chip was created. But I have never been a big fan of pork... at least not since I stopped eating ham biscuits as a child at church "Covered-dish Suppers" (that's the Southern word for potluck) so I've always wanted to create a vegetarian version of Carolina barbecue. I thought about doing it with tofu, till I found out that tofu seems to cause dementia, and I don't love NC bbq that much!
So I picked up some of that interesting and delicious fungus, Quorn, at Whole Foods today. Tonight I am cooking it for my mom with the Carolina Barbecue sauce I picked up in NC. I'll just take the Quorn tenders, microwave them, then sizzle them in a pot with Carolina BBQ sauce with some fresh tomatoes and green peppers, and a salad on the side. Yum!!!
Here's the crunch for today:
Food List : 4-30-05.FLS
DATE : 04/30/05
Num. Foods : 18
Food #1 : Egg, white, raw, fresh 1 cup
Food #2 : Olive oil 1 teaspoon
Food #3 : Grape juice 1 oz
Food #4 : Cottage Cheese Lowfat Light and Lively 1 cup
Food #5 : Kale, raw 200 g
Food #6 : Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, November thru May average 100 g
Food #7 : Milk, nonfat, fluid, without added vitamin A (fat free or skim) 120 calories (big latte)
Food #8 : Coffee, brewed, espresso, restaurant-prepared 1 skim latte's worth
Food #9 : Coffee, brewed, prepared with distilled water 1 Venti Coffee
Food #10 : Quorn 100 g
Food #11 : Sauce, barbecue sauce 35 cals
Food #12 : Peppers, sweet, green, raw 100 g
Food #13 : Lettuce, cos or romaine, raw 50 g
Food #14 : Mustard greens, raw 100 g
Food #15 : Arugula, raw 10 g
Food #16 : Flax oil 2 teaspoons
Food #17 : Alcoholic beverage, wine, table, white 9 oz
Food #18 : Salsa, med. chunky 4 tablespoons
NUTRIENT TOTALS:
Abs. Values %RDA/SA
Calories 1043.87__cal 52%
Protein 79.73__gm 145% RDA
Total Fat 30.58__gm 47%
Sat. Fat 11.23__gm 56%
Mono. Fat 8.72__gm 30%
Poly. Fat 7.93__gm 119%
Carbohydrate 79.49__gm 26%
Fiber 13.30__gm 44%
Cholesterol 106.94__mg 36%
Vit. A 22004.33__IU 440% RDA
Vit. B6 1.21__mg 76% RDA
Vit. B12 2.10__mcg 105% RDA
Vit. C 399.62__mg 666% RDA
Vit. E 5.22__mg 65% RDA
Thiamine 0.75__mg 68% RDA
Folacin 262.26__mcg 146% RDA
Riboflavin 2.50__mg 192% RDA
Niacin 10.63__mg 71% RDA
Panto. Acid 2.84__mg 57% SA
Calcium 1340.48__mg 112% RDA
Copper 1.44__mg 72% SA
Iron 7.14__mg 48% RDA
Magnesium 337.73__mg 121% RDA
Manganese 6.08__mg 203% SA
Phosphorus 1114.17__mg 93% RDA
Potassium 3297.63__mg 165% RDA
Selenium 55.28__mcg 101% RDA
Sodium 1786.27__mg 74% SA
Zinc 14.00__mg 117% RDA
Tyrosine 4.04__gm 420% RDA
Lysine 8.34__gm 1158% RDA
Phenylalanine 4.97__gm 518% RDA
Leucine 8.87__gm 923% RDA
Valine 5.96__gm 710% RDA
Methionine 2.87__gm 955% RDA
Cystine 1.67__gm 555% RDA
Tryptophan 1.32__gm 732% RDA
Threonine 4.77__gm 994% RDA
Isoleucine 5.53__gm 767% RDA
I also discovered something excellent today. You know how when you make a lot of salads with serious greens like kale, you can end up with a lot of tough stems? In recent past, I have cooked them in chicken broth with a touch of garlic and brewers yeast, and they're delicious! But today I was aching for some chips and salsa, so I ate "Stems and Salsa!" They're strong enough to stand up to being dipped, and you don't mind the toughness because you're expecting crunch in something you dip into salsa. Delicious! Especially the super-spicy stems.
Posted by april at April 30, 2005 1:56 PM
Comments
May want to read more on Quorn before eating it, it's not really made from mushrooms. I don't know how the data compare to other foods people are likely to be allergic to, but you should probably be aware of this before eating it.
http://www.cspinet.org/new/200208121.html
Posted by: David Canning at April 30, 2005 3:55 PM
Good ole CSPI - all there stuff is out of date - Quorn Rocks! It even got the Brits Veggie society award - for ALL its food. I eat it all the time.
Posted by: Jim Golightly at May 1, 2005 3:29 PM
Tofu causes dementia? I can never keep up - is this a new discovery, or am I getting senile already?
Posted by: Suzanne at May 3, 2005 12:58 AM
Hi Suzanne,
Yep, there's evidence that tofu causes dementia. There's quite a bit about it in the CR Society archives. Check it out by clicking on Search at www.calorierestriction.org. Enter "tofu" and "dementia" or "soy" and you'll get lots of hits.
I eat tofu no more than twice a month now, even though I really like it.
Posted by: april at May 3, 2005 9:54 AM