"Tweaking" Recipes
I just returned home from a week in New Orleans helping with The Boys and Girls Club and eating way too much fried food as well as butter and cream. By goodness! I have some friends, J.T. and Teresa Martin, who are from New Orleans and helped set up my trip as well as supplying me with a 6 page list of food I had to eat while I was there.
Remember I’m there to help kids get healthier and I’m eating fried oysters with Brie and beignets! (though not more than once). The difference is, of course, that I don’t eat like that often and did find restaurants that served healthier choices. I even took a cooking class while there and look forward to ‘tweaking’ the recipes, meaning substituting healthier ingredients for the less-so while maintaining the basic flavor of the dish. The Shrimp Creole can easily be served with brown rice instead of white rice. I would use homemade chicken stock and the not salty, jarred kind used in class.
Here are some of the major ingredients in New Orleans that need ‘tweaking,’ and this list stands wherever you live.
Salt and Seasonings: I didn’t add any extra salt while there, but my rings wouldn’t fit after just 2 days! Before you reach for the saltshaker, try a little fresh lemon juice or even a splash of vinegar to brighten the flavor. Nothing adds freshness and flavor to a dish like fresh herbs and seasonings. At this time of year, fresh parsley is a wonderful choice, not only for added flavor, but as a bitter green parsley is very good for your liver.
Butter and Cream: Generally speaking if you want the flavor of butter in a dish, you can certainly use much less or simply finish your favorite sauce with a little butter and use olive oil as the oil of choice for sautéing and for making roux’s for gravy. When baking, substitute applesauce, pumpkin or prune puree for all or part of the butter. Cream can easily be replaced with milk and/or stock.
Fried foods: O.K., beignets are most likely always fried, however who eats those everyday? Bake or roast your potatoes or yams for yam fries. Bake the chicken or fish.
Whole Grain: The easy one is brown rice instead of white rice. It does take longer, but is so much healthier and also more flavorful. Quinoa is a whole grain and takes about the same time as white rice. Use whole grain flours in all or part in your baked goods. Please note that in using whole grain flours in baked goods, liquids sometimes have to be increased.
Sugar: It is very easy to use much less sugar in recipes. Start by using 1/3 less sugar and go from there; perhaps down to half or less. Also, use a natural sugar instead of the processed white stuff. Please do not use fake sugar!
Oils: Change from vegetable oils to oils from a single source. Vegetable oils can contain oils you do not want to consume and they are very processed. Olive oil comes from an olive tree. Sunflower comes from a sunflower, etc. Grapeseed oil can take a higher heat than olive oil for when that is necessary, which isn’t often.
In good health!
Patty
Remember I’m there to help kids get healthier and I’m eating fried oysters with Brie and beignets! (though not more than once). The difference is, of course, that I don’t eat like that often and did find restaurants that served healthier choices. I even took a cooking class while there and look forward to ‘tweaking’ the recipes, meaning substituting healthier ingredients for the less-so while maintaining the basic flavor of the dish. The Shrimp Creole can easily be served with brown rice instead of white rice. I would use homemade chicken stock and the not salty, jarred kind used in class.Here are some of the major ingredients in New Orleans that need ‘tweaking,’ and this list stands wherever you live.
Salt and Seasonings: I didn’t add any extra salt while there, but my rings wouldn’t fit after just 2 days! Before you reach for the saltshaker, try a little fresh lemon juice or even a splash of vinegar to brighten the flavor. Nothing adds freshness and flavor to a dish like fresh herbs and seasonings. At this time of year, fresh parsley is a wonderful choice, not only for added flavor, but as a bitter green parsley is very good for your liver.
Butter and Cream: Generally speaking if you want the flavor of butter in a dish, you can certainly use much less or simply finish your favorite sauce with a little butter and use olive oil as the oil of choice for sautéing and for making roux’s for gravy. When baking, substitute applesauce, pumpkin or prune puree for all or part of the butter. Cream can easily be replaced with milk and/or stock.
Fried foods: O.K., beignets are most likely always fried, however who eats those everyday? Bake or roast your potatoes or yams for yam fries. Bake the chicken or fish.
Whole Grain: The easy one is brown rice instead of white rice. It does take longer, but is so much healthier and also more flavorful. Quinoa is a whole grain and takes about the same time as white rice. Use whole grain flours in all or part in your baked goods. Please note that in using whole grain flours in baked goods, liquids sometimes have to be increased.
Sugar: It is very easy to use much less sugar in recipes. Start by using 1/3 less sugar and go from there; perhaps down to half or less. Also, use a natural sugar instead of the processed white stuff. Please do not use fake sugar!
Oils: Change from vegetable oils to oils from a single source. Vegetable oils can contain oils you do not want to consume and they are very processed. Olive oil comes from an olive tree. Sunflower comes from a sunflower, etc. Grapeseed oil can take a higher heat than olive oil for when that is necessary, which isn’t often.
In good health!
Patty
posted by Patty James at
8:23 AM
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