Roasted Red Pepper Potato Salad

Published July 14, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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My problem in the summer is that I don’t feel like eating. Actually, I feel like eating, but I want to eat fruit, yogurt, ice cream and the like, rather than sensible cooked meals.  This creates a parallel problem of too many odd leftovers. When I do cook something sensible,  I don’t feel like eating what’s left.  So I had leftover roasted red peppers from the day I cooked the kebabs (I can only tske so many roasted red pepper and goat cheese sandwiches for lunch), and a large container of cold boiled potatoes (talk about unappealing).  I’m rather fond of potato salad, so I decided to see what I could come up with for the aging cold potatoes.

Potato salad, which is a great summer side dish that seems to appear at everyone’s barbecue, is usually loaded with fat, meaning I can have a taste, but not much more. This is too bad, because I really like a good potato salad.  This potato salad is different. It is not only low fat, but both tangy and a bit sweet, and a lovely coral pink.  It uses the roasted peppers in two places: in the salad itself to create both flavor and color, and in the dressing. Since I already had the leftover potatoes and peppers, it was easy to make, too.

Roasted Red Pepper Potato Salad

6 cups of peeled, boiled potatoes, cut in about 1 inch pieces
1½ roasted red peppers, seeded and skins removed, divided
2 medium stalks of celery, finely diced
3 green onions, thinly sliced
¼ cup non fat sour cream
½ cup low fat mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon parsley
1 clove garlic
2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste

Place boiled potatoes in a large bowl.  Cut one of the roasted red peppers (two halves) into a small dice and add to the potatoes, along with the celery and green oinions.  Cut the other 1/2 pepper into quarters and place in the food processor, along with the remaining ingredients (sour cram through black pepper). Process the dressing until smooth, taste and add salt if needed.  Mix the dressing into the potato mixtures. This makes 6 servings at just over 1 gram of fat/serving.

roasted red pepper potato saladThe salad is prettier than the photo.

Variation: I think this would be good as macaroni salad, too, using six cups of cooked macaroni instead of the potatoes.  And I like macaroni salad even more than I like potato salad.

Curried Pork Kebabs with Mango Chutney

Published July 4, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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You may notice a mango theme recently.  This because the grocery store had a two-for-the-price-of-one mango sale.  Who can resist.  I love mangoes. I grew up where people had mango trees in their yards, and in season brought you bags of mangoes.

I recently learned that two-for-the-price-of-one is called a BOGO (for buy one, get one), so now I know that the email ads that tell me BOGO today are not asking me to play a game or dance, but are trying to get me to buy two pairs of shoes.

Back to my BOGO mangoes (that actually sounds like a good name for a recipe: pork with bogo mangoes.)  My problem with mangoes is that they are hard to peel, which is compounded by the fact that I tend to eat them while I peel them, leaving me less than I need of peeled mango.   I have seen photos where someone cuts the mango down its flat sides and neatly dices the flesh while it is still on the skin.  Allegedly, the diced mango comes off the skin neatly diced – but mine never does.  I just peel the whole mango first, slice off as much as I can to dice for whatever I am making – and eat whatever is still clinging to the pit, mango juice dripping down my chin.

This recipe started as a recipe for chicken breasts from Cooking Light, but I have turned it into pork kebabs, adding the vegetables to make it a more substantial meal..  A chutney is a variety of sweet and spicy condiment, usually involving a fresh, chopped vegetable or fruit with added seasonings. When I lived in Mumbai, fresh chutney, made of whatever fruit or vegetable was available in the open air market that day, accompanied most meals. It was often made with chili peppers and very spicy.  The piquant chutneys were thought to stimulate the appetite. Mango chutney in Mumbai was likely to be made from green mangoes.  This mango chutney, made with ripe mangoes, follows a more western interpretation of chutney: fruit, vinegar and sugar, cooked down to a reduction, and often preserved like jam, rather than eaten fresh. Leftover chutney of any kind is great on cream cheese or goat cheese sandwiches.

Curried Pork Kebabs with Mango Chutney

Mango chutney:

2 cups chopped peeled ripe mango
¼ cup brown sugar
1 cup apple juice
1/3 cup diced dried apricots
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper

Pork Kebabs

1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon curry powder
1½ lbs pork tenderloin, trimmed of all fat and cut into 1” pieces
1 medium onion, peeled, quartered, and cut into 20 chunks
1 red or yellow bell pepper, de-veined and seeded, and cut into 16 chunks

To prepare chutney, combine all chutney ingredients in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring mixture occasionally.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.

