weight control
Chicken Strips and/or Kabobs and Green Beans in a Pan
EATING OUT? do it right!
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| Stanford Park Hotel, Palo Alto, California |
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| CreativeCulinary by Pachi |
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| Neiman Marcus Palo Alto, California |
Orange Salmon and Asparagus
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My daughter´s wedding food by Cuquita Arias in Panamá
Hello again from Pachi the Colombian Cook
This time I write about the wonderful woman who was able to read my mind and create with me the most spectacular sit down dinner for my daughter´s wedding.
Pachi
WHAT MAKES US HUMAN…WE COOK!
It was amazing to receive this email from Dr. Clyde Wilson this morning…
Dr. CLyde and I are writing a book for all of you who want to increase your metabolic rate. As I was writing my prologue I included this paragraph:
“ Humans have fed themselves for ever; even when there were no fancy stores, ovens, knives and cutting boards. Breads and pasta were prepared by civilizations way back. Many coats of arms show fruits and vegetables overflowing from cornucopias. We are innately good cooks; we know what we like; we are attracted to certain types of flavor, sweet, sour, salty and tart. Maybe a mix of all of them is best as it has been shown with the sixth sense, Umami. So lets go ahead and mix, mix ingredients to prepare foods that we think we might like. Lets feel free to add spices and herbs, peppers and oils. Lets go into the kitchen and grab whatever we have found interesting in the market, that beautiful food that was in season, and cut it up, add some quality seasonings, cook it or try it raw, laugh and live the bounty this world has given us for our lifetime. Before any specific cooking book was written, humans found a way to cook in the best possible way for their own palates. Lets do that!”
Will seasoning chicken beat the battle against Obesity?
There are many battles to be fought when obesity comes to the table, but, there is one good and inexpensive food whose image could be easily changed, and beat. CHICKEN!
People view chicken as an unchallenged food, not only because it is inexpensive, but because it is usually very bland. Chicken pieces that are sold fresh or frozen are mainly breasts. Wing, Drumsticks chops and tenderloin or filets are rarely bought for home cooking. Most of the chicken legs are exported to third world countries and sold for pennies, filets or tenderloins are now starting to be sold on their own but are not found everywhere. On the other hand in many countries, chicken is regarded as a very expensive food even though it still has no pzazzz. It is not chic to serve chicken at any social event.
In my opinion,
chicken could be the savior of many family meals, at a very low cost and with almost no cooking skill needed. Chicken on its own has no characteristic flavor; some people say the chicken they buy tastes like plastic, others say it tastes bland, and even the ones that buy the free range and unprocessed highest quality chicken say it can be ¨just chicken¨.
Chicken can be exciting, colorful, delicious…think of a piece of herb roasted chicken, a tandoori or a Latin onion and tomato smothered one. (translate the page on the top right hand)
The first thing that needs to be done is to wash chicken pieces in order to remove some of the flavors brought about different types of packaging. Processed, frozen and plastic bagged plain skinless chicken pieces can smell, taste and look like plastic. You can immediately tell when a restaurant uses processed skinless breasts the minute you see them. Some can look like the pieces nutritionists use to show patients portion sizes. Some are all identical, look cloned, which feels like being invited to eat at the Jetsons (the TV show from the 90’s or to a TV dinner from the 70″S), to a person who is used to eating natural chicken pieces. Organic, unprocessed chicken needs to be washed and patted dry too.
The second and most important flavor defining step is to season the chicken. Chicken placed in a pan with salt and pepper tastes like salt and pepper. Even if you use the best oil to cook it. There are many ways to season chicken that will make you fall in love with it again. This means no excess pepper, no excess spice
and flavors that can come through when eating chicken. Flavors that are sensual, make you feel, smell, touch and taste a delicious food that you used to eat many years ago. It is not necessary for chicken to be organic, though I’d rather eat the organic ones, but regular supermarket whole chickens can be prepared in less that 3 minutes, refrigerated for the evening or for the next day. Place them on a zipper bag and simple bake the whole bird on a cheap baking pan, even a disposable one and enjoy a marvelous dinner for 4. Smaller pieces can be seasoned for 20 to 30 minutes or overnight too. Season your weekly portions and freeze them; then defrost them under running water or refrigerated during the day.
