During a visit to Seattle this summer, my cousin spotted a copy of "Gluttony Without Guilt."
"What happened?" he asked. "I have a copy of one of your first cookbooks. There was enough oil in the first three recipes to lubricate a tractor, a forklift and John Travolta's pompadour. And now you're preaching low-fat cookery?""Cousin!" I replied, "I have seen the light. I have cast out double cheeseburgers. I have scattered potato chips to the four winds. I have poured my double-malted milkshakes upon the desert sands. I have been resurrected from the seventh level of purgatory, where sinners sizzle in rancid fish-fry oil."
Well, maybe it wasn't quite that dramatic. And to be truthful, the changes have been gradual in my eating habits and in the recipes recommended to the public.
For one thing, we know a lot more about food and nutrition today than we did in 1974, when the first of six cookbooks was published under the Intermediate Eater banner (or napkin). In 1980 we were publishing the "Gourmand Gutbusters Cookbook" and a couple of years later "The Great Grub Hunt" came out. During those years, most of us learned which foods to avoid and generally ignored all such advice.
Seattle diners were talking bran muffins and honey yogurt. But they were eating three-egg cheese omelets with pork sausage on the side. The few food companies or restaurant chains that introduced low-fat products withdrew them in the face of consumer apathy.
Walk through a supermarket today and you can recognize the changes that have taken place in the past couple of years. They are selling low-fat Cheddar, hot dogs, ice cream, breakfast sausage, mayonnaise, chicken gravy, chili and cheesecake. All of a sudden the customers are buying.
It's a lot easier to eat healthy these days.
In our kitchen we discovered that most of the foods we have always preferred can still be enjoyed through slight alterations in ingredients. We began to publish more of these recipes in the Intermediate Eater columns. The best ones are incorporated in "Gluttony Without Guilt," subtitled "A Common-Sense Cookbook."
This is the kind of recipe we are emphasizing today. Nobody is holding a gun to your head, but if you skin the chicken and use evaporated milk instead of cream, then you, too, can proclaim to a visiting cousin that you have become a glutton without guilt.
Here's also a main-dish "common sense" salad that is terrific if you like tuna and green olives.
LOW-GUILT CHICKEN
1 3-pound fryer, cut up
Salt, pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup marsala wine (or additional chicken broth)
1 cup chicken broth
1 full head garlic
1/4 cup minced green onions
1 lime
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon thyme
1 cup cream or low-fat evaporated milk
Salt and pepper the chicken pieces, then brown in a large skillet with the olive oil.
Remove chicken to a plate; to the pan juices add the wine and chicken broth. Separate the cloves of garlic and add to the pan, unpeeled. Add half of the lime, sliced. Boil this liquid until reduced slightly, then turn heat to low and return chicken to the pan. Add the green onions and herbs, cover the pan and simmer 20 to 25 minutes.
Transfer chicken to a warm platter.
Crush the garlic into the pan liquid, then add the cream or evaporated milk and let cook at a low boil for 2 minutes. Squeeze the juice from the remaining half of lime into the pan. Then pour the cream sauce through a strainer and over the chicken. Serves four.
A COMMON-SENSE SALAD
1 cup green pimento olives
4 ribs celery, sliced
2 six-and-one-half-ounce cans albacore tuna in water
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 14-ounce can white beans, well drained
Salt
Drain the water from the cans, then flake the tuna into a bowl.
Slice the olives in half and add them, too, along with the celery, red pepper, the olive oil, vinegar and beans. Toss, then add salt to taste. Refrigerate before serving.
This should feed four to six.