To prepare kebabs, combine the soy sauce, juice, curry, and pork cubes in a zip-top plastic bag; seal and shake. Marinate in refrigerator 10 minutes, turning once. (I actually marinated them while I prepared the chutney).  Pre-heat a grill and lower the heat to medium high.

Remove pork cubes from bag. String pork cubes on 4 large or 8 small skewers, alternating with onions and peppers. (If you are using bamboo skewers, soak them in water for at least ½ hour prior to stringing them on the skewers).  Brush kebabs with marinade, and then discard remaining marinade.

pork kebabs 2

Place pork kebabs on grill.  I have a kebab rack, a nifty metal square with notches that suspends the kebabs above the grill rack. If you don’t have one of these devices, be sure to coat your grill rack with cooking oil so the kebabs don’t stick.  Cook for about 5 minutes, then turn kebabs over and cook for an additional 5 minutes or until pork is done. Serve with chutney on the side.  This makes 4 servings (one large or 2 small skewers) with about 4.5 grams of fat/serving.  I served the kebabs over couscous made with chicken broth.

pork kebab abnd couscous2

Grilled Trout with Roasted Pepper-Mango Salsa

Published July 1, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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I have been traveling a lot for a month or two and not having much chance to cook – although I’ve discovered some outrageous restaurants.  I love to eat in good restaurants, but I miss my own cooking.. My kitchen has been bereft of fresh fruits and vegetables in order to avoid having them rot  while I was on the road (or in the air).  But now I’m back, and the farmers’ markets and grocery stores are packed with summer fruits and vegetables – the grill has been more or less cleaned – so let the cooking begin!

Tonight I grilled trout. The grocery had them whole, heads and all, but I asked the butcher to chop of the heads and tails and split them open so they would lay flat on the grill.  They were too small to bone prior to cooking, but once they were grilled, the bones more or less lifted right out.  I decided not to fuss with the trout, since they were fresh and would have their own delicate flavor.  Trout Is often sautéed or pan fried, but freshwater trout has a high fat content and can easily stand up to grilling.  I made a lightly spicy fruit salsa with and Asian touch to go with the fish.

Grilled Trout with Roasted Pepper-Mango Salsa

4 whole trout, heads and tails removed, and halved lengthwise. (These trout were only about ½ pound whole, and after the head and tail were removed, there was probably 4 ounces of meat left)
Mesquite seasoning (I used Costco’s, which is not too strong)
1 red bell pepper
Cooking Spray
2 ripe mangoes, peeled, pitted, and cut into ½ inch dice
½ cup sweet onion (like Vidalia or Walla Walla), finely chopped
2 Tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped
1 green chili, seeded, de-veined,, and finely chopped (optional)
2 Tablespoons sweet chili sauce (I used Sun Luck, but there are several brands)

Preheat the grill, then reduce the heat to medium low.  Cut the red pepper in half and remove the seeds and veins. Place cut side down on hard surface and flatten with the palm of your hand.  Spray both sides of the pepper with cooking spray. Place on grill, cut side down.  Grill for about five minutes per side, turning once. (I used a barbecue grill pan sprayed with cooking spray on top of the regular grill to make it easier to remove the pepper without sticking).  Remove pepper and allow to cool slightly.  Cut the pepper into ½ inch dice.  Mix the pepper, mangoes, onion, cilantro, chili, and sweet chili sauce in a medium bowl and set aside.  Spray the trout  with cooking spray and sprinkle lightly with mesquite seasoning. Place flesh side down on the same grill surface you cooked the peppers on.  Cook for 5 minutes, turn over, and cook for about 4 minutes more.  Serve with salsa.  This makes 4 servings. The amount of fat depends in part on the type of trout – rainbow trout have more fat than lake trout, but I estimate that the total fat is about 8 grams/serving.

trout and mango salsa

NOTE on peppers: I had a bag of red bell peppers, and took the opportunity to grill all 5 of them so that I could use them for sandwiches and such.  No sense turning on the big barbecue and grilling one every time I need one, when they keep quite well for several days refrigerated in a sealed plastic bag.

