I found what looked like a good recipe, and noted that I had to soak some cashews.  10 hours later, I took my newly soaked cashews and started assembling the cheesecake, only to realize that there was much more to this thing than soaking cashews.  Not only do those nuts need a bath, the almonds have to be soaked too, only they are only in for two hours.  The dates have to be soaked for 5-10 minutes.  The pureed almonds and cashews need to sit at room temperature for 10-12 hours.  The strawberries need to be frozen.  The crust needs to chill in the fridge, the cashews for the “whipped cream” need to be soaked for 10 hours, but they are supposed to be done soaking 10 hours after the cashews for the filling.  And when you have it finally assembled, it’s supposed to be frozen for 8 hours!

Gah! What onerous demands!  Let’s create a chart of the onerosity:

hour 0: put cashews in to soak, put strawberries in freezer
hour 8: put almonds in to soak
hour 10: blend up nuts, set filling aside, start soaking nuts for whipped cream, make crust and set in fridge
hour 20: start soaking dates, blend up filling, slice strawberries
hour 20:10: blend up whipped cream, make strawberry topping
hour 21: assemble cake. put in freezer
hour 28.75: make strawberry sauce
hour 29: serve, finally!

Needless to say, I didn’t have the patience for this the first time, and just processed everything up into a nice pudding concoction.  Delicious, but not quite what the recipe intended.  I’m started a second one this evening, trying to adhere more closely to the directions, but I still made some timing mistakes.  I could’ve really used that graph.

And the funny thing is, all these nuts and coconuts and organic california dates… they’re pretty darn expensive.  The homemade version is probably a tad cheaper than buying the stuff by the slice in the store… but not by much.  And what the heck am I going to do with a whole cheesecake?

And later…

“Growing up is hard.  Your parents blame you for dropping the dishes, or you come home late and you forget to feed your pet.  It’s a miracle we make it this far.  But the worst is over.  The worst is over.”

Encouraged by my mother, I’m trying to be a little more mindful of my nutritional needs, now that I’ve been some degree of vegan for coming up on a year. Unfortunately, it’s often hard to get credible answers about nutrition, which is a minefield of fluff science in both the vegetarian and meat camps.

So, I’ve been trying to read more peer-reviewed literature about nutrition. Here’s what I learned about zinc today.

What does dietary zinc do?

Zinc is important. Zinc deficiencies inhibit cell division (MacDonald, 2000), and neurotransmitter function (Huntington, 2002), and studies have shown that zinc lozenges speed recovery from flu. (Barton and Bertoli, 1997). Zinc deficiency can lead to hypergonadism, in which the testes or ovaries don’t produce enough hormone, can cause childbirth problems in women, immune system deficiencies, vision problems and many other diseases (Prasad, 2003).

However, there seems also to be evidence that zinc contributes in many ways to cancerous growth, and that men who take zinc supplements are at higher risk for prostate cancer (Leitzman et al, 2003), although smaller doses might be safe (Jarrard, 2005). And though adequate zinc benefits your immune system, excessive zinc supplements seem to lead to immune dysfunction (Chandra, 1984).

My verdict on zinc

I need to make sure I get enough, but there seems to be no need to go crazy about it. Small supplements are probably safe, but I can get enough without supplements, as long as I’m mindful about what I’m eating.

The recommended daily allowance of zinc is 9mg daily for females, and 11mg for males. According to the national academy of sciences, the most zinc you can take daily with no adverse health effects is about 40mg. (NIH, 2007)

Where do you get dietary zinc?

There’s a lot of zinc in oysters (16 mg per serving), and to a lesser extent in other meats (2-9mg). There’s zinc in most grains (1.3 mg in raisin bran) and beans (0.8 mg in kidney beans) too, but grains and legumes unfortunately also contain phylates which inhibit the absorption of Zinc and other minerals (and are an anti-oxidant, but that’s another story). What that all means is that meat-eaters seem to get most of their zinc from meat.

Luckily for vegans, there are phylate-free vegetable sources of zinc too. Pumpkin seeds have a very high concentration (2.1 mg per ounce), and zinc is also found in sunflower seeds (1.6 mg per ounce) and nuts, including cashews (1.6 mg per ounce), pecans, walnuts (1 mg per ounce), almonds, and peanuts. Most nuts and seeds, including tahini paste, seem to be in that range. A half cup of sprouted, raw peas has 0.6 mg of zinc. 150 g of raw broccoli has about the same. Carrots, peaches, and bananas have about half that per serving.

