The Olive Oil Hunter, Author at Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil

Olive Oil Hunter #198

Posted on January 3, 2025January 9, 2025 by The Olive Oil Hunter

Mascarpone Mousse Recipe, Spotlight on Passionfruit, Chill Your Beaters, Sip Away Stress with Cocoa, and A Heart Threat Even for Active People

Whether you’re indulging à deux or hosting a large New Year’s Eve get-together, you’ll love this creamy mousse recipe with a passionfruit sauce drizzle. If you’re also looking to get a jump on healthful New Year’s resolutions, two research findings fit the bill: how to tap into the benefits of flavanol-rich drinks, and how to find motivation to sit less and stand more in 2025—both of which benefit the heart.

Mascarpone Mousse

Mascarpone Mousse
This is a melt-in-your-mouth mousse made without eggs. I love it topped with fresh passionfruit pulp, but since fresh fruits can be hard to find, I’ve included a rich sauce recipe that you can make with frozen pulp (with seeds) or purée (without seeds). Both the mousse and the sauce can be made early in the day or even the day before the big event.
Ingredients

For the mousse:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 8 ounces mascarpone at room temperature
- 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
For the sauce:
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 14 ounces frozen passionfruit, defrosted
- 2 large eggs plus 2 yolks
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Optional: fresh berries
Directions

Step 1

To make the mousse, whip the cream until very firm, then whip in the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Step 2

To make the sauce, in a medium saucepan, whisk together the cornstarch and sugar, then whisk in the passionfruit, eggs, and yolks. Place the pan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat and cook at a low boil for 2 minutes; it should be thick.

Step 3

Off the heat, whisk in the olive oil, then let the sauce cool. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Step 4

To assemble, mound equal amounts of mousse in 6 elegant stemware glasses and top with spoonfuls of sauce and fresh berries, if desired.
Yields 6 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Passionfruit

This exotic citrus fruit, a favorite of pastry chefs, is truly unique. Oval-shaped and with a hard deep purple or bright yellow shell (it’s about the size of a lemon), it has an edible inside that is a fairly runny gel of yellow pulp and crunchy black seeds—sweet and tangy at the same time. Passionfruit has vitamin C plus some vitamin A, and small amounts of iron, potassium, and fiber. It is originally from South America, although some varieties thrive in southern California and central Florida.

A passionfruit should feel full and weighty in your hand. Some people wait just until the shell starts to wrinkle as a sign of ripeness, but as long as the fruit is not green, you can enjoy it soon after purchase. Aficionados love to simply scoop it out and eat it with a spoon as is (rinse the fruit first, then cut in half on a plate or over a bowl to catch every drop). It’s also delicious when folded into yogurt, frozen into sorbet, and turned into sauces and creamy desserts.

Fresh passionfruit pulp can be frozen for future use in ice cube trays; once frozen, pop the cubes into a freezer-safe container. In the offseason, look for the Goya brand of frozen pulp in the freezer case. There are also some companies that sell pouches of purée on Amazon—choose 100% fruit, no sugar added.

Quick Kitchen Nugget

Chill Your Beaters

It takes a moment of forethought, but to get the best results when whipping cream, make sure everything is cold—your beaters, your metal mixing bowl, and the cream itself. Pop the beaters and bowl in the fridge for 20 minutes or in the freezer for 10 before getting started.

For Your Best Health

Sip Away Your Stress

A new study from researchers at the University of Birmingham in the UK, published in the journal Food and Function,has followed up on their earlier work that showed food choices made during periods of stress can influence the effect of stress on cardiovascular health: high-fat foods can negatively affect vascular function and oxygen delivery to the brain, while foods high in flavanol compounds, like cocoa and green tea, can protect vascular function during periods of everyday stress.