Moroccan Tri-Color Pepper Salad

Published June 25, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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This is a nice make ahead dish that looks very festive in a buffet.  It is handy because it can be served cold or at room temperature.  I had a bit left over, so I used it as a relish on sandwiches, which was quite good.  Other than roasting the peppers, it isn’t very fussy to make, an advantage as the summer gets hotter.   I expect you could even roast the peppers on the grill to avoid heating up the kitchen.  It’s been raining too much here to grill anything though.   I also wouldn’t use pre-roasted jarred peppers, as I think they would be too slimy.  The original recipe was from Cooking Light.

Moroccan Tri-Color Pepper Salad

3 yellow bell peppers
3 red bell peppers
2 orange bell peppers
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1½ Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher (or sea) salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground coriander
3 garlic cloves, minced
¼  cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional=I didn’t sprinkle mine with cilantro))

Preheat broiler (or grill). Cut bell peppers in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membranes. Place pepper halves, skin sides up on a foil-lined baking sheet; flatten with hand. (If you are using a grill, flatten and place skin side down on an oiled grill). Broil for 20 minutes or until blackened.  Place in a large zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand 20 minutes. Peel and then cut the roasted peppers  into 1/4-inch-wide strips.

Combine juice and next 5 ingredients (through garlic) in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add peppers to bowl; toss gently to combine. Cover and chill overnight. Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.  This makes 8 servings at about 3 grams of fat/serving, although when I served it as part of a larger buffet with lots of other salad-like things it served more people.

Variation: You can use only 2 colors of pepper if convenient, although I’m not sure that green peppers would do well in this salad.

tricolor pepper salad

Ranch Blue Cheese Dressing

Published June 17, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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I promise this is the last of the ranch dressing recipes – I’ve almost finished it off.  I like blue cheese dressing on salad or other vegetables.  And many years ago, when I was a graduate student in Madison, Wisconsin, there was a restaurant (OK, it was really a bar that served food) that had a divine burger called the Plaza Burger.

bar

It was the Plaza Tavern – a bit of a student dive – but oh those burgers and the famous sauce.  As I recall it, it was a big juicy hand-shaped burger on a whole wheat bun, with grilled onions and “secret sauce”.  It’s still on the menu. Of course, it was greasy and probably really bad for me – but I was young and invincible and it was sooo good.

Now I’m older, and a Plaza Burger would probably upset my stomach for weeks (though it might be worth a one time indulgence if I’m ever back in Madison). I recall that the special sauce was suspiciously like slightly tart blue cheese dressing.  I bet I can make it with lean buffalo and this low fat ranch blue cheese dressing and drift back to Madison in the  ‘60’s.  In the meantime, I’m having it tonight on fresh tomatoes.  Once you’ve made the ranch dressing, this is easy.

Ranch Blue Cheese Dressing

½ cup buttermilk ranch dressing
½ cup reduced fat crumbled blue cheese, divided

Put the ranch dressing and ¼ cup of the blue cheese in a food processor or blender and blend thoroughly.  Put in a small bowl and stir in the remaining blue cheese.  This makes 8 two-tablespoon servings at about 1.5 grams of fat/serving

blue chese dressing

I also made an impromptu fruity blue chicken salad to use up odds and ends of fruit and leftover chicken – here it’s  packed for lunch. It’s about a quarter cup of the dressing, a cooked skinless chicken breast cut into one inch chunks, a chopped green onion, aging grapes (cut in half) and tired blueberries. This was 2 servings for me at about 4 grams of fat/serving.

chickensalad

Ranch Cole Slaw

Published June 9, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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This is part two of my experiments with the home-made ranch dressing.  I thought that cole slaw would be handy to have around. It’s a good side dish, and I like to put it on sandwiches instead of lettuce.  Now that the weather has warmed up a bit (relative to 9 feet of snow), I took out the smoker and smoked pork tenderloins. The cole slaw was particularly tasty on smoked pork loin sandwiches.

What appears to define cole slaw dressings is cider vinegar and sugar to give it the familiar sweet and sour tang.  So I just added the vinegar and sugar to the ranch dressing.

Ranch Cole Slaw

½ cup buttermilk ranch dressing
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
2-4 Tablespoons sugar (I like my slaw sweet – but you can sweeten to your preference)
I Tablespoon celery seed (optional)
1 pound shredded cole slaw mix (I used Tricolor with carrots, but any mix would do – or if you’re ambitious shred your own.)

