as intimidating as making a tender southern-style biscuit.

But the Irish claim all it takes is a little love and a light hand

 By Liz Biro

     We can comprehend the thousands of rat-a-tat-tats in a quick Irish step dance. We find meaning in a complex Celtic tune. Many of us even believe we can learn Gaelic, if we try.

     But make soda bread, especially tonight, with no practice, no tested recipe passed down through the generations, no boxed mix to which only water must be added? Well, that would take the luck of the Irish.

     Actually, all it would require is a little flour, butter, baking soda, a bit of salt and sugar, a splash of buttermilk and a lot of love.

     "It's how you feel about it," advises Deirdre Kiernan, president and founder of the Irish Cultural Society in New Bern.

     Like most of the Irish, Kiernan finds soda bread the most comforting of foods from her native land. Her love of soda bread began, as it does for most Irish, in her mother's kitchen, where there was always a loaf.

     "It isn't that my mother made it every day. She always would make it when she had the time," Kiernan recalls. "And when she had the time, we ate it like fiends."

     "I mean it really is the perfect food, if made correctly."

     Aye, there's the catch -- "if made correctly."

     When the Irish Cultural Society recently hosted its first annual soda bread cook-off in New Bern, 26 people baked 26 very different soda breads. Some were white, dusted with flour and almost cloud-like in their lightness. Others were dark and hearty, studded with bits of oats or raisins or caraway seeds or all three. A few had a lemony yellow tint; others were brown and crusty outside, soft and airy inside.

     The many types reflect the soda breads not bread of Ireland. There, soda bread may be brown or white, shaped in a round and baked whole or cut into four triangles, writes novelist Diane Duane in a history of soda bread that appears on Edibilia, a Web page she operates as part of The Owl Springs Partnership Web site, www.ibmpcug.co.uk. The round "cake" bread seems to be favored in northern Ireland, while the triangle or "farl" seems to be preferred in the south. Duane also notes that normally in Ireland raisins or currants are not added unless the soda bread will serve as tea bread.

     "With all this said, the basic bread is extremely simple," Duane writes. "The urge to be resisted is to do more stuff to it than necessary. ...This is usually what keeps it from coming out right the first few times."

     Perfect, plain soda bread is somewhere between a cake and a bread, Kiernan says. Hunks may be slathered with butter or jam and served with coffee or tea for breakfast or for a late-night snack. The bread also may be sliced and used to make sandwiches.

     To achieve perfection, Kiernan suggests using real butter and buttermilk for the best flavor, and "a pure flour." "I think when people try to cut those things out, substitute, it does lose something," she says.

     Flour is perhaps the most important ingredient and tells the story of why soda bread came to be one of Ireland's most famous foods. The country's climate lacks extremes of heat in summer and cold in winter, which are required to grow hard wheat that produces high-gluten flour needed to make chewy yeast breads. Soft wheat, however, thrives there, and flour made from it produces tender quick breads leavened with baking soda.

     To produce tender soda bread, it is important to use soft-wheat flour, also known as biscuit flour in the American South. Popular brands are White Lily or Martha White. Another option is to mix bleached all-purpose flour with cake flour, about 3-to-1.

     Also critical to good soda bread is the mixing. Again, Kiernan stresses, "Don't overdo it." The more the dough is worked, the tougher the bread will be.

     Here are other tips for making soda bread:

   g To precisely measure the flour, spoon it into a measuring cup made for dry ingredients. Don't tamp the cup to settle the four. Rather, level the top of the full cup with the blunt end of a butter knife. Too much flour will make dry soda bread. Use a wire whisk to mix dry ingredients well.

   g Use cold butter cut into bits. Rub the butter into the flour with fingertips that have been cooled under cold water and dried.

   g Be sure to shake the buttermilk before pouring it into a measuring cup. A few extra drops may have to be added if the dough seems too dry. Less may be needed if the bread is being made on a humid day.

   g Use floured hands and a light touch to handle dough once it is turned out of the bowl.

   g Use a long, sharp, serrated knife to cut the classic cross in the top of the loaf before it is baked. Legend has it that the cross is cut into the bread so that evil spirits can escape.

   g Bake the bread immediately after it goes into the pan. The first smells from the oven will be reminiscent of sourdough bread. When the aroma fresh-baked bread begins to ooze from the oven, the bread is probably ready.

     With this advice in mind and the fact that soda bread takes about 10 minutes to mix and under an hour to bake, try baking a loaf this St. Patrick's Day night. As Kiernan says, "It feels comforting. It really does."

     The recipe for this plain soda bread was adapted from one that appeared in the April 1997 issue of Cook's Illustrated, a magazine dedicated to developing the best recipes for classic dishes. The magazine advises using an instant-read thermometer to determine when soda bread is done. The thermometer should read 180 degrees when stuck into the middle of soda bread.

