Tapioca... comes from the cassava root!

Tapioca is an essentially flavourless starchy ingredient, or fecula, produced from treated and dried cassava (manioc) root and used in cooking. Cassava flour, also called tapioca flour or tapioca starch, can also replace wheat flour, and is so-used by some people with wheat allergies or coeliac disease. As cassava is a gluten-free natural starch, there have been increasing incidences of its appearance in Western cuisine.

But watch out, cassava roots and leaves cannot be consumed raw because they contain two cyanogenic glucosides, linamarin and lotaustralin. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava) According to that article, “for some smaller-rooted ‘sweet’ varieties, cooking is sufficient to eliminate all toxicity. The cyanide is carried away in the processing water and the amounts produced in domestic consumption are too small to have environmental impact. The larger-rooted "bitter" varieties used for production of flour or starch must be processed to remove the cyanogenic glucosides. The large roots are peeled and then ground into flour, which is then soaked in water, squeezed dry several times, and toasted.”

Couscous, what is it?

 Couscous

 This consists of spherical granules made by rolling and shaping moistened semolina wheat and then coating them with finely ground wheat flour. The finished granules are about one millimetre in diameter before cooking.

 A bit more in dept knowledge can be gained from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couscous) “Couscous from semolina (wheat) - The semolina is sprinkled with water and rolled with the hands to form small pellets, sprinkled with dry flour to keep them separate, and then sieved. The pellets which are too small to be finished granules of couscous fall through the sieve to be again sprinkled with dry semolina and rolled into pellets. This process continues until all the semolina has been formed into tiny granules of couscous. Sometimes salt is added to the semolina and water.

This process is very labour-intensive. In the traditional method of preparing couscous, groups of women would come together and make large batches over several days.[6] These would then be dried in the sun and used for several months. Couscous was traditionally made from the hard part of the durum, the part of the grain that resisted the grinding of the relatively primitive millstone. In modern times, couscous production is largely mechanized, and the product sold in markets around the world.”

 

Back after the break!

Welcome back everybody. Living a healthy life has been my moto for the past few years. Since I became conscious of “health” as such, I’ve been reading more and more about it. Ideas flood from everywhere. Healthy recipes pop as the most trendy stuff in all good cooking webpages. And still studies show that people get obese in modern society.

Why is this happening? Can’t we control ourselves? Why is it so hard if been healthy and fit is the ultimate goal for every of us? 

A part from looking at this issues, I’ll also brainstorm about other things that interest me throughout life.

 

Till very soon this time!