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Monday, March 10, 2014

Recipe: Cilantro Garlic Rutabaga Chips

Finding healthy ways to eat isn't hard. Finding healthy ways to eat that still including really enjoying your food can be tougher for some people. The recipes I provide here try to give you truly healthy eating that also tastes good. While tasting good is key, sometimes how a food eats is just as important. We Americans have a need for crunching things, and those things can't always be raw veggies for most people. The good news is, there are lots of ways to solve that need and still be healthy. Case in point, Garlic Cilantro Rutabaga Chips.

FYI - if you would prefer this in video form, I did an episode of my podcast on rutabaga chips, so check it out on YouTube or subscribe to the iTunes podcast.

ingredients

1-2 medium rutabagas
1 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon sea salt
1/2 table spoon turmeric
1/2 table spoon paprika

cooking for life

So what is a rutabaga, first of all. It's a cross between a turnip and cabbage, and is a root vegetable. It doesn't have too strong of a flavor, which makes it ideal for chip making. Select medium-sized rutabagas with a firm feel to them. Some have purple on the outsides and some don't - don't worry too much about that.

Before we deal with the root itself, let's make the seasoned oil so it gets a chance to really take on the flavors we are going to add. This batch is a cilantro and garlic rutabaga chip (with sea salt, turmeric and paprika), but you can really season them however you want. I've done them similarly but with dill instead of cilantro. You can put in sea salt and cayenne for a spicier chip. You could make curry chips. You could just do salt and oil. It's really up to you and what you enjoy. The key is to keep them healthy, so stay away from sugars (any kind of sugar, e.g. honey, maple syrup) or heavy sauces that likely hide a ton of sugar (e.g. BBQ sauce). The idea is to get the flavor profile with the spices themselves instead of a sauce with spices in it. Most herbs and spices have health benefits (like turmeric for anti-inflammatory benefits, cayenne for metabolic and anti-inflammatory benefits, ginger for digestion, Ceylon cinnamon for sugar regulation, etc). We're also going to use garlic, which is very healthful and good for your gut along with cilantro, which helps the body detox from things like heavy metals (which most people have too much of in their system in today's world).

Start by washing your cilantro, and then separating the stems and leaves. We're primarily going to use the leaves, but the stems pack a lot of flavor, so I have a trick use for them before throwing them out. Be sure to pat the cilantro dry before picking the leaves off or your job will be much harder and your seasoning will not mix well when you add the oil.

Oil and seasoning coming together

How much Cilantro to use is up to you - you can't really overdo it, but I suppose if you don't like cilantro (I know a few people who don't care for it), then you wouldn't want to use much (or use something else, like dill). Set the leaves aside for a moment. Take the stems into a bunch, and crack them in a few places to open them up. Get a large bowl, put the stems in, and pour oil over them. What kind of oil is largely up to you, but make a healthy choice. Use olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, coconut oil or sesame oil. Stay away from canola and vegetable oil. You don't need a ton of oil - it needs to be enough to coat the chips. Usually a quarter to half cup is sufficient. Add to this mashed up garlic (use a garlic press, or crush and mince it). I typically use 3-4 large cloves. Again, feel free to adjust this up or down to your taste. Same goes for the spices. I added about a table spoon of salt, and a half table spoon of paprika and turmeric. Use the cilantro stems to stir it all up, taking care not to mix the stems in. We need to pull them out soon, so don't make that job harder on yourself.

Chop up the cilantro leaves, and mix about 3/4 of them into the oil. Again, stir things up. Let that oil sit for an hour or so to really take on the flavors. It's not mandatory, but the longer it sits, the more flavorful it will be.

Now back to the root of the issue. You can't misspell rutabaga without root. OK, that wasn't funny. Use a peeler to take off the outer layer of the rutabaga. Now you have to make chips, which you can do a couple of ways. You can use the peeler and just peel right across the rutabaga. That will make consistent but thing chips. You can use a mandolin (a board with a blade you can adjust the depth of to make consistent slices) set to either 1/16" or 1/8", depending on how thin and crispy you want your chips. If you use 1/16", be more vigilant while cooking the chips as they'll cook faster and can go from undercooked to burnt very rapidly. As a note, you can peel or slice your chips right into the seasoning bowl, but if you do, pull out the cilantro stems before. If you make the chips elsewhere, pull out the stems before adding the chips in.

