Wash and Eat…

I am an advocate of washing my hands and food before I cook to help reduce opportunities for bacteria to infect my friends and family. But I do not wash everything in my kitchen. Here is a list of what I do to keep everyone safe.

Canned or Jarred Beans: I rinse all beans coming from a container as I want all the sodium, preservatives, and any metal tasting liquid away from my food. I just dump the can contents into a sieve and place it under running water until I am left with just the individual beans.

Raw beans: I will wash raw beans too, after I put them on a baking sheet and look through the beans for pebbles (a habit I picked up in college after a bad “hard rock” experience). I put them in a sieve and run cold water over them. Then I put the rinsed beans in a pot of cool water to soak overnight.

All Canned food: In general, I only have canned beans and jarred condiments at my house (and a couple of tubes), but all cans and jars are wiped with a wet cloth before I use them. Others in my house, who drink from aluminum cans should wipe those too before drinking. My reasoning is that you never know where those tops have been or what they have picked up (almost sounds like I am talking about a person, right?).

Veggies: I wash nearly all veggies, even when I know they are going to be peeled. I wash them because I may use the peels for a broth or another dish.

• I have a reserved veggie brush just for cleaning dirty hard veggies like carrots, yams, and potatoes.
• Some veggies, like leeks, I have to wash twice to get all the dirt. First, I wash the outside, remove the tips of the dark green part and peel off any older outer layers. Second, I cut it in half lengthwise, with the root still attached, and wash the insides.
• Celery will sometimes have dirt down by the root as well and you may not notice till you start cutting.
• The only veggies I habitually wash and peel are, for example: hairy carrots, veggies being used to make mashed foods (potatoes, celeriac, parsnips, etc), beets, white asparagus, yams and sweet potatoes, broccoli stems, and rutabaga.
• Ready to Eat or Pre-washed Bagged veggies do not need to be washed according to the FDA.
• Hard veggies like squash I never wash ahead of using them as they have a protective waxy outer layer that helps to keep them longer.

Mushrooms: I do not wash mushrooms, just brush them with a dry paper towel to get the grit off. There are pros and cons on this, but I find washing them makes them gummy, and terrible to cook. I lightly brush off any gunk I see and trust the cooking heat to kill anything I cannot see.

Spices: I have never washed whole spices like ginger, turmeric, galangal, horseradish root, etc. I peel turmeric, horseradish and sometimes ginger. (Galangal I can barely cut into coins so do not even try to peel them.) I am not sure if these things need to be washed. I will have to ask someone about that as I could not find anything regarding these items. I have a feeling that I should be washing these items as well.

Herbs: I wash the heartier herbs, but softer ones (like basil) I tend to just brush off because I have damaged basil. When damaged it starts to blacken so I am very gentle. (I will talk to my basil and treat it gently, so that it provides all its wonderful flavor and not die on me. Seriously, basil and I go way back.) I will rinse herbs, then soak them a bit in a bowl and swish them around with my fingers, let them settle so dirt falls to the bottom of the bowl. Then scoop out the herbs, rinse again and use a salad spinner or leave them out to air dry.

Seeds, Nuts and Grains Soaking: Nuts, seeds, and grains contain inhibitors (like armor) to protect them and prevent germination until the conditions are perfect. … [h]owever, when these foods are ingested, their protective agents act as enzyme inhibitors in our bodies compromising our digestion and health. Whole grains also contain other anti-nutrients such as phytates) that can inhibit our absorption of minerals such as iron, calcium, copper, zinc, and magnesium. Soaking nuts, seeds, and grains (getting them moist) essentially replicates the perfect moist conditions required for germination and neutralizes these anti-nutrients and enzyme inhibitors to make them more digestible.

