Professional cooks are usually most concerned about good taste. It's what brings customers back to their restaurants.
This is how signature recipes from famous chefs for, say, mashed potatoes come about containing two sticks of butter and a cup of heavy cream per six measly potatoes. I'm not making this up; I've seen such recipes from famous restaurants.
They would be spectacular mashed potatoes all right. And restaurant patrons could enjoy them guilt-free because they can't usually read the recipe or see into the kitchen before dinner. I can picture someone seated at a fancy restaurant's banquette. While forking into such sumptuous potato pure, she or he would mumble, "These taste so much better than my mashed potatoes."
But home cooks have to be constrained by calorie counts and other nutritional concerns when they're putting out daily chow for loved ones.
Day in and day out, the goal of home-menu plans is to hold down eventual doctor bills and launch little ones on a lifetime of vibrantly good health and well-being. The result? Food that doesn't taste like a special occasion every day. Home-mashed potatoes are best done with buttermilk for its tang and low- or no-fat content. Salt should be the minimum, too. Flavor the "minimum mash" with white pepper or hot sauce or fresh dillweed or a dab of roasted-garlic pure instead.
Another concern for home cooks is to work in as many different fruits and vegetables as possible. Variety and the daily minimum of five are key for a family's long-term heart-health and cancer prevention.
Home cooks should know which fruits and vegetables pack the most antioxidants, vitamin and mineral power, too. Take the kiwifruit; it's not just for looks. Chefs of the 1970s used kiwi as a novel, emerald-green plate adornment for nouvelle cuisine. It became a food joke for a few years after that, until home cooks became aware of the kiwi's high vitamin C and potassium content. Now it's a supermarket staple, and many kids love it, even demand it. Young children can safely slice a kiwifruit in half with a plastic knife and scoop out the green, strawberry-like flesh with a small spoon while cupping each fuzzy, brown-skinned half in their palm.
As a novel way to serve kiwifruit, I was inspired by a new magazine cover to come up with this winter fruit salad composed of all green produce items: a kiwi or two, an Anjou pear, honeydew melon chunks from a salad bar, seedless green grapes.
That shopping list will allow four servings of an attractive winter salad you can sink your teeth into. Take it for an office lunch with cheese and crackers. Have it for breakfast or dessert. Pile it on ceramic-lettuce salad plates for company.
The original recipe for Emerald Fruit Salad appears in Taste of Home's Light & Tasty magazine's premiere issue. Taste of Home is already an incredibly popular home-cooking magazine filled with recipes gathered from real people around the country, recipes then re-tested at Reiman Publications' headquarters in Wisconsin. The problem is that such recipes are usually caloric, show-off types, the things people make for company and potlucks.
Some Taste of Home fans demanded a "light" magazine, so Light & Tasty will be published bi-monthly for an introductory $11.98 annual subscription price ($21 cover price). For more information, visit www.lightandtasty.com or write Light & Tasty, Subscription Fulfillment Center, P.O. Box 5446, Harlan, Iowa, 51593-2946.
I switched chopped Granny Smith apples to a half-ripe Anjou pear to keep the slick, juicy quality more compatible with honeydew melon, in my estimation. I skipped the suggested yogurt dressing in favor of low-fat sour cream and brown sugar, the simple classic that's so good with green seedless grapes. But it draws moisture from the fruit, as any dressing would, so reduce the quantity and serve the salad soon after you make it.
The other recipe is for an oven stew, another wintry way to add lots of fresh produce to family menus. Carrots, like kiwi, have many nutrition virtues, such as carotenoids and fiber. Canned baby limas add two kinds of fiber to the dish, and some children won't notice them in this stew.
ALL-GREEN FRUIT SALAD
1 large Anjou pear, nearly ripe
1 cup cubed honeydew melon
1 cup halved green seedless grapes
2 kiwifruit, peeled
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 tablespoon orange juice
1/4 teaspoon green Tabasco sauce, optional
2 tablespoons low-fat sour cream
1 tablespoon brown sugar; more to garnish
Yield: 4 servings
Quarter pear lengthwise and twist off stem. Core each slice, but do not peel. Slice each quarter lengthwise and chop into a small mixing bowl. Cut honeydew into small cubes; add to bowl along with halved grapes. Cut each thinly peeled kiwi lengthwise into quarters and slice into bowl. Grate orange peel over fruit; squeeze in juice from an orange half. Dash in green Tabasco for a subtle hot-sweet sensation, if desired. Plop on sour cream and mash it with the back of a spoon; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon brown sugar and blend all thoroughly. Serve soon so dressing doesn't draw moisture from fruit and become diluted. Sprinkle each salad/dessert with a dab of brown sugar for crunch.
ALL AFTERNOON OVEN STEW
1 tablespoon bacon drippings
2 pounds boneless, thick-cut beef chuck roast, trimmed
8 ounces reduced-fat kielbasa or smoked turkey sausage
2 white onions, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
Freshly ground pepper or hot sauce, as desired
1 cup red wine or Marsala (optional: apple cider or beef broth)
1 (10-ounce) can condensed mushroom soup
1 (10-ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup
1 (8-ounce) can sliced stewed tomatoes
5 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, coarsely cubed
1 to 2 cups baby-cut carrots, each cut in thirds
1/2 cup bottled barbecue sauce
1 cup green peas (frozen or from a salad bar)
1 (8-ounce) can baby limas, drained
Yield: 10 servings
Prep time: 45 minutes
Bake: 3-hour minimum
In a large Dutch oven with ovenproof handles, melt the bacon drippings (saved in the refrigerator) or use vegetable oil. Add bite-size beef pieces to the pan in three separate batches to brown well, stirring often and removing each batch, then adding more. Do not crowd pan.
Return all browned beef to pan and add onion and smoked sausage circles, halved. Brown until onion is crisp-tender, stirring often. Season with garlic salt and pepper. Add red wine (or optional liquids) and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, to loosen browned bits. Add both canned soups with a little water to rinse out cans. Add tomatoes with their juice, cubed potatoes, sliced carrots and barbecue sauce. Stir well, cover pan with foil or ovenproof lid and transfer to a 300-degree oven for about three hours. No stirring is necessary during that time.
Before serving, uncover Dutch oven and transfer to a range burner to cook uncovered at least 30 minutes, stirring often, to concentrate the sauce as desired. Add green peas and drained baby limas to heat through.
Joyce Rosencrans is home editor of the Cincinnati Post.