Finding Satisfaction in Indulgence

It’s the holiday season, a festive time when we’re expected to indulge. Yet the media also serves up advice to avoid overdoing it, along with plenty of low-cal, low-fat seasonal treats. For years, I rode that bandwagon. Then, this year, I went to culinary school and a funny thing happened. I found satisfaction.

Why? I made a happy truce with fat.

candied-bacon-creditMaybe it was finally cooking with abandon, using all the butter, cream and eggs a dish needed to be truly delicious (it was a French-based cooking school, after all). Whether it was boeuf Bourguignon, made with luscious fatty short ribs, or pasta carbonara, enriched with egg yolks, cream, bacon, and cheese, I soon yielded to chasing flavor rather than running from fat.

I also dropped about 15 pounds while enjoying this fare. Granted, cooking, especially in a restaurant setting, can mean being on your feet all day hoisting heavy pans and running around to fetch ingredients. But my mate, who also enjoyed my educational efforts, lost closer to 30 pounds . . . and he wasn’t doing the hard labor. I began to suspect it was the deep satisfaction we were getting from the food I was cooking that really deserved the credit.

This theory was driven home on the last day of my advanced baking course, which was devoted to lighter pastry techniques. With my background as an editor at a national food magazine devoted to light cooking, I’d come home, culinarily speaking. After months of full-fat decadence I was back on the familiar turf of low-fat chocolate tarts and custard made with nonfat milk and cornstarch. But I had an epiphany as I sampled the finished product:

I had one bite.

Then another.

And a third.

Suddenly, I was plowing through the whole thing not, I realized, because I was enjoying it, but in search of something the virtuous, low-cal, low-fat treat ultimately couldn’t offer: satisfaction. After having experienced the real deal, I realized this counterfeit lacked the intense flavor and wonderful mouthfeel of its authentic counterpart and no matter how hard it tried, it couldn’t satsfy.

The experience encapsulated one of the most important lessons I learned during my culinary training: A few bites of truly good food both satisfies the belly and nourishes the soul. And if you prepare a truly indulgent dessert in a way that has portion control built in, you’ll send yourself a smart signal about when to stop. That’s the idea behind Mini Dark Chocolate Puddings with Chocolate Shavings, which are served in petite, 2-ounce ramekins. Cookies, like these beauties, work the same way. Redolent with dark chocolate, pecans, and candied bacon, they pack plenty of flavor–and big satisfaction–in a small package.

One really is all you need.

alison-thumb-frameA longtime editor, writer, and recipe developer, Alison Ashton is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef. She has worked as a features editor for a national wire service and as senior food editor for a top food magazine. Her work has appeared in Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times and Natural Health.

[Do you have a story to tell about losing weight by ditching diets and enjoying real food? Share it here in conversation on Sound Nutrition]

Chocolate Chip-Candied Bacon Cookies

Bacon cookies? Yep! Chopped Candied Bacon adds little nuggets of smoky-savory sweetness to a classic chocolate chip cookie. I use a combo of all-purpose and whole wheat pastry flour (you can find it in most supermarkets) for a little nutritional virtue. But, truth is, these bacon cookies are all about indulgence.  I like the richness of dark chocolate chips, but semisweet or milk chocolate would be just as delicious. For a really down-home treat, use a mix of chocolate and peanut butter chips. This is a recipe that invites your innovation.

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Candied Bacon

I first encountered candied bacon while working in pastry kitchen, and the combination of salty, smoky and sweet was alluring. Center-cut bacon is a bit leaner than other types of bacon, but any kind of smoked bacon will work in this recipe. Blanching the bacon in simple syrup enhances its texture, while threading the bacon onto wood skewers creates a sort of Candied Bacon “lollipop”. Depending on the size of your broiler pan, you may need to bake the bacon in two batches. You can also jerry-rig a good setup by placing a cooling rack in a rimmed baking sheet. This bacon is great in our Chocolate Chip Cookies with Candied Bacon, and leftover bacon will keep up to two weeks in an airtight container. This bacon candy also is tasty crumbled over vanilla bean, butter pecan or maple ice cream, and makes a great savory-sweet nibble with cocktails (especially bourbon-based sippers).

