The Best Meatballs Ever

Last week was the last "Cooking With Dexter" column in the NY Times.  The recipe was for Spaghetti and Meatballs.  I decided to see if  I could take the challenge to make a lower calorie/lower fat version that still tasted good.  Well, not only did I succeed, but these were the best tasting meatballs I have ever made!  And better yet, the lower fat version cuts about 200 calories per serving. 

Here is what I did to make the meatballs.  In a bowl, I combined the fat free half and half, bread crumbs and egg white.  I added about a TB of dried onion flakes, a TB of dried parsley and a TB of dried basil and 1TB of Parmesan cheese.  I added the dried spices because the mixture of bread crumbs, egg white and fat free half and half looked watery, so I wanted to thicken it up before I worked in the ground beef.  I also added the same spices as the original recipe as follows - 1 tsp dried oregano, dash crushed red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp black pepper and 1/2 tsp lite salt.  After I kneaded in the beef, I sprayed my skillet with Pam and added in the small meatballs and started to fry them.  I added 1 TB of oil as needed.  After the meatballs were browned, I put them on an aluminum foil lined roasting pan that I also sprayed with Pam and put them into a 350 degree oven to bake while I cooked two ounces of whole wheat spaghetti per person.  I put about 1/2 jar of my favorite Mariana sauce in a small pot to heat.  I had about 1/4 cup of left over wine in the frig so I added that to the sauce. When I added my pasta to the boiling water, I transferred the meatballs to the hot Marinara sauce.  After the spaghetti was drained, I topped it with the meatball Mariana sauce. 

Mangi! Enjoy the great taste without the additional calories or fat!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/magazine/20Food-t-000.html?_r=1

Serves 6                                      Serves 2

Original Recipe Lower Fat Recipe 2 cups bread crumbs 800 1/3 cup unsalted seasoned bread crumbs 110 3 oz heavy cream 293 3 oz fat free half and half  50 3 slices bacon 138 no bacon 8 oz ground chuck 568 10 oz lean ground beef 380 8 oz ground veal 328 egg white 0 8 oz ground pork 600 1TB Parmesan cheese 20 4 tb oils  400 1 tb oil 100 calories per serving  521 330

A Special Valentine's Day treat

For Valentine’s Day I wanted to cook and write about this wonderful recipe for Oysters. As you know Oysters are a natural aphrodisiac and if you did not know that Oysters are a natural aphrodisiac-well you do know now.  It is called “Oyster-Oyster Stew” and it was published in the NY Times on January 7, 1997.  I have made it many times, my old low-fat way with skim milk and I wanted to try it with fat-free half and half.  It also uses Pernod or Ricard , a  licorice flavored liqueur.   Well Cupid is not on my side.  First of all the Pernod and Ricard are both really expensive.  I was told that I can substitute an Anisette liqueur, if I intend to use the liqueur only for cooking, which is sweeter and lower in alcohol than other anise-flavored liqueurs and has the flavor of black licorice.  But I also can’t find oysters.  I do remember buying them, already shucked, in the fish department of my local supermarket, but they do not have them….so I will continue my hunt for the 2 main ingredients and will update this blog once I have all the ingredients.  Meanwhile if you have any suggestions on where I can get shucked oysters, please let me know.

Oyster-Oyster Stew - Recipes - The New York Times

An update on why we can't find Oysters

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/opinion/12sat4.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=oysters&st=cse

Hot Soup for a Cold Winter's Day

Well it is about time that the Government agrees with me.  On Monday, the Dietary Guidelines were published.  Basically we are to eat less and cut our sodium intake.  Much easier said than done.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/business/01food.html?_r=1&hp

I tried to apply the Government’s new dietary guidelines to a recipe that I saw Rachael Ray make last week, Curry Beef Noodle Bowls.  When I went on-line to print out the recipe there were 12 reviews, mostly favorable with some suggestions for replacing the beef with chicken or Tofu marinated in basil and fish sauce then grilled on a Panini grill.  I didn’t have Tofu but I did have left over rotisserie chicken.  Normally I make my Lazy Woman’s Chicken Soup with left over rotisserie chicken, but I decided to try this instead and am I glad I did.  It was fantastic. But there were problems with the recipe.  First of all Fish Sauce has between 1,000 and 1,300 milligrams of  sodium in a tablespoon, an entire day’s sodium in just one dish.  Secondly, one pound of pasta to serve 4 is way too much pasta.  And, last but not least, two cups of chicken stock makes for a dry curry.  Also, skip the shallots fried in ½ cup of oil, for crunchiness use bean sprouts instead.   

Thai it You'll Like It Hot Curry Beef Noodle Bowls

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/thai-it-youll-like-it-hot-curry-beef-noodle-bowls-green-melon-with-lime-and-lemon-sorbet-recipe/index.html

So, here is how I changed the dish.  First of all, I did not use fried, crispy shallots.  I wanted to use crispy bean sprouts, but due to the terrible weather we have been having in New York, I was unable to find any, so I skipped them. Instead of a pound of pasta, I used about 5 ounces cooked rather soft.  My head spun around on my neck in the supermarket when I saw the amount of sodium in 1 tablespoon of Fish Sauce.  But not to worry, I went to my local gourmet shop and there I found KAME Fish Sauce, which has only 380 mg of sodium in a tablespoon.   If you don't want to use Fish Sauce, use House of Tsang Soy Sauce instead.  I also found Patak's Curry Paste.  I bought the mild curry paste and used only 2 tablespoons.  The dish was really hot enough, so taste it before you add three tablespoons of the Curry Paste.  

 

I followed the recipe, using only 1 TB of oil for sauteing the garlic, mushrooms and red pepper.  I substituted a  small Jalapeno pepper for the red hot chile pepper.  I removed the seeds from the Jalapeno pepper and did not cut it up so that I could remove it before serving.  I removed the skin and deboned the left over chicken, cut the chicken up into small bite size pieces and added it to the vegetable mixture to heat up.   When I added the low sodium chicken stock, I realized that 2 cups was not enough so I used 4 cups instead.  Once everything was cooked, I drained the pasta and put it directly into the soup broth and let it cook for another two minutes so that the pasta picked up the flavors of the broth and added the juice of one lime.  This was a delicious, fairly low sodium way to use up left over chicken.  

 

By my calculations,  I saved about 1,000 mg of sodium per serving by doing a little leg work and shopping around for a lower sodium fish sauce.  I also saved about 200 calories per serving by cutting down on the pasta and I can't even calculate how much I saved by not frying the shallots in 1/2 cup of oil.