Their latest research found that drinking cocoa high in flavanols in combination with a fatty meal can counteract some of the impact of the fatty food and protect the vascular system from stress. Rosalind Baynham, PhD, research fellow in sport, exercise, and rehabilitation sciences at Birmingham and first author on the paper, explained, “Flavanols are a type of compound that occurs in different fruits, vegetables, tea, and nuts, including berries and unprocessed cocoa. Flavanols are known to have health benefits, particularly for regulating blood pressure and protecting cardiovascular health.” Recent guidelines for flavanol intake recommend between 400 and 600 mg a day—about two cups of black or green tea or a combination of berries, apples, and high-quality cocoa.

Participants in the new study were given a breakfast of two butter croissants with 10 grams (about 2 teaspoons) salted butter, 1.5 slices of cheddar cheese, and 250 mL (about 1 cup) whole milk and either a high-flavanol or a low-flavanol cocoa drink. The cocoa drinks were both made from 12 grams cocoa powder and 250 mL whole milk, but the low-flavanol cocoa was alkalized to reduce total flavanols to 5.6 mg per serving while the high-flavanol cocoa was a non-alkalized powder, delivering 695 mg per serving. (Alkalization is a process typically used in chocolate making to enhance flavor, but it also reduces the flavanol content.)

Following an 8-minute rest period, participants completed an 8-minute mental math test with questions coming at progressively increased speed and with alerts when an answer was wrong—a stress-inducing exercise that leads to significant increases in heart rate and blood pressure, similar to the stress someone might encounter in everyday life. During both the rest and test periods, researchers took a variety of measurements including forearm blood flow, cardiovascular activity, prefrontal cortex tissue oxygenation, and vascular function using brachial flow-mediated dilatation, a prognostic measure for future risk of cardiovascular disease.

The researchers found that consuming fatty foods with the low-flavanol drink when mentally stressed resulted in reduced vascular function that lasted up to 90 minutes after the stressful event was over. The cocoa drink high in flavanols, by contrast, was effective at preventing the decline in vascular function following stress and fat consumption. Also, brachial flow-mediated dilatation was significantly higher in the high-flavanol group than in the low-flavanol at both 30 and 90 minutes after the math test.

“This research shows that drinking or eating a food high in flavanols can be used as a strategy to mitigate some of the impact of poorer food choices on the vascular system. This can help us make more informed decisions about what we eat and drink during stressful periods,” said Catarina Rendeiro, PhD, assistant professor in nutritional sciences at Birmingham.

Jet Veldhuijzen van Zanten, PhD, professor of biological psychology at Birmingham and a co-author of the paper, added, “Modern life is stressful, and the impact of stress on our health and the economy has been well documented, so any change we can make to protect ourselves from some of the symptoms of stress is a positive. For those who tend to reach for a treat when stressed or who depend on convenient food because they work high-pressure jobs or are time-poor, incorporating some of these small changes could make a real difference.”

Fitness Flash

A Heart Threat Even for Active People

More time spent sitting, reclining, or lying down during the day may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, and presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2024.

Insufficient exercise is a known risk factor for CVD. Achieving over 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week is recommended to promote heart health. However, study experts say exercise is only a small fraction of overall daily activity, and the current guidelines don’t provide specific guidance on sedentary behavior, which accounts for a much larger portion of daily activity, despite evidence that it’s directly linked with CVD risk.

This study examined the amount of sedentary time at which CVD risk is greatest and explored how sedentary behavior and physical activity together impact the chances of atrial fibrillation (AF), heart failure (HF), myocardial infarction (MI), and cardiovascular (CV) mortality.

Among the 89,530 study participants, who came from UK Biobank, the average age was 62 years and 56.4% were women. Participants submitted data from a wrist-worn triaxial accelerometer that captured movement over seven days. The average sedentary time per day was 9.4 hours. After an average follow-up of eight years, 3,638 individuals (4.9%) developed incident AF, 1,854 (2.1%) developed incident HF, 1,610 (1.84%) developed incident MI, and 846 (0.94%) died of CV causes.