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Keep Your Eyes on the Sides

There’s much to crave on the Thanksgiving table–and a glorious bird like the Miso and Herb Rubbed Applewood Smoked Heritage Turkey would certainly be something to be thankful for.  A lot of work goes into cooking a stellar bird, but I have a confession: I only have eyes for the side dishes.

thanksgiving-side-dishes-montageYep, it’s true. I’d be happy to skip the turkey altogether, though propriety obliges me to sample at least a little, especially if I’m dining at someone else’s house. Instead, I’d load my plate with mashed potatoes, dressing, biscuits, green beans, gravy, and cranberry sauce. And supreme among side dishes is the sweet potato dish. It’s the Judi Dench of supporting players, so good it outshines the star and takes home an Oscar for, oh, five minutes of screen time.

Of course, sweet potatoes labor under an identity crisis. Mistakenly labeled “yams,” they are neither a yam nor a potato. In fact, sweet potatoes aren’t even botanically related to yams; the misnomer has lingered ever since soft varieties, which resemble the yams predominately found in Africa, were first introduced to the market decades ago. But they are sweet, which can confuse people in the kitchen. Sweet potatoes often are laden with butter and brown sugar, and topped with marshmallows in the classic casserole that many find too much like dessert. (Not me–I love the stuff–pass it all down my way, please.)

Despite their sweetness, these tubers play nicely with savory ingredients, as evidenced in this bread pudding recipe. The sweet potatoes themselves have impressive nutritional credentials–they’re low in calories yet high in fiber and vitamins A and C–and we boost the health factor even higher by using multigrain bread and sauteed kale. The indulgence comes from whole milk and egg yolks, which give the custard a luscious quality, and a touch of full-flavored Cheddar cheese. But baking the bread pudding in a muffin tin offers built-in portion control. A half-cup serving (one bread pudding “muffin”), which is plenty on the crowded holiday plate, comes in at just 134 calories and less than 2 grams of saturated fat per serving.

All of that makes me feel just fine about helping myself to seconds.

A longtime editor, writer, and recipe developer, Alison Ashton is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef. She has worked as a features editor for a national wire service and as senior food editor for a top food magazine. Her work has appeared in Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, and Natural Health.

Sweet Potato-Kale Bread Pudding

You can bake these savory little sweet potato bread pudding muffins a few days before Thanksgiving; cool and refrigerate. Reheat them in a low oven while the turkey rests. You also can cook this in a 2-quart baking dish instead of a muffin pan, if you prefer.

sweet-potato-kale-bread-pudding-recipe1 pound sweet potatoes
2 cups whole milk
4 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (8-ounce) day-old multigrain baguette, cubed
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (8-ounce) bunch kale, trimmed and chopped
2 tablespoons water
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, divided
Nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Pierce sweet potatoes with a fork. Place sweet potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet. Roast 30 minutes or until tender. Let stand until cool enough to handle.

While sweet potatoes roast, bring milk to a boil. Combine egg yolks, whole eggs, salt and pepper in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add half of hot milk to egg mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Whisk in remaining hot milk into egg mixture.

Cut roasted sweet potatoes in half, and scoop flesh into a food processor or blender. Add 1/2 cup milk mixture and process until pureed. Whisk pureed sweet potato mixture into milk mixture in bowl. Stir in cubed bread. Set aside, stirring occasionally.

Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat and add oil. Add onion and another pinch of salt; saute 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in kale and water. Cover and cook 3 minutes or until kale is tender. Stir kale mixture into bread mixture. Stir in 1/2 cup cheese. Divide evenly among 16 (1/2-cup) muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with remaining 1/4 cup cheese. Bake for 15 minutes or until pudding is puffy, set, and lightly browned. Serve warm.

Serves 16


Under Pressure: A Primer on Using a Pressure Cooker

by Alison Ashton

Whenever I pull out the pressure cooker to whip up some bean soup, I wonder why everyone doesn’t have one. You may remember these stove-top appliances from your grandmother’s kitchen. Before there were microwaves there were pressure cookers, and Grandma relied on hers to get dinner on the table fast. Problem was, her cooker tended to rattle menacingly and even explode on occasion. Then microwaves came along and pressure cookers went the way of the hoop skirt, as an editor of mine used to say.

