Experimenting with a white sauce that's low in saturated fat

All my heart doctors, and I have a slew, agree on one thing: keep saturated fat to a minimum. Fats, like olive oil, are not a worry. But saturated fats are another matter all together. In other words, watch that butter.

If you don't believe me, I'm not surprised. Lots of people don't. And that includes friends and relatives. They all quote articles like the one that ran in the local paper. It proclaimed that saturated fat was not bad for you. It was wrong.

Please read: Setting the record straight: It’s best to swap out saturated fats for healthier fats. You will discover that a new advisory from the American Heart Association (AHA) concluded that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats will lower the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

So tonight I decided to try and make a white sauce for my penne that did not rely on cream. I used four ounces of one percent milk and thickened the sauce with 50gr of chopped cauliflower, 1 Tbsp of instant potato flakes, and one minced garlic clove.

First, I quickly browned the garlic in some hot olive oil. This took but 30 seconds. I added the previously microwaved chopped cauliflower and stirred. After a couple of minutes, I added the milk and kept stirring with the heat set to low. I added the instant potato flakes and kept stirring. The sauce was soon thick enough for my purposes. I set the sauce aside in the still warm pot.

I put 150gr of penne in some fast boiling water and while the penne was cooking I heated some olive oil in a deep frying pan. With the oil hot, I added 7 ounces (200gr) of asparagus. The spears were cut into 3/4 inch long pieces. The asparagus was done just about the same time as the penne.

I put the cooked penne into the deep pan with the pan-grilled asparagus, added the warm white sauce, some salt and pepper, sprinkled on a little grated Parmesan and about a Tbsp of basil chopped into long, thin strips. I tossed all until everything was well mixed.

At the table I added some dried red pepper flakes but this is optional. My wife liked the dinner just as served, unless you count the extra grated Parmesan she added. If she were making a change, she said, it would be to add some chopped nuts, possibly pistachios.

This recipe is all my own. If it interests you, try it. But the reason I'm posting this is to encourage readers to strike out on their own. Set some goals and try to meet them. My goal was to serve a filling dinner for two that was not too high in points, my wife goes to Weight Watchers, and that contained very little saturated fat, while delivering lots of flavour.

I think I was successful. My wife agrees.

Even my wife has been liking the fish I cook

My wife likes to say she hates fish. She doesn't. She doesn't realize it but she doesn't hate fish. She hates poorly handled fish. Fish, as a rule, should not taste fishy. If it does, there is a problem.

I got a large bag of frozen sole containing more than two dozen small filets. Each serving works out to about $1.30 for two filets. This is affordable even for a senior.

Would you like to try it? Here's a link to the New York Times recipe I used: Sole Meuniere.

Note: My wife had some basil growing in her garden. I couldn't resist and at the table I sprinkled fresh chopped basil liberally on each serving. It looks a little messy but it tasted just fine.

Getting Kids to Eat

I am always on the lookout for recipes that I think would appeal to my granddaughters. The kids can be damn picky. Tonight I came across a penne with roasted cherry tomatoes recipe on the New York Times Cooking site. I think I might be able to sell this one to my little girls.

What makes this recipe so appealing is that it contains only seven ingredients: penne, cherry tomatoes, bread crumbs, olive oil, pecorino romano cheese or Parmesan, salt and pepper. Note: No spices and no herbs. This is a plus when cooking for kids.

Personally, I have a hate on for pasta with an abundance of sauce. This recipe does not call for any sauce at all. None. Just the fresh flavour of roasted cherry tomatoes and the clean flavour of pasta. This sounds good to me and I think it may also sound good to Fiona and Isla. I'll find out next week.

Another link to a fine New York Times recipe

I'm in a rut. I cook too much pasta.

I like pasta. My wife likes pasta. Pasta is both easy to make and exceedingly malleable. It can be the base of a fine vegetarian dinner one night and the base of a complex meat dish another evening. That said, it is still pasta.

I decided to force myself to make something without pasta. I went with a garlicky chicken with lemon-anchovy sauce recipe on the New York Times Cooking site. Click on the link to discover all the details.