Next, combine the chips into the oil and seasoning mixture, and work them together with your hands. OK, before doing that, wash your hands. Wait, go back to the whole beginning and wash your hands. OK, now wash them again before mixing things up. Good work. Now the key is to make sure that each chip is oiled/seasoned on both sides. Be mindful of chips being stuck together. Once you work everything through nicely, set the bowl aside for an hour if you have the time. Again, this isn't super necessary, but the longer they sit, the more flavorful they'll be. I just made a batch of these with dill and let them sit for about 8 hours before cooking them, and they were out of this world.

Now, get the oil off your hands. Stop for a moment and appreciate how nice your hands feel. Wait, you have a piece of cilantro stuck to one of your fingers. Got it? Good.

Chips arranged on a baking sheet, ready for the oven.

Now we have to set the chips up for baking. Preheat your oven to 350˙F and get out of baking sheet. Line it with parchment paper (I find this works better than aluminum foil as it lets the oil pull away from the chips rather than making them sit in a pool of oil, which leads to less crispiness and heavier chips that aren't as healthy for you. There also a benefit to reducing your exposure to heavy metals, so it's win-win.).

Try to avoid overlapping chips or piling chips on top of chips. If you do, you'll get softer, soggier chips. this might mean you need two trays. So be it. If you have a wire rack you can bake on, you can use that, too, but be sure there's something under it to catch oil drippings, and make sure you can easily clean it (i.e. don't just use the oven's rack - and if you tried, you'd get all burned from trying to lay the chips on it when the oven is heated up). Now is also the time to use any remaining cilantro to sprinkle some fresher (i.e. less oily) cilantro on the chips (as in this photo). This is optional, of course.

Done. Some more so than others.
Be sure to rotate the trays to help avoid this

Once the over is at 350, pop the sheets in. At 10 minutes, turn the trays around. If you have two trays on different levels, also flip which is on top and which is on the bottom level. The key is to help the chips cook evenly. If you have a convection oven, that can be helpful here.

If you made chips using your peeler or cut to 1/16" with something like a mandolin, keep an eye on them every minute after 10 minutes. If you cut them a little thicker, start your checks at minute 15. For 1/8", I typically find them to be done around 18 minutes. For 1/16", it's usually more like 14 minutes.

Nice, crisp chip

That's it. They're done. Let them cool for a minute or two (you can eat them warm or cool). I don't recommend treating these like store-bought chips that will keep for a few days. Eat them the day you make them. You won't have a problem doing that. They're really good, and you will likely be more concerned with wether you got enough and if it's ok to lick the parchment paper. No, it isn't.

These healthy chips are one way to deliver on the clean14 challenge if you have vowed to cut out junk food from your diet.

Recipes like this really show how you can eat fun and tasty food while you enlighten.your.body.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Lessons from my 1st Interview

So I recently got to interview a very inspirational guy, Dai Manuel, for my podcast and YouTube channel. It was a great experience with some really awesome discussion - no surprise given my subject. In addition to all the great content, I learned a ton since this was my first web-based interview, so I thought I'd share what I've learned.

the setup
I used Skype to do the interview, and a piece of software called "Call Recorder for Skype" from ecamm Networks that lets me record the video chat and split the two halves into their own movie files. It's a very cool feature. This allowed me to let each side of the conversation be focused on, rather than having the screen split. It also allowed me to be off camera while Dai was talking so I didn't have to worry about how I looked. I don't mean whether I looked good or not, but if I had to move out of the shot for some logistical reason or something like that. It just allows the viewer to focus on the speaker more than a distracting side image.

I used a 13" Retina MacBook Pro with a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, and for audio, I used the built in mic and speakers. I was connected over WiFi, but would have preferred a hard wire. I had also run an extension chord and power strip to be sure I wasn't on battery power. Stupidly, I turned the power strip off about 10 minutes before the call without thinking as I'm big on saving electricity. That strip also powers my treadmill, but was off, so I figured, "Hey, let's save the planet." It's a habit. See how it may have mattered in the quality section.

Dai was on his iPhone, and had the Apple headset plugged in for his audio.

I also had my Canon Vixia camera running on the side, focused on the screen as a backup just in case.

quality
Having shut off the power to my laptop, the processing power was throttled back. This ended up mattering in how well the recording was keeping up with the video chat (mainly the frame rate). If you watch the video, you'll see some periods where there's jagged movement. The call also dropped twice, which could have been my WiFi, the load on my computer from doing an HD recording.