According to wikipedia, phytic acid is locked away in the hulls to beans and grains, and you have to cook them to get it out. So raw foodists might even be able to mix beans and grains with zinc sources with impunity. But this stuff is hazier, and I haven’t really done the research.

The USDA has a nice search engine for looking these things up.

My feeling is that if you’re eating mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, and sprouts you’re getting enough zinc. If you’re eating a lot of cooked grains and beans, you’re probably not. Vegans with diets high in those things should make sure they have snacks of high-zinc foods (nuts, seeds) in between meals, and probably should have one meal a day of mostly raw fruits, vegetables, sprouts and grains.

Sex differences

If you’ve got testicles and you’re ejaculating regularly, you need to get about 40% more dietary zinc than people who don’t or aren’t. Sperm is very rich in zinc. It’s sort of like the situation with iron, where women need more of it because they lose a bunch during menstruation.

I’m not going to point out that this hints at another source of dietary zinc, because my parents read this.

References

Barton JC, Bertoli LF (1997). Zinc gluconate lozenges for treating the common cold. Ann Intern Med 126 (9): 738-9. link

Chandra RK (1984) Excessive intake of zinc impairs immune responses. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1984 Sep 21; 252(11):1443-6. link

Huntington, C. E. , Shay, N. F., Grouzmann, E., Arseneau, L. M., and Beverly, J. L.(2002) Zinc Status Affects Neurotransmitter Activity in the Paraventricular Nucleus of Rats. Nutr., February 1, 2002; 132(2): 270 – 275. linkJarrard, D. F. (2005) Does Zinc Supplementation Increase the Risk of Prostate Cancer? Arch Ophthalmol, January 1, 2005; 123(1): 102-103. link

Leitzmann MF, Stampfer MJ, Wu K, Colditz GA, Willett WC, Giovannucci EL. Zinc supplement use and risk of prostate cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003;95:1004-1007. link

MacDonald RS (2000) The role of zinc in growth and cell proliferation. J Nutr. 2000 May;130(5S Suppl):1500S-8S. link

NIH (2007) Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Zinc. DHHS. NIH. Office of Dietary Supplements. Retrieved 9/16/07. http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/cc/zinc.html link

Prasad, AS (2003) Zinc deficiency: Has been known of for 40 years but ignored by global health organisations. BMJ. 2003 February 22; 326(7386): 409–410. link

Fruit
1/8 c sugar
1 t cinnamon
10 peaches, sliced

Crumb Topping
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1/4 c Earth Balance
2 t cinnamon

Cream the butter and the sugar for the batter. Add the other dry ingredients and mix well. Add the soy milk and mix lightly.

Combine the dry ingredients for the crumb topping. Add the butter and “cut” it into the dry mixture with two spoons, slicing the butter and stirring continuously until it forms a relatively even crumbly mess.

Set the oven to 375. Toss the fruit with the sugar and cinnamon. Grease a 9×13 glass casserole. Pour the batter into the casserole, add the fruit, and sprinkle with the crumb topping. Bake at 375 for 50 minutes.

Also, the dance scene in New Haven?  It is a little weird.  Seriously, stripper moves?

We made 20 different recipes of pancake, varying basic proportions, auditioning potential “secret” ingredients, and having a gay old time. Here are our findings, with the final recipe at the bottom. And yes, there were spreadsheets involved.

Oil vs. Earth Balance

We tried both, multiple times, and the difference was one of the most striking of the afternoon. Canola oil pancakes taste like crap, and Earth Balance pancakes are delicious. Don’t use canola oil, period. Other oils, like coconut, might work, but we didn’t try them. Let us know if you try something else and it works out.

Cutting the fat

Melting down your earth balance and mixing it into the dry ingredients provides a good flavor, but if you want a really amazing texture, just spoon the cold earth balance right into the dry stuff, and then “cut” it in. Traditionally, cutting fat into a flour mix is done with two knives, but we found that just squishing the earth into the flour worked great. Squish until you get a relatively homogeneous crumbly mixture.

It should be noted that you can make a pretty good pancake with no fat besides what is naturally in the banana and what you use to fry it. Not quite decadent, but certainly delicious.