And what did I serve with my chicken? Uh, rice. A pasta replacement.

Use it or lose it: good guidance for cooks

As I work my way through the recipes posted by the New York Times, I find I have lots of great ingredients remaining and begging to be used. Millions of dollars of food is wasted every year. Allowed to spoil and get tossed, this wasted food runs up food costs. I say use it or lose it.

To pare your food budget, a good place to start is food use management. For instance, I bought a bag of frozen cod at Costco. I saved money on the purchase by buying in bulk. I then did a search of my favourite food sites to find a number of recipes featuring cod.

I've been busy. But that big bag of frozen cod fillets is now down to one large piece of fish. Nothing will be wasted and the dinners were great and one was even memorable. Judy was particularly fond of the grilled cod recipe.

Another cod recipe used both olives and sweet red peppers. The picture at the top of this post shows the second time I served this dinner. I had served a warm olive appetizer a few days earlier and with all the ingredients on hand it just seemed reasonable to serve again my roasted cod with sweet peppers. I added some chunks of mushrooms both to add flavour and texture and to get rid of one more lingering ingredient.

So, eat well and keep costs down by keeping waste to a minimum.

Grilled Fish with Salsa Verde

A sprinkle of chopped pistachio nuts added a nice crunch and burst of flavour.

My wife loves using our outdoor grill. Well, actually she loves me using our outdoor grill. Why? Less mess and less heat in the kitchen. The fact that my wife rarely uses the grill, that it is usually me standing in front of the grill, is just one more appreciated perk in my wife's eyes.

I've heard that cod can be difficult to grill. The meat can be too soft, too flaky and possibly too moist. The risk is that the cod will disintegrate on the grill. Flip this fish with care. That said, the recipe called for cod and I had no problem grilling it as instructed.

I used a generous amount of olive oil to prevent the fillet from sticking to the hot grill. It didn't. I used a large, stainless steel flipper for lifting and a smaller one for holding it steady. From the picture, it is clear all went as planned.

Like so many of my recipes, this one comes from the New York Times Cooking online pages. Here is a link: Grilled Fish with Salsa Verde.

And the taste? My wife says she hates fish. I don't believe she does but she is convinced that fish usually tastes "fishy." I argue any off flavour is the result of poor handling after the fish was caught. Good fish should not taste off. And this fish didn't. My wife loved this recipe. She wants me to put fish on the grill more often.

Stir-Fried Sesame Shrimp and Spinach

I am absolutely loving the cooking pages posted by the New York Times. The recipes are often easy to follow and quite delicious. This stir-fried sesame shrimp and spinach served on a bed of brown rice was quick to make, 25 minutes, and wonderful to eat. I microwaved the asparagus right at the end and it was done in 45 seconds. This was an easy meal to get to the table on time.

The only downside to this recipe were the ingredients. I had to buy both the light and the dark (roasted) sesame oil, plus the sesame seeds (I opted for roasted seeds) and I even had to buy some crushed dried red chili. I had some chili in the kitchen cupboard but it was too old and I feared the flavour would have faded.

I spent a lot on those ingredients. I'll have to find stuff to make in the near future that uses these ingredients. I don't want all this stuff to follow the same path as the out-of-date chili that got tossed.

The next time I make this I'm going to make a few small changes. I'm going to increase the amount of minced ginger. I'll use about 1/2 a Tbsp more. Also, I'm going to put a small bowl of crushed dried red chili on the dinner table. My wife thought this dish was hot enough but I didn't. I sprinkled some chili onto the meal at the table. This approach kept both my wife and me happy.

If you didn't notice the link to the New York Times and the posted recipe, here it is again. Enjoy:
Stir-fried Sesame Shrimp and Spinach.

Warm olives make a great dinner starter

Had lunch the other day at Little Red's Pub and Eatery in St. Marys. The lunch was absolutely excellent. Both Judy and I always enjoy a visit to Little Red's.

Judy ordered a starter for the table, a plate of warm olives. I had forgotten how good a mix of various types of olives can be when simply warmed in a pan with olive oil and a sprinkle of rosemary.

