Consuming Consciousness

Hearty soups and stews make the winter seem less cold and dreary. Here in Switzerland, though, the kind of meat I used in the U.S. and Berlin is impossible to find at reasonable prices, and sometimes impossible to find at all. Hence, this oxtail stew has become a marrow bone and veal stew. (Surprisingly, veal is often cheaper than beef here, especially the lower grade cuts, which is just fine for this kind of stew.) The addition of the habanero pepper makes it very spicy, so if you have low tolerance for heat just use a 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper, or substitute another less spicy pepper like jalapeno.

The stew is relatively quick to make if you soak the lentils beforehand. Check out the recipe!

For such a rich-tasting dish, this has surprisingly few calories and packs a huge protein-wallop. It’s also a one-pot meal, very quick to assemble, and relatively inexpensive for a seafood dish.

Though I love fresh mussels, they’re hard to come by in many U.S. supermarkets, and I rarely have time to wrestle with bearding the beasts before even beginning to get around to preparing dinner. Lately, though, I’ve been finding large bags of frozen, pre-cooked mussels in my local Turkish and Asian markets in Berlin. My guess is that they’re also available in the States. Here they’re quite cheap, and I can feed four people very well for under 10 Euros. I love how easy they are to use — they’re already clean and simply need to be heated through.

Mussels have a powerful flavor and need to be countered by other strong but complementary tastes. In this dish I use a combination of garlic, shallots, chilis and hot peppers and balance it with white wine, cream and orange peel. Any citrus peel would be interesting, and next time I’ll try it with lemon. You can serve these mussels in a bowl like a stew, or spoon them over rice or pasta if you can handle the carbs. (more…)

I love cassoulet — the rich, full flavors of duck, sausage and beans and the herbs of the French countryside combine to create a hearty and satisfying main course. On my diet, though, a single bowl of traditional cassoulet would use up my entire daily calorie allotment, so I decided to try to put together a relatively low-calorie version of the dish.

Skinning the duck (or simply starting with boneless breast meat, which is very convenient but more expensive) immediately reduced the calorie load by almost 75% percent. Using smoked turkey sausages (or other low-fat sausages) keeps the spirit of the dish while further reducing calories from fat. And aside from skinning the duck, the recipe takes less than half an hour of time to prepare all the ingredients for the stew pot or crock pot.

The result was surprisingly successful while, I think, remaining true to the flavor, consistency and texture of the original. A heaping bowl will cost you 600 calories, which seems about right for a main course dish. Because cassoulet is a stew and gains flavor for the next 48 hours while the leftovers sit in your refrigerator, I’ve written the recipe for a substantial 10 servings; enough for a dinner party or for several days worth of tasty eating. It also freezes well, so you can eat half now and save the rest for another family meal. If you want to make less, simply cut the recipe in half.

You can cook this in a stew pot on the stove top, or in a slow cooker. On the stove it takes about 1 1/2 hours; in a crock pot set on low you can slow-cook it all day, while you’re at work. (more…)

On an emotional level, dieting is sometimes hard to distinguish from starving, and there are times one simply wants to sit down and tuck into a large bowl of rich, meaty stew. Here’s a way to do that without shooting your calorie count through the ceiling. I love the flavor of pork, but it’s often expensive, it packs a lot of calories (especially from fat), and like other red meats, it’s not wonderful for you in large amounts. My answer has been to capitalize on the flavor while minimizing my consumption of meat, and this stew is a model for stretching both the flavor and one’s dollar to feed a small army on only a pound of flesh. A single serving is a whopping 1000g bowl (you can, of course, eat less if you like), but you’ll only chalk up about 420 calories (520 if you decide to add the optional potatoes). In addition, you get a tasty meal that is high in protein, vitamin C, niacin, phosphorus, selenium and thiamin. As stews go, it’s not very time-consuming: it’s ready in two hours, and you need to spend less than an hour active in the kitchen. (more…)