Whisk the first 4 ingredients together in a large bowl. Add cole slaw mix and toss thoroughly.  This is even better the next day. Makes 8 servings, with less than a gram of fat/serving.

cole slaw

Variation: After a day or so, I got bored with plain cole slaw, and decided to dress it up to make it a more interesting side dish.  I added a 15 ounce can of pineapple tidbits (drained) and ½ cup of golden raisins to half of the slaw. I let it sit in the refrigerator for several hours so the raisins would plump.  This would be a nice salad to take to a potluck, since the flavors are a little surprising.  It still has less than a gram of fat/serving.

tropical cole slaw

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Published June 5, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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I have been wanting to make home-made ranch dressing for a while now.  I’m not a big fan of bottled ranch dressing, so I though I could make one that suited me better. I took this basic idea from Relish magazine, one of those weekly publications that is tucked in my local newspaper once a week – usually on the day that they are running the food ads.  The original recipe uses buttermilk, light mayonnaise, and sour cream – and I lightened it up a bit.  And here is an important hint about light mayonnaise.  I am not a big mayonnaise eater – usually just in tuna salad.  So I usually only buy a small jar of it.  When I went to make this recipe I discovered that there wasn’t enough left in the jar, so I went to the store to get more, and even bought a larger jar because it’s summer, and I’m liable to want to have tuna salad more often.  I grabbed a jar of the brand I usually buy that was labeled “light” mayonnaise.  Somewhat to my surprise, the label said that it had 6 grams of fat/tablespoon.  I don’t like non-fat mayonnaise – it tends to be too sweet.  So I did a little searching and discovered that the same brand has a “low fat” product that only has 1 gram of fat per tablespoon.  This makes a big difference in the fat gram count of the final product, so check your labels.  By the way, I’m using Best Foods Low-Fat Mayonnaise Dressing.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

½ cup reduced-fat buttermilk
½ cup non-fat sour cream
½ cup low fat mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons chopped chives
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
Coarsely ground black pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in bowl. Whisk well. Refrigerate for one hour.  I actually think this tastes better the next day when the flavors have had a chance to blend. Makes 1½ cups. A two tablespoon serving has just under 1 gram of fat/serving.

This is the reason that I actually made the dressing – to serve as a dip for snap peas that are showing up in the market now.

ranch dressibg

However, I made a double recipe so I can experiment with it.  More about the experiments later.

Sweet Carrot Salad

Published June 1, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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This is a quick salad that makes a good buffet or potluck dish.  The carrots with the slightly sweet and sour spiced dressing is quite refreshing.  I served it chilled, but it holds well enough without wilting to serve at room temperature.  The original recipe is from Cooking Light. I used baby carrots, because that is what I had in the house. Regular carrots would work well, but I would choose slender ones rather than big soup carrots.

Sweet Carrot Salad

5 cups  (1/2-inch-thick) carrot slices, cleaned and peeled
2 garlic cloves, halved
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2Ttablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika

Combine carrot and garlic in a large saucepan. Cover with water; bring to a boil. Cook 8 minutes or until tender; drain. Discard garlic.

Combine lemon juice and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl, and stir well. Add carrot to lemon juice mixture, tossing to coat. Serve salad at room temperature or chilled.  Makes 8 servings with virtually no fat per serving.

Carrot salad

Couscous Tabbouleh

Published May 23, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Tabbouleh, a salad of Levantine Arab origins, is typically made with bulgur, plus parsley, mint, lemon juice and olive oil.  This variation is made with couscous.  Couscous is a Berber dish  consisting of spherical granules made by rolling and shaping moistened semolina wheat and then coating them with finely ground wheat flour. It has been around since the 13th century, and is a staple in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Western Libya. Couscous is traditionally served under a meat or vegetable stew. It can also be eaten alone, even sweetened a a dessert or breakfast dish.  While traditional couscous must be steamed several times, the couscous sold in most Western supermarkets has been pre-steamed and dried. It takes only a brief soaking in boiling water to be ready, making it a great fast food.  I confess that I frequently use couscous as a bed for curries and stews that I take out of the freezer when I’m too hungry to take the time to cook up rice or noodles.

This use of couscous is a bit different, but it makes a great salad ingredient. I’ve made lots of couscous salads from curried with raisins to mixed with tiny shrimp and peas.  I’m a great tabbouleh fan not only as a side dish, but as something to take for lunch.  Most tabbouleh has olive oil in it, but  I almost always eliminate the olive oil to reduce the number of fat grams (Yes, I know it’s “good fat”, but when you’re counting grams it still counts.)  No one has ever really noticed the lack of olive oil in the flavor of the tabbouleh.