I am sure chef Chris Woolf did more, he's a true kitchen magician. Both Judy and I agree his version seemed more flavourful, more complex, than my take on the old standby. That said, my mix of warm olives with a sprinkle of rosemary tasted awfully good at dinner tonight.

For olives, the North London Loblaws on Fanshawe Park Road at Richmond St. is a good store if it is close to  you. What edged them to the front of the line were the good packaged olive mixes by Delallo I found there. Olive Medley and Pitted Olives Jublilee were the two mixes that I took home.

Note: these are in the specialty foods area of the store and not on the shelves with the regular canned and bottled olives. Look for the serve yourself olive counter. I believe the Olive Medley and the other packaged olives are on a shelf below the display.

Tonight I simply warmed some olives in olive oil in a fry pan with a sprinkle of rosemary. Start simple I say. Next, I'm going to try some of the recipes I found on the Net:

Warm Spiced Olives (Taste.com.au)
Warmed Spiced Olives (Epicurious)  
Warm Marinated Olives (Martha Stewart)
Warm Marinated Olives Two Ways (Merci Mama)

Google "warm olives." I got more than 30 million hits. Take your time. Fine a recipe that appeals to you and give it a try. You can't miss -- unless, of course, you don't like olives.

Leftovers can make a heart healthy dinner

My doctors insist that I eat healthy meals. That advice translates into lots of vegetables, very little red meat, minimal dairy and reduced consumption of both simple carbohydrates and sugar. My doctors prefer complex carbohydrates to the simple ones found in processed foods such as white bread.

The pasta may have been the enriched and not the whole grain type which would have been better, but we practised careful portion. And even regular, refined and enriched pasta is not anywhere near as high on the glycemic index as white rice or a baked Russet potato.

Dinner tonight answered all the demands, tasted great and was put together in ten minutes from leftovers found in the fridge.

Last night my wife and I enjoyed spaghetti squash with a tomato sauce. A lot of folk don't like spaghetti squash. I think they compare the squash to pasta and this is a mistake. You must enjoy spaghetti squash as the interesting vegetable it is. It has a light, clean flavour with lots of crisp snap if it is not overcooked. It goes well with a variety of sauces. One must keep an open mind.

For tonight's meal, first we dumped 75 g of pennine pasta into a pot of boiling water. It would be done al dente in seven minutes or so. While the pasta was cooking, we tossed our leftover veggies into a skillet with two cloves of lightly fired diced garlic. After 30 seconds, we added diced sweet peppers, asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes and spaghetti squash to the skillet.

All was heated over medium heat with frequent tossing. After about four minutes, some fresh grated Parmesan, do not use the grated stuff that comes in a shaker box, was sprinkled onto the veggie mix. The cheese disappeared into the mix immediately. At this point the left over spaghetti squash, chopped into pieces about the length of the pennine, was added to the pan. About an ounce of low-fat goat cheese was crumbled on top and the entire mix stirred until the cheese melted, coating the hot vegetable mix.

At this point the pasta was done. It was drained and added to the fry pan, mixed with the veggies and served. My wife called the resulting dinner "delicious." I called it good and satisfying. My doctors, I am sure, would call it healthy.

As you can probably tell from the picture, a little extra Parmesan was added at the table. And when I got seconds, I sprinkled some chopped cashews on top as well. At this point, I came around and agreed with my wife. This dinner was now "delicious."

Be bold in the kitchen. Good ingredients make good meals.

I didn't have a recipe for tonight's dinner but I had lots of good ingredients handy: cod fillets, apples, sweet red peppers, cherry tomatoes, asparagus and basmati rice. I baked the veggies for various lengths of time. I thought the asparagus could need the most time and the tomatoes the least. I'd say more about my approach to this dinner but the result was not what I was seeking and so I'll stay mum. I wanted caramelized. I got simply cooked.

I sprinkled some hot pepper flakes on the fish hoping for a big burst of heat but I didn't use enough and the effect was way too subtle.

But, and it is a big and important but, the ingredients were excellent. Nothing was burned. The fish was flaky. All the veggies were fresh and they all tasted it. My wife gave the dinner a thumbs up. It wasn't what I wanted but it still worked.