Classic Irish Soda Bread

3 cups plain, all-purpose flour made from soft wheat

1 cup cake flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tarter

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 tablespoon melted butter

     Heat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk together flours, sugar, baking soda, cream of tarter and salt. Cut butter into small cubes and sprinkle over flour. Rub butter into flour using fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk and stir with a fork. If mixture seems too dry, add a few drops of buttermilk until dough just comes together.

     Turn dough onto a floured board. Carefully knead two or three times until dough forms a ball. Place in a greased baking sheet or cast iron skillet. Cut a cross shape in the top and bake 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately brush with melted butter. Remove bread to a rack and cool at least 30 minutes.

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 July 15, 1998, The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C.

Scientists believe blueberries are one of the most powerful tools

when it comes to preventing and reversing signs of aging.

But don't serve them in high-calorie desserts

Blues you can use!

     Blueberries are wowing scientists with their ability to reverse the effects of aging, but be careful how you eat them.

     "I've never seen anything like it," Dr. James Joseph said of recent tests at Tufts University which show that blueberries lessen or prevent the loss of memory and motor skills in animals.

     Joseph is chief of neuroscience at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts, where researchers in 1997 announced that blueberries had the highest antioxidant capacity of 43 fruits and vegetables tested. Antioxidants are enzymes or other organic substances that help the body deter aging and fight heart disease and cancer.

     Scientists are still trying to determine if humans can absorb antioxidants from blueberries and other antioxidant-rich foods, but they are thrilled by results they have seen in animals.

     In Joseph's tests, laboratory rats were fed a diet of blueberry, strawberry or spinach extracts from the time they were 6 months old to the age of 15 months. Strawberries and spinach also scored high on Tufts' antioxidant test.

     At 15 months, a rat is about the same age as a 50- to 55-year-old human, Joseph said. The rats were exposed to 100 percent oxygen, which produces some of the same effects of aging on the brain. The diet, Joseph said, prevented the oxygen's harmful effects on the animals, including degeneration of cognitive skills such as memory, judgment and reasoning.

     "But we wanted to do more than this," Joseph said, "so we said, 'Well what is everybody going to ask us?'" and that is, 'Well, if I start this (eating blueberries) when I'm middle- or old-aged, is it going to do any good?'"

     Joseph and his team decided to feed 20-month-old rats, which are equivalent to 75-year-old humans, spinach, strawberry or blueberry extracts.

     "Blueberry just blew everything away. I mean, it was like incredible," he said. "It reversed these damn age effects."

     Most surprising, Joseph said, was the reversal of motor behavioral deficits -- in other words, the inability to move. "And I'm going to tell you, nothing you do to these animals will reverse an age-related motor behavioral deficit," he said. "And this has nothing to do, of course, with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's because they (rats) don't get those diseases. This is normal aging, and we reversed motor behavioral deficits on some of our tests."

     "These damned blueberries worked,"Joseph said.

     The positive qualities of blueberries appear to lie in their flavinoids, mainly anthocyanin, the pigment that makes blueberries blue, he explained. Exactly how anthocyanins work is still unknown.

     While studies continue, researchers have recommended eating about one cup of blueberries per day, either raw or cooked, Joseph said. What the berries are mixed with, however, can pose problems. Blueberries usually are associated with high-fat, cholesterol-rich treats such as blueberry pie, blueberry muffins and sugary blueberry sauce over vanilla ice cream.

     Although home economist Babs Wilkinson has developed savory recipes using blueberries, she said, "I still get lots of requests for desserts. Incorporating blueberries into the diet without relying on sweets is easy, said Wilkinson, who works in the marketing division at the N.C. Department of Agriculture. "The imagination is the limit as far as using blueberries in recipes."

     Wilkinson's favorite is Lemon Blueberry Chicken Salad, a luscious combination of low-fat lemon yogurt, reduced-calorie mayonnaise, crunchy vegetables, cooked chicken breasts and blueberries.

     "I fixed it a couple of times, and every time I served it people say, 'Wow, this is really good.'"

     She also suggested using blueberry jam, jelly or chutney to glaze ham, adding blueberries to green salads and substituting blueberries in recipes that call for other berries.

     In the "The Silver Palate Cookbook," a culinary bible for modern cooks, authors Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins include recipes for Glazed Blueberry Chicken, poached sea scallops served with Blueberry Mayonnaise flavored with blueberry vinegar and a chilled blueberry soup to serve as a first-course, lunch entree or dessert. They also advise serving blueberry vinaigrette over steamed

asparagus and fresh blueberries with tart and mild soft cheeses.

     The North American Blueberry Council offers many ideas for using blueberries in preparations other than desserts.

    * Blueberries cooked with crushed red pepper, thyme and mint make a flavorful sauce for meats.

    * Add fresh blueberries to fruit salsas and salads or mix them with cottage cheese.

    * Add dried blueberries to savory sauces, salads and granola and breakfast cereals.

    * Mix blueberries with cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, ginger, mace, nutmeg, vanilla extract, cilantro, mint and basil.

     Try these recipes from the council.

Blueberry Balsamic Vinegar

Blueberry Vinaigrette

Savory Blueberry Sauce

Lemon Blueberry Chicken Salad

Blueberry Chutney

Chicken Breasts with Blueberries

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 November 1, 2000, The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C.

