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FLAVOR,
ORGANIZATION, FOCUS AND CREATIVITY
LOW FAT Cooking to Beat the Clock is based on four principles,
which will enable you not just to pick out a recipe here and there,
but to develop a lifelong strategy for fast meals, regardless of
how long they take. They are flavor, organization,
focus and creativity.
Flavor
means a pantry-which also includes the refrigerator and freezer-well
stocked with flavorful ingredients. Flavorful ingredients are even
more important when making low-fat meals in fifteen minutes. Fats
provide a great deal of the sensory satisfaction we get from food.
If we reduce the amount of fat in our diet, we need to compensate
with other ingredients that provide an alternative to the "mouthfeel"
that fats give us. And when we do use fat-laden ingredients, they
must be sufficiently flavorful so that we can use less of them.
For example,
in my Penne with Pesto, Potatoes, and Tomatoes, I use one tablespoon
of olive oil for my pesto sauce instead of the normal 1/3 to 1/2
cup. But that olive oil is absolutely the most flavorful oil I can
afford. And isn't it better to spend money on good food than on
cockamamie diet plans?
Fresh herbs
and spices also add flavor. The most vital seasoning, however, is
salt. In many instances when my recipe testers said a dish was a
bit bland, it was inadequately salted. With the exception of specific
amounts of salt for cooking pasta, rice, and some vegetables, recipes
tell readers to "season to taste" with salt because everyone's
tolerance for salt is different. But unless you're on a sodium-restricted
diet, don't stint on the salt. Salting at the table isn't always
a good solution because the salt doesn't get fully integrated into
the dish.
In both of my books, Cooking to Beat the Clock and Low-Fat Cooking
to Beat the Clock, I use fresh ingredients whenever possible. Canned
or frozen ingredients, including those that are reduced in fat or
fat-free, are used judiciously. As with my previous book, I use
fresh ingredients whenever possible, though I do use canned and
frozen items when the quality is good. I've used the same logic
when it comes to low-fat ingredients. For example, oil sprays can
reduce the amount of cooking fat significantly without affecting
the quality of the final dish. Part-skim ricotta is a very acceptable
substitute for whole milk ricotta.
Low-fat and especially nonfat ingredients should be purchased with
care. For example, with a few exceptions, such as nonfat yogurt,
my general rule of thumb with dairy products is to avoid any in
which the fat is cut by more than 50 percent because the loss of
flavor and texture isn't worth the reduction in fat.
Tailor your
pantry to the way you eat, whether that means more Asian or vegetarian
ingredients or just foods that you like. However your pantry is
stocked, read labels for fat content. Use my book's pantry suggestions
as a guide to setting up your own personal pantry.
Organization
means the right equipment for fast meal preparation and having it
easily accessible. A twelve-inch nonstick skillet is ideal for sautéing
meat, fish, and poultry for four people without using much oil.
A twelve-inch nonstick sauté pan does all a skillet does,
but its straight sides (as opposed to the sloping sides of a skillet)
give it more capacity (four quarts or more) that enables you to
make quick soups and stews. Store these pans carefully-put paper
towels on the surface of the pans if they're going to be stacked-and
use nonstick utensils to avoid scratching.
Well-seasoned
cast iron skillets don't need much cooking fat, and they last forever.
Cast iron pans also come with ridges (and nonstick surfaces) to
simulate grilling. In addition to sautéing, braising, steaming,
and stir-frying, a wok can be used as a mixing bowl. While classic
woks are made of rolled steel, which should be treated like cast
iron skillets, they also come with nonstick surfaces.
Most folks think
a food processor is about as necessary in the kitchen as an espresso
machine. But when volunteer recipe tester Tami Thiesenhusen used
hers to test Vegetable Biryani, she said: "I haven't used my
food processor in a while and dragging it out for this recipe made
me remember how easy it makes chopping and how much I love using
it." I use the stainless steel cutting or chopping blade ninety
percent of the time for purees, salsas, dressings, and chopping.
Assume this blade is to be used unless the shredding or slicing
discs are specified.
Having equipment
within easy reach saves time. Whatever you use frequently should
be immediately accessible and not require a foot stool or deep knee
bends to find.
Focus
means being single-minded about getting the meal out in a hurry.
If there are two of you coming home at roughly the same time, one
can cook while the other takes care of the kids and sets the table.
The beauty of the recipes in this book is that they are designed
for one person to cook. All the recipes have been tested to assure
they can be completed in about fifteen minutes.
You may not
be as experienced a cook as I am, or as familiar with the recipes.
So on your first try a recipe may take fifteen to twenty minutes,
maybe longer. However, once you get the hang of the concept, your
speed will improve, sometimes dramatically. Pat Sinclair, one of
my more ambitious testers, kept lowering her time with each of the
recipes she tested. "I think I'm starting to get used to Sam's
ways of doing things," she says.
Incidentally,
the timing of these recipes begins when all ingredients and equipment
are laid out and ready to go, what the French call mis en place.
The buzzer sounds when the meal is ready to be dished out. It is
assumed that all vegetables are washed except salad greens, which
are cleaned within the fifteen minutes.
You'll notice
that recipes will frequently say, "Meanwhile…" or
"While the…cooks…" This lets you know that at
the same time you are actively performing a task, something else
is taking care of itself. For example, in the Beef and Beet Salad
with Horseradish Cream Dressing four things are going on at once.
While the potatoes are boiling and the beef frying, the escarole
is drying, and the beets are draining.
You may be unaccustomed
to managing such "multitasking" in the kitchen. However,
soon you'll feel comfortable with the rhythm, which will make meal
preparation more efficient and faster.
The concept
of focus also has a low-fat benefit I hadn't initially intended.
Not having a glass of wine while cooking dinner eliminates those
calories from alcohol. And without alcohol to stimulate the appetite,
you're less likely to snack on fatty foods like nuts and cheese
while you wait for dinner to be ready.
Creativity
involves strategies for preparing meals in minutes, thinking beyond
recipes so you don't always have to follow a specific formula. To
do this, you need to think about concepts, rather than specific
formulas. For example, Spicy Chicken Stir-Fry is a meat and vegetable
stir-fry when you break it down. If the meat isn't chicken, it could
be turkey or pork tenderloin. Seafood might be shrimp, scallops,
or cubes of tuna or swordfish. Vegetables might include string beans,
broccoli, or several varieties of summer squash in lieu of asparagus.
Obviously cooking times will vary, but you get the picture.
Creativity is
especially important for low-fat cooking because you don't have
the luxury of falling back on oils, butter, and other fatty ingredients
to carry the day. You can't just throw the usual three parts oil
to one part vinegar into a bowl for a salad vinaigrette because
it blows your fat allotment sky high. That's where creativity comes
in. To replace some of the oil, try fruit juices like lime, lemon,
even orange. There are a plethora of vinegars from which to choose.
There is also white wine, chicken or vegetable stock, and soy sauce.
Or you could go creamy with nonfat yogurt, low-fat sour cream, or
low-fat buttermilk. Don't think of it as an insurmountable obstacle
but a welcome challenge, one you can more easily face with a well-stocked
pantry and an organized kitchen.
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