The lesson? Good ingredients tend to give good results. I failed to add much to this dinner but it had a lot going for it right from the get-go. It was a rather delicious failure. My doctors would give my cooking attempt  two thumbs up even if my dinner wasn't going to qualify me for a cooking competition on television.

Check out the New York Times Cooking pages for asparagus recipes

All I am trying to promote is healthy eating. I am certainly not promoting my cooking. When it comes to imaginative ways to prepare and present asparagus the New York Times Cooking site is doing a damn fine job.

I grilled the asparagus illustrating this post but that's all. For recipes please click on the link. New York Times Cooking: asparagus.

I'm not sure that eating well will make one live longer but I do believe it will make your live a healthier life and make dining, even at home, much more fun.

Cheers!

Quick and healthy; not fine dining but still good

My mother was not a great cook but a practical one. Practicality was common back in the early '50s when I was a boy. Give her a holiday and she'd give you roast chicken or turkey, depending upon the number of guests at the holiday banquet. A day later she'd give you leftovers. There was never any waste.

One of her favourite solutions for dealing with holiday leftovers was chicken or turkey pie. And her not-so-secret ingredient was a Campbell's condensed cream of chicken soup. And so in memory of my dear, departed mother, my wife made Margaret-inspired chicken pie complete with Easter dinner leftovers. Even the pie crust was a leftover, made from the remnants of pastry used to make Sunday's lemon meringue pie.

The big difference between my wife's version and the '50s original is that Judy uses low fat condensed soup. Four cans have approximately 5 g of saturated fat and no trans fats at all. Judy tells me she puts two cans of cream of chicken into a pot, adds a cup each of carrots and peas, adds up to two cups of chicken chunks, sprinkles on some thyme and heats all with frequent stirring.

When thoroughly heated, Judy pours the mixture into a suitable pie plate. To keep the fat, and total calories in check, Judy does not line the pie plate with pastry. She uses one layer of pastry on top of the pie and that's it. It looks messy when served but still attractive.

The turnip served with the chicken pie was also leftover from Easter. The broccoli was bought for the holiday but not cooked. It still had nice crunch and its presence added freshness to an arguably faded entrée.

Ingredients

• 2 cans of Campbell's condensed, low-fat, cream of chicken soup 
• 1 cup of frozen peas if leftovers are not handy
• 1 cup of diced, cooked, but not over cooked, carrots
• A sprinkle of thyme. If dried thyme is used, use sparringly. Fresh thyme is not so intense.
• And enough pastry for a top crust.

Asparagus pesto is more common than I thought

My wife and I both like pesto. The other day we had a chance to sample a vegetable lasagna with a basil-based pesto replacing the common tomato sauce. It was good. We were surprised at how much we enjoyed it.

When I told our youngest daughter about the lasagna, she said said she was familiar with pestos and note the plural. There are a lot of pesto recipes and some are completely new to me -- but not to our daughter. She told us she made a green pea-based pesto and it was excellent.

This started me thinking. Why not an asparagus-based pesto? After all, it is spring. It would be the perfect creation to celebrate spring's arrival. A search of the New York Times Cooking site found a recipe. A simple Google search found lots more. One of my favourite takes is a Williams Sonoma recipe Rigatoni with Asparagus Pesto and Ricotta Salata.

I took a crack at the NYT's recipe but found it wanting. The next night I took another try. This time, I made the pesto first. I'm not much of an ingredients-juggler when it comes to making dinner. I'm still in the KISS stage: Keep It Simple Stupid.


Let's go over my ingredient list:

• 1 bunch of asparagus (230 g used for the pesto with six spears held aside to be served whole.)
• 1 clove of garlic, minced (I actually used more but I'm going to cut back to one clove.)
• 20 g of pine nuts
• 25 g of walnuts plus a few to adorn the finished dish when served
• 1/2 cup loosely packed grated Parmesan cheese plus some to sprinkle on finished dish
• 1 Tbsp of olive oil
• Juice from half a lemon (Squeezed the remaining half over the dinners at the table.)
• 1 good pinch of salt
• 150 g of pennine (I cook 75 g of pasta per person. Sometimes I cook even less.)
• 50 g of chopped baby spinach
• A handful of small cherry tomatoes and four large cherry tomatoes 
• 4 ounces of cooked ham or cooked chicken

I grilled and caramelized the asparagus for the pesto but my wife has convinced me the result wasn't worth the effort and time. The next time, I'll just steam the asparagus. I'm sticking with my amount: 230 g.

