Tag Archive for: cooking

Expand Your Food World

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Paula and I watch a lot of cooking shows; most are competitions and the styles of cooking vary from diner food to high-end restaurants. The one thing that is prevalent is that you see a lot of foods and cooking techniques from other continents and cultures. This weekend, I’m going to challenge you to try different spices, different vegetables and fruits, and different techniques.

The spice blend that we’ve discovered is fish sauce. It seems like it would be used only in cooking seafood, but it gives a great umami (meat-like flavor) to every sauce, casserole, and soup. The only caution would be that it’s made from shrimp or other seafood marinated in salt for up to two years, so if someone is allergic to seafood, don’t use it. Also, try a little first because you can add more, but you can’t take it out.

A vegetable would be ube or purple yams. It’s one of the foods that is the staple of the Blue Zone areas in southeast Asia. It’s easier to find than it used to be, and you can use it like regular potatoes. One of the fruits Paula and I tried was prickly pear, but I don’t have the patience for it because it’s full of seeds. On top of that, the flavor is subtle so while it’s full of nutrients, it doesn’t have an intense flavor or texture.

One technique to try is to spatchcock a chicken or turkey, also called butterflying. The technique involves cutting out the neck and back with shears and pressing the bird flat; press hard enough to break the breastbone and the bird lies flat. It’s easier to get seasoning on the bird meat under the skin, cooking time is reduced, the skin will be crisp, and it will have the moistest breast meat you’ve ever eaten. Just be sure to check the temperature in the breast to make sure it reaches 160° and it should get to 165° or higher while it rests.

Food is one of life’s great pleasures as well as the source of nutrients we all need. It’s a shame to be bored with food, so I’m challenging you to shake it up a little. The objective this weekend is to eat a food, use a spice or blend, or technique you’ve never tried before. Then let me know how it went.

No time to cook? Try a food from another region of the world you haven’t eaten before—West African, Caribbean, and South Asian all have intriguing spices and flavors that may be unfamiliar. They may be a miss, but if you find something you like, you’ve completed the challenge: expanding your food world, even if it’s only a new dessert.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Holiday Eating: Your Strategies

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As we finish two weeks on planning for holiday eating, I’m turning it over to you, the men and women who read the Memo. There are excellent points in every approach.

This one encompasses just about every strategy and was the first response:

  • Lose weight before the holidays. Be conservative on helpings starting with Thanksgiving. Allow some small portion of goodies or dessert, trying to eat it after protein consumption and while still somewhat full. Try to exercise more—this is more difficult due to the holiday schedule of activities. Stand up every 30 minutes if you . . .

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Holiday Eating: Modify Your Recipes

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The third way of dealing with holiday eating is to modify the recipe—that is, if you’re doing the cooking. This approach can be tricky, especially if you’re baking, and you may want to do a trial run. In some recipes, it’s the chemical reactions between the nutrients that contribute to taste and texture. Simply trying to lower the fat content of a recipe or changing to an artificial sweetener such as stevia may not get the results you want. The sweetness of stevia may be altered by cooking or baking; less fat can change the texture . . .

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Healthier Eating for Kids

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In the last message before Labor Day, I wanted to provide you with a few references to help your kids eat better. It’s something that I’ve never done before but frankly, I just don’t know everything and I’m not going to live long enough to learn it all. I hate that, but every man’s got to know his limitations. Yes, that’s one of my favorite movie quotes.

Two are books that I referenced in earlier webinars; the other two are books by long-time readers who are passionate about helping kids eat healthy. I . . .

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Kids’ Lunches

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Schools have either begun or are about to begin after Labor Day, so let’s stick to our topic from last week, kids and food.

School lunches have been in the headlines. In a recently published study, researchers compared the amounts of fruits and vegetables kids put on their trays and ate before and after the National School Lunch Program rules mandated every student should eat more fruits and vegetables. The headlines suggested that kids took more, ate less, and threw away more. Sounds bad? They took 0.20 cups more fruits and vegetables (about 24 blueberries), ate 0.06 . . .

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Teaching Kids to Cook

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When it comes to teaching kids to cook, the primary thing to consider is safety. I’m not giving a three-year-old sharp knives nor letting a five-year-old operate a stove. Common sense has to reign supreme. The best approach is to start with basics.

Before we get to that, you have to understand that it’s going to be messy and it’s going to take a lot longer. Those are givens. It may be better to pick one afternoon or evening to dedicate to cooking with your kids, creating soups, casseroles, and crockpot meals for . . .

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When I Was a Kid…

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I began cooking young, probably around 10 or so. My grandmother was a cook; not a chef by today’s standards, but a very, very good cook. She worked as the head cook in the cafeteria of a manufacturing company back in the day when they had such things. She also worked weekends at a private-park kitchen; think of it as a place where companies held summer picnics for their employees. In addition to that, she and my mother also catered weddings.

I had a single mom who worked second shift, and we lived with my grandparents who were . . .

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Kids and Cooking

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Many people are still finishing up their vacations so I thought I’d tackle something a little lighter than a complicated study this week. Sometimes I’m bombarded with so many events and observations, a message theme just appears; recent events are pointing me to kids and cooking.

First, it’s back-to-school time. What seemed to begin the day after school let out—the back-to-school sales—has kept kids in every ad and commercial.

Second, the NBC show Foodfighters featured a 12-year-old girl who was inspired to cook healthier meals when her . . .

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