Thursday, January 13, 2005
By Ronette King
Business writer
Regardless of what teams are on the field for Super Bowl XXXIX, there will be at least one local player in the lineup. The advertising lineup, that is.

The McIlhenny Co., which makes Tabasco brand pepper sauce, will introduce a commercial during the Feb. 6 game in Jacksonville, Fla.

There among the products routinely advertised during the Super Bowl — beer, soft drinks, movies, chips and cars — will be the little pepper sauce from Avery Island.

“It’s not something that we can do every day, but we’re back again with what we think will be an exciting spark for this year’s game,” said Martin Manion, vice president of marketing for the McIlhenny Co. “We’re anxious to get it there.” McIlhenny’s previous Super Bowl advertisement ran in 1998.

For advertisers, the Super Bowl offers one of a dwindling number of chances to reach a massive audience. In the old days, advertisers could choose a highly rated television program that delivered big viewership and get the same result, said Teri Henley, a Loyola University advertising professor.

“But you can’t get that anymore,” Henley said. “Because the media has become so fragmented, there are only a couple of times that you can reach such a mass audience. To get that reach there’s really nothing like the Super Bowl.”

More than 90 million viewers are expected to watch this year’s Super Bowl. Some are actual game-watchers, and others will tune in to see the creative and memorable commercials the game generally delivers.

The estimated 60 commercial slots that run during the Super Bowl have become celebrated marketing events that create their own buzz.

This year a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl costs a reported $2.4 million to air, up from last year’s $2.3 million. By comparison, the most expensive commercial time on network television is $320,000 for 30 seconds during the “The Apprentice,” according to published reports.

Add in the cost of producing the commercial, and it becomes clear that Super Bowl advertising is a major marketing endeavor.

Manion said the expenditure on the Super Bowl is worthwhile.

“While we’re not as big a company as many of the routine advertisers that appear every time in the Super Bowl, we have a huge brand,” he said. “Tabasco is the leader in the category. Our brand name is in as many households as those brands. It’s an iconic brand in America and we think the brand deserved that kind of exposure.”

In McIlhenny’s 1998 Super Bowl commercial, called the “Mosquito” spot, a man splashes hot sauce on his pizza and takes a bite; then a mosquito takes a bite out of him, flies off and explodes. The new commercial offers a similarly unexpected twist, the company said, and leaves a lasting impression that only Tabasco can deliver.

McIlhenny executives were tight-lipped about the cost to produce the ad as well as the particulars of the spot, dubbed “Tan Lines.” The only hint lies in the message on the altered diamond-shaped label on bottles of sunscreen the company sent out promoting the ad: “From sidelines to tan lines Tabasco has you covered like SPF 100 sunblock.” The coconut-scented potion was shipped in the red-capped bottles that usually contain Tabasco sauce.

The spot is scheduled to run early in the third quarter of the game, possibly picking up viewers who will tune in just for the halftime show and stick around for a while, said Janet Bustin, managing director at DDB Dallas, the marketing and communications agency that has worked for McIlhenny for the past 18 years.

“The red sauce stands for the company’s entire line of products so it was the obvious choice for the ad,” Manion said. The company is using the Super Bowl to emphasize the stature of the brand among all other hot sauces. The spot will appear throughout the rest of 2005 on cable television to reach a more targeted audience, Bustin said.

In the first brush with a commercial, advertisers aren’t selling the product, but building the brand, Henley said. They’re creating initial recognition of the product in viewers’ minds, she said.

“A lot of advertisers launch their big ad (during) the Super Bowl, then you see it a great deal on much lower-priced programming,” Henley said. “That’s where you get the frequency and repetition that will cause (viewers) to remember the ad.”

Putting together a bowl-worthy ad is an intricate task. Bustin said DDB interviewed several directors before hiring Keith Rose, who has won numerous awards for his directing and camera work, including a Gold Lion at the Cannes Film Festival. DDB staffers were in Los Angeles this week putting finishing touches on the spot.