The effects of sedentary time varied by outcome. For AF and MI, the risk increased steadily over time without major shifts. For HF and CV mortality, increase in risk was minimal until sedentary time exceeded about 10.6 hours a day, at which point risk rose significantly, showing a threshold effect for the behavior. For study participants who met the recommended 150 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, the effects of sedentary behavior on AF and MI risks were substantially reduced, but effects on higher risk of HF and CV mortality were not significantly reduced.

“Our findings support cutting back on sedentary time to reduce cardiovascular risk, with 10.6 hours a day marking a potentially key threshold tied to higher heart failure and cardiovascular mortality,” said Shaan Khurshid, MD, MPH, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-senior author of the study. “Too much sitting or lying down can be harmful for heart health, even for those who are active. Future guidelines and public health efforts should stress the importance of cutting down on sedentary time. Avoiding more than 10.6 [sedentary] hours per day may be a realistic minimal target for better heart health.”

In an accompanying editorial comment, Charles Eaton, MD, MS, director of the Brown University department of family medicine, said the use of wearable accelerometers has shown that exercise is significantly overestimated when self-reported and sedentary behavior is underestimated. Dr. Eaton said that replacing just 30 minutes of excessive sitting time each day with any type of physical activity can lower heart health risks. Adding moderate-to-vigorous activity cut the risk of HF by 15% and CV mortality by 10%, and even light activity made a difference by reducing HF risk by 6% and CV mortality by 9%.

The study has several limitations, including lack of information on where or why people are sitting or lying down for extended periods, which could have different impacts on CV risks. Accelerometers worn on the wrist are imperfect at detecting posture and therefore may misclassify standing time as sedentary time. A longer monitoring period may provide more accurate data on activity habits and patterns.

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Mascarpone Mousse

Posted on January 2, 2025January 9, 2025 by The Olive Oil Hunter

This is a melt-in-your-mouth mousse made without eggs. I love it topped with fresh passionfruit pulp, but since fresh fruits can be hard to find, I’ve included a rich sauce recipe that you can make with frozen pulp (with seeds) or purée (without seeds). Both the mousse and the sauce can be made early in the day or even the day before the big event.

Ingredients

For the mousse:

2 cups heavy cream

8 ounces mascarpone at room temperature

3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

For the sauce:

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

14 ounces frozen passionfruit, defrosted

2 large eggs plus 2 yolks

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Optional: fresh berries

Directions

Step 1

To make the mousse, whip the cream until very firm, then whip in the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Step 2

To make the sauce, in a medium saucepan, whisk together the cornstarch and sugar, then whisk in the passionfruit, eggs, and yolks. Place the pan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat and cook at a low boil for 2 minutes; it should be thick.

Step 3

Off the heat, whisk in the olive oil, then let the sauce cool. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Step 4

To assemble, mound equal amounts of mousse in 6 elegant stemware glasses and top with spoonfuls of sauce and fresh berries, if desired.

Yields 6 servings

Olive Oil Hunter #197

Posted on December 27, 2024January 21, 2025 by The Olive Oil Hunter

Glazed Carrots and Pearl Onions Recipe, Spotlight on Carrots, More Nutrients Needed During Pregnancy, and Getting to Know Tai Chi

With the holidays in full view, I’m sharing a crowd-pleasing side dish that can be made in advance and then reheated for a buffet or sit-down dinner. If you’re looking for a new way to de-stress and move more, check out my mini primer on Tai chi, a mind-body practice that welcomes participants at nearly all levels of fitness. And if you’re pregnant or know someone who is, read about a startling discovery on nutrition shortfalls to avoid.

