Cookbook #73: Low Fat and Fit, Betty Crocker, General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1996.

Low Fat and Fit is one of those small booklets that tempt you as you wait at the supermarket check-out stand. I paged through this one in 1996 and took it home for $2.99.

This booklet includes a good selection of breakfast, main dish, salad, and dessert recipes. Typically, the recipes shave calories by using low-fat dairy products, small amounts of oil or margarine (1 teaspoon to brown 4 chicken breasts), and egg whites or egg substitute instead of whole eggs. Lean meats and portion control also trim calories. Lifestyle choices such as physical exercise is recommended to help maintain a healthy weithy. Four pages are devoted to what is essentially an ad for a health and fitness ranch spa.

Yada yada yada. Nothing very new or exciting in this cookbook. I decided to try “Chicken Breasts with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce” for this blog.

Note that the recipe calls for sun-dried tomatoes that are not oil-packed. I think the only reason for this choice is to save calories. The oil-packed ones I used only had 10 calories per piece. It’s kind of ridiculous the way they trim calories off the recipes.

These chicken breasts were not good enough to make again. Even my photo is pretty terrible. My dining partner picked out the sun-dried tomatoes, saying they tasted like the briny olives that he hates (and I love). I cleaned my plate, but was not “wowed” enough to copy the recipe in as a “keeper”.

I was about to recycle Low Fat and Fit, but a few of the breakfast items made me hesitate: Crunchy Oven French Toast, Oatmeal Pancakes, Ricotta-Banana Crepes, and Poppy Seed Drop Scones. I’ll keep it around for awhile just in case.

Since this sauced chicken recipe was not a hit, I’ll share a keeper of a recipe that I make a lot. I call it “Chicken With Veloute Sauce and Veggies”. I like the sauce because it is easy, semi low-fat, and has wine in it. The original recipe called for artichoke hearts, but I use whatever I have on hand.

Chicken With Velouté Sauce and Veggies
serves 2

• scant 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons flour (this depends on how obsessive you are feeling about too many calories)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 boneless chicken breast halves or chicken tenders (about 9 oz. for 2 people)
• 1 egg
• flour seasoned with salt and pepper (enough to coat the chicken pieces)
• extra-virgin olive oil to barely cover bottom of pan (you can use a different vegetable oil)
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• vegetables: canned or frozen artichoke hearts (NOT the marinated ones), sautéd or gently cooked mushrooms, julienned zucchini, celery, carrots, onions, or whatever else comes to mind

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan, then stir in the 2 tablespoons flour and cook for 2–3 minutes; do not allow to brown. Stir in the chicken broth and some freshly ground black pepper; boil and cook about 3 minutes until thickened. Set aside. (It might get scummy, so cover top with plastic wrap if you are worried about it.)

If using chicken breasts (rather than chicken tenders), pound them to 1/2-inch thick. Whisk the egg with a little water. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture, then in the salt-and-peppered flour.

Heat a fry-pan until it feels hot when you hold your hand a couple inches above it. Add the olive oil and tilt to cover the pan. Set to medium high heat. Cook the chicken about 5 minutes on each side until golden brown and nearly cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside.

With the skillet at medium-high heat, add the wine, stirring to de-glaze the pan. Add reserved sauce and cook a few minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in the vegetables. Add the browned chicken breasts to the sauce and cook them for a few minutes. Sometimes the breasts are larger and need a few more minutes to cook, sometimes smaller pieces like tenders only need a brief time to warm up to serving temperature.

I usually serve this over rice, but pasta or about any grain would work too.

Enjoy!

Cookbook #70: Cooking Through the Year. Shirley Gill, Smithmark Publishers Inc., NY, NY, 1994.

Cooking Through the Year is a beautiful cookbook. Over the years that I have owned it, I have often left it out on a coffee table, leisurely paging through the glossy photos and interesting recipes. At the time of this blog, it had been shelved too long – time for it to come back out and be enjoyed again.

A gift from my daughter, I will definitely keep this cookbook!

This book has no preface, no introduction, and no personal information at all about Shirley Gill, the author. I like to know about the authors of my books! I resorted to a Google search and found this on Amazon:

“Shirley Gill graduated with a diploma in Home Economics before starting work in publishing, first for the Food Magazine, and then for Cook’s Weekly. She worked as Cookery Editor of the successful Taste magazine, then later moved to Essentials. Since then Shirley has worked as a food writer and home economist, contributing to many books and magazines.”

Shirley has also authored or co-authored several other cookbooks, including recent ones on wok and pizza cooking.

Cooking Through the Year is a great resource for Saturday night and company dinners. Each recipe is just a little fancier than my usual fare. Everything I have tried from this book has been great. Many are a little rich for our calorie budget, but in moderation, they can fit into a sensible eating strategy. These titles exemplify the variety of recipes in this cookbook: Spiced Eggplant with Mint Yogurt, Skate with Lemon and Capers, Venison with Cranberry Sauce, Spiced Sweet Potato Turnovers, Spaghetti with Herb Sauce, Smoked Trout Pilaf, Cod with Spiced Red Lentils, Onion and Gruyère Tart, and Rhubarb Meringue Pie. There are over 135 recipes in all in this 8 1/2 x 11-inch book.

I chose to make “Chicken Parcels with Herb Butter”. The scan below illustrates both the recipe style and Karl Adamson’s  photography.

The instructions are clear, and the photos are very helpful. I will cut the recipe in half, and use fresh herbs from my own garden:

I harvested a mixture of basil and thyme and a little parsley. I like the way the recipe is “open-ended” in the choice of herbs.

To go with the Chicken Parcels with Herb Butter, I made “Spinach Salad with Bacon and Shrimp” on page 10 of this cookbook. It was a good variation of one of our favorites: wilted spinach salad. I used only the lean part of strips of bacon to lower the fat. The shrimps added a nice flare! I’ll make it again.