When chicken is seasoned it needs no sauce to go with it, it is delicious on its own. Serve it with a simple green salad, a baked potato and your choice of vegetable. Make the chicken be the centerpiece of your dinner and give your family the protein it needs. Leave them satisfied with a delicious meal and sit comfortably with them on the table.
Baking chicken is the best way to cook it without having to check on it. The same holds for chicken pieces and even chicken wings. Whole chicken and pieces with skin, which I cook with all the time, even if I discard the cooked skin, should be seasoned beneath the skin. If any poultry is seasoned on the skin, it will loose all its taste once the skin is gone. Also is the seasoning is placed over the skin, the chicken meat will not be seasoned at all. This is a simple TIP for all of us with palates that love tasty delicious food!
A Grand Simple Dinner for Family and Friends
Last night I had people over and wanted to give them an easy all baked delicious dinner. Early on I seasoned two whole chickens with some yogurt blended with herbs and pepper. Placed it into the birds´skin and left them refrigerated all day. At 5 p.m. when I came back I took them out of the fridge with 12 Roma tomatoes, some sprigs of thyme I had frozen, a can of Spanish Artichoke hearts in olive oil and brown rice.
For starters I turned the oven, a gas range, on at 300F while I cut the tomatoes in half. Placed them on an olive oil sprayed baking pan and sprinkled them with salt, pepper, olive oil and placed the sprigs of thyme over them. Placed them in the oven and prepared the rice. My whole grain brown rice is prepared identically as my white rice, with twice the water than rice, only I cover it, place it in low immediately after the water comes to a boil and leave it unopened for 50 minutes. Then it is perfectly open and delicious. By then the chicken pan was room temperature, so I sprinkled some good quality salt and I placed them in the oven. I also added red wine to the pan to cover all the surface with about 1/8 of an inch.
Two hours later I had two whole chickens baked and the tomatoes were deliciously sweet and aromatic. I covered the chickens with foil for 5 minutes while I served the table. the tomatoes went into a platter and immediately I placed the drained artichoke hearts on the baking pan where the tomatoes had been cooked, swirled the pan and placed them bake in the oven with the heat now increased to 400.
I served the rice with a tablespoon of picadillo or Latin Salsa, the wine roasted tomato halves with a mozzarella cut into pieces
, the chickens and removed the artichoke hearts from the oven and placed them onto a small serving dish.
Voilá a delicious meal all baked, no stress, healthy and aromatic, sweet, delicious, savory and one where we could all sit at the table together.
Best wishes cooking for friends and family.
Pachi
Menus of Change 2013 Summit, Harvard and CIA
Menus of Change is the democratic way of solving this unstoppable problem. It is a dramatic change towards the positive in the new era we are entering. Obesity and all of its terrible consequences are issues to be taken very seriously as this Summit has shown. The US exports its solutions for feeding humanity both socially, as aid, and emotionally, as it exports the American dream. Sometimes this can perfect, as it has been, the most humane way to help third World countries abolish famine and disease. At its worst, citizens from other countries follow the excesses and bad habits that come from learning to produce and consume food and others, (i.e. serving and shipping containers, plastic bags, soda cans, etc.) in excess. Unhealthy chains of restaurants use methods to produce, pack and store foods for longer shelf life and more intense flavor, with the use of artificial colors, chemicals, pesticides and GMOs. As countries grow, so does their need to be like Americans and obesity rates grow, i.e. China. Equally, as immigrants arrive in the US their weights increase; second generation Americans are just as obese or heavier than the average American.
Patricia McCausland-Gallo is a nutritionist, pastry chef, teacher, and food writer born in the Caribbean town of Barranquilla, Colombia. She has a B.S. in Foods and Nutrition from Louisiana State University, attended a School for Retort Operations, and completed courses of instruction prescribed by the Food and Drug Administration.