The Tabasco commercial was filmed in Los Angeles, and produced by DDB Dallas, which also created the McIlhenny spot that ran during the 1998 Super Bowl.

DDB offices in several cities are doing other spots during the game. The Chicago office is handling commercials for Anheuser-Busch and McDonald’s; the New York office is doing Bud Light and Diet Pepsi; and the Los Angeles office is handling Ameriquest Mortgage Company.

Among the other Super Bowl advertisers, according to published reports, are Volvo and Novartis’ CIBA Vision contact lenses, both of which are first-time Super Bowl advertisers. Ford and Lincoln Mercury automakers have returned after a decade away from the big game ad breaks. And McDonald’s is back for the first time since 1996, according to Advertising Age magazine. Other advertisers are an online video game and DVD rental company, an Internet domain name registry service and a job search Web site. The Super Bowl also is an advertising slot for movie studios launching Memorial Day releases.

Finally, a less expensive way advertisers can get in on the game is via local television stations that sell half-minute spots for far less than $1 million, according to Advertising Age.

. . . . . . .

Ronette King can be reached at (504) 826-3308 or rking@timespicayune.com

Cooking with a friend warms the soul
By ALISON COOK
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

“You can’t leave town without giving me your chili recipe,” I wailed when my friend Marvin Rubenstein announced that he was moving to Portland, Ore.

Marvin, an expansive guy whose cooking always seems just a little larger than life, happens to make the best chili con carne I’ve ever tasted. It’s sublimely earthy stuff, dense with toasty red-chile flavors, all lifted up by a bright tang of tomato. Just smelling it on the stove is a rush.

Now, I don’t want to be drawn into one of those tribal Texas arguments about what does or does not belong in a pot of chili. Tomato works in this one, and besides, tomatoes are good for you. My sole criterion for chili greatness is whether the flavor grabs me and won’t let go. That’s what Marvin’s chili does.

“I don’t try to make it a mystery like those guys at the chili cook-offs,” he told me, “with secret ingredients and only the right bull testicle from the side of the cow pointed toward the moon.”

Indeed. This is cuisine verite chili, incorporating two politically incorrect packets of Williams chili mix and a packet of Wick Fowler’s, too. “I just buy the Wick Fowler’s for the little envelope of masa,” crowed Marvin as we shopped for ingredients on a November afternoon. “I always hated having a 5-pound bag of masa sitting around the house getting stale.”

Like many driven cooks, Marvin has been perfecting his chili recipe for years. Make that decades. Just out of college and a tour of duty in Vietnam, he began fooling around with the basic chili blueprint imparted to him by his uncle Robert Lewis back in 1950s Houston.

He’s been tweaking the formula ever since, bringing it closer and closer to the taste ideal he carries around in his head. This particular recipe is very much a living thing, with a rich familial history that just keeps evolving.

It also is absurdly easy. The rewards of Marvin’s chili, I discovered to my delight, are way out of proportion to the effort involved.

The only catch — the whole secret, really — lies in securing two or three powdered red chiles, which give the finished product its multidimensional character and its pleasant chile burn, which can be adjusted to taste.

(The pure ground chiles required are not to be confused with commercial chili powders, which have cumin and other seasonings added. And let’s dispense with the spelling question right now: In this context, “chili” refers to the dish, and the commercial chili powder that has come to define it in modern times; “chile” refers to the chile peppers themselves.)

Marvin uses a combination of mild, medium and hot Chimayo ground red chiles, all bought on a trip to New Mexico. “They even sell this stuff in the drugstores there!” he exclaimed in his West University kitchen, spreading out his prized powdered-chile packages on the counter. His tone left no doubt that he considered this practice highly civilized.

Here in Houston, the scavenger hunt is more complicated. But a scouring of grocery stores, the Airline farmers market and even the 99-cent stores can turn up ground cascabel chiles, wildly hot pequins, dark and dusky anchos, or ground California chiles with a distinctive mild, sunny taste. Part of the fun of making Marvin’s chili is coming up with your own custom red-chile blend. Smell. Taste. Ogle the gorgeous colors. See what you like. (My current combo of choice is Cyclone brand cascabel, farmers market bulk ancho and the Frontier medium-roasted red chile sold in bulk at Whole Foods Market.)

