Category Archives: Fish

October 9, 2011 · 1:50 pm

The Gentle Cook

Have you tried making hasty tasty meals with disappointing results? Try the opposite, what I call GENTLE cooking. The difference in a hasty tasty meal and a gently cooked meal is planning. No rushed last minute meals allowed.

The concept is simple, one our great-grandmothers and grandmothers knew well: low and slow. When you cook over low heat for a long time, you give food the chance to develop its natural flavors. You don’t risk burning or toughening food when you gently cook. Unlike hasty tasty meals, a gently cooked meal takes time. (Not to be confused with slow-cooker cooking, which takes hours)

The upside of low and slow is multi-tasking. If you start your meal gently cooking, you don’t need to stand and tend to it. You can put pots on the range or in the oven to start cooking gently then go on to other chores like laundry, checking e-mails, or cleaning the kitchen. You can set the table at your leisure. In a way, it’s more relaxed cooking.

Here is a gently cooked meal as an example. Prep produce for carrots and broccoli. Place the carrots in a 1½ quart pan (carrots have a longer cooking time than broccoli), cover, and turn the burner on low. If your range is gas, this is the lowest setting; electric range setting would be one notch higher than warm.

Take frozen fish fillets, season, and place in a dry 10” skillet. Cover and turn heat to its lowest setting as you did the carrots.

Do not lift the lids on the pans. You can check for steam by spinning the lids. If they spin freely, you have vapor seal. This is what you want. If the lid rattles and steam spews around the edges, lower the heat or use a flame-tamer.

After about twenty minutes, add the broccoli to the 1½ quart pan on top the carrots. Replace the lid and allow broccoli to steam at least twenty minutes for firm. Add time if you like broccoli super tender, taking care not to overcook. Broccoli cooked gently will not turn an ugly brownish color, even if it overcooks a bit.

After about forty-five minutes, dinner is ready to serve. You will get nothing but compliments on your delicious meal, and you can relax and enjoy dinner, too. Gentle cooking makes cleanup easy, especially if you use quality heavy-gauge cookware that evenly distributes the heat. No hot spots means no burned on food. Best of all, slow cooking requires little to no fat, which means healthier meals!

Gently cooked fish dinner

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February 1, 2011 · 11:55 pm

Fast Food That’s Super Healthful

Wild Alaskan Salmon

Thaw salmon and season lightly

With quality cookware and ingredients, a supercharged healthy meal is less than half an hour away. On the menu: wild Alaskan salmon fillets, steamed broccoli with red bell pepper, and steamed butternut squash. The food is high in nutrients and antioxidents, especially if it’s not overcooked. I prefer steaming over low heat. More of a technique than a recipe, here is how to have a great and easy meal in a short time.

What you’ll need to make dinner for four: Four salmon fillets, two large bunches of broccoli, one red bell pepper, one medium butternut squash, Butter Buds or Molly McButter, and pumpkin pie spice mix.

Salmon: Be sure to buy wild Alaskan salmon. It may be pricey but it’s worth it, both in nutrition and taste. If frozen, thaw in the refrigerator before cooking. Place fillets in a dry, preheated skillet–skin side down. Sprinkle lightly with pumpkin pie spice. Cover, reduce heat to its lowest setting, and cook for fifteen minutes. Do not lift the lid to peek. Serve salmon with…

Butternut Squash: Rich in beta carotine, butternut squash often is overlooked. It doesn’t need butter, salt, or much of anything to season it. It’s tasty on its own.  To serve four, buy a medium size Butternut squash.

I cut the squash into long strips and scrape away the seeds. Then using the Kitchen Cutter and #1 cone, I grate the squash (you can use a hand grater or food processor if you don’t own a Kitchen Cutter). Steam the grated squash in a 1-quart covered sauce pan over low heat. As with the salmon, don’t lift the lid. As soon as the lid spins, turn off the heat and leave covered for about ten minutes. The cooked squash will be the consistency of mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice (Tying the flavor with the salmon) and stir.

