Sunday, July 4, 2010

8 Kitchen Rules Every Guy Must Know

1 HOLD THE OIL
You can cook just about anything with little added fat. That’s the purpose of non-stick pans and cooking spray. Fill a small spray bottle with canola oil, and spritz the pan before frying an egg, instead of using a pat of butter. This will save you 100 calories and 11 grams of fat. You can also drop some oil onto the pan and wipe it around with a kitchen towel.

2 FORGET FRYING
No other cooking method will dump as much fat into your diet as frying. Steam, bake, poach, broil, or boil it – or sauté it in a little oil – but don’t fry it. When you cook fish or chicken, put away the wok and stick it in the oven. Baste with a bit of lemon or orange juice beforehand.

3 SAUTÉ WITH FLUIDS
The traditional sauté, with oil or butter will transform the healthiest food into a higher fat meal. Try sautéing with broth or wine – or both broth and wine. It’ll taste just as good, if not better, with a fraction of the fat.

4 THE EXCEPTION FOR VEGETABLES
You don’t want to bury the natural flavours of vegetables with broth or wine. Instead use a low heat and add a little oil and water. The slower cooking time will allow the vegetables to release their natural juices, keeping the food from drying out.

5 BUY LEAN
When you stock up on beef, always look for the leanest cuts you can find. A simple way to do this is to look out for marbling – the white streaks of fat in the meat. Your best bet is to stick to eye-round. A 112-gram serving of eye-round contains 5 grams of fat while a choice porterhouse steak contains 25 grams.

6 MAKE LIKE A VIRGIN
There are dozens of olive oils, and knowing which to buy can be a challenge. Buy the cheaper one for cooking as the high heat will dispel much of the flavour. But if you want an oil to drizzle on your salad, spend a little extra on extra-virgin olive oil. The taste is deeper and richer, which means you can use less il to get the same flavour.

7 SPICE UP YOUR LIFE
Don’t cheat your taste buds by ignoring the rich variety of spice flavours out there. And you don’t have to spend a fortune on spices either. An economical way to add spices to your meals is to buy a few spice blends: One each for meat, chicken, fish and vegetables. Then you can slowly add individual spices as you need them.

8 MAKE THE MOST OF BEANS
Here’s a cheap and simple way to reduce fat in your diet. Dry beans, peas and lentils usually come with a recipe on the bag. Lentils, in particular, don’t require the soaking that beans do. You can make a pot of lentil soup in 20-25 minutes and have enough food to eat for a week or to freeze for other times. That’s real low-cost, high-nutrition.

(Extracted from Men's Health Singapore)


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