Healthy Delicious

Review: Secrets of a Skinny Chef

LK — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:36:34 +0000

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and in this case I'm glad that I didn't. I'll be honest: Secrets of a Skinny Chef probably isn't a cookbook that would catch my eye if I was browsing around Barnes and Noble. The cover is a dull yellow-green color (I couldn't even take a decent photo of it!), the cartoon is kind of hokey, and there's something about the word "skinny" that really turns me off. But the description pulled me in - Jennifer Iserloh and I share a similar food philosophy that includes moderate portions of real foods, lots of veggies, and not falling victim to food fads. Plus, her recipe for mac and cheese loaded up with cauliflower sounded really good (ever since I made that gratin, I've been obsessed with the combination of cauliflower and cheese).

The book covers a really wide range of dishes, with chapters dedicated to everything from breakfast to side dishes to desserts. There are also some really cool extras, like a "skinny shopping list" and a section dedicated to using up leftovers. None of the recipes call for "diet" foods or specify that you use a specific brand of something, and all of them include nutrition information. The recipes are straightforward and easy to make — not intimidating at all for those of you who aren't "cooks." They don't involve complicated or expensive ingredients, and they're fast to cook up.

The first recipe that I made was the shrimp and corn fritters with sweet chili sauce. It was incredible!! The fritters were light and fluffy in the center, but crisp on the outside, and the seasoning mixture in them was unlike anything I've ever eaten. The sauce was a lot spicier than I expected, but it was full of flavor and paired perfectly with the fritters. The sweetness of the corn also went really nicely with the spicy sauce. One serving didn't look like much on my plate, but the three fritters (302 calories) and a side of asparagus was more than I could finish. I plan to make these again soon!

The last recipe I tried was the pork lo mein, hold the grease. While I wouldn't all this dish lo mein (the sauce wasn't what I was expecting) it was, again, an excellent dish. It was packed full of filling vegetables, and the sauce had a ton of flavor. I also really enjoyed the use soba noodles in this recipe. For 293 calories, this dish was not only much tastier than take-out, but much healthier too.

The verdict: Secrets of a Skinny Chef contains 100 healthy recipes that are easy and accessible to make. It may not appeal to the more experienced cook that is looking to be challenged and inspired, but it's a solid collection or recipes for more casual home cooks who are looking to eat healthier without sacrificing flavor. The recipes are family friendly, and I think they would also be great for parents who are trying to encourage their children t eat more vegetables (you might just have to tone some of the spicier recipes down a little).

Would I buy this book? A few years ago, I not only would have nought the book, but I would have cooked from it almost every day. I wouldn't buy it today, but only because my cooking skills have evolved and the books that I buy tend to be more specialized or "gourmet." I'll still refer to it though, and I have marked a few more recipes that I want to try. While I wouldn't buy it for myself, I would have no hesitation recommending it to a friend who was looking to lose weight in a healthy way or just wanted to learn how to cook without relying on processed foods.

Secrets of a Skinny Chef is available at Amazon.com for $13.49.

Linguini with White Clam Sauce

LK — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:23:43 +0000

I remember for a while when I was young, we had linguini with clam sauce fairly often. I don't know if the traditional dish had a surge of popularity in the 80s-90s or what. A Google search really didn't provide me with any information on that. Anyway, we ate this stuff a lot when I was a kid. And then it sort of disappeared. To be honest, I totally forgot that it ever existed. Then, a few weeks ago, Shawn and I went out to a seafood restaurant. As we stood up to leave, I saw that one of the people at a table near us was eating a big bowl full of pasta with clams. It looked so good! The memory of white clam sauce came flooding back to me, and I knew that I would be making it in the near future.

When I sat down to try to create my recipe, a funny thing happen. I thought, "But clam sauce comes from a can!" and I got a little confused. Those of you who know me, know that I would never eat sauce from a can, so this really made me laugh. Of course you can buy a canned version of the sauce, but why do that when it's so easy to make from the simplest ingredients?