Rising action

Recipes on the web vary wildly in the amount of baking powder they recommend, from less than a teaspoon per cup to up to two tablespoons (6 teaspoons) per cup. We found that for white flour, about one tablespoon of baking powder per cup of flour works well, yielding an extremely fluffy pancake with only a slight baking powder taste, which can be masked by other flavors.

A good fluffy pancake will actually visibly puff up when you flip it over, yielding a lovely dome shape like the one you see in the photo. Going down to two teaspoons per cup of flour yielded a soggier, denser pancake.

For whole wheat flour, we upped it to 4 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of flour. Whole wheat flour is less fluffy to begin with, so you might want to compensate.

We also tried using half baking powder, half baking soda, since we’d seen that on a few recipes, but that only seemed to create a nasty pretzel pancake thing. It certainly didn’t improve the leavening action.

The glue

Traditional pancakes have eggs, which not only provide protein, flavor and leavening (rising), they act as the glue that binds everything together. We found that the best way to achieve a great fluffy pancake that isn’t too crumbly was to add two teaspoons of mushed banana for every cup of flour, and if you’re using whole wheat flour, to add in an additional 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch (or any other starch) to provide additional binding. The banana taste is noticeable, but it works well with syrups and other fruits, and the texture is just great.

Egg replacers like Ener-G work too, but they are are basically just starch, baking powder, and flour. You’ve already got baking powder and flour in your pancake recipe, so all you’re really doing is adding some potato starch or something. We’re pretty sure in the case of pancakes, corn starch and Ener-G will be basically equivalent. That said, we didn’t spend the money on a huge box of the stuff just so we could try it out. Let us know if you do.

Wetness

The wetness of the batter makes a huge difference in the quality of the pancake. Too much liquid, and your pancake will be dense and thin. Too little liquid and the pancake will be thick and dry. You’ve got to be like Goldilocks and find the porridge that’s just right.

The correct amount of liquid seems to be about the same as the amount of flour. One cup flour, one cup water. However, you might need a little less if you are adding banana or applesauce. We recommend adding the liquid slowly, whilst stirring, and monitoring the consistency carefully. You want a batter that will spread out to a round puddle about 1/4″ thick. If you tip the bowl, such a batter will slide freely and quickly off the walls of the bowl, leaving a thin layer of batter behind, but there should be some batter that slides down the bottom of the wall more slowly.

Bananas and apple and yams, oh my!

As we mentioned above, we really like what bananas do for vegan pancakes, especially the whole wheat ones. But we also tried adding applesauce and mushed cooked yams (in both cases, 2 teaspoons per cup of flour). The applesauce pancakes were good, but you sort of lose that wheaty pancake taste. I’d rather have regular pancakes with a sweet, cinnamon apple topping.

The yam pancakes were very good. If you want a heartier, more filling pancake that’s still sweet and fluffy, this is the pancake for you. Just microwave, bake, or boil the yam until it is soft, and then mash it with a fork. After you’ve cut the earth balance into the dry ingredients, add the yam and knead it into a dry dough. Then add water slowly until you get the right batter consistency.

Got milk?

Many vegan pancake recipes suggest using soy milk or other alternative milks. We tried both soy and oat milk, and it didn’t seem to matter. Water was just as tasty. Unless you really want the 1/4 gram of protein, you might as well save your money and use water.

Salt ‘n Suga’

Added salt seems unnecessary. Baking powder is already a little salty. We did like the sweetness a little sugar imparts, especially in the whole wheat pancakes which are prone to blandness, but if you’re using a banana you can get away without using sugar.

The Recipe

Proto-Ultimate Vegan Pancakes

(Makes 12 eight-inch pancakes)

These are the result of strenuous testing, but we’re open to suggestions for improvement. Post a comment if you think you’ve got a variation that beats these.

• 3 cups flour (white works well, but half whole wheat, half barley is a delicious alternative)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 Tbsp baking powder
• 2 Tbsp corn starch (if using whole wheat flour)
• 1/4 cup Earth Balance, plus 1/8 cup for frying
• 1 banana, mashed
• 3 cups or less water

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add 1/4 cup cold Earth Balance, and cut it into the mixture using your fingers. When the mixture is uniformly crumbly, add the mashed banana and knead it in. Put a large, flat bottom skillet or griddle on medium-high heat. It’s hot enough when water dribbled on the pan sizzles. Add the water to the banana mix slowly, until the desired consistency is reached. (See “Wetness” above). For each pancake, put about 1/2 teaspoon of Earth Balance in the middle of the pan. When it has melted, pour 1/2 cup of batter slowly into the center of the Earth Balance puddle. When the bottom of the pancake is browned, but the top is still wet, flip it. When the other side is browned, which will take less time, remove it from the heat.