Glazed Carrots and Pearl Onions

Glazed Carrots and Pearl Onions
This simple technique concentrates all the sweetness of the two vegetables as it creates a light glaze for the perfect finish.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds carrots, scrubbed and peeled if needed
- 1 pound pearl onions, peeled (see Quick Kitchen Nugget in weekly newsletter)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
Directions

Cut the carrots on the diagonal into slices about 1/2-inch thick. Place them in a large frying pan along with the peeled onions. Add enough cold water to just cover them. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a rapid boil. Immediately lower the heat to a low boil and add the olive oil, butter, sugar, salt, and pepper. Cook for about 20 minutes until all the water has evaporated and the vegetables have a shiny glaze. A knife should be able to easily pierce a few carrots. (If they’re not tender enough once the liquid has nearly evaporated, add another cup of water and continue cooking.) Just before serving, sprinkle with the parsley and drizzle with olive oil.
Yields 8 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Skip the “Baby Carrots”

Though these bagged nuggets seem like a great convenience item, the amount of processing they go through is mind-boggling. First, they’re usually not miniatures—these days, so-called baby carrots are just whole carrots that have been cut down, rounded, and often “polished” into shape. All of that manipulation can make a dent in their nutritional value. What’s more, they go through a chlorine rinse before being bagged, which does nothing to prevent the slimy feeling they often develop in the bag (some sources attribute this to the water added to prevent them from drying out, though this can happen anyway—a white film on the carrots is a sign of dehydration). All that for a lot more money than a bunch of carrots that you can wash, peel, and cut into handy disks yourself.

Quick Kitchen Nugget

Peeling Pearl Onions

Pearl onions are a sweet addition to carrot and other vegetable medleys. They need to be peeled, but this simple blanching technique makes fast work of the job: Fill a large bowl with cold water and a dozen ice cubes; set aside. Fill a saucepan with water and bring it to a rapid boil. Add the pearl onions to the boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain them and place them in the bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process and cool them slightly. Working one at a time, pinch each onion with two fingers to squeeze it out of its softened peel.

For Your Best Health

More Nutrients Needed During Pregnancy

According to new research from scientists at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey and New York University, published in The Journal of Nutrition, over 90% of pregnant people are potentially failing to get enough iron, vitamin D, or vitamin E from the food they eat, while over one-third could be short on calcium, vitamin C, and vitamin A. Perhaps most troubling, almost two-thirds may not be getting enough dietary folate, a critical nutrient that helps prevent birth defects in a baby’s brain and spine.

“It’s important to remember that many pregnant people take prenatal vitamin supplements, which might help prevent nutritional deficiencies,” said Samantha Kleinberg, PhD, the study’s lead author and a professor at the Charles V. Schaefer Jr. School of Engineering and Science at Stevens. “Nonetheless, this is a startling finding that suggests we need to be looking much more closely at whether pregnant individuals are getting the nutrients they need.”

Unlike other studies of nutrition during pregnancy that relied on a few days of food diaries or on simply asking people what they remembered eating, the Stevens team asked pregnant people to take before-and-after photos of everything they ate over two 14-day periods. Experts then reviewed the photos to assess the amount of food actually eaten and determine the nutrients consumed during each meal.

That’s a far more accurate approach because people are notoriously bad at estimating portion size or accurately reporting what they’ve eaten, Dr. Kleinberg explained. Taking photos is also much less laborious for participants, making it easy to collect data over a period of weeks instead of just a few days.

“Most surveys only track diet over a day or two, but if you feel off one day and don’t eat much, or have a big celebratory meal over the weekend, that can skew the data,” Dr. Kleinberg said. “By looking at a longer time period, and using photos to track diet and nutrition, we’re able to get a much richer and more precise picture of what people actually ate.”

The study, which was co-authored with Andrea Deierlein, PhD, director of public health nutrition at New York University, found significant dietary variations between individuals, but also among the same individuals from one day to the next, suggesting that shorter studies and population-based reports might be failing to spot important nutritional deficits. “Some people eat really well, and others don’t, so if you just take an average, it looks like everything’s fine,” Dr. Kleinberg explained. “This study suggests that in reality, an alarming number of pregnant people may not be getting the nutrients they need from their food.”

