Kevin Gillespie's Creamless Creamed Corn. Every week -- often with your help -- FOOD52's Senior Editor Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that are nothing short of genius.
Today: The mysterious powers of corn milk. Gem-like rows of corn niblets, still stuck to their cobs, can be pretty miraculous even in their simplest, untapped form. But the real magic happens inside. The sweet starch that's trapped inside those translucent kernels is a powerful substance, once unleashed. As creamy as half-and-half (with much more flavor going for it), it also thickens up quickly when heated -- faster than reducing cream, faster than a floury roux, and even faster than its comparatively decrepit cousin, corn starch.
Super Powers for the Blind and Deaf. It's an oft-repeated idea that blind people can compensate for their lack of sight with enhanced hearing or other abilities.
The musical talents of Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, both blinded at an early age, are cited as examples of blindness conferring an advantage in other areas. Then there's the superhero Daredevil, who is blind but uses his heightened remaining senses to fight crime. It is commonly assumed that the improvement in the remaining senses is a result of learned behavior; in the absence of vision, blind people pay attention to auditory cues and learn how to use them more efficiently. But there is mounting evidence that people missing one sense don't just learn to use the others better. The brain adapts to the loss by giving itself a makeover. Healthy Vending Machines: The Future Of Snack Food. 14 "Healthy" Foods That Are Actually Bad For You. Hunter gatherer clue to obesity. 26 July 2012Last updated at 01:00 GMT By Helen Briggs BBC News The Hadza live a hunter gatherer existence that has changed little in 10,000 years The idea that exercise is more important than diet in the fight against obesity has been contradicted by new research.
A study of the Hadza tribe, who still exist as hunter gatherers, suggests the amount of calories we need is a fixed human characteristic. This suggests Westerners are growing obese through over-eating rather than having inactive lifestyles, say scientists. One in 10 people will be obese by 2015. And, nearly one in three of the worldwide population is expected to be overweight, according to figures from the World Health Organization. The Western lifestyle is thought to be largely to blame for the obesity "epidemic". Continue reading the main story. Future foods: What will we be eating in 20 years' time? 29 July 2012Last updated at 19:09 ET By Denise Winterman BBC News Magazine Volatile food prices and a growing population mean we have to rethink what we eat, say food futurologists.
So what might we be serving up in 20 years' time? It's not immediately obvious what links Nasa, the price of meat and brass bands, but all three are playing a part in shaping what we will eat in the future and how we will eat it. Rising food prices, the growing population and environmental concerns are just a few issues that have organisations - including the United Nations and the government - worrying about how we will feed ourselves in the future. In the UK, meat prices are anticipated to have a huge impact on our diets. "In the West many of us have grown up with cheap, abundant meat," says food futurologist Morgaine Gaye.
"Rising prices mean we are now starting to see the return of meat as a luxury. Trick Your Brain to Like Vegetables. Ten Healthy Snacks To Eat At Your Desk. Are There Fundamental Laws of Cooking? Cooking is a field that has in recent years seen a shift from the artistic to the scientific.
While there are certainly still subjective and somewhat impenetrable qualities to one’s cuisine — de gustibus non est disputandum — there is an increasing rigor in the kitchen. From molecular gastronomy to Modernist Cuisine, there is a rapid growth in the science of cooking. And mathematics is also becoming part of this. For example, Michael Ruhlman has explored how certain ingredient ratios can allow one to be more creative while cooking. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that we can go further, and even use a bit of network science, when it comes to thinking about food. Yong-Yeol Ahn and his colleagues, in a recent paper titled Flavor network and the principles of food pairing, explored the components of cooking ingredients in different regional cuisines. Using recipes from such websites as Epicurious, the researchers examined more than 50,000 recipes.
Can I get a cappuccino with those dumplings? What the Chinese eat for breakfast. Unplug your toaster, finish that cup of coffee and leave those bacon cravings behind; you're in China now, where breakfast is like nothing you've tasted before.
There are dozens and dozens of breakfast combos in China that differ widely from each other depending on which part of the country you're travelling in, but they all seem to have three things in common: they're incredibly filling (no sugar-coated puffs of air here), fabulously fresh (often cooked in front of your eyes as soon as you order) and brilliantly cheap (if you pay more than US$1 for your breakfast in China, chances are you're being ripped off). So before you skulk on down to your hotel lobby to grab what's left of that disappointingly lukewarm morning buffet, check out this delectable bunch of proper Chinese breakfasts: Steamed dumplings (包子; bao zi) with porridge (粥; zhou) Dumplings, couscous porridge and vinegar dip. Photo by Daniel McCrohan. Fried dough sticks (油条; you tiao) with soy milk (豆浆; dou jiang) Soup and sesame.