Really, this sauce is super simple to make and requires little more than wine, garlic, onion, and parsley. I did use some canned baby clams in their juice but, looking back on it, fish stock would have worked just as well to thin out the sauce. This linguini and clam sauce doesn't take long to make at all, and the use of fresh ingredients results in a dish that tastes so much better (and so much less salty!!) than anything you can get from a can.

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Copyright Lauren Keating © 2007-2010. This feed is for personal enjoyment only, and not for publication. Please contact lk@healthy-delicious.com if you are not reading this in a news aggregator, the site you are viewing is guilty of copyright infringement.

Lavender and Vanilla Bean Macarons

LK — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:04:32 +0000

Why what do we have here? Just my long promised second (and more successful!) post about making macarons! I know. I left you hanging for forever. A few of you even emailed me. But what can I say? I got distracted by other goodies like pineapple upside-down cake, cappuccino cheesecake, and a delicious orange pound cake that I still need to post.

I recently began seeing a group of people on twitter posting about a monthly #mactweets event. It took me a while to figure out what exactly was going on, but eventually I got it : a group of people looking to perfect macarons, and sharing laughs, encouragement, and cheers along the way. All with a monthly theme. I've been watching from the sidelines for a while, but decided that this would be the month that I would jump right in.

The theme for March is "Spring Fling: Baking Your Favorite Springtime Flowers." I've been looking for an excuse to buy some of the beautiful dried flowers that they keep in the bulk bins at the co-op, so this was the perfect month for me to start! It took me a while to settle on a flavor, but I ended up choosing lavender and vanilla bean macarons with buttercream frosting.

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Copyright Lauren Keating © 2007-2010. This feed is for personal enjoyment only, and not for publication. Please contact lk@healthy-delicious.com if you are not reading this in a news aggregator, the site you are viewing is guilty of copyright infringement.

Daring Cooks: Beet Risotto

LK — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:58:26 +0000

I had to laugh a little when I saw that this month's Daring Cooks Challenge was risotto. It doesn't take very much time on this blog to figure out that we love the stuff and I even have a whole categorydedicated to it! I took the opportunity to step a little out of my comfort zone and make a vegetarian meal based around the risotto itself rather than relying on lots of toppings. In fact, this simple and delicious risotto only makes three changes to the standard recipe - the addition of beets and the substitutions of goat cheese for parmesan and red wine for white.

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from Autralian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

In my recent blog survey, an overwhelming number of you asked for more information on how to create your own recipes. Risotto is the perfect place to start! Once you have the basics of making the base down, you can feel free to experiment with add-ins. The rice itself has a very subtle flavor, so just about any other ingredients will work - you can either mix them in, like I did here, for a more uniform flavor or you can serve them on top of the rice and let each individual flavor speak for itself. Pick an ingredient that you want to use, and think about what other flavors work well with it. Those will be the main components of your dish - 2 or 3 should be plenty. Then you can change up the items in the base to go along with those flavors. There are three main areas where you can make changes - the aromatics, the wine, and the cheese. For example, if you're going for a French theme you might want to use shallots instead of onion and ramps go great with other springtime flavors like peas or asparagus. If you're using a bold flavor like sliced steak and don't care about the risotto being a creamy white, you can consider using red wine. And you can use whatever cheese you think will go best with the flavors that you're using.

For this dish, I took my inspiration from one of my favorite salads - simple greens dressed with beets and crumbled chevre. Since I had an open bottle of pinot noir and I didn't care about the dish being pristine white so I used that instead of white wine. The flavor of the beets were strong enough that they masked the wine and either would probably have worked just as well. Upon the first taste, I could tell that it needed something - the flavors were kind of muddled and heavy. Lots of freshly ground pepper did the trick! I've found that whenever a recipe I'm creating seems too dull, it's because it needs either more acidity or more spice. Something like a splash of lemon juice, a simple vinaigrette, or some black pepper is usually all you need to perk the flavors right up!

What would flavors would you use in your risotto?