Serve immediately! Don’t stack pancakes in the oven, put them on a plate and tell someone to start eating. The crispy, fluffy texture is best fresh off the griddle.

Variations: Substitute cooked, mashed yam for the banana. Make sure you incorporate the yam with the flour well before adding liquid. Or, add applesauce, cinnamon, and nutmeg for an apple pie taste.

Open Questions

Even after an afternoon of pancakery, there are still some things we didn’t get to test; some questions left unanswered. Like, since most baking powder is double-acting, would it make sense to let the batter sit and froth up, and then gently ladle it onto the pan for a second rise? If we did that, could we get away with less baking powder? And, my mom informed me last night that baking powder needs an acidic environment to react. Should we try adding some lemon juice or vinegar with the baking powder? And what about that no-fat-inside pancake? Was it really that good? What would vanilla add to the flavor, and exactly what happens when you cook a pancake on lower heat for longer? What about the liquid/flour proportions? Do you really need to eyeball it every time you make the batter, or can we construct a recipe that Just. Works. Every. Time? Katt says corn oil tastes great… what other oils work well, and how do they stand up to venerable Earth Balance?

Lots of questions. Perhaps a second edition of pancake VTK is needed.

For dessert: three juicy red organic strawberries grown 45 minutes north of San Diego.

Thinking: balance is not something you wait for, it’s something you can allow into yourself at any moment.

Dinner coop at my place yesterday. I made Tabouleh and homemade hummus, and got fresh olive bread from Bread & Cie and a moderately fancy California-grown olive oil from Whole Foods. The bread at B&C is so good. I don’t know why I don’t go there every day. It’s a block away, I am an idiot.

And Marisa made hummus with my leftover ingredients when she arrived, so there were TWO hummuses. Her secret ingredient is turmeric, mine is fresh ground toasted cumin seeds. TWO hummuses. So decadent.

I think things really came together. I got lots of nice compliments, and everyone seemed full but not stuffed. As long as you don’t go overboard on oil, and you serve with romaine lettuce for wrapping in, tabouleh and hummus can be a really wonderfully light yet filling meal. And it’s cold, so it’s the perfect choice for summer.

I got really mushy after the meal and started talking about how inspired I was by Nina Simone’s song Isn’t It A Pity, and how there’s so much love around us that we don’t even see. Everyone was being really sweet to me. It was a nice change from the anxiety that’s been the backdrop for the last week or so.

One of Emilie’s creations. Is this even legal in the state of Massachussettes?

Her post from Monday, Simple Pleasures and Guilt, really resonated with my recent food experiences. She talks about reconciling her punk ethos with her passion for, if I may use the term “the finer things.” It got me thinking about my ethics and how they interact with my diet.

We’ve got all these choices, right? We choose vegan. We choose Arkansas Black apples and Lindt chocolate. We choose saffron.

But most Americans aren’t even at liberty to choose vegetarian because they don’t have any cultural support for that choice. You can’t become vegetarian without a big chunk of knowledge, a decent amount of free time, and a healthy helping of confidence or social support. Many American’s don’t have time to spend with their children, let alone time to spend making seitan from scratch.

And so I’m starting to think that when I’m choosing between squash gnocchi and provencal tomatoes stuffed with herbed rice, maybe there’s a third choice, which is choosing to devote my energy to giving some of these choices to people who don’t have them.

But I’m not entirely sure what that means. I’ve been thinking about trying to implement dinner coop in such a way that it can benefit people with fewer resources, instead of just us rich college kids. And in my dietary changes, I’m always thinking “how can I make this cheaper?” and “how can I make this easier?” with the hope that maybe someday I can write a book that will help people eat healthier and more ethically, even if they have no money and no time.

And this mirrors my experiences as a feminist man. I can choose to go for a run alone after midnight. I can choose to look disheveled every day. I can choose to be outspoken without fearing that I’ll lose respect. I can choose to be sexualized, and I can choose not to be. And in many scenarios, many women don’t have those choices.

Does that create an obligation? I kind of feel like it does.