Chef Blog

When preparing a main dish ahead of time for freezing, packaging is as important as cleanliness. Not only does it prevent the transfer of unwanted odors and flavors it also keeps in the moisture and the color and flavor. In frost free freezers, the correct packaging is essential.

Materials that are the most desirable when freezing food include heavy-weight aluminum foil, laminated freezer paper, and poly-ethylene films. If it is labeled for freezing you can use it. Containers that are great for freezing are metals, microwaveable plastics and glass, and ceramics. Before freezing foods cool them and if you are using hard containers, make sure you leave some room for the food to breathe.

Line the baking pans containing the main dishes with freezer wrap, use a nonmetallic wrap when using acidic foods and allow an extra fold over the top.

Before freezing hot food, cool it quickly to keep the natural flavor and texture and to slow down the growth of bacteria.

If you need your food to cool off, line a serving size pan with freezer wrap and either leave it sit in room temperature for about 30 minutes or place in it a refrigerator for more than 30 minutes. Now complete the wrap by taking the ends of the wrap and folding them over the top. Use freezer tape to seal it. Label it correctly with the name, date, and expiration date. Also include other preparation instructions for when it’s to be reheated and how.

Organization is key when placing your main dishes in the freezer. Place packages evenly to allow the food to freeze faster and leave at least a one inch space between each package to allow air circulation. Freeze packaged food for about 10-12 hours then check the wrappings to make sure they are secure before they are stacked.

When thawing and cooking in a conventional oven, heat the oven to 400 degrees F or what ever the cooking temperature is for the main dish you’re making. When thawed, bake in about 140-150 degrees until it is heated thoroughly. Frozen foods will take longer to cook then fresh foods.

If you use a microwave to cook or thaw a frozen main dish, it may need to thaw on the defrost cycle. Place the unwrapped food in the microwave, and cover with wax paper or a lid. 10 to 15 minutes of defrosting per pound is good for just about any food. You may need to rotate some foods while heating. Cover any corners on square dishes to keep some parts from burning.

The temperature for freezing is 0 degrees F or lower, changes in the quality happen faster if the foods are stored temperatures above the freezing temperature. Microorganisms might slowly grow at temperatures above 10 degrees F.  

Dining out can be difficult for the person who is trying to diet or maintain a healthy weight. However, it is possible to eat healthy when dining out, you just need a little guidance and you need to do a little planning ahead of time.

If you plan to eat out, here are some tips to help you enjoy your meal while still eating healthy.

Things you should ask at the restaurant:

• Can I get real butter instead of margarine?
• Can I get the chef to trim all of the fat from my meat prior to cooking it?
• Can I get my salad dressing served on the side? And can I have lite dressing?
• Can I get my food baked and not fried?
• If I want milk, does the restaurant provide skim milk?
• Can I request that all sauces and gravies be left off of my food?

Thing you should look for on the menu:

• Garden fresh vegetables
• Baked, broiled, or roasted versus fried foods
• Poached eggs versus fried or scrambled
• Steamed vegetables instead of processed or cheese and butter topped

Other tips to make your restaurant experience more healthy:

• Eat a small snack before you leave for the restaurant so that you are not quite so hungry. This involves some amount of planning ahead. The other part of this involves knowing what you want before you actually go to the restaurant. This will help you to avoid ordering unhealthy foods on impulse.
• Many restaurants put an emphasis on warm, homemade bread or rolls as an appetizer. Avoid the bread as it is passed around the table. Skipping the bread can save you almost 500 calories at the meal.
• Without being rude, try to order first so that you are not enticed into ordering the same thing as someone else, just because it sounded good.
• Never eat everything on your plate.
• Try to focus on enjoying the companionship of your dining partners instead of simply on enjoying the meal itself.
• Limit your alcohol intake as most alcohol is high in calories and tends to make the drinker want to eat.
• If you really have to have a dessert, offer to share it with one of your companions.
• Even fast food restaurants are now health conscious and offer healthy choices on their menu.
• If you have no choice but to order fried food, only eat the meat. Peel the skin off and set it aside.
• Use alternative side dishes to your benefit, such as cole slaw in place of mashed potatoes.
• A filling alternative to a meat and potatoes meal would be a soup, salad, and meat choice.
• Most restaurants will provide you with a nutritional guide if you ask for it.

Not all food preparations are considered cooking. For foods to be cooked there are a certain set of criteria to be met. Essentially, cooking means - preparing food by heating it. It is the manner by which the food is heated that governs if the food preparation was actually “cooking.”

First brought to light by Claude Levi-Strauss, the culinary triangle is a concept that involves three manners of cooking. These types of cooking are smoking, boiling, and roasting- and they more generally are applied to meats.

Smoking is a natural form of cooking as it is done without a vessel and is similar both to roasting and boiling. The meat is not directly exposed to the flame. It is a slower method of cooking, like boiling, but it is a more similar to a slow roast in actual execution.

Roasting is a natural way of preparing meat. There is no vessel required to roast meat. Meat is exposed directly to fire. Roasted meat is associated with loss and destruction. The meat can lose parts and it is culturally associated with men preparing the meat to be offered to guests.

Broiling the meat employs a vessel in which water is held. This makes it an unnatural cooking process. It is considered to be a cultural manner of cooking. The juices of the meat, and the meat itself, are maintained through this manner of cooking. Boiled meat is most often found to be a domestic cooking style that a family would employ. Most often a woman will have prepared the boiled meat to be presented to the family or other small group.

After these three were introduced by Strauss, he added places for three other manners of preparing cooked foods, these were broiled, fried and braised. This made a total of six methods of preparing meats, but there is call for a ten method triangle. Though it may be difficult to make a ten method triangle, there is definitely need to add shallow frying, deep frying, microwaving, and poaching.

Broiling is a cooking method that is executed by placing the food in close proximity beneath an open flame. In frying, the food is prepared on a surface that may or may not be treated with an oil or fat and cooked uncovered by heating one side at a time. Braising is a moist and dry heat combination. The food would be seared at high temperatures to seal in order to enhance flavor and brown the meat, and then it is finished in a covered vessel in a liquid preparation.

Shallow frying is a cooking method that dictates a small quantity of fat or oil be heated and the food be cooked with just enough of the oil to immerse the food partially, one third to one half. Deep frying is similar to shallow frying, but the oil or fat is increased substantially so as to enable complete immersion of the foods being cooked. Poaching is achieved by simmering foods in liquids below the boiling point. Microwaving is pretty self explanatory.

The Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management cites the six cooking methods to be roasting, frying, stewing, frying, boiling, broiling, and baking. No matter which take you prefer, all of these manners of food preparation rely on transferred energy, heat. The oven or fire radiates heat, and the hot air is either moved via convection, or it is conducted to the surface. Water, oil and air are the most common mediums used in cooked food preparations. Only by this particular scenario does the preparation rise to the level of “cooking”.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
• 3/4 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 12 lasagna noodles
• 16 ounces ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Wine Tip

Try with an Italian red like Barbera or Chianti Classico.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound Italian sausage
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 (14 ounce) cans beef broth
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style stewed tomatoes
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can great Northern beans, undrained
• 2 small zucchini, cubed
• 2 cups spinach - packed, rinsed and torn
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1. In a stockpot or Dutch oven, brown sausage with garlic. Stir in broth, tomatoes and carrots, and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15 minutes.
2. Stir in beans with liquid and zucchini. Cover, and simmer another 15 minutes, or until zucchini is tender.
3. Remove from heat, and add spinach. Replace lid allowing the heat from the soup to cook the spinach leaves. Soup is ready to serve after 5 minutes.