Audio was interesting. Dai's voice was very loud because he was using a headset, while mine was pretty soft. I had to adjust the audio tracks for both of us to compensate for this. Also, because I was using my built in speakers and mic, my audio track included a low-fidelity capture of Dai's voice (what my mic picked up through my speakers). As much as I don't want to use a headset, I will think about it strongly next time to avoid this. It wasn't a huge problem overall, but there are moments where we're talking simultaneously, or where the way I've edited things makes it awkward (he says something, then I pull my video/audio in to ask the next question, and you hear the end of something you just heard him saying). An alternative would be to use a dedicated mic, and shield it a bit so it picks up less audio from my computer.

I do think the audio from the headset - while certainly loud enough - was not as clear as I'd like. It could just be the Skype connection, but I'm guessing it was also the headset itself. It's an OK mic, but not amazing.

running the show
I didn't establish rules for the interview. That is, I didn't act as a director. Dai had a lot of great things to share, and I didn't want to cut him off. I had sent him the questions just before the interview, so he was naturally covering the material I was hoping to get into. I didn't realize it at the time, but this lead to really long cuts of Dai talking, and less of an interview. I'm overall fine with this as I think the material is great, but it taught me a lesson for next time in case the material isn't flowing as well or the interview is going way off topic - I should have established a gesture or something to insert myself so I could keep the interview to my intended topics and questions.

I lucked out here, and think the others I've reached out to for interviews will also be fine, but as I say many times, luck is not a strategy.

split personalities
The split video files were really cool, and I definitely liked this approach better for such a long interview (31 minutes) than having both of us sharing the screen. With the audio issue I mentioned above, I don't think it would have worked to have it all simultaneous since everything Dai said would come with the version my mic picked up layered over it. While you don't have to split the video (you get a combined file, and then have drag-and-drop filters you plop the file on to create the split versions), you have to say you want this upfront as the output file is different (it's essentially a 32:9 file made of two 16:9 images side by side versus creating a single 16:9 image that's split between an 8:9 of me and 8:9 of Dai). That means I couldn't really opt to go back to a side by side. So I was committed to it.

Luckily, ecamm built in a droplet to split out audio sides separately from video sides (you can get both together, or separately). There are times when I wanted to clean up the audio tracks a bit, and needed them separated from the video. These filters alone made Call Recorder worth the price (it was $29.99).

The downside to this approach is that I ended up with lots of back and forth between us. I could just cut back and forth, but it felt too choppy, so I used transitions. Every time I use a transition, I'm reminded of a Simpsons episode where Homer makes a dating video of Ned Flanders using a kid's video editing board Lisa has. He uses a star-wipe effect between each cut scene, and Lisa warns him that it's too much. He pushes back, insisting you can never have too much star wiping. Lisa was right, but the video is hilarious. Anyway, that always makes me concerned I've overdone it with the jazzy transitions. I scaled back to really simple fades most of the time as the novelty wore off and I ended up almost feeling nauseous from all the cubed-wiping and card flipping going on as Dai and I went back and forth.

editing takes time...lots of time
I spent two days editing the 31 minute final product. Part of that was time I lost because of a computer problem, but a lot of it was nitpicking trimming clips, aligning audio, and trying to get nearly 50 minutes of content down without losing the point. I honestly wouldn't have cut anything, but it was too long for most viewers. So if I was going to cut, it had to be well done and the essence of everything Dai was saying had to be intact.

in the end...
I think the content is what made the interview solid. Dai's an amazing guy, and really gave of himself in a very real way in the interview, and you can't help but be inspired coming out of it. I was inspired myself by his words, and also by what I'd do differently next time. In summary:

make sure my laptop is plugged in, and all other programs are quit
establish rules of engagement so I can be the director and get the interview I'm looking for
find a better way to capture audio on both ends (in case the next person uses a setup like I had), or ensure we don't talk over each other
make sure I have solid editing time blocked out
make sure your interviewee is willing to help promote the video and earn the right to check in to make sure they do

I had a great time doing the interview, and really enjoyed watching the finished product with my wife. Creating inspiring content for others is another way to enlighten.your.body.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Podcast Episode 009 - enlighten.interview: Dai Manuel

The first interview from newbodi.es, we are honored to bring you the inspirational and motivational Dai Manuel, COO of Fitness Town and one of the top health and fitness bloggers in the world. Dai has a similar story to mine with a background as an overweight teen, then changing his life and working to change the lives of others.