The broccoli and red bell pepper make a colorful dish, rich in vitamins and fiber.  Wash one red bell pepper and enough broccoli flowerets to feed four. Julienne the pepper. Steam with broccoli in a covered two-quart sauce pan over low heat. As soon as the lid spins, turn off heat and leave covered for fifteen minutes for crisper vegetables, twenty for more tender. Sprinkle with Butter Buds or Molly McButter and serve.

Quality Cookware

Steam in covered pans over low heat

The three dishes take only about thirty minutes including prep time. Because the food is steamed over low heat, the pans come clean easily.  The food is delicious without a lot of additives or salt, and it’s figure-friendly.
Dinner!

Colorful and delicious.

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April 10, 2010 · 2:03 pm

Cream of the Crop

 
 
 
 
 

Today in the Hasty Tasty Meals Kitchen we’re experimenting with creamy textures. Real cream sauces with butter, cheeses, and/or heavy cream contain too much saturated fat. How can the health-conscious cook satisfy the “cream” tooth?

Products on the market available in any supermarket can help you make fake-out creamy sauces or soups. Fat free evaporated milk, fat free half & half (I prefer Land o’ Lakes brand), lowfat sour cream, Neufchatel cheese, and plain ol’ cornstarch work in recipes traditionally laden with butter and heavy cream and/or cheese.

Consider this crustless cherry cheesecake.

RECIPE

Cherry Cheese Dessert

Ingredients:

  • 12 ounces softened Neufchatel cheese (or lowfat cream cheese)
  • 1 large package sugar-free, fat-free instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 1 can no-sugar-added pie filling (I like cherry, but any will work)
  • 3 cups cold skim milk
  • 12 squares graham crackers, crushed

Directions:

  • In a blender, combine pudding mix and milk and mix just until blended. Add Neufchatel cheese. Mix until smooth and thick.
  • Pour mixture into a pie plate (or 8 individual parfait dishes).
  • Top with the pie filling. Refrigerate.
  • Before serving, sprinkle the crushed graham crackers evenly over the top. Scoop into individual dessert bowls.

Makes 8 lowfat servings of a delicious dessert. You won’t miss the fat or the sugar!

You can make your own cream soups, too. Here is a recipe for fish chowder, but you can vary it by substituting clams, shrimp, additional potatoes, corn, mushrooms, chicken, or whatever kind of creamy soup you want to make.

RECIPE

Fish Chowder

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup diced potato
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 cup celery, thinly sliced
  • ½ cup bell pepper, diced
  • 1 cup fish, any kind, coarsely chopped
  • 1 10 oz can chicken broth or stock (or bouillon dissolved in 10 oz. water)
  • 2 cups fat free half-and-half (or 2 small cans evaporated skim milk)
  • 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 tsp. dried thyme
  • 1 handful fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:

  • Using a 3-quart pan over medium heat, dry-sauté onion, celery, and bell pepper (or you may spray bottom of pan with nonstick spray)
  • After about 3 minutes, add broth and potatoes
  • Dissolve the cornstarch in the half-and-half, then add the mixture to the pan
  • Add fish. Cover pan, reduce heat to a low simmer, and cook for about 15 minutes or until fish and potatoes are tender.
  • Remove from heat. Add herbs. Stir and serve.

Makes about two bowls or 4 cups. 

Make mock sour cream by blending lowfat cottage cheese with lemon juice, or adding artificial sweetener to plain nonfat yogurt. Cottage cheese blended with skim milk and seasonings makes a light cream sauce for pasta dishes. Here’s a recipe for easy cheese sauce. I use a Vita-mix but you can also make it in a skillet.