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Now pressure cookers are making a comeback, along with other traditional techniques, like canning or cooking with offal, that stretch tight food budgets. A pressure cooker is simple–it looks like a big stockpot, except the lid has a gasket and a lock to create high pressure that cooks foods up to 70 percent faster than traditional techniques. That’s good news if you want to enjoy healthy, inexpensive fare like dried beans and whole grains, as well as tough cuts of meat, but don’t care for the long cooking times these ingredients often require. Dried black beans cook in about 20 minutes, and hearty grains like wheat berries are ready in 30 minutes instead of an hour–or longer. Pressure cookers are planet-friendly, too; because they do the job so quickly, they require less energy.

New models have foolproof safety features, like locking lids that can’t be opened until the pressure is released and automatic-release functions so you don’t have to drag a hot, heavy cooker to the sink and run cold water over the rim to cool it down. The automatic release function is helpful, too, when you want to stop cooking partway through to check the doneness of ingredients.

A 6- or 8-quart cooker as a good all-purpose size (pressure cookers should never be filled more than two-thirds high and only halfway for ingredients that expand, like beans and grains). I like stainless steel, too. It costs a bit more than aluminum, but you can use a sturdy stainless-steel pot to brown and sear ingredients before adding liquid and capping the pot with the lid. Stainless-steel pressure cookers with automatic release functions retail for about $120, but you can find one on the Internet for much less.

It’s easy to adapt existing recipes to use a pressure cooker. Soups, stews, braises, and steamed dishes lend themselves well to the pressure cooker; start with half the called-for cooking time. Lia’s recipe for Braised and Glazed Five Spice Short Ribs would be an ideal candidate for the pressure cooker. If you give it a try, let us know how it goes. In the meantime, make my recipe for black bean soup–it’s a wonderful midweek treat on a chilly fall evening.

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A longtime editor, writer, and recipe developer, Alison Ashton is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef. She has worked as a features editor for a national wire service and as senior food editor for a top food magazine.
Her work has appeared in Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, and Natural Health as well as on her blog, Eat Cheap, Eat Well, Eat Up.

Pressure Cooker Black Bean Soup

Recipe and photo by Alison Ashton

Using a pressure cooker speeds up cooking whole foods like dried beans. You can even use it to “quick soak” the beans. Use this recipe as a template and change up the beans and herbs to create new flavor profiles. For example, use dried white beans, pancetta, sage, and parsley (skip the chile pepper and cumin) to take it an Italian direction.

Pressure Cooker Black Bean Soup1 (16-ounce) bag dried black beans
1 (4-ounce) link Mexican chorizo
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (32-ounce) container fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 serrano chile pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Sour cream, for garnish (optional)
Cilantro sprigs, for garnish (optional)

Sort through the beans, discarding any split ones. Place beans in a 6-quart pressure cooker and add water to cover by 2 inches. Lock lid in place and bring to high pressure over high heat. Reduce heat and cook 2 minutes. Release pressure using automatic pressure release OR carefully transfer cooker to sink and run cool water over rim until pressure drops. Remove lid, tilting lid away from you, to allow steam to escape. Drain beans.

Return cooker to stove over medium heat. Remove chorizo from casing and add chorizo to cooker. Cook 5 minutes or until chorizo renders its fat, using a spoon to crumble the meat. Add onion and cook 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add drained beans, broth, oregano, and cumin. Use a sharp knife to cut several slits in the Serrano and add serrano to pan.

Lock lid in place, and bring to high pressure over high heat. Reduce heat, and cook 25 minutes or until beans are tender.  Release pressure using automatic pressure release OR carefully transfer cooker to sink and run cool water over rim until pressure drops. Remove lid, tilting lid away from you, to allow steam to escape. Discard serrano. Stir in salt, and black pepper.

Use an immersion blender to puree soup to desired texture (or transfer soup in batches to a food processor or blender). Stir in 2 tablespoons cilantro. Serve garnished with sour cream and cilantro sprigs, if desired.

Serves 6