With the asparagus steaming, toast 20 g of pine nuts in a skillet over medium high heat. When these begin turning golden brown, remove from the heat and set aside. Next, toast the 25 g of walnuts. When done, set aside with the pine nuts, keeping a few walnuts separate as a garmish for the dish when served.
Next, fry the minced garlic in a little olive oil for possibly 30 seconds over medium high heat. The garlic should not turn dark brown. It should be a golden colour. Place this aside with the toasted nuts, as well.

Grate half a cup of Parmesan cheese. Don't tamp it down. Leave loose in measuring cup. Lastly, squeeze the juice from half a lemon and set aside. Now, take the steamed asparagus and dice well. This is especially important if using a food blender. If the pieces are too large, they hang up, jam and require a lot of finagling to be coaxed into making contact with the spinning blades.

Drop the well diced asparagus into the blender, add the toasted pine nuts, toasted walnuts, golden minced garlic, a Tbsp of olive oil, half a cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and the fresh squeezed lemon juice. There should be about two Tbsps of juice. Give the mixture a couple of good shakes of salt and blend all into a light green pesto. Remove pesto from blender bowl and set aside. It won't sit long.

Chop the cooked ham or cooked chicken into large chunks and toss into a frying pan with a little olive oil. While the meat is heating, drop the pennine into a pot of fast boiling water. Give the pot a stir to keep the pasta from sticking. It will be done in about eight minutes.

While the pasta is cooking, add the tomatoes to the skillet with the ham or chicken. If all goes well, the tomatoes will be just beginning to split from the heat as the pasta closes in on al dente. Drop the chopped baby spinach into the pot with the pasta, swirl the pasta and spinach around and drain. I find smaller bits of spinach clump less than large pieces. The goal is to have the spinach spread out through the pasta.

Place the remaining asparagus spears in the microwave and cook for a minute or less. The spears will cook quickly. Take care not to overcook.While the spears are cooking, add the asparagus pesto to the cooked pasta mixed with spinach. Toss in the chunks of heated ham or chicken and the cherry tomatoes and mix well. Serve.

Decorate each serving of pasta with a few roasted walnuts and sprinkle on a some Parmesan cheese, too. Place the larger, cherry tomatoes and the whole steamed or microwaved asparagus spears on the side. It should look good and taste even better. I'm working on improving my presentation but the flavour demands no serious tweaking.

There was a lot of pesto. I can see stretching this to coat four servings of pennine. (This assumes you are content serving only 70 g of pesto per person.) With more pasta, the pennine might be easier to see. The pennine seems hidden with this presentation.

We eat a lot of asparagus in the spring. There is an asparagus farm just minutes from our London, Ontario, home. I'm confident I'll get this looking beautiful at some point in the near future.

It is not always what you eat but what you don't

It was lunch time, I was hungry and I didn't feel like cooking. The situation had all the ingredients for a recipe for disaster. I could see a gilled cheese sandwich on the horizon. Not good. I opened a can of Campbell's low sodium chicken with rice soup. Better but still not good.

My heart doctors have been very clear. Don't overdo the saturated fats, keep to chicken and fish as much as possible when it comes to meat, and eat nutritious meals and not just filling ones. A quick check of the Campbell's label confirmed that this soup was not going to meet all the demands. And when I took a taste, I realized it wasn't even going to be a sinful delight. It was too bland for my liking.

I emptied the contents of the can, plus a can of water, into a small pot and placed it on the stove to heat. I added two tablespoons of basmati long-grain rice to the soup. It needed more rice. I coarsely chopped an ounce of chicken and added that to the pot as well. I grabbed a large carrot, peeled it and quickly diced it into small pieces. I added this to the pot as well.