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Meat Free Friday: Chana Masala (Curried Chickpeas)

LK — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:24:22 +0000

There's an Indian restaurant around the corner from my house. In addition to having great food, they're one of the few Indian restaurants in town that have a weekend lunch buffet — and sometimes they even have a coupon for buy one, get one free! Needless to say, we find ourselves there on Saturdays fairly often. All of the options are spectacular, but I always head straight for the chickpeas. They do them a few different way, but whenever I see "the one with the onions" I know I've hit the jackpot. This dish is glorious: hearty but not heavy and with the perfect amount of spice to make it noticeably hot without being too much. And the chickpeas — oh, the chickpeas. I'm always jealous of how they get their chickpeas to be so silky smooth.

So, me being me, I decided to try reproducing it at home.

I searched for a while, but wasn't able to figure out what exactly this dish is called. So I used a combination of recipes and memory to come up with this recipe. I'm calling it chana masala, which from what I can tell is a broad description that translates to something like "chickpeas in curry sauce." It isn't exactly the same as the restaurant's, but it's delicious nonetheless. Caramelized onions and tomatoes give the dish a great depth of flavor, and a combination of spices and cream give it a luxurious earthiness.

The trick to getting those velvety chickpeas is to start with dried beans. I have nothing against canned chickpeas. In fact, I use them all the time. But when you really think about the texture of them, they have sort of a grittiness or a sandiness to them. Dried beans take a lot longer to prepare, but the texture is entirely different — they're soft and plump, with a smooth, creamy center that doesn't have a trace of grittiness to it. I've tried making dried chickpeas a few times before but they've never come out quite right. You need to be patient with them. Soak them overnight in lots of water — they'll plump up to at least double their original size. Then, simmer then slowly for at least an hour until they are tender and creamy.

If you're in a rush, you can use canned chickpeas and have a delicious dinner in a few minutes. But if you have the time and patience to start with dried beans, you'll be in for a real treat.

You may find chickpeas being sold under their other name — garbanzo beans.

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Shirred Eggs with Thyme

LK — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:47:20 +0000

I know I just posted a breakfast recipe a few days ago, but I've been loving weekend breakfasts lately! You may have noticed that in my post about waffles, I wrote that we've been having them almost every weekend. The rest of the time, we've been eating these baked eggs. We're pretty much obsessed with them - they're so good! And so easy to make! As much as i love breakfast, I never really feel like cooking in the morning. The great part about these is that there really isn't much "cooking" that needs to be done: no standing over the stove, no measuring. Just throw them in the oven, set the timer, and a few minutes later you have a delicious breakfast. (If you can conjure the energy to cook a few slices of bacon, you're really set!)

Plus there's something so beautiful about eggshells. They never fail to make me smile. Any day that starts with something so beautiful can never be bad. [....]

Spaghetti with Feta and Capers

LK — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:33:29 +0000

Back in December, I had the opportunity to watch a cooking demonstration by the chef from a local Italian restaurant. He made all sorts of wonderful dishes, but the one that impressed me the most was a briny, saucy pasta dish. Looking back I can't remember if his version actually had feta in it or not, but the idea of a soft, salty cheese with pasta has been in the back of my head ever since. If you follow me on twitter, you'll know that last week I just did not feel like cooking. At all. I didn't really feel like eating either. It was simple, delicious recipes like this one that got me through to week - this takes very little effort to make, but the result is impressive.(And don't worry, I made an awesome grocery list for this week and am back to my normal self!)

While you could use your favorite jarred sauce for this to make it even easier, I find that it's just as easy to make my own. Pasta sauce really is a snap to make and it taste so much better than store-bought! San Marzano tomatoes were on sale, so I used those and I recommend that you do too. I find them to be slightly sweeter and less acidic than other canned tomatoes, resulting in a sauce that tastes like you made it from ripe, summer tomatoes. If you can't find San Marzano's (they can be difficult to find and are pretty pricey if they aren't on sale), feel free to use your favorite brand of peeled plum tomatoes.