Inevitably, my chili tutorial in Marvin’s kitchen turned into a reminiscence about his Uncle Robert, and a Houston that is long gone. “Robert’s father opened up a butcher shop downtown in the 1920s,” Marvin told me while he pulsed two humongous onions in the food processor. “It had a barbecue pit in it as big as a boxcar, and that’s where Robert learned how to barbecue and work with meat.

“He had a beautiful voice — he could have been a cantor, and he knew the prayer book by heart, but his passion was cooking. I never saw him use a recipe or a cookbook. His kitchen didn’t have one fancy pot or tool. But he made these great smothered 7-steaks, his smoked lamb at Passover was a family legend, and when he’d come back from a fishing trip and call to say, `I got fish,’ you got over there in a hurry. That was the best fried fish I ever ate.

“They used to call me the human disposal because I was always over at Robert’s eating leftovers,” Marvin confessed, stirring a mess of roughly chopped onion to translucence in a vast enamel-over-cast-iron Le Creuset pot that, with its weight and ability to disperse heat, is a key to this recipe’s success.

Robert’s chili was one of the things Marvin could never get his fill of.

It was pretty basic: hamburger, onion, tomatoes and two packets of Williams chili mix. Over the years, as Marvin’s tastes changed, he refined and streamlined. As a man whose motto has long been, “You can never use too much garlic,” he would add as much as a whole bulb, mincing the cloves and sautéeing them with the onion. He gave up crushing two big cans of Hunt’s tomatoes by hand (“It’s a waste of time.”) and added pre-crushed tomatoes instead.

He dispensed with the fatty hamburger — and the skimming it entailed — substituting a lean chili grind of beef, the kind that emerges in loops as thick as a thumb, imparting a nicely irregular texture and heft. (Marvin buys his chili meat at Rice Epicurean, where the counter guy grinds it to order out of Black Angus cuts.)

But the most radical, and most recent, alteration of Robert’s ancient formula was the introduction of ground red chiles in varying degrees of hotness. “I grew to find his bland,” confessed Marvin as he sizzled the beef with the onions and started the ritual dumping in of the dry ingredients, measuring by eyeball alone. “I started reading about the differences in chili powders and realized that Gebhardt’s ain’t what you want.”

With that, Marvin threw in what must have been two heaping tablespoons of ground cumin, and its dusky-orange fragrance began to fill the room. “Cumin is the only thing I’ll ever add more of,” he said. “It’s one of my favorite ingredients. I just think it adds a funky, homemade taste.”

In went the tomatoes, a small can of tomato paste, and two big tomato-cans of water.

“That’s it,” pronounced Marvin with satisfaction. Raise it to a boil, then turn it down to simmer and put the lid on. It cooks as long as you can stand not to eat it.”

That part was torture. It was a pleasure just to be in the room with this simmering brew: breathing in the aromas that are more seductive than expensive department-store perfume. We sipped one of the dark, rich Negro Modelo beers Marvin favors with his chili. We speculated about the food world of Portland: the salmon he’ll smoke; the berries he’ll eat. We waited for the moment to stir in the masa-and-warm-water paste made from the little packet in the Wick Fowler’s kit.

Getting the chili into the pot had taken about 30 minutes. An hour later, tightened up by the masa paste, the chili began to taste like itself. At 90 minutes, the edges had softened; at this point, you could serve it to great acclaim.

Tomorrow — and the next day, and the day after that — it will be even better.

Kind of like the recipe itself.

January 8, 2005 · Pie lovers can find all their favorites at Señor Pie in Albuquerque, N.M., but with some unorthodox twists: The apple pie is actually a green chile apple, while other options include cherry chipotle and habañero peach. NPR’s Scott Simon talks with Greg Lujan, the company’s baker.