RECIPE

Cheese Sauce in the Vita-mix®

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2 cups skim milk
  • ½ tsp. sea salt
  • 12 oz reduced-fat cheddar cheese, cubed or shredded*

Directions:

  • Add milk and salt to Vita-mix container. Cover but leave plug in middle of cap open.
  • On the lowest setting, run the Vita-mix while adding cornstarch through opening in cover.
  • Replace cover plug. Gradually increase the speed to High. Run 3-4 minutes or until steaming
  • Stop Vita-mix. Remove cover plug. Add the cheese through opening in cover.
  • Run Vita-mix (start low, stepping up to High) for one minute or until cheese is completely blended.
  • Turn off Vita-mix and immediately pour cheese sauce over its intended dish (macaroni, taco salad, etc.)

*Any lowfat cheese works with this recipe

To adapt this recipe to the skillet, just remember to dissolve the cornstarch in cold milk then heat to boiling to thicken. Cornstarch doesn’t dissolve easily in warm liquid. Use a whisk to thicken the milk then a wooden spoon to blend in the cheese.

One last word on creamstyle cooking: Cream based soups or cream sauced foods don’t keep well in the freezer. It’s better to freeze what you want to save for later and then add the creamy textures to the dish right before serving. As you experiment in your kitchen, you’ll find more ways to fake the fatty creams, butter, and cheeses in your own dishes.

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February 7, 2010 · 4:20 pm

Romantic Meal for Two

Valentine’s Day is a week away, and it’s traditional for couples to enjoy a romantic meal together.  But why go to a crowded restaurant when you can create a romantic dinner for two in the privacy of your home (and at a fraction of the cost)?  First, spend a little time on a tablescape.  Use your best dinnerware and flatware, along with red and white linens.  Use heart-shaped paper doilies for placemats or coasters, or sprinkle small valentines across a white tablecloth.  Use your imagination to create the ambiance of an upscale restaurant or fresco. Place your valentine flowers as your centerpiece, if you receive a Valentine delivery.  Or a vase with a single red carnation will do.  Don’t forget a candle or two!

This meal’s simple, affordable, and won’t keep you in the kitchen all afternoon.

Menu:

Grilled Salmon Fillets
Steamed Asparagus
Brown Rice with toasted almonds
Skinny Cow® dessert

Ingredients:

2 frozen salmon fillets, approx. 6 oz.
½ pound fresh asparagus spears (smallest in diameter available is most tender)
½ cup raw brown rice
1 cup fat-free chicken or beef broth
2 Skinny Cow® chocolate mint ice cream sandwiches
1 small tub sugar free Cool Whip®
1 piece peppermint candy

Directions:

Make dessert a day ahead by placing the two ice cream sandwiches in a small freezer-safe container.  Cover the sandwiches completely with the Cool Whip® including all corners of the container.  Crush the piece of peppermint candy and sprinkle over the Cool Whip®.  Freeze.

Take two frozen salmon fillets (Wild Alaskan is best) and thaw in the refrigerator.  Meanwhile, cook ½ cup long grain brown rice in 1 cup fat-free chicken broth in a one-quart covered saucepan until done (Time varies according to cookware, but mine takes about thirty minutes on lowest heat if I don’t lift the lid).  Preheat a 10″ skillet over medium heat.  Add 2 Tablespoons slivered almonds.  No oil or spray is necessary since nuts contain oil.  Stir almonds occasionally until browned (watch carefully; nuts cook quickly), about ten minutes.  Empty almonds onto a plate and allow them to cool.  Return the skillet to heat.

Season the salmon fillets on both sides with herbes de Provence and place in the hot skillet.  Cover and reduce heat to low. While salmon cooks, trim the ends off the fresh asparagus spears, rinse, and drain.

After about ten minutes (depending on thickness), turn the fillets.  Add the asparagus spears.  Cover and cook an additional six minutes or just until salmon is pink all the way through (Cooking time depends on the thickness of the fillet; thinner cuts take less time) and asparagus is warm but still firm and crisp.  Remove from heat and plate.

Stir in the almonds into the cooked brown rice, divide and add to each plate.  Light candles and dine by candlelight with your favorite beverage.

To serve dessert, remove it from the freezer and cut in half.  Plate each half and serve with a fork.  Enjoy!

A home-cooked meal at home is the most romantic! Round out your evening with a romantic movie DVD. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Cheryl

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