Archive for April, 2009

Marinated Asparagus Bundles

Published April 29, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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I was browsing about in other food blogs and noticed that The Go Lightly Gourmet, a blogger with a similar philosophy to mine, published several Cooking Light recipes about asparagus.  What’s not to like about asparagus!  It’s tasty, low fat, and can be very elegant.  And this is the season for fresh asparagus.  Then I recalled that I made a very elegant Cooking Light recipe for the Passover buffet.  It was delicious and beautiful to look at.  I’m not sure if you would call it an appetizer, side dish, or salad, but the little that was left was lovely for lunch the next day.  It is also a make ahead dish, because it needs to marinate, which fits my buffet-making schedule.

To look best, this is should made with thinner asparagus spears. You could also use two colors of  peppers.  It is not hard to make, but allow a little time, because tying the asparagus into little bundles requires some fussing.  I also recommend using more than 10 green onions, because some of the onion ties will be too short or will tear when you get impatient.

Marinated Asparagus Bundles

2 ½ pounds asparagus
10 green onions
2 red bell peppers, cut into 20 strips
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup red wine vinegar
½ cup water
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Snap off tough ends of asparagus. Cover and cook in a small amount of boiling water 5 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and rinse under cold running water; drain well. Trim white portion from green onions.  Place green onion tops in a bowl; add boiling water to cover. Drain immediately, and rinse under cold running water.

Gather asparagus into 10 bundles, and add 2 bell pepper strips to each bundle. I actually used 5 asparagus spears/bundle, which meant I had more than 10 bundles, and needed more pepper strips.  I also think that thinner pepper strips would look a little better. Tie each bundle with a green onion strip. Pull the onion ties closed gently. Place bundles in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.

Combine chopped onion and next 9 ingredients (onion through pepper) in a bowl; stir well. Pour over asparagus bundles. Cover and chill 2 to 8 hours. To serve,gently  remove asparagus bundles from marinade, and discard marinade. Arrange asparagus bundles on a serving platter.  They certainly make an elegant buffet item.  Makes 10 servings (or more depending upon how you divide them) at only 0.3 grams of fat/serving.

Marinated asparagus bundles

Parsnip Mashed Potatoes

Published April 26, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Who would’ve thunk it? Parsnips were the star of the buffet!  I was making two juicy main dishes (the French Honey-Baked Chicken was one of them) and I needed something starchy to hold the juices. I originally planned on wild rice, but it wasn’t exactly right, so I made these parsnip mashed potatoes.  They were kind of an afterthought – I figured they would be okay, and that most people wouldn’t really eat much of them.  So I didn’t even make a double recipe.  Hah!! Who would have known there were that many avid parsnip lovers? Before the end of the dinner the bowl was scraped clean!  Oh no – my mother’s nightmare.  I ran out of a dish instead of having leftovers.

Parsnips are a rather humble root vegetable which, to be honest, I’d only tossed into soup or veggie curry before.  The parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) is a relative of the carrot, and resembles it in shape, although parsnips are tan in color. It originated in the Mediterranean region and originally was the size of a baby carrot when full grown. When the Roman Empire expanded north through Europe the Romans brought the parsnip with them. They found that the parsnip grew bigger the further north they went. In Roman times, parsnips were believed to be an aphrodisiac – hmmm, does this explain their rapid disappearance from the buffet?  Parsnips are high in potassium and, if they have experienced a frost, have a mildly sweet flavor.

parsnips-1

When purchasing parsnips, choose the smallest ones you can find.  Large parsnips tend to be tough, although they work out well enough if cooked for a long time in a soup or stew.  If, when you cut them up, they have a large core, I recommend that for this dish you cut it out.  I was picking parsnip cores out of the mashed potatoes for quite a while.  A version of this recipe appeared in Sunset magazine.