Thursday, December 16, 2004
BY WILL STEWART
News Special Writer
Some like it hot, and those who do are going to love Wing Stop, the latest addition to the chicken-wing craze, which recently opened in Pittsfield Township’s Glencoe Crossing strip mall.

If you think one wing joint is the same as the next, you owe it to yourself to try Wing Stop, which distinguishes itself not only with its varied – not to mention very, very hot – selection of wings, but with fast, friendly service and an adventuresome choice of side dishes to help put out the fire started by the wings.

To be fair, wings at Wing Stop don’t have to come as hot as some of the ones we ordered. In fact, one of the restaurant’s attributes is the number of choices it offers to wing lovers of all persuasions. We tried them all and didn’t find any that we didn’t like (although we weren’t able to get through the hottest of the hot, but we’ll get to that later).

One of the many nice things about Wing Stop is its diversity of styles. Even if you’re not a fan of the traditional Buffalo wing, you’re likely to find a variety of wing here to suit your taste buds.

We particularly enjoyed the lemon pepper variety, featuring crispy wings and drumsticks coated in a savory coating that, while accentuating the zest lemon and the pepper flavors, never overwhelms the succulent chicken underneath. Likewise, we recommend the garlic parmesan wings, which live up to their billing on the menu as worth ruining your breath for. Teriyaki wings come smothered in a thick teriyaki sauce that, while not particularly to our liking, is nevertheless as savory and flavorful as one would expect.

The real attraction at Wing Stop is in the traditional-style Buffalo wings, which come in “mild,” “hot” and “atomic” varieties, which can best be broken down as follows:

Mild: Pretty much as advertised, suitable for kids and those who like a hint of hotness without running the risk of scorching the tonsils.

Hot: Also as advertised; hot and spicy with a mild and pleasing after burn.

Atomic: Not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill, lots-of-Tabasco wings; it’s habanero peppers that put the radiation in these wings, creating a burn that borders on painful, yet is unnervingly pleasing at the same time. If you like it really hot, you’re going to love these.

We do like our wings hot, but we found that the “hot” variety and their cousin, the Cajun wings, which feature the hot sauce and a sprinking of Louisiana seasoning that adds just a little extra heat, were as far as we could go without risking permanent damage to our mouths.

Wings are available in orders ranging from 10 pieces to 100 and, depending on the size of the order, can be divided among up to four flavors. We recommend trying some of Wing Stop’s non-traditional flavors, even for dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists.

While wings are the highlight – and primary reason – for any visit to Wing Stop, its side dishes shouldn’t be overlooked. We were taken with the seasoned fries, which are hand-cut from actual potatoes, deep-fried to a crisp perfection and sprinkled with the same seasoning that makes the Cajun wings so delightful.

Bourbon baked beans lived up to their title, with a faint whiskey flavor up front and a smoky finish; they were a perfect complement to the spicy bite of the accompanying wings.

Only the potato salad, while seemingly homemade with large chunks of pearl potatoes, disappointed due to its lack of any real character or discernable seasoning.

While primarily a takeaway shop, Wing Stop provides a small but cozy dining area featuring an interesting, aviation-themed decor and soft, moody lighting. It’s clean and pleasant and recommended over the takeout option.

Likewise, service is friendly and informative. Our server tried to warn us about those atomic wings and had some good-natured fun at our expense when our confidence was met with reality.

But we mean that in a good way, for even on our first visit, we were made to feel like old friends. Besides, it will make our revenge that much sweeter when we finally do conquer those wings.

© 2004 Ann Arbor News.

This is a long recipe — and it’s just a simplified version of the stuffed poblano appetizer served at Redrock Canyon Grill (theirs, for instance, contains roasted chicken and fresh tomatillos). But the result is impressive, and the ingredient list is not as intimidating as it looks at first glance. Some of the same ingredients, such as cilantro and red bell pepper, are used in more than one section of the recipe. And the sauces and stuffed poblanos can be prepared up to two days ahead of time, up to the point where the poblanos are breaded and fried.

