Sarah Schlesinger - 500 (Practically) Fat-Free One-Pot Recipes

Copyright 1998 by Sarah Schlesinger All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Published in the United States by Villard Books, a division of Random House, Inc.,
New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. V ILLARD B OOKS is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schlesinger, Sarah.
500 (practically) fat-free one-pot recipes / Sarah Schlesinger.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-83436-2
1. Low-fat dietRecipes. 2.

Casserole cookery. I. Title.
RM237.7.S352 1998
641.5638dc21 98-16415 Random House website address: www.randomhouse.com v3.1 Diet and health are matters that vary greatly from individual to individual. Be sure to consult your physician before beginning any diet modification program. Consultation with a medical professional is particularly important if you are under medical care for any illness or are taking medication.

The experience of gathering around a communal table, enjoying one anothers company while sharing a heart- and soul-warming one-pot meal, is a joy that has been passed from generation to generation since the dawn of civilization.

One-pot meals have always offered cooks the chance to create healthy, delicious, economical meals with minimal cleanup. Today, they are a perfect culinary solution for a variety of contemporary concerns. One-pot meals are the ideal answer for cooks faced with less and less time to spend in the kitchen and increasing evidence of the need to address health and diet concerns. They are a freezable, easy-to-prepare, stressless, reheatable alternative to TV dinners and fast food. One-pot meals require only minimal cooking skills and little attention from the cook once they are in the pot. This complete, practical resource is a cookbook for the way we cook now.

It is a book to keep within easy reach on your kitchen countertopnot on a remote shelf for esoteric gourmet cookbooks whose recipes require a safari to retrieve the ingredients, hours of preparation, and a designer kitchen packed with special equipment. This down-to-earth collection of 500 delicious recipes with both traditional American and international roots addresses our need to keep meals simple, healthy, and light. With this book, the basic utensils and appliances, and minimal kitchen space, you can make wonderful, nutritious, affordable meals. The recipes are streamlined for easy preparation, cooking, and cleanup. The ingredients are consistent with current guidelines for healthy eating. Each serving meets the FDA definition of low-fat with 3 grams of fat or less per serving.

In addition to keeping fat intake low, the recipes feature vegetables and fruit, grains, and legumes to provide fiber, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. A variety of salt-free seasonings are used to limit sodium intake. One-pot cooking requires only a few appliances and utensils. When shopping, buy the best you can afford. Durability and reliability should be your primary concerns, since youll be using the equipment for many years.

Invest in high-quality cookware made of heavy-gauge materials that will quickly respond to changes in cooking temperature and equalize the flow of heat on the cooking surface.

To determine the weight of a piece of cookware, look at the thickness of the walls and base, and rap it with your knuckles. You should hear a dull thud. The best choices are pots of anodized aluminum, enameled cast iron, stainless steel, and copper. Many brands of cookware combine several of these materials. A Wonderful Basic All-Purpose Pot The most important utensil you can own is a 4-quart nonstick Dutch oven with a removable ovenproof handle and a well-fitting, break-resistant, ovenproof glass lid. (Most glass lids are only ovenproof up to 350 degrees.) The pot should have a nonreactive surface and you should be able to move it from stovetop to oven to refrigerator.

You can make most of the recipes in this book in such a pot. You may wish to add the following: Large Soup Pot An 8- to 10-quart soup pot is useful for preparing large quantities. Soup pots should have heavy bottoms and well-fitting lids. Saucepan The most practical saucepan you will use is one that will hold 3 to 4 quarts. Saucepans should have straight sides and well-fitting lids. Wok Woks are wide, round-bottomed pans used extensively in Asian cooking.

Woks can be used for stirfrying, steaming, braising, and stewing. Professional-weight woks made from carbon steel offer the best heat control. If you have an electric range, buy a flat-bottomed wok for even heat distribution. Gas ranges can use either a flat- or round-bottomed wok. Round-bottomed woks should be used with a ring stand placed narrow side up over a large burner. Skillet Skillets should be made of materials that conduct heat rapidly and evenly and that respond to changes in temperature.

They should be of sufficient weight to prevent them from buckling or bending over time. Choose a 12-inch skillet with a nonstick finish, high sides, an ovenproof handle, and a well-fitting lid. Electric woks and skillets with nonstick finishes are also available. Casserole Dishes Flameproof casseroles in a variety of sizes (they range from 1 quarts to 3 quarts) are useful for one-pot cooking. You can check the capacity of a casserole by measuring how much water it will hold. Baking Pans Baking pans may be made of ovenproof glass or stainless steel with a nonstick finish.

The most useful size is 9 13 inches. Expandable Metal Steamer Insert A metal steamer insert will fit inside your Dutch oven or large saucepan. You can also use a bamboo steamer inside your wok.

Blender Blenders are great for pureeing soups and sauces and chopping small amounts of food. The blenders tall, narrow container makes it ideal for liquids. When working with soup mixtures that have just been cooked, allow them to cool slightly before blending.

Do not fill the container more than half full, cover the top with a dish towel or cloth before you put on the lid, and press down on the lid before turning on the motor. When blending hot liquid, increase the speed gradually to prevent it from splattering. If food gets caught on the blades, stop the machine. After the blades have come to a complete stop, use the handle of a spoon or a narrow spatula to dislodge food. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit of liquid. When ingredients are too heavy to allow the blades to move, try increasing the blenders speed.