• Shelled Nuts: Shelled nuts I never wash, just crack and eat.
• Spiced Nuts: I do not soak any unshelled, already spiced nuts.
• Raw Nuts: However I do soak raw nuts as some people react to the phytic acid.
• Raw Cashews: I have soaked raw cashews in water for an hour when I am going to use them in a pesto. I soak the nuts with a pinch of salt and squeeze of citrus juice just to soften them up, and generally will rinse them after soaking. Then I use them right away so do not spend time drying them. Keep in mind when I use the term “raw” cashews, I do not mean really raw (that would be dangerous). Store bought Raw Cashews are not really sold raw, they are actually steamed already.
• Seeds: Normally I do not wash seeds except those we use as a grain such as rice, quinoa and millet. They can have grit, bugs, and stones just like grain, and can be bitter, so they get rinsed and sometimes soaked. (By the way I also freeze quinoa I first bring home because I have had insects and worms hatch in them if I do not use them right away. I freeze as a way to kill any eggs that may remain in the pile of seeds.)
• Grains: Grains will sometimes have stones, grit and sometimes bugs in them so rinsing is a good idea. Grains also have phytic acid so washing or soaking them helps remove this item for those who are sensitive.
• Flat and cut oats I do not currently wash as they have been processed so much I think they would be clean enough.

Rice: I rinse rice under running water using a sieve. I keep rinsing until the water is not cloudy. Mainly because if I use imported rice I do not know what has been added. (At one time I heard some countries used talc to whiten up the rice. Not sure if this is still the case.) I tend to mainly eat organic California-grown rice, except when making very special Japanese foods. I still look through the rice for anything that does not belong there, like stones or bugs. Plus, I do soak my rice ~20min before I cook it.

Fruits: We know we need to wash the fruits where we eat their skin such as: apples, pears, apricots, plums, grapes, etc. We know we need to wash citrus, since we use the skins and zest as flavor enhancers in other foods. And recently we learned we need to wash items we cut like avocado, watermelon, bananas, etc. What I do is wash them before I eat them, I do not wash right away once we bring them home.

I have never washed dried fruits, but recently read that if you buy in the bulk section you might want to wash them as you do not know how it was all handled (or how clean those hands were). I cannot imagine washing dried fruits, jerky, or whatever. But it is true, I do not know how bulk dried food is handled.

Meats: What I do depends in part on the food I am using.

• Fish: I do not rinse fish, just pat dry.
• Fowl: I do not rinse chicken, turkey or duck, unless they have been sitting in a brine. Then I do rinse to get the extra salt off.
• Eggs: The USDA reports there is no need to wash eggs before cracking them, but that is not the case in all parts of the world.
• Shellfish: I have not cooked shellfish in a while, but did wash them when I lived in Washington state; especially the ugly (slightly porno) looking but delicious gooey duck. I first would rinse under running water, brushing them to get all the obvious sand and grit off. Then I soaked them in salted water ~45 minutes. Once done soaking. I used a spider utensil to get all the clams and such out of the water, then dumped the water and grit. Then I would rinse again. Cleaning shellfish is important and hard work.

Pasta: Do not wash pasta!! (Who would do this? The starch of the pasta is the whole point! Where is the “comfy” in comfy food if not in the starch?)

So, are you on board with what I have written? Do you do something other than what is suggested here? Let me know. Would love to hear your thoughts on these ideas.

–Patty

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NEWS: Irish Times We already know that pollinators are critical to the global food chain and humans seem determined to help them die out. Bee keepers in parts of the world, like Ireland, are calling for a world ban on pesticides that kill bees. We must acknowledge that our actions – including farming practices, urbanisation, land management, environmental pollution and the climate crisis – have placed our insect world in acute danger.

Recipes: Quinoa Veggie Cashew Bowl, and French Socca Flatbread, and finally Puff Pastry Apple Tarts.

News: June 2019 One thing people, with limited time, buy are jarred spaghetti sauce. Ragu is having a massive recall due to concerns of plastic fragments in the sauce. The sauces affected were produced June 4 through June 8. The report is that the company believes most of those jars are still in its control, but some were shipped to stores, but there was no listing of where in the USA this occured.