10 poblano peppers (look for uniformly shaped poblanos)
1 bottle (12 oz.) salsa verde

Chipotle sour cream:
1 chipotle, minced, with juice
1/2 cup sour cream

Poblano filling:
1 lb. shredded cheese (a combination of cheddar and Monterey Jack or a Mexican cheese mix)
1 chipotle pepper, diced, including juice (canned chipotle peppers are available on Mexican aisle of most supermarkets)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper

Black bean salsa:
1 can (16 oz.) black beans, washed
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup minced jalapeno peppers
1 1/4 cups chopped red onion
Salt and pepper, to taste

Breading:
2 cups flour, divided use
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup dry Jiffy cornbread mix

Roast poblanos: You can do this on a grill, in hot oil, under a broiler or on the flame of a gas burner. When the poblano skins are blistered and charred, remove from heat and place in a bowl or other container; cover with plastic and set aside for 10 minutes. Then remove skin from poblanos under running water. With a paring knife or your fingernail (the poblano with be tender), make a slit in the poblano from bottom to top. Pull and discard the seeds and inner membranes, being careful not to tear the rest of the poblano. Set poblanos aside.

Stuff the poblanos: Combine all filling ingredients in a large bowl. Put about 1/2 cup filling mixture in each poblano. The poblanos can be prepared up to this point ahead of time and refrigerated for up to two days.

Make the chipotle-sour cream sauce: Stir together minced chipotle and sour cream. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Make the black bean salsa by combining all ingredients in a bowl.

When ready to cook poblanos, heat several inches of vegetable oil in a heavy pot and set up the three-part flouring station as follows: In the first bowl place 1 cup flour. In the second bowl combine the eggs and milk. In the third bowl combine the dry Jiffy cornbread mix and remaining flour.

Coat a stuffed poblano in the flour, shaking off excess. Dip it in the egg-buttermilk mixture, then roll it in the cornbread-flour mixture. Repeat with remaining poblanos.

Place one or two poblanos in the hot oil, depending on the size of the pot; don’t crowd them. Fry about three minutes or until light golden brown. Remove and keep warm while frying remaining poblanos.

Spread some salsa verde on a plate and place the stuffed poblano on top. Spoon some chipotle sour cream over the poblano (or use a squirt bottle for a more dramatic effect) and serve with black bean salsa on the side.

http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/living/food/10468796.htm

15 minutes to prep
120 minutes to cook
Ingredients
2 tablespoons virgin olive oil (C=0g)
1 lamb shoulder (about 4 pounds), trimmed of excess fat (C=0g)
2 cups large diced red onions (C=19.8g)
4 tablespoons minced garlic (C=4g)
3 tablespoons chili spice, or more per your taste (C=12.4g)
12 cups light chicken or vegetable stock (C=0g)
1 (12-ounce) can Italian plum tomatoes, drained and crushed (C=18g)
1/4 cup tomato paste (C=12g)
Sea salt (C=0g)
1/2 tablespoon ground black pepper (C=2g)
1/2 cup red wine vinegar (C=1g)
2 ripe avocados, peeled and diced (C=24g)
1/4 cup low- or no-fat sour cream (C=4g)
1 cup grated pepper jack cheese (C=1g)
1/4 cup snipped fresh cilantro leaves (C=.4g)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat olive oil in large oven-proof pot over high heat. Add lamb, searing on all sides until golden, about 10 minutes.

Remove lamb and reserve. Add onions to the pot, cooking until they begin to brown, about 5 minutes.

Add garlic and chili spice, cooking for a couple of minutes to begin the release of their flavors.

Return lamb to the pot. Add stock, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste, bringing to boil over high heat. Generously season the liquid with salt and pepper.

Place large sheet of aluminum foil, dull side up, over surface of the liquids, up the sides to top of the edge of the skillet and seal by crimping.

Place lid on the skillet and transfer to lower rack of oven.

Cook until tender, about 161/27 to 2 hours as tested by inserting a skewer without resistance. Remove from oven and allow to rest 15 minutes before continuing.

Remove lamb shoulder, place on cutting board and cut into half-inch dice.