Next, to kick up the flavour, I added about a quarter teaspoon of fresh thyme. My mother loved thyme with chicken and so when I think of chicken, I think of thyme. Judy, my wife, doesn't have the same memories. She likes to use less thyme than I.  I dropped a bay leaf into the heating soup. It would remain in the mix for five minutes and then out it comes. Such a small pot of soup very quickly takes on the flavour of the bay leaf.

Lastly, I added a little salt and pepper to taste and then tossed in about a half a teaspoon of Paese Mio bruchetta calabrese. This can be hard to find. When I run out, I substitute dried hot pepper flakes. The goal here is to up the kick of heat delivered by the soup.

Because of the rice, my soup needed to be left on simmer for about twenty minutes. On the bright side,  it didn't take a lot of attention. I essentially left the soup on simmer and went off to watch a little television. In twenty minutes, the rice was fluffy and nicely cooked and the soup was ready to enjoy.

If I make this again, the next time I'd love to add one celery stalk diced into smallish chunks. I like my soups to be filling. Celery would add bulk but not calories. Perfect.

Weight Watchers recipes are good for everyone

This shows the orecchiette the second night. Note the addition of the mushrooms.

My wife decided to lose a little weight and so she joined Weight Watchers. My doctors told me I had to lose a little weight and so I ate the Weight Watchers meals prepared by my wife and I did so without complaint. And not because I'm a saint but because the WW meals were excellent with lots of nutrition but not lots of calories.

The other night my wife made lemony one-pan orecchiette with sausage and broccoli. Orecchiette is a type of pasta shaped like little shells. The name comes from the Italian word orecchia meaning ear. It is said to resemble small ears, hence the name. But I don't see it. I'll stick with little shells. I find it more appetizing.

For my wife's take on the WW recipe we used the following:

• 8 ounces hot Italian turkey sausage (meat removed from casings)
• 1 large diced onion
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 large, minced garlic cloves
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp Paese Mio bruchetta calabrese (may be difficult to find)
• 4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
• 8 ounces orecchiette pasta
• 2 cups chopped broccoli
• 2 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest
• 1 cup grape tomatoes
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 4 Tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese

Over medium-high heat my wife lightly fried the Italian sausage in a little, possibly a teaspoon, of olive oil. When half cooked, I removed the meat from the skillet and chopped it into smaller pieces on a plastic chopping board. When nicely crumbled, I returned the meat to the skillet where my wife cooked it until well-browned. When almost done, I stepped in an mixed a teaspoon of Paese Mio bruchetta calabrese with the meat. This was my idea. I wanted the sausage to have a lot of zip. When done, my wife removed the sausage to a bowl and set aside.

In the now empty fry pan, my wife cooked the onion until soft and translucent. She stirred the onion often and added the half teaspoon of salt.

When done, she added the garlic and red pepper flakes. She stirred the mix for a minute and then added the reduced sodium chicken broth. The chicken broth is the clue that this is a one-pan pasta recipe.

She turned the heat to high and when the broth began to boil she added the pasta. The pasta was done in about eight minutes with frequent stirring. At the five minute mark, she added the broccoli pieces. When the pasta was al dente, she stirred in the cooked sausage, 3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, lemon zest, tomatoes and basil. She sprinkled on the remaining Parmesan at the table.

This made enough for four dinners but we found ourselves still hungry. We grumbled but stuck to the a serving size. Truth be told, WW claims this is will serve six. Admittedly, we had made a change in the amount of sausage used. We cut the sausage from 16 ounces to 8.

The next night, it was time for leftovers. We chopped up eight, large mushrooms and sautéd them in a little olive oil with some finely diced garlic. As the mushrooms fried, water from the mushrooms gathered and began to boil at the bottom of the pot. Before the mushroom juices could boil away, we added the leftover pasta from the night before. The pasta absorbed the liquid and became moist and delicious. The big chunks of mushroom added appetite filling bulk without upping the calorie count. The next time we make this, we will add four, chopped mushrooms to the original recipe and then add four more the next night.