Chicken Parcels with Herb Butter
adapted from Shirley Gill’s Cooking Through the Year
serves 2

• 2 boneless chicken breasts, about 4-6 ounces each
• 5 tablespoons soft butter, divided (I used unsalted butter)
• about 3 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs: basil, thyme, parsley, oregano, rosemary, cilantro – your choice!
• 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice, if you have it
• 3 sheets of filo pastry (available frozen in most supermarkets)
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

Fry the chicken breasts in a tablespoon of hot butter until lightly brown. This step seals the outside of the breasts; the inside will be cooked later. Sprinkle the breasts with a little salt and pepper as they cook.

Chop up the fresh herbs by hand or use a food processor. Mix them with 4 tablespoons butter, salt and pepper, and a little lemon juice (optional), then melt half of this herb butter.

Take a sheet of the filo dough and brush it with the melted herb butter. Fold the filo sheet in half and brush again with herb butter. Place a chicken breast just below the top of the prepared sheet.

Dot the chicken with half of the unmelted herb butter. Fold in the sides of the pastry, then roll up to enclose completely. Place on a greased or parchment-lined half sheet pan. Repeat with the other chicken breast.

Brush the filo-wrapped chicken with the beaten egg. If you like, use the third sheet of filo dough to decorate the parcels: cut into strips, then scrunch up and arrange on top.

Brush the parcels again with beaten egg, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake at 375˚ for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown.

Comments

These are great! I’ll make them again.

Cookbook #69: Better Homes and Gardens. Better Homes and Gardens, Meredith Corporation, U.S.A., 1982. “Courtesy of Holly Farms.”

Not sure where I got this cookbook. It’s water-warped and stained but not written in. It might have been a freebie booklet that came with a cookbook or a package of Holly Farms chicken. (I still can buy Holly Farms chicken!)

Most recipes in this booklet call for cut-up bone-in chicken pieces or cooked chicken. If boneless chicken breasts are called for, you are directed to bone them yourself. Back in 1982, boneless chicken breasts were expensive! I learned how to bone them to save money. Today, frozen boneless-skinless chicken breasts are easy to find, and not terribly expensive. I love their convenience. Oddly enough, it’s hard to find a package of cut-up chicken in stores these days; instead, thighs, legs, wings, and breasts are sold separately. Whatever happened to “pick-of-the-chix”?

I an not entranced with the recipes in this booklet.  Many of them start with chicken pieces that are fried for about 15 minutes, then sauced and cooked to completion. So, when you go to eat, you have to fish the cooked chicken out of the sauce, and away from the bones, and the fatty skin if you are watching calories. I saved a couple of these recipes to try at a later time, and I found one for this blog, but I am recycling this cook-booklet.

The recipe below is #96 of the 100 recipes. (All the way at the end!) It is “Chicken with Walnuts”, a stir-fry with fresh ginger and walnut halves and a suggested garnish of kumquats.

Kumquats! We had a kumquat tree in our half-acre yard in Southern California where I grew up. Some years it would be heavily laden with these bright orange oval fruits. Tart! They are almost too much to eat in one bite. A blog entry from Susan Russo sums up the experience: “Then my teeth sunk into the juicy flesh and — POW! — a jolt of tartness hit my taste buds. Involuntarily, my cheeks sucked in, my lips puckered, and my eyes watered.”

Kumquats are great for jams and chutneys. My sister recently sent me a photo of a big bowl of kumquats that they were preserving:

I found kumquats in Colorado at Safeway! In June! Kind of surprising.

Here is the original recipe for Chicken with Walnuts:

The photo below illustrates their suggestion for the kumquat garnish:

See the two kumquats at the lower left? The peeled back the thin skin of the kumquats so that they look like flowers. I tried that on one kumquat, but didn’t quite see the sense in it, since eating a kumquat is all about the explosive flavor of skin and flesh together. Instead, I thinly sliced a couple kumquats and put them next to the chicken-walnut mixture on our plates. We each stirred in just enough kumquat to zing up the taste, without it being overwhelming. I also added a bit of fresh cilantro.

Here is my version of Chicken with Walnuts.

Chicken with Walnuts
serves about 2

• 9-10 ounces boneless chicken (breasts or thighs), cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry
• 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• cooking oil and water as needed
• sliced red and/or green bell peppers, cut into thin slices, about 1/2 cup total
• 2 big green onions, cut on the diagonal into thin slices
• 1/2 carrot, cut into thin slices
• 1/2 cup walnut halves
• fresh kumquats, maybe about 4-6, thinly sliced
• a few sprigs of fresh cilantro, chopped

Combine the soy sauce, cornstarch, sherry, ginger, sugar, and crushed red pepper. I added about a half-cup of water to this mixture to make the dish saucier, but this water-addition is optional.

Heat a wok or skillet until it feels hot, then turn the heat to medium-high. Add the walnuts and toast them, watching carefully so they do not burn. Remove them from the wok.

Add a little oil to the wok, then add the carrots and stir fry for a couple minutes. Add the bell peppers and green onions and stir fry another couple minutes. Remove them from the wok.

Add the chicken to the wok and cook 2-5 minutes, until it loses its pink color. Add the soy sauce mixture and cook until hot and bubbly; add more water if you like it that way. Stir in the vegetables and walnuts and cook a minute or two more.

Serve over rice, with the chopped cilantro on top and the sliced kumquats on the side – or mixed in, if you are sure you will like it!

Comments

We liked this, but didn’t go crazy over it. I thought the kumquats and cilantro gave it a zippy and fun taste – but I wouldn’t want to eat it every day of the week. I liked the walnuts in this stir fry.

But the cookbook? I’m not keeping it.