Return lamb pieces to the chili. Stir in vinegar. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.

To serve: Bring the chili back to a short boil. Remove from heat. Stir in the avocado. Ladle the hot chili into warm rimmed soup plates.

Spoon a dollop of sour cream garnish onto the center of the soup. Sprinkle with the cheese and top with cilantro. Serve immediately.

My friends and colleagues shake their heads, but when I feel achy, flu-like and just want to crawl underneath the covers, I don’t reach for aspirin, cough syrup or a hot water bottle.

I grab a burrito. A huge, honkin’ one, bursting with chicken or pork, rice and beans, tomatoes and avocado, and heaps of spicy salsa.

To be sure, it probably wouldn’t be my first choice if I were suffering from the stomach flu. But when I’m feeling under the weather from almost anything else, I down a humongous burrito and go straight to bed, and darned if I don’t wake up the next morning feeling restored to tackle the world.

Take it from me: Run down from all the holiday madness? Pop a chile verde burrito. Can’t get a flu shot? Get thee a grande pollo burrito instead.

It does the trick. At least for me.

My friends think this unusual curative is all in my head — and, er, stomach. But I’m on a quest to prove them wrong.

After all, many cultures ascribe almost mystical healing powers to certain foods. Why shouldn’t I?

Eastern Europeans traditionally have relied on chicken soup to cure what ails them, Indo-Americans reach for garlic soup or ginger tea, Russians favor an herbal-flavored vodka known as balsam, the Chinese consume oxtail soup, Mexicans favor menudo, and Navajos swear by blue corn, says Pamela Goyan Kittler, a Sunnyvale nutritionist and author of “Food and Culture in America.”

Kittler concedes she hasn’t come across anything in her research about the powers of burritos. But she’s willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. After all, she’ll be the first to admit that when she gets a tickle in her throat, she reaches automatically for cognac or whiskey — to gargle with. She’s unsure if there’s any logic to it, even if alcohol is a disinfectant. But it seems to work for her, so she always does it.

“If it boosts your confidence in fighting something,” Kittler says, “I don’t see what’s wrong with it.”

Neither does Joanne Ikeda, nutrition education specialist in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of California-Berkeley. When she has a cold, Ikeda drinks a gallon of orange juice for its vitamin C. Nothing odd about that. But she remembers when she was stressed out over exams in her college years and would reach for red-dyed peanuts or pistachios, a favorite childhood snack that somehow left her feeling revived. As a result, she puts a lot of stock in the healing and nurturing effects of food. Even burritos.

“There’s a lot of protein from the beans and rice combo, and from the chicken or pork. And the salsa is loaded with vitamin A and vitamin C from the tomatoes and the peppers. A burrito is a very nutritious thing to eat,” Ikeda says. “And if your immune system is under attack, there’s nothing better than to bolster it with something nutrient-dense.”

Funny, but a scan of food healing books finds no mention of burritos. What’s up with that? But they contain plenty of information about how protein-rich foods are energizing. Garlic has anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial qualities. Zinc (found in beef, pork and chicken) is one of the most important minerals for keeping immunity strong. Onions contain powerful antioxidants. And chile peppers contain capsaicin, a plant chemical that gives peppers their heat, and is similar chemically to a drug called guaifenesin used in cold remedies such as Robitussin.

I figured I ought to consult a doctor about all of this. And who better than Dr. Mark Sanders, a family medicine practitioner at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s adult and pediatric urgent care units? He’s up to his elbows in colds, flus and other viruses at this time of year.

To his credit, Sanders doesn’t refer me to a psychiatric colleague when I mention my theory about the burrito. Instead, he listens thoughtfully and tells me that there’s no real scientific or solid physiological explanation for my burrito remedy. But he also says that when he’s feeling sick, he’ll often eat a bowl of jook or pho, or drink a sour lemon drink that his Vietnamese-American colleagues bring in to make him feel better. And, he says, they do seem to help.