Parsnip Mashed Potatoes

2 pounds each of parsnips and Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
¼ teaspoon black pepper
Fat free chicken or vegetable broth

Put parsnips and potatoes in a medium pot. Add enough broth to cover by one inch.  Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover and reduce heat, simmering 8-12 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove vegetables from pan and drain, reserving broth. Place vegetables in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add olive oil, salt, and pepper. Beat on low speed, gradually adding about ½ cup of the hot reserved broth until the vegetables are smooth and are the consistency that you want them to be.  This makes 12 servings at about 2.4 grams of fat/serving

Parsnip Mashed Potatoes

See, they’re not very glamorous.

You can make these ahead and refrigerate in an airtight container for a day. Reheat in the microwave, stirring occasionally.

Variation: Instead of adding the reserved broth, heat fat free half and half and add it gradually as you mix the vegetables.

Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

Published April 21, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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These are lighter than air cookies that still have a bit of crunch to their outer shell.  They are also reasonably chocolaty and very low in fat. These cookies are meringues, which are essentially egg whites and sugar, and so they are very easy to make.  They say not to make meringues on a humid day, so do this when it’s not humid…I’ve never encountered this because I live in a rather dry climate.  The original recipe came from Cooking Light, but I think a similar recipe exists in several other places, since I have been to potlucks where other people brought them and they say they are not from the same source.  At any rate, they make a nice item to take to a potluck, or just for a snack.  How often do you get chocolate in a very low fat format.

Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

3 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
3 Tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate minichips

Preheat oven to 300°.  Cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  I usually spray the baking sheet lightly with cooking spray to hold the parchment paper down – but don’t spray the parchment paper.

Beat egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt at high speed in a mixer until soft peaks form. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form and all the sugar is incorporated. Sift cocoa over egg white mixture and fold it in thoroughly. Fold in minichips.

Drop batter by level tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets. Bake at 300° for 40 – 50 minutes or until crisp. Cool completely on pan on a wire rack.. Store in an airtight container.  Makes 36 cookies with .4 grams of fat each.  That’s right, less than a half of a gram of fat each!

chocolate-meringues

Moroccan Spiced Oranges

Published April 17, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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This is a delightful dish – a slightly exotic fruit salad that is very easy to prepare.  The original recipe, from Cooking Light calls this a dessert.  But I typically serve it as a buffet side dish (it doubles easily).  It is a refreshing complement to heavier meat and vegetable dishes.  It is also a great leftover for breakfast or lunch.

Moroccan Spiced Oranges

2 ½ cups orange sections, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 6 oranges)
¼ cup slivered almonds
2 ½ Tablespoons chopped pitted dates
1 Tablespoon powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, tossing to combine. Cover; chill 20 minutes.  This makes 4 servings at 3.6 grams of fat/serving.

Variation: The fat in this recipe comes primarily from the almonds.  I have made it without the almonds, which will make it virtually a no fat recipe.  It is still quite good, although perhaps not quite as exotic.

HINT: I always struggled to peel the oranges and get enough of the white pith off the sections (the pith is bitter).  I was making a double recipe, and got tired of peeling, when it occurred to me that a grapefruit knife, with its serrated curved blade, would make quick work of the orange sections. I cut the oranges in half lengthwise, then cut each half into 4-5 pieces.  I used the grapefruit knife to cut the orange away from the skin, then cut each section into pieces.

moroccan-spiced-oranges

Matzo Balls

Published April 12, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Lest you think that Passover cooking was over after my big at-home feast, don’t be silly.  I volunteered, again, to make matzo balls to put in the soup for the community seder for our congregation.  That’s about 210 matzo balls.  So I spent Saturday morning with two giant pots boiling away, instead of sleeping in.

big-pots

My mother and her sisters used to argue about whose matzo balls were the most feathery and light (there are some people who like them firm and chewy – a shondana as mother would have said. Aren’t you ashamed to have made such leaden matzo balls!)  So I learned the secret of fluffy matzo balls – seltzer.  But I wanted matzo balls that were not only light, as in fluffy, but light as in low fat.  So a few years ago, I began tinkering with the family recipe.  First I switched the melted chicken fat to canola oil. This also made them vegetarian, which was a handy improvement.  Then I reduced the amount of oil to 1 tablespoon.  Next, I replaced 3 of the eggs with egg substitute.   Now the matzo balls are light nutritionally as well as in the sense my mother demanded.