I served my sauce on top of spinach linguini. No real reason for that. I don't think it tastes any different than plain pasta and the nutritional differences are negligible. Honestly, I just like the way that it looks. Green pasta is so much more fun to eat than beige pasta! [....]

Buttermilk Waffles with Sauteed Bananas

LK — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:51:03 +0000

Buying Shawn a waffle iron for Christmas may have been one of the best things that I've ever done. We've wanted one for a while, but were hesitant because people kept telling us that we would never use it and it would ust take up precious cabinet space. Well, guess what? They were all wrong. We've been making waffles just about every weekend since we got it.

There's something about a homemade waffle that just doesn't compare to the frozen version. If you've ever ordered one at a diner you know what I'm talking about - they have that beautiful crispy exterior that gives way to a fluffy, light interior. These buttermilk waffles are perfect for a lazy weekend breakfast, or for a weeknight dinner. I like to make extras, which I reheat in the toaster for weekday breakfasts.

There are so many waffle recipes out there that it can be a little overwhelming. Cornmeal waffles, yeast waffles, chocolate waffles...the options are limitless. But my favorite are these buttermilk waffles, which call for whipped egg whites. They're the closest that I've found to the diner waffles that I love so much. I think the whipped eggs result in an extra light and fluffy center.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk toppings. Syrup is a classic, but I don't like to use too much since it can be so sweet. For these, I used just a drizzle of real maple syrup and some bananas that I sauteed with a little bit of grand marnier. The creaminess of the bananas was a really nice contrast to the tender-crisp texture of the waffle itself. As another alternative, I really like these waffles topped with a little bit of raspberry preserves. [....]

Coconut Chicken with Roasted Carrot-Ginger Puree

LK — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:00:26 +0000

Last week, I was walking to work and I noticed that some of the trees were getting little leaf buds on them! I was so excited... and then the next day, it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. Three feet of snow later, I decided a meal with warm, tropical flavors might be just the thing I needed to cheer myself up.

A roasted carrot and ginger soup from an old issue of Food + Wine caught my eye recently, but Shawn wasn't buying the whole carrot soup idea. To be honest, I'm still a little tired of soup myself anyway. Since we both like mashed carrots, I decided to reinvent the soup as a roasted carrot and ginger puree. Coconut seemed like it would go well with those flavors and I was in the mood for something a little different, so I decided to make coconut chicken cutlets.

Although I could have used to roast the carrots a little longer (you can see that they're a little gritty in the photos - that's because they were undercooked), I was really happy with how these two dishes turned out. The sweetness of the carrot was great with the ginger and the coconut on the chicken got nice and toasty and made the perfect crispy coating. I used boneless chicken thighs, which have a lot more flavor and are a lot juicer than breast meat. Plus if you buy thighs with the skin on and just take it off yourself, it's so much cheaper than buying boneless, skinless breast! [....]

Daring Bakers: Kahlua Tiramisu

LK — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:07:40 +0000

When it's done right, I love tiramisu. But when it's not done right, it can be pretty disappointing - too sweet and too sloppy. So it goes without saying that I had mixed feeling when I saw that the February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession. As part of the challenge, Aparna and Deeba also required that we make our own mascarpone and lady fingers. It seemed like a lot of work for such an iffy outcome, and since I've been so exhausted lately I seriously considered not participating in the challenge. But some of my friends on twitter were encouraging, promising that despite the length of the recipe and the time involved, the dish wasn't complicated to make and that it was some of the best tiramisu they've ever had.

I'm glad I took their advice - this was hands down one of my favorite daring bakers challenges to date. The tiramisu was surprisingly easy to make and it tasted fabulous! Not too sweet (though I did cut down on the sugar slightly) with the perfect balance of cream to cake. It also freezes really well, which is great because keeping it readily accessible in the fridge would be way too dangerous! Keeping it in the freezer allows me to thaw just the amount that I want - and makes it difficult to go back for a second slice! I would definitely make this recipe again - it would be the perfect ending to a dinner party. [....]