Using food photos also allowed the Stevens team to accurately track the exact timing of meals and snacks and explore the way that patterns of eating behavior correlated with total energy and nutrient intake. When pregnant people ate later in the day, the data showed, they were likely to consume significantly more total calories, potentially an important finding as researchers explore connections between eating behaviors and health problems such as gestational diabetes.

The current research didn’t directly study health outcomes, so it’s too early to say whether insufficient nutrition or excessive energy consumption is adversely impacting pregnant individuals or their babies. “We’ll be digging into that in future studies and looking at possible connections with eating patterns and changes in glucose tolerance,” Dr. Kleinberg said.

Fitness Flash

Get to Know Tai Chi

Less well known than yoga, Tai chi is also a mind-body practice with breathing and slow, gentle movements as integral elements. Its roots are in China, where it was first practiced as a martial art. According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), a branch of the National Institutes of Health, these days Tai chi is appreciated more for its health and wellness benefits. And for many people, it can be complementary to traditional therapies used for a variety of health issues.

Based on a review of studies on Tai chi’s benefits, the NCCIH concluded that it may help to improve balance and prevent falling in older adults and in people with Parkinson’s disease; reduce pain in people with low-back pain, fibromyalgia, and knee osteoarthritis; give a small boost to quality of life and depressive symptoms among older adults living with chronic conditions; and possibly improve sleep and general well-being.

Because of its low-impact movements, Tai chi is doable for most people and could be a gentle reintroduction to exercise if it’s been some time since you worked out. Here’s how a report on tai chi from Harvard Health described it: “The movements are usually circular and never forced, the muscles are relaxed rather than tensed, the joints are not fully extended or bent, and connective tissues are not stretched. Tai chi can be easily adapted for anyone, from the most fit to people confined to wheelchairs or recovering from surgery.” Of course, before starting any new form of fitness, check with your doctor.

Here are other tips from Harvard Health and NCCIH:

There are different branches of Tai chi, named after people who devised their key movements. Google “Tai chi near me” to read about the different options in your area and see which approach sounds right to you—some focus on wellness and stress reduction, while others hark back to its martial arts origins.

Your research might lead you to classes taught at your local community center or Y as well as to dedicated Tai chi centers. Ask to watch or even take a class to get a feel for the movements and the teacher’s method. Ask about the instructor’s training; there’s no single standard for Tai chi teacher certification, and various Tai chi organizations offer training and certification programs at different levels. If you have any physical limitations, ask whether the movements can be modified for you.

The right clothing for Tai chi reflects its gentle approach: Wear loose, comfortable clothes that let you move with ease and lightweight, flexible shoes that offer support but have a thin sole to help you feel connected to the ground—a focus of the practice.

While Tai chi can be enjoyable on day one, if you’re looking for specific benefits, like pain or stress relief, give yourself about three months of regular practice to gauge the results.

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Glazed Carrots and Pearl Onions

Posted on December 26, 2024December 18, 2024 by The Olive Oil Hunter

This simple technique concentrates all the sweetness of the two vegetables as it creates a light glaze for the perfect finish.

Ingredients

2 pounds carrots, scrubbed and peeled if needed
1 pound pearl onions, peeled (see Quick Kitchen Nugget in weekly newsletter)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

Cut the carrots on the diagonal into slices about 1/2-inch thick. Place them in a large frying pan along with the peeled onions. Add enough cold water to just cover them. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a rapid boil. Immediately lower the heat to a low boil and add the olive oil, butter, sugar, salt, and pepper. Cook for about 20 minutes until all the water has evaporated and the vegetables have a shiny glaze. A knife should be able to easily pierce a few carrots. (If they’re not tender enough once the liquid has nearly evaporated, add another cup of water and continue cooking.) Just before serving, sprinkle with the parsley and drizzle with olive oil.

Yields 8 servings