One of the reasons to lighten up the matzo balls was that, although the traditional way of serving them is in soup, I like leftover matzo balls for breakfast, cut in half and heated in a frying pan coated with cooking spray. Drenched with maple syrup, they’re so good.  And they’re not too shabby if you cut them in half and sprinkle them with some garlic power and/or other seasonings before you reheat them.  They make a good side dish.  They are, after all, a form of dumplings.

I realize this is too late for Passover this year, but save the recipe for next year.  Or just make them for the heck of it – they’re good any time of year.  Why restrict them to a holiday.

Matzo Balls

1Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg
¾ cup egg substitute
1 cup matzo meal
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup seltzer

Mix oil, egg, egg substitute and salt together in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until well blended.  Add the matzo meal and beat with the mixer on medium speed until well blended. Gently fold in the seltzer until everything is well incorporated. Be sure your seltzer is reasonably fresh and has some bubble to it.  Flat seltzer makes for lead matzo balls.  The batter will foam up as you mix it.  Cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.  Bring a large pot of water to a full boil. Reduce to a medium boil. Form matzo batter into balls a bit smaller than golf balls. I do this by scooping up a bit of the batter with the tips of my fingers and rolling it in my palms so there won’t be raggedy edges.  This often requires occasional hand washing to keep your hands from getting too gooey.  But homemade matzo balls don’t need to be perfectly shaped, so don’t over roll them.  Your matzo balls may look a bit small, but here is where the fluffy happens. Drop the matzo balls in boiling water as you make them. They will sink to the bottom of the pot and in a few moments they will rise to the surface of the water, doubled in size. Fluffy! Cover the pot and cook for 40 minutes.  Remove the matzo balls from the pot with a slotted spoon.   This makes about 16 matzo balls with one gram of fat each.

See, they’re a little rough around the edges, but they’re fluffy.

matzoh-balls-many

I almost always make a double recipe so I have leftovers – Even when I’m making a large quantity, I never make more than a double recipe.  I’m not sure the seltzer would work well in a bigger batch and, besides, 32 is about the maximum my big pot can hold at any one time.  So I just make repeated batches.

If you are going to store them for a day or so, drain them on the counter and let them cool:

Matzo Ball Production Zone

matzo-ball-production

They actually keep well for a day or two in the refrigerator in a tightly covered container.  I also have been told that you can freeze them, but I’ve never tried it.  The traditional way to serve matzo balls in chicken soup (or vegetarian broth).  To serve, bring your soup to a boil, reduce the heat, and put the matzo balls into the soup to reheat for about 20 minutes.  Serve in bowls with one or two matzo balls in each bowl of soup.

matzoh-ball-soup

French Honey-Baked Chicken with Preserved Lemons

Published April 11, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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I have been so busy cooking for Passover that I haven’t had time to write about cooking for Passover.  There were 12 people coming to the seder, mostly old friends, but a couple of new people as well.  I always make some of the traditional foods that people expect to appear – chopped liver, matzoh ball soup, gefilte fish (from a jar) – but I try to make the actual Passover feast interesting and different. No fatty brisket or roast turkey for me.  Of course, I have to create a menu that follows the rules of Passover: no leavened products or flour or grains (although Sephardic Jews eat grains), no milk and meat in the same meal, etc.  I also have to make a lot of food, because to run out of anything would be, according to my dear late mother, a shondana or shame to be brought upon my household.