The spots are running!

Get hooked on local fish at hometown seafood market

     Fish scales are flying around Bright’s Seafood like mother-of-pearl confetti at a parade for King Neptune. Owner Glenda Bright, her husband Bennie and any member of their family available to help barely have a minute to spare. The news has been all over Onslow County for a few weeks now.

     The spots are running.

     "You gonna come out and eat some fish with us on the 27th?" Bennie yells to me above the whiz of electric fish scalers and the pressurized pitch of a spray hose that someone grabs every few minutes to wash off the market’s cutting boards.

     Bennie will fry 300 pounds of spots that day for a politician who just happens to be his cousin. "I told him if he comes, I’ll cook him a big fillet trout," he says, grinning toward my photographer.

     Is that a bribe, I ask. Everyone in the market laughs. Bennie admits he’s not really sure what party the candidate represents. For him and Glenda, the candidate’s run is not nearly as important as the spot run.

     "We’ve been doing this pretty much all our lives," Bennie says of the fishing business. "It’s in our blood."

     While area newcomers may have a taste for mild fish such as flounder and grouper, local folks know the best eating of the year comes when the air is cool. That’s the time that spots and croakers – the two area favorites – along with mullets and other fish many diners deem unworthy, start moving downriver to spawn.

     Fans of these fins crowd Bright’s Seafood, happily bypassing flounders in favor of the last few spots and croakers left in a cooler. Headed and gutted, but with bones intact, the fish are just right for the frying pan.

     The Brights have been catching and eating local fish about three times a week for years. Bennie comes from a long line of fishermen, and Glenda’s relatives, "the Kellums," have operated many fish markets in Jacksonville.

     The couple was strictly fishing for a living until about 25 years ago when they decided to bypass wholesalers and sell their catch directly to the public. The work was seasonal at first. They opened Bright’s Seafood full time about 10 years ago. Today, their fishing business is more than just the retail market on Willie Kellum Road.

     The family still catches most of the seafood Glenda sells in her market. Besides dozens of walk-in customers, the Brights spend Fridays in fall filling huge orders for fish fries. Most autumn weekends, Bennie is behind the fryer for one function or another.

     After a busy week, Glenda is never sure where fish scales will turn up. "I find them in church sometimes," she says in a burst of giggles. "I really do. You know, like one stuck to me."

     Today, Bright’s coolers are loaded with flounders, mullets, trout, puppy drum and sheepshead, but the emphasis is on spots. It is a little early for croakers, but customers ask about them anyway.

     Spots and croakers are from the same family of fish. But while croakers are tender with a mild, sweet flavor, spots are more dense and lean with a light meat that is more reminiscent of the sea.

     "A spot has got a different taste all to itself. It's a better fish to me," Bennie says. "But a croaker tastes pretty close to a spot."

     The fish are distinguished by markings and the sound that croakers make. Their names say it all. Spots have a dark spot behind the gill covers, a mark which legend holds came from the fingers of St. Peter, the renowned biblical fisherman.

     Croakers are named for the croaking sound the fish make. No one knows why the fish "talk" -- whether to keep in touch with other members of the school, to echo sound for depth or to communicate during mating season. The sound is so loud it foiled the U.S. government and scientists during World War II when a hydrophone system set up in Chesapeake Bay to detect German submarines began to pick up the incessant signals.

     While spots and croakers can be stewed or baked, the favorite way to serve them is fried. And the Brights are experts at boiling fish in oil.

     The keys to success, the couple says, are fresh fish washed and dried, salted, lightly rolled in cornmeal and fried in oil that is around 350 degrees.

     "The only time you want to put pepper on a fish is if he’s been in the freezer," Bennie advises. "It kills the freezer taste."

     Also important is not rolling the fish in cornmeal too long before frying. If the fish sits in meal too long, the meal will become soggy and the fried fish will not be crisp.

     Glenda likes to serve simple side dishes with fried fish, nothing that would upstage the fish. Slaw and boiled potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper are her favorites.

     It’s around 4:30 p.m. and things have calmed down a bit before the market’s 5 p.m. closing time. Water stops flowing to the hoses; the electric scalers are turned off. Between helping customers and dressing fish, Bennie is still rattling off dozens of tips about catching, cleaning and cooking every fish on sale at the market.

     Glenda adds a bit of advice here and there. How to stuff a flounder with crab or shrimp. How to scale a fish. What kind of fish to add to stew. How to charcoal mullet. The Brights are happy to share their knowledge with anyone who asks.

     "People call me for advice all the time," Glenda says. "How do they clean them (fish). They ask me that. Most of them give up and bring them out here."

     "They’ve brought some fish out here that I didn’t know what they were."

     As Glenda talks, Bennie decides to tend to some work outside. He claims he has dispensed all the information he knows about fish.

     On second thought, maybe not everything.

     "Come out there and eat with us now on the 27th," he says, walking out the door. "I’ll teach you how to cook fish."