Couscous Tabbouleh

1 cup water
¾ cup uncooked couscous
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups halved grape or cherry tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped
3 green onions, finely sliced
¾ cup chopped fresh parsley
½ cup  chopped fresh mint
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan (or bring to a boil in a medium bowl in the microwave), and gradually stir in couscous and salt. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl, and fluff with a fork. Stir in tomatoes and remaining ingredients. Taste and adjust seasonings. You may want to add more lemon juice.  Refrigerate, covered, 1 hour to allow the flavors to blend.  This makes 6 one-cup servings at about 1 gram of fat/serving.

couscous tabbouleh2

Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Spread

Published May 19, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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I have gone to wild mushroom heaven.  In the effort to use up the remaining Mothers’ Day mushrooms, I made this delightful recipe that has three of my favorite ingredients: wild mushrooms, goat cheese, and sherry.  But first, a note about the mushrooms.  They were purchased at Costco.com, and came in a basket with 2 pounds of organic gourmet mushrooms.  I have been comparing the prices of various gourmet mushrooms at my local grocery, and at about $20/pund, the Costco mushrooms are actually a good buy for what is, I’ll admit, a luxury food. They were very fresh. The only drawback is that you have to purchase two pounds at a time, which is a lot of mushrooms. However, if you are having a party and want something special to serve, it would be worth buying the two pound basket.

This wild mushroom dish, originally from Cooking Light,  is probably intended as a party dish – a hot dip to be served with crackers or slices of a nice baguette, to be scooped up by guests as an appetizer.  I wasn’t having guests, so I bought a nice French bread at the farmers’ market, toasted a few thin slices, and scooped out several servings worth to have for dinner, with a side of tomatoes with sea salt.  It was a very satisfying dinner that felt like something a bit luxurious – if not terribly attractive.

MUSHROOMS ON TOAST
I also plan to take the spread for lunch with interesting crackers – and maybe experiment with using it as a spread on sandwiches.

Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Spread

¼ cup boiling water
½ ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced shallots
1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary  (or other herb if you don’t like rosemary, like me)
½ teaspoon salt
¼  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 ounces wild mushrooms, finely chopped (I used all wild mushrooms, since I wanted to use up the remaining mushrooms)
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, finely chopped
5 Tablespoons sherry
6  tablespoons (3 ounces) goat cheese, divided
Cooking spray
1 Tablespoon  chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Combine 1/4 cup boiling water and porcini mushrooms in a bowl; let stand 10 minutes. Strain porcini mushrooms through a sieve over a bowl, reserving liquid. Chop mushrooms; set aside.  Preheat boiler.

Heat butter and oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. (I also sprayed it with olive oil cooking spray.) Add shallots, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, and garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Stir in reserved porcini mushrooms, wild mushrooms, and cremini mushrooms. Cook 10 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring frequently. Stir in sherry and reserved mushroom liquid, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook 5 minutes or until the liquid almost evaporates. Remove from heat. Place mushroom mixture and 3 tablespoons of the goat cheese in a food processor; process until smooth. Scrape the mushroom mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with remaining 3 tablespoons cheese. Broil for 7 minutes or until edges of cheese begin to brown. (Mine got a bit too brown.) Remove from heat, and sprinkle with parsley if you  want to make it prettier.  This makes ten servings (serving size is about 3 tablespoons) with 2.8 grams of fat/servings.

mushrooms in pan
If I were serving this to company, I’d broil it in an attractive oven-proof dish, instead of an old baking pan. I also would consider adding another 2 ounces of goat cheese to sprinkle over the top. It would only raise the fat level by one gram of fat/serving and would make it a more party-like dish.

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ABOUT KAREN

I have lost 200 pounds. I did not do it through surgery – I don’t like knives and needles – or by joining a club, vigorous exercise, or rigorous dieting. I did it by gourmet cooking. To be precise, by cooking low fat, really delicious food. I love to cook as much as I love to eat. Food magazines are some of my favorite reading. I would feel deprived if I couldn’t have the sensuous experience of good food crossing my lips. This blog is about my perpetual feast, my passionate love of food, with recipes, photos, and occasional advice and principles that I have learned along the way.

More about me.

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