When I cook for a large group, I have a number of principles I follow.  I try to have enough variety among the dishes not only to have varied and often exotic flavors, but also to make sure that there is something for everyone to eat, even the picky eaters.  So I always make 2 main dishes, plus lots of sides.  Also, the food needs to be able to be made ahead both because I work during the day and often can’t spend my day cooking, and also because I want to be able to enjoy my guests. With a small dinner party, everyone can gather in the kitchen and socialize while you cook, but 12 people in the kitchen can get crowded. I like food that can be tucked into the oven to reheat during the seder ceremony or microwaved and put in my stove’s warming drawer to keep.  Food that can be served at room temperature is also good. And the most important principle is that all of the food served needs to be low fat, so that I can eat the leftovers.

The original recipe, from Cooking Light, called for a mix of chicken breasts, thighs, and drumsticks.  But I find that chicken breasts often overcook and get dried out in preparations such as this, especially if you are reheating.  Also, at a buffet dinner with lots of food to select from, guests often don’t want to take a large piece of food, and chicken thighs are a more amenable size.  The recipe also called for the addition of matzoh meal after the fat is taken off the gravy.  But I find that matzoh meal doesn’t tend to make a particularly good thickener.  Besides, I thought that when I reheated the chicken, a thickened gravy might get gummy.

The flavor of this chicken was outstanding and everyone raved about it.  It was a bit different because of the preserve lemon (see NOTE).  It is baked with the skin on to flavor the ample gravy, but the skin is removed before serving.

French Honey-Baked Chicken with Preserved Lemons

½ cup honey, divided
3 cups dry white wine
1/3 cup Preserved Lemons
1½  teaspoons  olive oil
2  medium onions, sliced and separated into rings
Cooking spray
8 chicken thighs, with skin and bone
8 chicken drumsticks
1¼  teaspoons kosher salt
¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Chop the preserved lemon to a medium chop (not ground fine). Be sure to remove any small seeds prior to chopping. Combine 6 tablespoons honey and wine in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook over medium high heat until reduced to 1½  cups (about 20 minutes); stir in Preserved Lemons.

Preheat oven to 375°.  Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until slightly tender. Don’t let them burn. Transfer the onions to a roasting pan coated with cooking spray. Combine remaining 2 tablespoons honey, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Carefully rub honey mixture under chicken skin, trying not to tear the skin. Place chicken pieces, meaty side up, on top of the onions in the baking pan. Pour the wine mixture over the chicken in roasting pan.

Bake uncovered at 375° for 50 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove chicken from pan, reserving wine gravy mixture. Let chicken stand 10 minutes. Remove skin from chicken; discard.  Remove onions to a separate bowl.  Place wine gravy mixture in a large container and place it in the refrigerator, chilling until the fat becomes easy to remove (alternatively, you can use a gravy separator to remove the fat.)

To reheat, place the onions on the bottom of the pan, put the skinned chicken pieces on top of the onions, and put the defatted wine gravy over it. Bake for about 30 minutes, covered, in a 300 oven.  Makes 8 servings with about 7 grams of fat/serving.

french-baked-chicken

I made a double recipe of this chicken, so the pan was completely full of chicken in wine gravy.

NOTE: I have been reluctant to use preserved lemons, which are often called for in Moroccan food.  I thought they would have a strong and perhaps fermented flavor.  I finally bought a jar of them. To my delight, they turned out to only be made of lemon, salt, and water, and had a delightful perfumed aroma.  I will definitely use them more often.  They were, however, quite expensive.  There are a number of recipes to make preserved lemons at home, and I plan to experiment with them.

Chicken and Feta Tabbouleh

Published April 6, 2009 Uncategorized 2 Comments
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I almost forgot to post this – I mentioned it a bit ago when I made the honey-roasted chicken. This was how I used the remaining chicken breast. It also used up a number of other odds and ends, like tomatoes, parsley, and cucumbers that were beginning to show signs of age. It almost seems more like a chopped salad with bulgur rather than tabbouleh, but I think I added a little more of the vegetables to it. The original recipe was from Cooking Light, but I lightened it by eliminating the olive oil and using fat free feta. I wanted fewer fat grams because I plan to take it for lunch.  Here’s a secret: people always rave about my tabbouleh and I have been leaving out the olive oil for years. No one seems to notice the difference.

