Every year scientists are given huge amounts of money by the larger corporations to find ways in which junk food can be turned into healthier junk food.  The corporations have no option because the junk they created is destroying health to such a massive extent that the economy is paying for it in ways that nobody ever would have imagined. Since this food has an almost cult like following and many families actually live on the stuff, action had to be taken before some clever lawyer discovers a new reason to institute a class action that could potentially destroy big business or, at least, let it haemorrhage badly.

I think it’s a terrible waste of time for our precious scientists but that’s just how it is – and so the scientists have now found they a way to enrich a perfectly good and healthy product. In today’s edition of the Science Daily, I read the following: Supplementing spaghetti with unripe banana flour may be a healthy addition since banana flour contains antioxidants and fibre, according to a study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists. Fibre-rich unripe banana flour contains resistant starch, a type of fibre that may aid in managing weight and type 2 diabetes. “As consumers are unlikely to eat sufficient amounts of vegetables and other fibre-rich foods directly, the supplementation of pasta with unripe banana flour can play an important role in achieving health benefits,” says Edith Agama-Acevedo, lead researcher at the Centro de Desarrollo de Productos Bióticos del IPN in Mexico. Banana flour was added to pasta in the study because pasta is considered a product with a low glycemic index, a rating that measures the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Low glycemic responses are thought to be favorable to health because of possible prevention of heart disease and metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes. Researchers served spaghetti made from semolina and a semolina/banana flour blend to 200 Mexican consumers. “The preference of the banana flour-added spaghetti and the control was similar,” says Agama-Acevedo. “The addition of tomato sauce increased the acceptability of the banana flour spaghetti. The spaghetti added with 30 and 45 percent of banana flour had higher acceptability than its control.” Then they found a way to make existing snacks like cookies and tortillas healthier and we read in an older edition of the same journal that a  Kansas State University researcher is experimented with ways to add fibre to the foods we love without changing what we like about our favourite snacks. Two years ago, Sajid Alav, an assistant professor of grain science and industry at K-State’s College of Agriculture, whose expertise lay in extrusion processing, researched how the  process could  be used to make fibre-enriched flour taste like the kind used in most cookies and tortillas so that manufacturers could make a more healthful snacking alternative that consumers would  want to eat.  It was difficult because, as he said “The more fibre you add, the more the dough quality deteriorates,” …..   “the snackers reported liking cookies and tortillas made with enriched bran, whether precooked or not. However, the precooked flour did have an increased level of soluble dietary fibre — the kind the body can absorb readily. And then they even found a way to turn a perfectly healthy food into snacks because the world won’t eat food in it’s natural form anymore and at the end of 2007, food technologists were given the task of turning chick peas (garbanzo beans), lentils, dried peas and beans into    crunchy, great-tasting snacks that are also good for you….. according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their university colleagues ……….. created the unique, healthful treats that can come in a variety of shapes, from crisp bits to tubular puffs. Researcher Jose De J. Berrios of ARS’ Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif. and Juming Tang and Barry Swanson at Washington State University in Pullman are seeking a patent for the technology that led to the low-sodium, low-fat, cholesterol-free foods……. rich in protein and dietary fibre ………  some of the pre-market products have already been taste-tested by about 500 volunteers—most of whom gave the foods an enthusiastic “thumb’s up.” One snack made of crisp, fully-cooked garbanzos is ready to eat out-of-hand or could be tossed with a salad of leafy greens, sprinkled on a bowl of hearty soup, or added to traditional party mixes. Need I say more? We have, instead, found a much nicer way to use a banana with fish that swims in the sea and hasn’t yet been endangered by human greed and short sightedness.

FRESH BARRACUDA STEAKS AND GREEN BANANA CURRY

Ingredients

Fish

• 2 x 150 g fresh swordfish steaks
• ½  tsp cayenne pepper
• ½  tsp ground roasted chilli
• 1 tsp hot smoked Spanish paprika
• 1 tsp red curry paste
• 1 tsp fresh oregano, finely chopped
• Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp light virgin olive oil

Curry

• 4 green bananas, de-skinned, cubed and soaked in cold salted water
• 30g finely diced leek
• 1 lemon, grated zest only
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp red curry paste
• 12 cardamom pods, split and seeds removed
• 1 tsp black sesame seeds
• 1 tsp yellow mustards seeds
• 250 ml coconut milk
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oi
• 55 ml white wine
• 150 ml vegetable stock
• Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pak Choi

• 2 tsp extra virgin oil
• ½ red bird’s-eye chilli, finely chopped
• ½ garlic clove, finely chopped
• 2 portions green beans, topped and tailed

Rice

• 85g  basmati rice
• 3-4 cardamom pods, split seeds removed

Method

• Preheat the oven to 220 C.
• Place the rice in a medium pot with the cardamom pods and pour over enough boiled water to cover the rice by 2.5cm, cover with a lid and simmer until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is cooked through.
• Mix all the fish spices in a shallow bowl that will fit both steaks and oil, then press the top side  of the fish steak into the spices and set aside.
• Place an ovenproof frying pan over a high heat and at the same time, in another, medium sauté pan, heat the oil for the curry.
• Sauté the leek for 2 minutes or until softened.
• Fry the spiced swordfish, spice side down in the preheated dry pan for 2 minutes to form a crust and then turn the fish over and transfer to the oven for a further 6-7 minutes or until just cooked through.
• Stir the cayenne pepper, curry paste, cardamom seeds, sesame seeds, mustard seeds and turmeric into the leeks for 30 seconds and then add the bananas, the lemon zest, the lemon juice and the wine and simmer so that all the alcohol can evaporate off.
• Pour in the vegetable stock and coconut cream and simmer gently until reduced by one-third.
• Heat the oil for the green beans in a small sauté pan and then sauté the chilli for 30 seconds, stirring in the garlic and adding the green beans to cook for about 6 minutes.
• Remove the fish from the oven and serve the blackened swordfish steaks, blackened side down because it’s easier to slice with the banana curry,  the rice and pak choi to the side and in separate bowls.