“Every winter, we get runs on every kind of cold. And we have little to offer people except symptomatic treatment. It’s just rest, hydration and analgesics like Tylenol or Motrin,” Sanders says. “Beyond that, every culture has their own twist on how they get comfort. I do feel that being nice to yourself helps at all times. And if a burrito is what you’re craving, if that’s your comfort food, it’s better than seeing me.”

I rest my case. I’ll continue to take my medicine in the form of a big burrito. That’s my prescription. And I’m sticking to it.

IMPROVE YOUR DIET

1. Spinach: Contains lutein, which helps to maintain healthy vision and is thought to offer protection against eye disorders. Also a good source of folic acid, which helps prevent birth defects, including spina bifida.

2. Broccoli: Contains compounds that protect against cancer, as well as vitamins A and C. Also helps to lower cholesterol and maintain a healthy immune system, and may offer some protection against bowel and thyroid cancer.

3. Brussels sprouts: Contain sinigrin, which is thought to offer protection against cancer. Vitamin B1, or thiamine, keeps the nerves and muscles healthy.

4. Watermelons: Contain the anti-cancer agent lycopene. Ripe, red flesh is the best indication of the most beneficial fruit.

5. Berries: The top three antioxidant fruits areblueberries, blackberries and strawberries. Called anthocyanins, these are thought to help against cancer. Ellagic acid does the same.

6. Lettuce: Leaves contain fibre, folate, antioxidants and small amounts of important vitamins and minerals. Lollo Rosso has 100 times more antioxidants than ordinary lettuce.

7. Carrots: Rich source of beta-carotene and alpha-carotene, which help to prevent cellular damage. Beta-carotene is thought to help the immune system. Also contain vitamin A, vital for growth, healthy eyes, bones and skin. A deficiency can lead to mouth ulcers, dry eyes, night blindness and conjunctivitis.

8. Onions: Sulphur compounds – which give off the strong smell in onions and garlic – help to lower cholesterol and maintain a healthy immune system. Onions also contain quercetin, a pigment that protects against heart disease. Yellow and red onions contain more.

9. Peppers: Contain capsaicinoids, which give peppers their spicy flavour. They are also one of the best sources of vitamin C.

10. Bananas: Can help to lower blood pressure, says the American Heart Association. Researchers say a diet high in potassium, calcium and magnesium – all in bananas – and low in fat and salt can reduce diastolic blood pressure, andlower the risk of stroke and heart disease.

1 (25-ounce) bottle Thai sweet chili sauce (see note)
4 cups roasted peanuts (salted or unsalted)
¼ cup toasted sesame oil
¼ to ½ cup hot water

Put the chili sauce in the bowl of a 14-cup food processor. (If using a blender or smaller processor, you will need to work in batches.)

Turn on the processor. With the motor running, slowly pour the peanuts through the feed tube. Stop adding peanuts when the mixture has the consistency of stiff peanut butter.

With the machine still running, slowly add the oil and the water until you reach a good dipping consistency. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl at least once during processing.

Store the dip in a covered container for up to three weeks in the refrigerator. Serve with raw or blanched vegetables. For the fullest flavor, bring the dip to room temperature before serving.

Makes about 7 cups.

Variation: You can also use this dip as a sauce for Asian noodles. For example, try ¾ to 1 cup of peanut dip (or to taste) to 5 ounces of cooked soba noodles. Thin the sauce with a little hot water, if necessary.

1 large shallot, halved
2 cans (13.75 ounces each) artichoke hearts packed in water, well-drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
1 1/2 teaspoons finely minced fresh oregano
2 teaspoons pure olive oil

1. In the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse the shallot and artichoke hearts until coarsely chopped.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese and salt. Add the chopped shallots and artichokes, and mix until well combined. Season to taste with pepper. Transfer to a buttered 1 1/2-quart shallow baking dish.

3. In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, oregano and olive oil.

4. Position a rack in the upper two-thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Just before baking, sprinkle the bread-crumb mixture on top of the artichoke dip.

5. Bake the dip until the bread crumbs are toasty brown and the dip is bubbling at the edges, 20 minutes to 25 minutes. Serve hot.