Chicken and Feta Tabbouleh

¾ cup uncooked bulgur
1 cup boiling water
2 cups diced cooked skinless, boneless chicken breast
1 cup coarsely chopped plum tomato
1 cup coarsely chopped English cucumber
¾ cup chopped fresh parsley
½ cup (2 ounces) fat free feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup finely chopped green onions
¼  cup chopped fresh mint
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
¼ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Place bulgur in a medium bowl. Add 1 cup boiling water, making sure bulgur is covered. Let stand 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Combine chicken and remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Add bulgur to chicken mixture; toss gently to combine.  Easy, wasn’t it. This makes 4 servings with about 2 grams of fat/serving

chicken-feta-tabboleh

HINT: I don’t have an electric or other fancy juicer.  I use my grandmother’s old glass juicer, which works quite well.

juicer

If you want to maximize the juice you get from lemons, limes, and the like, there are two ways to make citrus fruit juicier. The first way is to poke holes in the skin of the fruit and microwave them for about 2 minutes on half power.  You need to let them cool before you juice them.  If you don’t want to microwave them, or you’re in a hurry, you can roll the fruit around firmly on the counter for a bit.  This breaks down the inside and makes them easier to juice.

Maduros (Sautéed Sweet Plantains)

Published April 4, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Lest you think I have ceased whining about the weather, I woke up Thursday to a good 4 inches of snow outside.  We have significantly passed the highest annual snowfall, and the weather people need something else to hyperventilate about.  The meteorological phenomenon that is now causing breathlessness is the highly variable spring weather: hail, snow and sunshine all in one day.  If they would leave out the snow, I’d be ok with it.

As I have noted before, I am very fond of plantains.  They are a cousin of the banana; there is no formal botanical distinction between bananas and plantains. Plantains tend to be firmer and lower in sugar content than “dessert bananas”. As the plantain ripens, it becomes sweeter and its color changes from green to yellow to black. Green plantains are firm and starchy and resemble potatoes in flavor. Yellow plantains are softer and starchy but sweet. Extremely ripe plantains have a softer, deep yellow pulp that is much sweeter than the earlier stages of ripeness.

Plantains are a common side dish in tropical regions of the world, from Latin America through Africa and South Asia. A side of plantains, fried and sometimes mashed as well, often accompanies grilled meats or stews.  I have had difficulty finding riper plantains in local groceries, meaning that while the plantains are good in stews or other long-cooked dishes, they aren’t the side dish I love.  But I have discovered that with patience, the too green plantains will ripen on the kitchen counter, especially if you put them on top of a bowl of apples to take advantage of the ripening gases that apples exude.  These sautéed plantains are incredibly easy to make.

Maduros (Sautéed Sweet Plantains)

4 cups soft black or nearly black plantains, peeled and cut into ½ inch thick slices
3 Tablespoons  sugar
¼ teaspoon  salt
1½ Tablespoons  butter

Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; toss well. Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add plantains in one layer; sauté 5 minutes or until browned and tender, turning over once.  You may have to cook these in two batches.  Be careful not to let them get too dark – some of mine got a little too brown and were slightly bitter.  This makes 6 servings at about 4 grams of fat/serving.

roasted-plantains1

The Maduros are on a plate with the chicken I made a few days ago.  I reheated the chicken thighs to go with the plantains.

Variation: You can make non-sweetened plantains, also a very traditional side dish, by using olive oil instead of the butter and eliminating the sugar. Sprinkle the cooked plantains with salt.

Variation 2: You can also cut the plantains in half lengthwise and then cut each half into 4-5 pieces instead of cutting them into slices.  This is how I usually see plantains served as a side dish in Latin American restaurants.

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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